South West Walesing (if that is a verb?)

After our early morning arrival, we just about managed to drink tea, snooze a bit and then summon up the energy to wash the poor grubby boat off. She had not been treated to a proper wash off for a while and one little rain shower during our overnight trip had deposited a fair amount of Sahara sand on board that had to go. The walk up the hill to the little Co-op shop in Neyland woke us up though. We had a visit from Simon, the yacht surveyor friend who happened to be doing a survey on a yacht here - he is about to take his beautiful wooden yacht off the the Baltic - way braver than us about what might happen if Brexit happens!

As Neyland is a little bit "constrained" (ie lovely setting, great Marina, poor sad little town main street) we had booked a hire car with the nice "we pick you up" Enterprise people. They duly did so and we were let loose on South Wales in a Vauxhall Mokka. Yes, strange car (or at least the version we had was). It felt like many recent General Motors Europe engineered products - OK but.

Where to go? Well a soggy afternoon in Haverfordwest (the big smoke locally) was enjoyed. Then we went to see Fisherman's Friends, the happy, low IQ needed to enjoy it film, was ideal for us. The Palace cinema in Haverfordwest was opened in 1913 and has enjoyed little refurbishment since. The 1960s style display panel no longer showed the film information:

but closer up it displayed the handiwork of several spiders. Their logo is pretty neat and fits the old established independent picture house well:

The information underneath it said that tickets were sold strictly on a first come first served basis. We were prepared, we arrived about 15 minutes before the film was due to start and found the doors locked. They stayed locked for quite a while, then we saw the staff removing the panels from around the ticket counter and refreshment sales bit. The excitement built as they let us in. Yes, you guessed it, we were the entire queue.

They still dish out the old style tickets from the lovely old machine embedded into the counter top. After dispensing two, the man immediately tore them in half. A blast from the past for you:

No idea why as we were the only customers they had. Still, you have to follow process. We were in screen 1 (big area, a circle seating area upstairs as well which was cordoned off). By the time the film started, we were part of a select little band of 13 hardy souls. No idea how many braved the film in screen 2.

It was a lovely retro experience and we hope that the business survives in the days of Netflix, cheap DVDs, streaming etc. Oh, the seats were not too uncomfortable either considering their vintage. There was no evidence of horsehair stuffing either.

A wander around Tenby and Saundersfoot had to be on the agenda too. Chilly but still lovely Tenby:

with a few brave souls getting sandblasted down on the beach. The ferries to Caldey Island and the monastery (in the distance on the picture above) were halted owing to the weather conditions. Poor monks, no noisy irritating visitors or printed newspapers being delivered to allow them to catch up on things like Brexit progress. Maybe being a monk isn't all bad?

Saoundersfoot was pretty quiet:

with only a few hardy souls and their dogs enjoying the beach there. We enjoyed a nice coffee shop then scuttled back to the car for a warm up. General Motors engineered heaters are, we can happily report, fine.

We had an even colder walk around Pembroke and didn't venture into the castle as owing to the winds most of it was closed to visitors. The promised storm duly arrived and for a few hours it was unpleasant. Lots of noise from the bimini cover which we foolishly had not removed for its own good. Also from the fenders, lines and anything not firmly bolted down. This kind of summarises it really:

We can confirm that it was a 10, not a feeble little force 8 gale. Once it had all died down, we took a little trip across to Penarth to catch up with Lorna and the 2 Ps - Pip and Poppy:

plus a very pleasant lunch with Steve and Bron the spaniel.


Maintenance news:

The Captain decided to top up the steering system oil reservoir as the level had dropped a bit in the year since it was last done. The access is pretty poor and you cannot simply pour oil in as a funnel will not fit. We end up using a syringe to squirt the stuff in and then dig out the bike tyre pump to re pressurise the system:

The unit is well hidden away inside the pilothouse helm position - luckily we only need to access it for checks on level / pressure and pump it up very occasionally.

Then a less enjoyable job. the grey water tank pump was not switching on automatically. It worked OK when on "manual" but it was clear that the float switch was not triggering it on "automatic" any more. Lovely job, take the top off the smelly tank time. The float switch is attached to the pump out pipe and not really accessible via the small hole that removing the fluid level senders gives you. It would have to be a major job, taking the top flange off the tank to get better access. Knowing how the holes at the bottom of the float switches can get gunged up, a hopeful captain gave the area a good blast with a hose, sucked out all the water and grot from the tank and then added some Noflex digestor:

to try and clear out any sludge left in the float switch. The next morning, adding water to the grey tank the pump kicked into life and has behaved since. We are still crossing our fingers. At least the tank had a clean out.

Falmouth to Neyland (Milford Haven)

Alarm clock setting. Not fun but has to be done sometimes. The run to South Wales from Falmouth normally takes around 26 hours but with the BIG spring tides if we were careful in how we used them, could be done way quicker. If we left at the wrong time then we would burn a lot of fuel for no good reason.

The plan looked like a 9am departure (so not too early - happy crew!), pushing a little tide down towards the Manacles and then using the ebb tide all the way to Land's End if we cruised at around 6.5 knots. Then, all being well, we could get the back eddy form the tide around Land's End and have assistance all the way up the coast and for several miles north of it too. Afterwards, to avoid arriving in the early hours of the morning, we could drop our cruise speed a little to pitch up as some light was arriving. Not that we don't already love and trust the FLIR! It looks a bit like:

The kink in the run to Wales was because we allowed the tidal streams to push us around a little rather than fight them. You don't see the little kinks that were caused by a flotilla of Belgian fishing boats.

It was a misty start, heading south from Falmouth we saw the usual gaggle of anchored big guys, including the Stena Ice Max, a huge drilling ship with some impressive capabilities:

Rather than quote the quite incredible numbers, read website information on her.

Talking of gaggles, there were plenty of pot markers around the Manacles as usual and heading down towards the Lizard. As the wind was not too wild and despite the strong tides which can cause spectacular overfalls off the Lizard, we were able to cut inshore of the "calm / safe" offshore route, We were smoking (OK, smoking for a Nordhavn 47) along (for non-technical people, look at SOG, which is speed over the ground):

We actually got up to 11.3 knots but the camera was not out then. Dolphins joined in on the way to Land's End as did some misty foggy stuff. The new radar was busy. As we got closer to the turn north so the promised couple of metre waves on the nose appeared but they were a nice swell off the Atlantic with a long wavelength so no nodding into and over them was needed. Going around Land's End the mist cleared a bit:

Well, we did say "a bit". Visibility was pretty bad until we were well into our crossing of the Bristol Channel. Hence Longships lighthouse was shrouded in grey too:

We had timed things to take the tidal back eddy north with us and for once it worked perfectly, more rocket assistance as we headed up and away from the north Cornish coast. We pulled a little power off  - 1475rpm - crossing the Bristol Channel as 1) we are mean and wanted to cruise at a very economical speed and 2) we wanted to arrive in Milford just as it started to become light and take the tide with us up through the estuary to Neyland. The night watch view now is a little bit like this:

with a relatively empty FLIR screen to amuse us:

as you can watch the antics of the birds very clearly. The white blob on the screen is one. Later on the antics of 5 fishing boats kept the crew busy trying to second guess their next twists and turns. As the evening was a suitably balmy one, the pilothouse door remained open and the crew got to hear some dolphins surfing passed and peered over the side to watch them in the dark whilst the captain slept.

As we approached Milford entrance, so did a tanker. We went into the eastern entrance and slowed down for him to pass just as day was dawning:

Just out of the big boys channel to the south were innumerable pot markers of varying quality. Right where everything bar the big ships is supposed to transit the main harbour area. Words fail again. Still, with a big spring tide pushing us hard, we roared up to Neyland. The crew went out to deploy lines and fenders only to find we had a passenger come stowaway:

This little guy had been with us for a while based on the number of calling cards distributed around the walkway. You can see a couple in the picture. Rumour control says that he/she is a Manx Shearwater and that half the UK population of them live on the tiny island of Skomer, our favourite anchorage nearby. The crew, suitably gloved, picked up our intruder and he/she happily flew off with no attempt to peck or defecate on the nasty interfering human. Later on the crew read that as they so rarely have any human contact they are not scared of us (silly bird) and that they tend to fly at night to avoid being caught by nasty seagulls when returning to their burrows. We hope that the crew did not condemn this little one to a grisly death. 

Arriving at Neyland the marina did not answer the radio calls or the phone. We nosed up the river, looked for a free hammerhead (could not see one) and so squeezed onto a small finger to wait for someone in the office. Arriving before their 7:30am start time was not ideal - one downside of the record fast passage from Falmouth. Having made contact with the rather late to arrive dockmaster we moved to our allocated spot, settled down and enjoyed tea and a snooze. What a way to celebrate our arrival.

The trip that normally takes around 26 hours was only about 22 this time thanks to careful use of the strong spring tides (and luck that the captain's half thought through rough plan sort of worked out). Nothing dramatic to report, the wing engine got a little run, we learned more about the new electronics and the boat behaved all OK. No nasty bumpy bits, just a nice long wavelength swell to contend with. Our fastest ever trip around from Falmouth went pretty well really.

Enjoying the Fal area

Feeling that we had to keep the hound entertained, we decided upon several trips out that allowed off lead fun / beach fun. The obvious ones being the glorious woodland walks around Trelissick that we have enjoyed many times, the walk from St Mawes around to the Roseland and St Just, the walk from Flushing to Malpas and the beaches at St Mawes. Izzy was lucky - dogs are banned from the beach after Easter day and she was being taken back home by her owner Anne on the day beforehand.

St Mawes was as lovely as ever in the unexpected warm sun even if the big spring tides meant that the harbour was not accessible around low water for the local ferries:

The beach kept Izzy amused for some time and us busy with sticks and fir cones that clearly needed throwing around and chasing. At Trelissick, the bluebells were out in force in the woods:

where Izzy's colour scheme blended in very well.

Sitting on a mooring buoy in the harbour we played with the new(ish) FLIR and once more were pretty impressed. This was the night view through the pilothouse screen:

and this is how the FLIR saw it:

even down to the line linking the boats to their buoys. Think we are going to enjoy having this on board during night passages.

Walking from St Mawes towards St Just, we got to see an impounded ship:

which was the Russian bulk carrier that dragged her anchor in storms just before Xmas and went aground on the beach at Gyllyngvase. The UK  readers might recall this, for others look at   BBC website report for a bit of background. It seems that the Russian owners of this could not pay the salvage costs and when the MCA inspected it there was a list of dangerous defects with her safety equipment as long as your arm so she was not allowed back to sea. As an example, the magnetic compass did not work..... Apparently this elderly craft has now been sold for scrap. Makes you even more keen to avoid any close quarters encounters with ships out in the big wet bit.

Falmouth itself was relatively quiet in the run up to Easter until our liner curse hit again. The Captain was awake early, went up to the pilothouse and was confronted with this view of a little old liner, the Hamburg, approaching the dock area:

Decision made, avoid Falmouth town today. Mind you we guess that lots of them get bussed off to the Eden Project or the Lost Gardens of Heligan. We imagine that they are very grumpy about paying for a trip and missing a free lunch on board. The few passengers that we saw in town had the regulation miserable face on. No pictures for you, don't want to spoil your day. Our escape plan was the ferry to Flushing then a walk to Mylor but the last ferry before low tide stopped the service running, was full (no spot to leave a dinghy there either) so we went back to St Mawes. The waterside walk was wonderful - more bluebells for Izzy to loiter and bark in.

and after a warm walk / run / bark / stick chasing session a girl needs a drink:

We had to wait a little longer than she did.

The plan (of sorts) was to hang around in Falmouth until just after Easter. Why? Well, Izzy was being dognapped by her owner (at least it felt that way) on Easter Saturday and we were meeting Norman and Julie for lunch on the Sunday. So, we get very settled on our mooring buoy enjoying the evening views of the town, harbour, Flushing as we slowly spun around:

It was not always this calm, a couple of days brought in the promised strong easterly winds and the run ashore by RIB was pretty soggy - big waves, spray and very pleased that we were in our RIB and not the little inflatable with the baby outboard on it which would probably have folded up in the middle with some of the waves.

Sadly the day dawned and we headed to Truro by bus armed with a huge bag of dog stuff that had to be returned along with Izzy. We did the "transfer" in Tesco car park (dodgy) then walked to Malpas for lunch with Anne, Bob and the kids. Kids? Well, as part of the children's menu they got a quiz sheet which soon bored them. The sheets seemed to perplex three graduates though:

Anne led Izzy astray, proving that the Princess can eat the pea (from a fork) even if she would not lie on one:

Izzy gave us the "are you abandoning me to this lot" look:

and then trotted off without even a backward glance. So much for teaching your children to say please and thank you Anne! We watched the annual Malpas egg throwing contest for a while, from a safe distance:

where couples throw raw eggs to and fro trying to catch and not break them from ever increasing distances. You can see how well it goes from the state of the road.

When we got back to Falmouth and opened the nice RNLI provided lifejacket locker, the loss of a crew member really struck home:

To cheer our mood, there was a big celebration underway. Lively Lady and Suhaili were in the harbour ready to re-enact the finish of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston around the world trip 50 years on:

For the non yotty types, both are famous yachts with famous single handed skippers. Look at Alec Rose Wikipedia for information on what he achieved in Lively Lady:

and Robin Knox-Johnston Wikipedia for information on Suhaili and the first ever single handed non stop circumnavigation:

When you see the boats and the equipment they had (even down to the waterproof clothing quality available then) you realise just what an achievement it was.

Plymouth to Falmouth

After the gales died down, we moved on west a little. The initial plan to stop in Fowey was abandoned when we saw that there would only be one day of calmish, and hence Izzy suitable, weather before some strong easterly winds were going to set in. As Easter was approaching and with it the hordes of "first trip of the year" boaters we opted to head to Falmouth and hunker down for a few days.

An earlyish start to take the tide with us was needed but not enjoyed. The route is a dead simple one:

Leaving Plymouth a couple of naval ships wanted to make it more interesting for us. The red triangles are for ships that the AIS thinks are a danger and the others are the attending tugs and patrol boats. Wonder why we are in red too - perhaps we are a danger to ourselves?

First of all a departing RFA ship was on the move which meant we had to keep well out of the western entrance channel:

The little RIB and police patrol boats that were escorting her didn't seem even a tiny bit interested in us. We "small Nordhavns" don't look scary or terrorist like it seems. Then the Hamburg, a German naval ship, came into the harbour to carry out a passenger transfer before heading out to sea again:

We kept well clear of him in the gloom just in case he was upset about Brexit.

Passing Rame Head there was a little residual slop from the gales that caused Izzy to up her periscope and try to see what was going on. Nothing dramatic (a couple of metres) but with little waves superimposed on top of them from dead ahead of us. To make it all better the sun came out big time:

and that helped us see the stupidly tiny pot markers that the Falmouth fishermen seem to favour as we approached the harbour entrance.

We headed towards the town, picked up a buoy mooring first time and with great aplomb but with nobody to witness our amazing double act. Why are there always folks about to witness dismal failures though?

Maintenance news

Our pesky crane still needs to have its droop trouble sorted (see earlier posts) so parking it after launching the RIB has to be a little more careful than before. As the luffing cylinder seals need replacing and that is not going to happen until the winter when Roland can dismember it again, we will have to get used to retracting the boom and fastening the it in the fully down position. Nothing else exciting at all to report.

Hedonism in Plymouth (hard to believe we know)

Oh yes, a good time was had by all. Izzy got plenty of exercise, sticks, balls etc thrown for her, cuddles from many many people, treats from most places that we visited including the marina office and permanent attention. We are creating a monster to give back to Anne soon. Sorry Anne.

The Hoe is always good for a walk (or a game of bowls if you are a proper old seafarer according to the history books).  The monuments to the loss of life in various conflicts:
:

are made very real when you walk through the grim city centre which was a rebuild after the bombing in World War II. Pity they did it with ugly square soulless concrete monstrosities though.

Izzy was having a good run off the lead on the Hoe until she decided that an ugly little black puppy with what seemed to be no legs was not allowed to nip and bark at her. Izzy promptly went into mummy dog mode, flattened the puppy and held her by the scruff of her neck. Lead time for Izzy again after she tried the "I am so cute that butter would not melt in my mouth" look:

Saltash and the coffee come bistro come wine bar stop known as Just Be is always a good trip. We enjoyed a gentle and very tasty lunch there helped down by some equally nice wine. You get good views of Brunel's last engineering feat from the window seats too - the Tamar rail bridge:

Back on board, Izzy had fun showing off her bits and playing with her new toy. Playing means gently removing the stuffing and distributing it all around the boat it seems.

To save her blushes, we have used the picture with a strategically placed hind paw in it.

Then we went into being sociable mode. Robert and Deborah (The Nauticat yacht "Crazy Diamond" owners and sloe gin experts who you've met in here before) came to the marina, joined us for a most enjoyable lunch ashore and then kindly took us shopping by car. That is such a treat. No need to drag loads of heavy stuff back in smaller amounts over many trips (yes we know, a trolley shopper would help but we are STILL not old enough for one!)

Malaspina, another Nordhavn 47 owned by Martin and Inge the pilot folks who have also been in this diatribe before arrived in Plymouth after a run from Guernsey and we met them in the city for dinner. More lovely people - must be the boating thing that attracts nice, interesting types.

Talking of interesting people, we could stretch a point and report that Captain Rae is no longer titled, having hung up his Boeing 787 keys for the last time and joined us in the world known as not working. We might even get to say hello to plain old Mr Rae during the summer as he will not be quite as time constrained as before.

There was no rush to leave Plymouth as you can see:

The entire UK coast shown in red means force 6 or above everywhere. The old phrase "nowhere to hide" springs to mind.

Kingswear to Plymouth

Something strange is going on in Plymouth. We called our usual "backup plan" place to ask for a berth for a few days (the Yacht Haven which is out of the city over in Mount Batten and huge) to be told that they were full. Never before. Are we becoming too well known as troublesome types who write nasty things about some marina operators (MDL senior management / Dunstaffnage Marina spring to mind) from time to time? We've never been nasty about the Yacht Haven group, just the opposite in fact.

It would have been an ideal spot with Izzy on board, plenty of grass nearby for her to run on and for the evening pee trip. Instead we managed to find a slot in Mayflower, another friendly spot.

Things were pretty calm out to sea after the blowy few days we'd had. So much so that we could could run relatively close to Start Point where sometimes wind over tide and overfalls push you well out - hence the waypoint you can see on the plotter:

Why did we have a z shape in our track? A small inshore fishing boat decided to turn around near us and then shoot his nets and proceed to the west so we needed to go astern of him. We were not drunk, had not turned the autopilot off by mistake or put something large and magnetic near to the fluxgate compass.

Passing the entrance to Salcombe, we saw how the RNLI can spend our annual subscription in around 10 minutes:

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it had to be taken through the glass as it was too chilly to venture outside and it was our lunchtime too. This lifeboat was heading for Poole and we guess refit time which makes our contribution seem even more infinitesimal. Sorry RNLI, we are "no income" people so you get what you get.

Plenty of pot markers to avoid crossing the bay towards Plymouth and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship announcing live gunnery firing practice nearby too, but luckily not in our direction.

As usual, the crew took the off watch role most seriously:

sporting slippers that have demented penguin faces on them. Patrick was not amused and ignored this spectacle totally. Smart penguin that one.

There were some more grey hulled things anchored just inside the breakwater at Plymouth:

and they make our boat cleaning challenges look so simple.

Mayflower Marina gave us our "normal" hammerhead on B pontoon rather than tucking us inside the breakwater which is even less well sheltered and quite a walk to the land. Because of this we opted to have a week here. A chance to do all the nice things locally that have amused us over the years. You will have to wait for the next update to know what they are but it is a fair bet that they will involve cake.

Maintenance news:

Nothing really. We gave the wing engine a good run on the approach to Plymouth and the prop must be nice and clean still as it pulled just over the expected maximum RPM. The boat was pretty heavy too - still lots of fuel on board and almost full of water thanks to the crew's permanent concern of finding a drought wherever we go.