Falmouth to Penarth - winter must be coming

Falmouth proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. A lovely walk around the headland to Gyllyngvase beach for coffee and a rather good carrot cake was a high point. Ditto an excellent lunch in a foody pub in Truro (the Rising Sun) with wonderfully friendly staff. However, a walk along the river to Penryn planning to visit our favourite Muddy Beach café was a dismal and annoying failure. When folks close for a week why can't they update their web and Facebook pages?  The little notice on the door was not what we wanted to see after a warm walk there which was followed by what seemed like a longer warmer walk back.

Knowing that the weather was going to break and that the usual series of Atlantic lows would be coming in, we spotted one nice weather window for the trip to our winter berth in Penarth. One calm(ish) day that would let things around Land's End settle down then another with slowly increasing SE - S winds which would mean plenty of shelter as we headed alongside the northern coast of Cornwall. 

We needed just over a day for the trip (180 nautical miles or so) and the forecasts for the following days were not nice. This is from Windy, showing 6 metre waves for a fair bit of our route a day later on:

The only drawback was that we were going to have fog but the radar is pretty good at seeing through that although it messes up the FLIR images.

We headed off around 8am with patchy fog. Leaving the berth you could see for about 20 metres, then as we passed the commercial port area it cleared so we could see some of the ugly stuff parked there:

Not the greatest of farewell views but all we got as the visibility closed in again. Here is the first part of the route:

Anchored off the Manacles (the "sticky out bit" just south of Falmouth) were a couple of tankers, as usual. One had been there for well over 3 weeks. It just feels so inefficient and such a bad use of huge capital expenditure seeing so much shipping laying around for so long in these "global recovery" times. Naturally we make an exception for Cruise liners who would act as little floating Covid factories, they can lay to anchor for many more months.

As it was calm, we cut inshore and fairly close to the Lizard, an area that can get bumpy with overfalls in strong winds and tides. We got to see the lighthouse and outbuildings through a gap in the fog banks but as they were just grey and shrouded in mist, no pictures for you this time. We did enjoy the company of plenty of dolphins though, with the crew standing outside and giving them plenty of encouragement for all of their tricks, jumps etc:

Things were pretty quiet passing Penzance and heading towards Land's End until this little fishing boat decided to change course (they were not fishing) and come across our bows. In theory he had to give way. Don't you love theory and fishermen:

The fog cleared from the surface of the sea by the time we reached Longships light house, so much so that we could also see Wolf Rock at the same time. However the land itself still had a little white / grey blanket over it:

It was pretty calm really, a little swell left and some small waves on top of it making the sea a bit confused but our timing was spot on. We took the tide with us along the south coast, caught a back eddy heading up to Longships and then the tide turned to help carry us around Land's End and up the first part of the north Cornish coast. Even the weather played ball as the wind did just as forecast:

True Wind Speed = 1.5 knots. Wow. 7.6 knots speed over the ground and about 6.4 speed through the water @1640 rpm. Yes, all was going well. There was no traffic about until we encountered this ugly thing which was surveying and also trying to avoid the pot markers left by the Padstow fishing boats. He called one up on the radio to check that they were just pots and not nets and got a real sloping shoulders reply of "I think so". Since the fishing boat had been chucking them over the side you would have hoped that he knew what he was throwing over. 

The ugly orange thing then decided to head in our direction and annoyingly he was showing that he wanted at least half a nautical mile clearance:

So, we had a small diversion from our course - this is how the camera saw 0.7 miles:

As night came in the tide started to turn against us but after nearly 12 hours of favourable streams, we could not complain. Timing for this trip always means that you have a slow time passing Hartland Point headland. Overnight we had a few fishing boats to keep us company, you can see a couple that the ARPA function on the radar had picked up and was tracking:

You also can see how the FLIR picks up the wave patterns. Sorry, but again we failed to get a picture of the dolphins on the FLIR - they are quite impressive at night too. 

As it started to get light so we were steaming along thanks to the next tide change towards Cardiff. A few ships were anchored mid-channel waiting for the high tide to go into Barry / Newport:

and we enjoyed a nice red sunrise and calm sea conditions:

The old saying of "Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky at morning, sailors warning" was most accurate as some nasty stuff was forecast for that evening. If you want to be a geek and understand why a red sky in the morning is a warning, look at Wikipedia link.

The barrage locks into Cardiff bay run inbound at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. We arrived just outside the entrance channel at about 17 minutes past so we had a little bit of going in circles, some wing engine exercise, a wide open throttle burn to help the engine / exhaust and then headed in. As it was a pretty calm Sunday morning, all three locks had been used for the outbound 9am traffic. A small flotilla of fishing boats and yachts headed out and we then headed into the barrage area all alone. That was rather good:

A warm welcome from the duty dockmaster at Penarth followed - he said that he had been stalking us on AIS all the way from the Lizard peninsular. You are never alone with AIS it seems. All in all a great trip, the fastest time ever for that run thanks to the tides (25 hours) to do just about 190 nautical miles with diversions / getting out of Falmouth Harbour. For continental readers that is around 352 Km. Once more happy to see our favourite "home town" of Penarth, sad that the boating season is effectively over.

Maintenance News:

Nothing at all, pretty boring really. As the big Lugger was nice and warm, we treated it to an oil change shortly after arriving so it has nice fresh stuff in it for the quieter period ahead. Also as a thank you for looking after us this season.

Dartmouth to Falmouth

The weather was playing ball nicely and so we opted for a trip all the way to Falmouth rather than stopping off in some of our favourite haunts like the Yealm and Fowey. Why? Well, there was some nasty stuff forecast for a few days away and being slightly stuck in the Yealm, as pretty as it is, might get a bit frustrating. We would get to know the one Co-op store rather too well.  Why not Fowey - similar reason really and the Fowey mini-market is even less appealing. Instead we opted to head for the fleshpots of Falmouth with the idea of nipping around the corner to Cardiff when a suitable weather window popped up.

Tides are always a compromise. As it was "springy" the ebb tide in the river would be quite evil and so we left closer to high water than was optimal for the trip. It just meant pushing a bit of tide for the first hour or so. No matter as it was a glorious sunny start to the day around 8am: 

The houses clinging to the hillside in Dartmouth were bathed in nice autumnal morning light, as was the harbour entrance:

Ditto the castle and St Petrox church as we passed them heading out to sea:

It was beautifully calm, light winds and great visibility. Off Start Point and Salcombe we had to do the usual pot marker avoidance thing but that was fine. Around Eddystone lighthouse there was more boat traffic - plenty of fishing craft out, way more than on the AIS image below:

The sea around the rocks and lighthouse was pretty smooth as you can see:

Some dolphins swam past but didn't want to play despite lots of encouragement to join us from the crew:

We were just not appealing for some reason, normally they like our speed and enjoy bow wave riding but not this time. The weather really was idyllic, you can see how little wind there was from the red ensign:

and the prop wash was about the only thing disturbing the water surface:

BTW - the high noise level is a bit confusing. The camera picked up and then amplified the noise coming through the engine room vents quite nicely. It really is not that loud when you stand in the aft cockpit, most of the noise comes from the wash itself.

Our route which goes directly from south of Start Point to the entrance of Falmouth harbour takes us just south of Eddystone but very close to this guy near Dodman Point so we thought we would share him with you in all his yellow and bird poo glory:

Arriving in Falmouth the larger mooring buys off the town which we like using were all occupied - three of them by yachts that were way too small for the 18 metre capacity. Naturally some smaller buoys were free but... Instead we upset the bank manager and stopped in Port Pendennis for a change. We didn't want to be "up river" this time. 

The trip took about 9.5 hours and was sunny and calm. A perfect motorboating sort of day. Not much use for the yottie types though:

4.8 knots wind speed - nothing was sailing anywhere fast.

Maintenance news: Nothing exciting to report at all. We had topped up the coolant level for the main engine a little in Dartmouth after the couple of good runs (the coolant had been changed whilst out of the water earlier this month) to move all the air bubbles about. Annoyingly the CMOS battery for the navigation PC is toast but that can / will have to wait until we are tied up for the winter as dismembering the PC involves removing lots of cables (5 COM ports, 3 USB connections, 2 ethernet ports) and then getting the right battery.  

Weymouth to Dartmouth (been here before!)

As there was a reasonable forecast we opted to continue our trip west after only a couple of nights in Weymouth. Sorry Linda - could not return the favour and feed you this time....

Our "unusual for us" berth at the eastern end of the harbour area:

Now, this is how the view forwards looked when we set off in the dark for Dartmouth (all down to those pesky tide times you know):

Yes, those two yachts ahead were very close indeed having moored the night before. Somehow leaving Weymouth on a still morning when it is still dark is quite atmospheric. No idea why but it just feels a bit special. 

Heading out into the bay, you could see the laid up cruise liners that were still well illuminated despite the complete lack of passengers and with only a skeleton crew on board:

Maybe they only have one big "on" switch? Seemed excessive to us but that is probably because we are used to paying our own running costs. The wind had calmed down much earlier than expected and so we had a very gentle trip indeed. Marinetraffic thought we were off to Canada again:

which is our fault as we'd left "Dartmouth" as the destination in plain text rather than using the proper port code:

That way the "non commercial" guys who pick up our signals out to sea will understand where we are headed. Is that a benefit? Hard to know really, depends upon how much use they make of that knowledge! 

We were able to cut across the area that is normally pretty bumpy - the Portland Race - as the wind was gentle and the tide was just building in our favour. Then we settled in for the Lyme Bay crossing:

The crew, focussed on catching up with her sleep, had a small diversion when a large pod of dolphins came across our path and stayed with us briefly too:

The crew is way more visible in this shot than the dolphins mind you. Sorry about that. The lovely weather made up for the slightly antisocial pod - here is how it looked on the rear view camera (with a few stray reflections on the screen):

You might well ask why we were using that image on the screen and not the Time Zero PC software. Well, that is because the navigation PC threw a seriously hissy fit and just hung up. Reboot, hang up again. Repeat a few times, swear about Bill Gates and all things PC like, then switch it off. Time to tinker with it when in port. Annoying as it had behaved impeccably for ages and there have been no updates or changes to it.

Approaching Dartmouth, there were a couple of enormous container ships anchored in the Torbay area. This monster container ship was showing an ETA for Rottterdam of October 1st and it had been at anchor since September 19th. If anyone was hoping to get a delivery of something from one of the many containers on board, it is going to be very very late indeed. The global shipping / port capacity crisis was most evident:

We arrived into a sunny Dartmouth an hour or so before high water, having slowed down on purpose towards the end of the trip knowing how hard the tide runs in the river which can make mooring tricky. Our preferred option of a buoy at Dittisham was a non starter as the harbour authority seem to like letting out the only big buoys on a long term basis so we were lucky and the Dart Marina folks let us back in. Literally - we backed onto the inside of their main walkway and felt quite at home after our unplanned long stop there earlier this summer.

The river Dart had become a bit of a Nordhavn 47 creche since Captain Rae on the good ship Albatross was also in residence. Being a graduate of the Royal Naval college, he could use one of their mooring buoys at a wildly low cost:

In fact he had been there longer than planned too thanks to a small brush with Covid. It was easy enough for him to isolate on board as he was alone anyway but it cannot have been much fun when he was feeling rough with the infection (and he had been double jabbed). Luckily for us, he had recovered and tested negative twice by the time we arrived so collecting him in the RIB and taking him up to Dittisham for a pizza and beer lunch was safe. Well, as safe as you ever can be with Captain Rae around. 

A two-seater spitfire had been roaring up and down the river and we enjoyed the spectacle and noise with our lunch. Capt Rae took this video for another Nordhavn owner to show him just what he was missing although you will get more sound than spitfire image to begin with :

Then he showed just why you would not want to be there with us:

Actually, they do a mean pizza and the view from the sea wall is pretty special too as was the company. The comment about 7 pints refers to a small moment that Capt Rae enjoyed one evening when he ended up in the water in the pitch dark after the odd Guinness when transiting between his RIB and the mother ship. His mantra of always wearing a lifejacket in the RIB saved him. A good mantra indeed.  

Whilst in Dartmouth we did the regulation walking to the castle a couple of times thing and just before departure were joined by Simon and Amanda (the boat hire folks) who added to our expanding and eclectic gin stocks with a clementine version in a bottle that lights up and has little gold flakes in it too, courtesy of Mr M&S. Captain Rae, see what you are missing by heading off to Portugal. Well, he said that Albatross was heading to Portimao but Marinetraffic reckoned otherwise:

Yes, Albatross was heading for Halifax in Canada too as Capt Rae had left "Dartmouth" as his AIS destination. Plenty of time to change it though as the trip takes 6 full days.

Our final act was to procure yet more whacky sunglasses from Tracy Fox's emporium for Mrs Toddler. The crew had to model them once more so that Mrs T could check on their suitability and decide which of her many individually crafted outfits they would go with:

and just in case that pair were not garish enough:

This pair might just have a new outfit created especially for them. Look out Mrs T's sewing machine - some wild patterned material might be coming your way.

One other Dartmouth institution is the Simon Drew shop, selling the humorous cards etc that he draws. Well, here is a new offering that was shown in his window featuring Boris, that is quite clever:

Maintenance news: 

Well, there is some. A 24v bulb in one of the engine room lights had blown so that got replaced.  More huge expense.

Then the sickly new Webasto heater that would not fire up got some attention. The captain had checked that there was no restriction in the exhaust and that fuel was getting to the unit so felt there was little a ham-fisted amateur could do. One thought remained though. The heater refused to fire up after our first bumpy trip since it had been installed. Maybe some air bubbles had been in the system from the install and they had joined forces and stopped the pump on the heater priming itself? Starting back at the filter (an old school CAV296 thing that is way over specified for the fuel flow needed to the heater) and working through to the boiler itself the supply pipework was thoroughly bled once more. Then the pump in the heater was "encouraged" with a little injection of fuel and amazingly on the second attempt it coughed and fired up, then ran perfectly.

Looks like it was an airlock issue in the pump but we've learned more about the new boiler and the modern fancy electronic controls in a few weeks since fitting than we knew about the old one in 12 years of ownership. That is plenty enough we have decided, now it just needs to work all winter.

Lymington and Weymouth time

We departed Swanwick after a quick car drop off and final shopping for heavy stuff. We are back to Brompton bike shopping trips now or we just continue to lengthen the Captain's arms. The short run to Lymington was miserable. Grey, a bit rainy, pretty blowy. Why has the weather changed just as we can start to move the boat again?? Answers on a postcard please....

No matter, we were pleased to be back in Lymington and on the Dan Bran pontoon. A Halberg-Rassy owners rally was booked in and so we were lucky to have a slot, just big enough between a rather large Sunseeker thing and a little yacht. Seeing our anchor approaching him as we slotted into the berth woke the yottie up a little but he was quite safe. I guess from a foot or so above the water, the bow of a Nordhavn 47 does look rather menacing. 

Our quiet weekend was a little less so when Tina pitched up on the ferry. Being kindly types we walked to meet her then returned to the boat for food and lubrication. Having really enjoyed a couple of nights in Brockenhurst just pre Covid (can almost remember what that was like) we took the huge 8 minute train trip there, had a wander around and then a monster Sunday lunch at the rather good Huntsman pub in a nice outside setting. Tina's dessert was an espresso martini, accompanied by a most superior look:

The folks on the table opposite struggled with different looks. The ladies had both been "worked on" and the botoxed faces and rather puffy lips were unable to show any expressions bar a fixed wide eyed one. We were convinced that drinking from a straw would never be possible. Their matching outfits and identical sunglasses just added to the overall effect which kept us amused all lunchtime.

On the train heading back, it was clear how managing a mask (optional), sunglasses and mobile phone can be a challenge: 

The Huntsman is still a good place to eat, we will return sometime, somehow. Returning to Lymington the social life picked up again as the crew of Millie the yacht were on the town quay moorings. Sitting in their cockpit in the sun for a beer was most welcome.

After Tina departed for the Island on the ferry, we prepared for a little run west. Only as far as Weymouth but on another grey, lumpy, slightly rainy day. Seems that autumn has really set in. The route is a simple one but as we left Lymington around 5:30am to take advantage of the tides, it was dark to begin with too. The FLIR, nice radar and plotter got us out of the harbour and helped us avoid the pot markers:

and the tide help got us up to 10.5 knots going past Hurst castle - although the photographer only managed to capture 10.4 on the screen:

Nearly 4 knots of free help was good. The route this time had a big dip to the south going through the Lulworth firing range:

mainly because we were too early to get any response from Range Control on the VHF radio and so we didn't know how far out they would be firing. We knew that we would not be through the range area before they started firing for the day and so opted to avoid it all.  With the waves on the stern quarter, the stabilisers were busy. This was a pretty normal deflection of the fins (the big black bars show how far from the central position they have moved to counteract any roll) and a couple of times they went to full deflection too. Thanks to them, the ride was fine though:

As we approached Weymouth, two huge dolphins joined us and did a few tricks to keep the captain and crew happy. We'd not seen any that big coming to play with us before and their antics livened up a grey old trip. Arriving in Weymouth we were placed on the most easterly end of the long visitors pontoon. Normally we are put at the other end. Nice views down the harbour even if it was a bit grey and gloomy but a lot longer to walk stuff back from Asda:

Whilst in Weymouth a few things just have to be done. One was to walk up to Andrew and Linda's house (they were regular stars in here when they camped out in the forecabin and they now own Zephyros, a Nordhavn 43) for one of Linda's famous curries. Andrew was off floating around Madeira in a friend's Nordhavn 63 and for some inexplicable reason didn't come back to join us. 

You also have to raid BoHo Gelato to see what new ice-cream flavours they have dreamt up; Passionfruit custard was a real winner. Then it all went downhill a bit. The captain thought that he ought to fire up the new Webasto heater as it hadn't been run for about 3 weeks. Well, it gave one cough, puffed out some unburned diesel and then steadfastly refused to fire up. Some tinkering helped not one jot. Exhaust was dry and clean, there was fuel to it and power. Not much more that an amateur could do without the diagnostic kit to tell us why it was misbehaving. This could become a long painful story and as the nights are getting colder.....

Bye bye Gosport, hello hard labour weekend

The day finally came when we could break free from Gosport. Mr Toddler was home and doing well so our hospital shuttle service was no longer needed. The biggest challenge initially was escaping from the very cosy berth we had in Haslar (see earlier posts!) Luckily the marina folks were, once more, great. On a nice calm evening, at high tide so there was little stream running, we moved to a simple, accessible, inside hammerhead berth. A couple of days later we had our first "trip" in over 6 weeks, but just to the Hamble river:

Hardly a big event but it felt like it to us and probably to the boat. She was suitably grubby around the waterline thanks to the layup and sun we had enjoyed - the main engine ran around 4 degrees C warmer than normal so we knew that the keel cooler was pretty messy.

Somehow, it seems that a Nordhavn is not a stealth boat. Heading up the Hamble this image was taken of us by a friend of Martin (The owner of N47 Malaspina and the Poxy Frogbus training captain): 

Maybe the photographer thought that Malaspina had been stolen and was being taken to a secret Hamble location? Tricky thing to do on the Hamble as it is rather busy.  We were quite brazen too - topless as you can see (well, bimini coverless really) thinking that there was no reason to refit it since our next move was to get lifted out. We had booked a lift at Universal but they had no pontoon space for us on the night before so we ended up in Swanwick. Hence on the morning of the lift we had a little downriver trip to the Universal hoist bay. The lift crew there were excellent. Very careful indeed:

There were five men guiding her into the lift bay and ensuring that strops were positioned correctly. Then they lifted her most gently:

You can just about see how messy the hull was. However, the pressure wash took all of it off and there was a nice barnacle free copper coating left to admire. The coolers (main engine cooling and hydraulics) were a mass of weed, marine wildlife and grot. Again, most of it came off OK and the rest was beaten into submission by the crew with a scraper and some brick acid.

We had one "moment" this lift out. When the Captain was fettling the rope cutter, the static central part sheared, meaning that instead of having two semi-circular parts that bolted together nicely we had three bits instead which would clearly not stay in place. Maybe the cutter had been busy chopping up a chunky rope and had been subject to some serious stress or maybe the Captain was just ham-fisted again. Who knows bar a metallurgist. No matter what the cause was, it was far from good news as it happened late on a Friday evening. The dealer for Spurs cutters is on the Isle of Wight in Yarmouth. Harold Hayles is one of those long established boatyards that still seems to run as it must have in the 1960s. A Saturday morning phone call to them got the answerphone. Google and their website had no opening hours shown. Our stress levels went up a couple of notches.

Plan B was hatched - asking the local engineering guys who might be able to weld the alloy used in the cutters as a fallback. Plan C involved having no cutter at all. We didn't like plan C much. Unable to progress A or B until Monday we cracked on with the ritual work. Finding suitable anodes for the "kelp cutters" that sit in front of the stabilisers was fun. To get the stud size that had been used by M and G in Guernsey when they fabricated them was tricky unless you had a huge anode. We certainly didn't need nearly a kilo of zinc to protect the little cutter. Eventually we tracked some down and fitted them:

and we know what to get ready for the haul out next year. All the other anodes etc were already on board.

Having finished almost all of the work by Sunday evening, we started the phone calls on Monday morning when the marine industry woke up again. A very helpful lady at Harold Hayles said she would check their stock and call me back. I think their stock control is still on little cards rather than the PC. Over an hour later we chased her and found to our delight that they had an overhaul kit on the shelf. So  a day out was hastily planned. We had been staying with Ann and Martin (you met them earlier when they joined us in Ireland and then again in Scotland for a trip) who live very close to Universal. That had been a life-saver. So the four of us headed to Lymington, went over to Yarmouth as foot passengers on the Wightlink ferry and picked up the much needed part:

We then had a rush of blood moment. Wanting to find somewhere for a late lunch we walked along the rather lovely old railway line path to Freshwater on a rather warm afternoon. Our target was the beautiful Red Lion pub which has a big garden. Here is a stolen picture of it in the quintessentially English setting next to the church:

Even though the website said they were serving until 3pm, the reality was otherwise. "No, we don't serve food on a Monday". You can have a drink and crisps though. The crew was, by now, in need of calories so she set off down the hill into Freshwater at a cracking pace to get to the tea room in the local garden centre before it shut. The rest of us trailed along after her.

The trip back was pretty uneventful expect that Ann said "I thought this Ferry left at 5 past". It did, we were nearly back in Lymington but as it was so smooth and calm she hadn't noticed we were moving.... 

The new cutter parts were refitted that evening just to ensure all was well and, luckily, it was:

A little more fettling eg lubricating the seacocks, making sure the log paddle wheel was free after it had been antifouled etc and we were ready for relaunch:

One anode being reused (just before the surface got cleaned off) and a stabiliser "at ease" rather than being pinned in the fore and aft position:

We were tired but ready for life afloat. The hoist crew were, once again, very careful and gentle with the boat:

but our personal stress levels are always high until we see this:

We happily motored off, again no space in Universal so we had a night booked in Swanwick just up river. All in all a busy but productive time. Boat cleaned up, antifouled where needed, main engine coolant changed, new anodes where needed, coolers all sparkly, seacocks greased, rope cutter cleaned and repaired, lower area of the hull polished and the stainless steel rubbing band cleaned up too. Oh, forgot to mention the sore shoulders and arms. 

This boat ownership thing is pure fun,

Poxy Frogbus vs Boeing update

We posed a question in the last blog post for you. Well so far no real feedback on the burning question of which is better and which captain looks the best. Robert offered this:

Apropos the Poxy FrogBus vs Boeing:

Sorry to be a philistine - but it's a plane innit? Wot?

He is a yottie so should be forgiven (perhaps). We are still open for suggestions via the comments function! However Captain Martin did offer an explanation as to the dubious positioning of his hands in the Poxy Frogbus image. He claims he was holding his hat. Indeed.