Plymouth to Weymouth

Departure planning got a little more complex when Anne decided to let us dognap Izzy for a while. Anne headed home by train and Izzy stayed on board with us. Clearly she had taken over and viewed the boat as her own:

One chilled dog who seems glad that we have the nice Ekornes recliner chairs on board so that she can commandeer the footstool:

The weather window for a gentle calm run to Weymouth didn't fit well with the tides or the need to clear Prawle point area in the daylight  (lots of pot markers) and arrive in Weymouth with daylight (same issue but to a lesser extent). No matter what we did, we would be pushing some strong adverse tides around Portland area. So be it. We optimised the ride comfort for Izzy and lived with the tide challenge. The idea was for an early morning start and to run a  little harder than normal (to heck with the fuel burn) trying to do the whole trip in daylight.

A last walk around the harbour area and some great views over to the sea:

and to Royal William yard was enjoyable:

Then the horror of setting the alarm for 5:30 am. We must be mad. Dog duly walked, we headed off in the early morning overcast gloom. The good thing was that although the Met Office forecast was for "slight to moderate" seas, the other sources who were quoting "slight" got it right. Hence quite a quick and for Izzy smooth run. We ran at 1800 rpm (normally we run close to hull speed, between 1475 to 1650 rpm) which is the setting that many owners use for coastal cruising. We are too mean to do so. We benefited from a lot of tidal help for the first 6 hours of our run which gives the nice illusion of rapid progress.

Here is the route:

Again, not complex. You will see that we approached Portland Bill well to the south to avoid the overfalls / race that builds up there. Although it wasn't too bad, we wanted our stowaway dog to have as smooth a trip as possible.

Passing Start Point we could cut close inland as the wind was NW'ly, a rare treat although it meant being even more eagle eyed with the pot markers. Don't forget to support the Cruising Association petition! We then had the 40 mile or so run across Lyme Bay with little other traffic to amuse us. The crew did try to persuade Izzy that one area of the deck was OK for bladder relief time. No, Izzy is far too dignified for that. As we approached Portland Bill, the plotter picture told us what we already knew - we would have to fight the strong adverse tide there:

Pushing the tide up the side of Portland bill towards Weymouth, we were down to 3.8 knots over the ground and had a most frustrating yacht ahead of us. He was motorsailing quite hard and our relative speed difference was less that half a knot. So, trying to overtake him was entertaining as he insisted on changing course regularly, like a drunken duck, even as we were passing him. No, he was not tacking, he was on a nice reach. Maybe he had fortified himself across Lyme Bay with something stronger than the tea we consumed. No matter, he ignored the rules of the road and became most annoying.

Of course, the captain got lots of support and encouragement from the two other crew members whilst underway:

We were happy to enter the harbour at weymouth and get allocated a berth. We slid into it nicely and the crew took Izzy for a rapid trip to the beach as she had refused to "go" on the boat and had exerted 12 hours of bladder control. Impressive, something folks of our age can only dream about. Then we were told that we were on the wrong spot so it was a quick hop around the moored harbour master's launches onto another berth. A boating type watching this ballet from the quay gave us 9.5 out of ten for berthing and were complimented on "no thruster use" despite having only one engine. We lost half a mark as we had to move the boat a couple of foot forwards to get the right angle on the stern lines though. Harsh but fair. One day we will manage a 10.


For those that like numbers and like saving fuel:

Running at 1800 rpm is not our most economical speed. If you have a look in the "useful stuff" section of this blog you will see a post about fuel burn. Roughly speaking, our normal cruise gives us 3.5 nautical miles per UK gallon. 1800 rpm gives about 2.3 miles. Quite a difference. We just use the higher speeds when we need to leave / get to places in daylight because of pot markers etc or when it means we get to critical tidal gates at the right time on longer runs. Then it can actually save fuel on the overall trip. Here is a reminder of the figures in our "Fuel Burn Stuff" post to give you a feel for how the amount of diesel used increases rapidly with speed once you are beyond the "hull speed":

We spent 12 and a bit hours out to sea and burned (for the metric types) 170 litres of fuel. Our calculations suggest that if we had used or normal speed (say 1475 rpm which means that we are not over-driving the hull) then we would have used around 125 litres. A significant difference not just because the boat is more economical at the lower rpm but also because the slower speed would have helped us optimise the tidal help. When we would have arrived at Portland Bill the adverse tide there would have slackened off a lot. The drawback would have been approaching Weymouth in the dark and there are plenty of pot markers around the Portland Bill and up to Weymouth.

So, we used an extra 45 litres of diesel to avoid potentially picking up a pot around the prop or stabilisers. A good investment and way cheaper than a lift out to cut free pot lines should we have needed it! It also helped poor Izzy's bladder of course and that was the most important thing.


Maintenance news:

Well, with a good 12 hour trip at slightly higher cruise rpm than normal, we are pleased to report that the new exhaust lagging is doing a good job. No change in engine room temperatures based on similar external temperatures and engine run times. The engine behaved itself as did the instrumentation and stabilisers. Nothing to really report on. The main engine didn't burp out any coolant either so we guess that the level has settled down now - just as we plan to change the stuff during our upcoming lift out! Such is life.