Hayling to Brighton

Wind from behind boat and me dont like it rain to boot. Brighton pricey and pretentious.

Yarmouth to Hayling Island

The Solent was a test of patience wind all over the place and the constant din of a hovercraft. I dont know how the locals put up with it and stay sane.

So many yachts doest anyone have a proper job here?

Enjoyed the hospitality of Hayling Island SC awsome club probably one of the biggest in the universe.

Portland Bill

Grounded to inspect bottom. Spent the day in Exmouth got Camera card backed up in Exmouth Photo Services. Set off from Exmouth at 20:00 on Monday 24/06/2013, preferring to start rather than end in the dark. Sailed for the first 8 hours then wind dropped so had to motor sail the rest. Sea state slight to smooth gave the famous tide race a wide beeth. Dancing in the moonlight its got me in its spotlight. It was the night of the biggest moon ever. Poole Harbour is big and unfriendly.

Red Duster and Rainbow from Starcross

The pic says it all. It rained and blew and i am leaving the Exe tomorrow evening looking forward to an all-nighter passing the Bill at dawn bound for Poole.

Topsham Sailing Club

Enjoying the hospitality of Topsham Sailing Club on the River Exe while waiting for the gales to pass F8 a day after the longest day! The weather God is having memory issues - "hmmm now where did I put that Jetstream? ... Oops ". TSC have been really kind and without any prompting the Rear Commodore Graham showed me where the water was where i could get victuals and offered a lift to the petrol station. Also enjoyed a pint or two of Otter and a good old sailing chinwaglast night.

Just got to get some food the we are all victualled.

Next Stop in preparation for rounding Portland... Bridport West Bay.

Dartmouth to Topsham (Exe)

Beautiful sailing day. Bad weather forecast so decided to take Silent Running to her birthplace/nursery which took my memories of our introduction with her maker Dr Michael Waddel of Exton who sold her to me 18 years ago. Nice views of Torbay, Teignmouth and Exmouth. I love the Exe estuary for boats nowhere better. Nice breeze up to force 6 but little fetch so often getting up to 6.5 knots not bad for an old hobo.

Dartmouth to Topsham

Here for a couple of days bad weather forecast its sister* here havent been ashore since last Monday low on vitals great sail from Dartmouth
Must try a.not to catch harbour fever.

* bliss

Salcombe Pea Soup

The only dish on the menu from Salcombe. .. Pea Soup. No pictures cos nothing to see. Visibility mostly less than 50m so threw in the Bridport towel for today. Camped up in Dartmouth next to French Sea-Punks (thats a high compliment if you didnt know) on the lugger "Rose of Argyll" which goes places only by sail and oar. The skipper carried 4 passengers in a small dinghy showing remarkable sculling skill (wiggling a paddle strapped to the rear end of the dinghy). The advantage of a transom sculling oar is it does not use up the space of a pair of oars, hence 5 people can get across the river in a dinghy, then a natural break done the old fashioned sailor's wayin poshville or poshvoile if you prefer.

Then there is the biggest yacht ever i swear the mast top was lost in the cloud. The mast has 3 shroud spreaders and Chay Blythes 1970's round the world racer "British Steel's" mast does not even get as high as the lower spreader
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Steel_(yacht)

Helford River to Salcombe

Turned into a eally beautiful day despite soggy damp foggy start. Did 52nm and anchored here nearly 2 hours early. Some good sailing but mainly motor-sailing. Salcombe looks beatiful and is very posh, but sonics could do with a makeover.

Lizard

Mullion Cove last night. Anchored Helford River 20:00 looks good for Salcombe or Plymouth tomorrow

I am the very model of a modern boat hobo in penzance

there are a lot of pubs in Newlyn, all excellent apparently except they dont do fish and chips. Many other varieties of fish dish though.

finally managed to aquire a cornish courtesy flag a couple of days ago from a model shop in penzance intended for a car but works well on the boat.

Yesterday horizontal weather in Penzance. Lifeboat towing in Yacht. Got some sticky back plastic to make name for the starboard side, might put blog address also for promotion. repaired hang loop on shore jacket. walked up a big hill. HM kindly charged my VHF. started engine for the hell of it.

today i am in an internet cafe printing the xcweather long range forecast for penzance and the met office inshore waters. looking like monday could be a a goer. shopping for car atlas (better for passage planning than the large scale charts for navigation), soap, coffee whitener and tobacco.

plan to fiddle with series drogue this afternoon, sort out coachroof covers to keep the rain at bay and allow ventialtion at the same time. i must also check my bottom for any growth (barnacles, weed, etc.)

there you go

Newlyn

Strong winds forecast until Saturday or Sunday.

Round the bend!

Oops finger!
Posted from Newlyn

Gig boat "Defiance" St Ives

Beautiful craft

Preparing for Lands End

Abandoned use of http://www.sailingalmanac.com/Almanac/Navigation/landsendpentire.html seemed to be too much at odds with Reeds. Weather forecast looks good for today. Plan to depart from St Ives an hour before HW Dover (12:35 BST), its about 22nm to Runnel Stone mark, so we need to maintain 4kn to make the tidal gate at HW Dover +5 (17:35 BST), should get us enough fair tide for Newlyn ETA 20:00 BST. Right now blue sky all around :-)) getting on with some preparation...

A very pleasant day in Hayle

Sunshine Pasty and Pottering on Boat. Strong winds at sea but lovely here. HM honoured me with keys to the toilet :-) just £6 per night.

Padstow - St Ives

Motored 90%. Wind F1/2 from the North but it was nice.

Lundy - Padstow Sun 2 Jun

Dolphins Galore about 8m east of Hartland point thats a highlight. Padstow beautiful

Dale - Lundy Sat 1st Jun

Initially made great progress but it got more challenging later made Lundy in one piece but still not much shelter as the wind had too much North in it. Got beer and bread and butter pudding from the Marisco Arms.

Fishguard - Dale Fri 31 2013

Set off battled the foul tide off Strumble Head and won by a hares whisker Ramsey and Skomer / Jack Sound easy this time.

Catch up

Blogger and facebook being a total arse to update with gsm connection. Heres where i have stopped off...
Beaumaris 18 May
Picture attached but blogger refuses to acknowledge the existance of such a place so it will have to remain somewhere in northern europe
Abermenai Point 18 May
Porthdinllaen 19 May
Abersoch 20 May
Porthmadog 21 May expecting and got strong winds until Sat 25 May did some antifouling and stuff
New Quay, Ceredigion 25 May Fishguard 26 May waiting for favourable weather and tide for Jack Sound. Should be good to go on Friday 31 May.

Not the most productive day

Got to Meols shortly after HW cutting it fine then I remembered that I forgot the Dinghy Inflator, went back home to pick it up, by the time I got back to Meols there wasnt much water, and also realised that the inflator that I picked up had a fault which meant that it only puffed in every other stroke, so had to pump twice as hard and twice as long which meant that but the time the dinghy was inflated, there was only about 2" of water for 60 yards so i used the technique of pulling the dinghy as fast as i could so that it skimmed on it's own bow wave, a bit like ground effect on an ekranoplan only with water.

Victualled Fuelled but spent alot of time trying to figure out the vane steering - had a flash of inspiration while on the toilet will try it out tomorrow.

Strong winds forecast tomorrow, still hoping to be ready for Thursday.

There will be a slight delay...

Thought it would be a good idea to sponsor a good cause, so I chose Arthritis Care money raised would be a great morale booster too, thank you.

Strong winds forecast for the next couple of days hope to leave on Thursday, which looks promising, except for the risk of grounding leaving Meols as there will only be about half a metre of water under the boat on the mooring at high water (neap tides!), leaving us for a few days in the mud and sand.

I have been working on an experimental wind vane self steering, victualling and cleaning the 10l fuel tank & will put an extra in-line fuel filter.

Made a check-list.

Preparations for Round GB...

The Boat

"Silent Running" a James Wharram 1970's design of ply-glass-epoxy sheathed hulls a very moderate design of catamaran, wingsail short gaff masthead sloop. 

Accommodation is Spartan with only just enough room for one person to do everything needed for living aboard. Cook, Eat, Sleep, Wash and a Bucket for anything else.  

She was built by Dr. M Waddel of Extmouth in 1993. I have owned her since 1995 and have had many good times having sailed between Clovelly and  Whitehaven including the Isle of Man and the north and west coast of Wales.

For the last couple of months, I have been making preparations for the boat to take me for an extended cruise around Great Britain.

today i created my first blog entry

OK so here it is my first attempt at using google blogger...

I have created this blog as a means on recording my sail around Great Britain.