Dun Leary to Penzance, Newlyn, no Falmouth

I left at 0930 in clear skies & little wind such a contrast to yesterdays weather, so currently motor sailing, tide behind for now SOG 8.3 kts. I'm to hug the Irish coast till I get close to Rosslare then start add east to the bearing. ETA Tuesday 1000 so till then.

Well what a passage that was ! Winds were a pleasant 3/4 but completely south not helpful when you are heading in that direction. So we motored sailed, I'd like to get the tidal gate around Lands End hopefully getting its full benefit & rounding the Lizard too. Things are not like that in reality and were soon to change !

Firstly the windex instruments started to give us some erroneous readings, wind was supposed to be on our beam, but blatantly not. Then they went off all together, but that was sorted after the wiring was chased from the mast, then a case of turning the instrument off & on again ! The GPS flickered on & off occasionally too more worryingly as charts covering Dublin to Cornwall were not available at this time of year.  The fuel gauge then read a mere 17lts in my tank, although not easily to read when slamming against the waves on the nose. All these little things start to get annoying without knowing why or my skipper not understanding me fully. Worse was yet to come !

My crew were split in to two's & went in to 4 hour watches with the Skipper & Alex covering 2100- 0100 & 0500 - 0900.  First night watch & with no improvement to in the wind, direction or speed it was looking like my crew would miss that tidal gate, still they had company as dolphins had arrived in numbers & played around my hull. A couple of them must have been hoodies, as they stole the port hole on the port side only discovered when my crew changed watch (0100). The use of a new unpacked pillow was quickly stuffed through the hole & lashed in side polythene bags stuffed in any remaining openings and all the wet clothes & pillow cases stuffed on top to weigh it down. Just how much water had entered will never be known.

                                    Hasty repair made at 0120 approaching the Bristol Channel
                                                              photo'ed in the morning

Falmouth coast guard was contacted just to let them know that I had an issue, but that my crew had everything to hand.   Three Polish warships in formation came on the radio and asked me to move over, which I obliged, although I believe they had plenty of sea space.


With the electrics flickering again, my skipper noticed on port tack water appearing through the boards. Removing a single seat on that side & with the floor up the bilge pump suction hose was quickly inserted. After about an hour & a half 95% of the sea water had been removed. Port tack lifted the port hole away from the water. This also improved the electrics & the fuel gauge came back with a figure my skipper had thought was in the tank. So now the engine went back on improving progress & enabling Falmouth to be achieved, where a better temporary repair could be made.

The issue at Falmouth was were could I go to of the two marinas tried one was full & the other was half full but the other half being dredged. The visitors pontoon was first come basis but only guaranteed for 1.5m in 2000. I was moored on a buoy till more water came in then headed to the fuel pontoon to take on 230 lts of diesel just 20 lts short of a full tank, those 20 had been added at sea from cans, when I gave a false reading of a mere 5lts in my tanks.

From there I was taken to the outside of the pontoon where I stayed for the night without grounding.

More permanent repair made in Falmouth, larger plate inside, with draft excluder & marine mastic around plate seen.  No further water came in.

                                                              Old Falmouth Harbour

So today Thursday my crew wake up to Fog & at 1200 I slipped line & reversed out grounding on the sandy bottom only once before disappearing in the fog, creeping past black rock on my way to Plymouth for tonight's stop

                                                            Warm weather causes fog !

Dublin

Well a few days rest, a change of crew & today Sunday the plan is to set off to Kilmore Quay. Wind appears as though it again will be on the nose so a slow passage & a late finish, so the plan may now be to get a better point of sail, put some east in to the compass & head for Cornwall.

Still it's no yet dawn & the winds whistling in the rigging at the moment, so I'll keep you posted as the events unfold

Well much procrastination this morning, the wind in the rigging & an in shore forecast predicting F5-6 with occasional 7 for the morning easing at night, threw the game plan in the air. However a healthy breakfast of fresh mackerel, caught & given to the crew by a friendly local, was filleted & pan fried by my skipper & a plan B was thrashed out. To get the tidal gate round Lands End some 30 hours away, it was agreed that another day in Dun laoghaire (Dun Leary) a good nights rest & a 0900 start tomorrow (Monday) would be order of the day. It also meant that the weather should ease too.

So no visit to Kilmore Quay & the trump card allowing a day in case of bad weather has been played.

Douglas to Dublin - A sail of three halves

We left with an F5 coming from where I want to go & a sea state that was still disturbed from the previous days gale.  Choice was to close haul back in to the island or head for Wales !  Not much of a choice I now but we picked Wales & headed south.

The previous day showed my crew what I was capable of, despite their best efforts to the contrary, soon Anglesea  appeared on the horizon, in fact it was the only thing that appeared on the horizon all day !  Frightened of the prospect of actually reaching Wales, we tacked.  This was not an easy tack, speed dropped waves knocked what little speed I had & we were heading with more north than I wanted.

Eventually spotting that the topping lift had decided to become part of my trim set, it was dumped which improved things , but not much.  Another tack south soon brought our speed back up & when almost east of Dublin we tacked again.

By now as predicted the wind dropped & backed round to the south, this poor tack soon improved with the introduction of full sails, 20 knots of apparent wind & I was steered west with a tad of south.

Seeing land is one thing, getting there is another & with the wind dropping & the clock the only constant in this environment, we motored the last 15nm into Dun Laoghaire (Dun Leary).

Trying to spot the lights of the harbour entrance is not always as easy as you'd expect and these were no exception.  Finally I get in & if I had a hand brake my skipper would have used it to get me in.

Douglas, Wednesday

You can tell you're heading south as this morning there's little or no condensation in the master cabin ! Yesterday I had open sea from Belfast to the Isle of Man & with a single reef but full Jenny, set for a beam reach, I clocked up 65nm in 8hrs, with a maximum boat speed of 11.2knots. Although once over the sand banks on the other side, it became obvious that my next way point was unobtainable directly by sail. Having got in front of a fleet of synchronised line trawlers, I headed on a close reach away from the island. The sea changed from continuous swell to one of short choppy waves

I punched on out but as the wind gusted to 27knots apparent across the decks the Jenny was rolled in & we tacked back to relative shelter the island might give. This tack was a poor one & gave me very little gain to Douglas. So just before the lea of the land I was tacked back out to once again see the town of Douglas in the bay. This time I kept going until my skipper felt the next tack would take us into the bay. With sails down we stayed out in the bay whilst a ferry came in & waited further instruction from the Harbour Master. I am too a deep a draught to go into the marina which is only open 2hrs either side of high water. So I moored up on a floating pontoon on Battery Wall, a bit industrial & noisy, but safe & out of the way !

My crew has spent the day in museums and provisioning for the trip to Dublin & some R&R in a pub on the quay !

Forecast is suggesting easing winds throughout the day, still we wait and see on that front !

Monday Mooring

Monday 19th & the crew Jon, Alex & Mick are waking up to a grey sky in Bangor. I had a cracking day yesterday, leaving what has been my home for the last four years at 0700 in still air but blue skies Thankfully the crew opened out my sail & emptied gallons of water from within the sail bag, at least I could dry my main. We motor sailed 1500 rpm at 7knots for a while, where was this F3-4 the Metoffice had been saying since 0100 including a F6 later (up to 25 knots). Again passing Arran & just after lunch the wind came NW as predicted at 15 knots, the engine was off. The auto pilot took over from Mick & a course was set direct to Bangor

As discussed by the crew on leaving the relatively calm waters of the Clyde & the protection of the Kintyre peninsula the sea state changed to become a rolling one with 23 knots of wind, now was later. The Mull of Kintyre & Ireland now covered in a misty haze, I was in the Irish sea no longer did my radio have the sound of the Clyde coast guard but an Irish one. A single reef was put in & I cruised along at 7-8 knots with jenny away. Eta was due for 2000 which is just as dusk turns to darkness & Belfast Lough was relatively quite, although the ship at anchor as observed by mick, past to stern !

                                                                        Alsa Criag

We arrived at 2030, Bangor like Inverkip has a very narrow entrance & we moored up on the hammer head of the first short pontoon not an easy manoeuvre but if boats had hand brakes then that's how Jon would've parked me. Stopping some 10 feet from the pontoon & allowing the wind to blow me on, job done !

Short Crew

Well with only days to go the storm force winds from the hurricane from America has passed, but as always a new problem arrives on the horizon. Whilst I can be sailed short handed another crew member has dropped out in the first week this time That leaves 3 to get me to Dublin. Not a problem but leaves plenty of space.

So will keep you posted of their progress

Not long now

Well it's a week to the day that my owners will be back to prepare me for my new world, a new adventure, a new chapter.  Sunday 18th I 'll be leaving this pontoon that's been my life for so long and heading to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  Cowes doesn't sound very nice, but I understand it is quite a famous area for the sailing world, still should meet lots of new faces.

There's been a lot of press about the state of stop cocks and materials used in their manufacturer, so I know that my skipper will be thoroughly inspecting all of mine.  I don't mind he did it last time and sprayed some stuff on them as I am still stiff in places, lack of use is what I put it down to.  Am sure he has a list of things to check before he's happy to slip and head south.

Whilst I sit here waiting to get going, I hope that behind the scenes things are going on, whether passage planning or provisioning or even buying parts or pieces that makes me more homely inside.  Either way I can't wait to get going.  I believe I've only got my owners & two crew members for each week, that'll make for a pleasant cruise for them, I do hope the weather is good to them, it has been diabolical up here recently.

I understand that my new owners came across a sperm whale whilst on the Fastnet, lets hope that there's lots of interesting things to see for me too !