Week 9
| Date | Blog Entry | Related Pictures |
| 25/08/08 |
Still in Padstow with 3 meter swells off
Lands End I don't think it would be a good idea to try going
round to Newlyn at the moment. Padstow is a nice place to be
with things always going on, each night there is street
entertainment with bands and magicians etc. The harbour staff
have been brilliant and we moved today to get off the quay wall
and alongside another boat. The only little problem is being
bank holiday weekend its packed out with people and most of them
looking at the boats whilst walking along the quay so its like
being in a goldfish bowl. This is understandable but when there
are pasties, chip packets and stones in the cockpit it isn't too
brilliant but now we're alongside another yacht and out of the
way of the shops and pubs its much better and a lovely vibrant
place to be. We visited Lands End by land which is great to look at from the land side and also the visit the Lands End Centre. Hopefully we can get round to Newlyn in the next few days. |
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| 22/08/08 |
The hardship of sailing on a day like today
was awful, firstly you have to get up to watch the sunrise over
the beautiful Welsh countryside, then dolphins accompanying the
boat for hours in the wall to wall sunshine and then after a
long day of enduring all of this you have to go up the River
Camel and into the town of Padstow. Its a hard life.......... It was a really good day and Padiwak flew south during the longest passage of the trip across the Bristol Channel and into Cornwall. The north westerly wind that we had waited for pushed us along nicely, occasionally surfing down the waves. The only small problem was the cross swell rolling in from the south west caused a bit of confused lumpy seas. Dolphins did follow us for most of the day staying for over an hour before moving off and another pod taking their place. Shipping in the channel was quite light with only the occasional fishing vessel to avoid. Arriving earlier than expect we crept over the bar (shallow part at the end of the river where it meets the seas and shoaling occurs) with a couple of meters depth and then picked up a mooring just outside Padstow on the beautiful River Camel. We waited for about an hour before the harbour gates opened, about 10 minutes before a huge rush of yachts all piled outside the gates. After letting them all moor up we slipped in and moored along the wall with a fire breather on the quay side and just as the sun was dipping below the quaint buildings, many of them connected to Rick Stein with Padstow (or Padstein) being the place where he has bought lots of property. Thank you to Padstow Harbour for their free mooring and excellent facilities, probably some of the best in the country. The weather isn't looking brilliant for getting round Lands End with a few fresh South Wests forecast we could be here for a few days. |
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| 21/08/08 |
Spent all day today in Milford Haven which
was great, giving the opportunity to sort the boat out for the
long 70+ miles trip to Padstow. It was also good as there is a
north-westerly coming in tomorrow which will be perfect to head
south with. We will leave Milford Haven Marina this evening and
go to Dale where we can pick up a mooring to set off early
tomorrow morning. This has its advantages, its a few miles less
for the following day and also the Lock into Milford Haven
doesn't open till later on and ideally I would like to set off
at about 5.30 in the morning. Pictures are of a Corribee in Neylands Marina, leaving Milford Haven Marina and the Haven at Dusk. |
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| 20/08/08 |
Had a fairly interesting passage today after
finally leaving Fishguard with a break in the weather which has
been battering the Welsh coast over the last few days. With the
recent winds I expected some swell to still be about but nothing
like what we experienced at St David's Head. Three other boats
also set off, Cari with the injured crewmember, Olli and Jessica
may who were both heading to the Med after finishing in the UK
and then eventually completing a world circumnavigation. We set off deliberately against the tide to make sure we were at Ramsey Sound for slack water (a period in the tide when there isn't much movement of water) and everything was fine although a bit lumpy with wind over tide conditions coming up to Stumble Head. With the sea running it was hard to make progress round the headland and when pointing directly in the tide we were almost going backwards. To get round I almost tacked Padiwak across the tide until we were past Stumble Head and could get closer inshore and out of the full tide. Once inshore we picked up the eddy running down to St David's Head and made good speed. The seas started to build up with long swell which wasn't too bad as Padiwak just rode up and over them, it wasn't until we were at the headland when the waves shortened up and became quite confused. The waves were sufficiently big for me to shut the boat up completely and harness on twice, Padiwak didn't mind at all and just rode the waves like she normally does although I did feel as I had been in a salty washing machine! It was then through Ramsey Sound which was fairly flat and out across St Brides Bay to a place called North Haven on Skomer to wait for the tide to lessen so we could get through the Jack Sound. After about an hour we had a look but there was still quite a lot of white water due to standing waves breaking. There was a clearer patch to one side so with the throttle open we went for it and with tide underneath us we shot through. The waves were quite steep and could have been dangerous to be in but Mark (the only crewmember onboard apart from Sheila his Australian cattle dog) on Jessica May decided to test his boat by driving straight through the middle. He made it through ok although we did manage to inspect most of his keel when only the last bottom quarter was in the water! After this it was a straight run into Milford Haven with the last hour of the tide, we then waited outside Milford Haven marina for the lock to open before going inside and mooring up for the night. Thank you to Milford Haven Marina for the great service. |
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