The journey so far from Portishead to Kinsale has been a lot of fun. I think we are getting in to the swing of things and the nerves of leaving the UK have diminished over the last week. Its dawning on us now that the boat is truly home for the foreseeable future and the whole world lies ahead. Its been lovely too to have Ethan and Caleb on board, although they are already eating us out of house and home!
The day we left Portishead, the weather wasn’t very nice. The Bristol channel was putting up a fight as usual, with the wind on the nose gusting up to 30 knots and a short sea. Not to be daunted, we were prepared to put up the fight when with 2 hours our new furler that had been put on during the re-rig at great expense decided to start chafing through the furler control rope. Unable to fix this at sea, we were forced to turn on the engine and motor the rest of the way round to anchor in Swansea Bay off Mumbles Head. Not a great start!
The same day we left, our good friend John also sailed out of Portishead on his mission to cross the atlantic too!
John on Rival Spirit fighting his way down the Bristol Chanel to Barry.
Safely at anchor the next day in the Mumbles and with the furler issue fixed (fingers crossed) imagine our surprise when the red arrows suddenly flew across the bay over the top of Azimuth?! They really didn’t need to put on such a show just for us as we set off on our journey! Turns out that this was the weekend of the Swansea Air Show, unknown to us! And here we were in the bay with ring side seats to the whole event. In the right place at the right time? That never happens to us. That would explain why there were also so many other boats in the anchorage, where previously we had never seen anyone anchored here before We decided to stay, especially as it was still blowing hard out in the channel, and enjoy the show.
plane spotting in slippers!red arrowsAzimuth at anchor next to mumbles
After a great weekend, we left the mumbles and set sail for Dale in Milford Haven. The Bristol channel other ideas, so after 6 hours of tacking, we gave up and went to Caldey Island just off Tenby instead! The next day we tried again, and had a great sail in to Dale dodgy the two firing ranges on the way.
Dale is a great place to anchor and we stayed for a couple of nights looking for a weather opportunity to cross the Irish Sea. At 130 miles, you need the right wind, and definitely not on the nose. Given the price of diesel these days, we don’t want to motor anywhere anymore, and now we have all the time in the world we don’t have to!
Ethan declared he was desperate to go to a pub! So we decided to take a visit to shore in Dale and visit the local shop and pub. We also went for a walk along the coast path which turned out to be very picturesque and well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
The beer tasted really good after the walk, and so did the pizza takeaway from Dale Yacht Club!
So we were sat in Dale, looking at the weather for the crossing, and it didn’t look very promising, nothing consistent for days. What appeared was some short bursts of Northerly winds the next day interspersed with patches on no wind. So we decided, what the hell, lets just go for it. The crossing turned out to be a long one. The wind was actually as predicted, so we had periods of sailing at 9 knots interspersed with hours of being totally becalmed in flat seas in the middle of the Irish sea buzzed by fishing vessels and passenger ferries.
Finally we arrived in Kinsale about 8pm in the evening and motored in to the spectacular entrance of this vibrant town.
Arriving in Kinsale
We have had a great time in Kinsale and were there for nearly a week. This little town is steeped in history. The Spanish invaded in 1601 and held the town for a month until they were kicked out again by James 1st. He built a fort at the entrance to the harbour to protect it. The spanish left their mark though with countless references throughout the town. In 1682 Charles 2nd built a much bigger fort that dominates the entrance to Kinsale which is shown in the picture above, and you sail in past it.
We had a chance to meet up with our freinds Niall and Bernadette whom we purchased Azimuth from on that fateful day 4 years ago, where a deal was struck in the pub! We have never regretted it since, and it was great to see them again and share sailing stories, and talk about all our plans ahead. It was also a great treat to see Zora sail in to Kinsale the day after we arrived and anchor up in the river right next to us. Sam and Rosie joined us for a raucous evening hosted by Niall and Bernadette on their fabulous boat La Courette in castle marina. Many thanks to them and we look forward to seeing you again before we depart Ireland!
La CouretteZora
Here’s some more pictures of us enjoying the delights of Kinsale!
Pub visits to Kitty o’ see’s, the Spaniard & the Greyhound
A few days in to the stay we were delighted to welcome Ethan’s friend Joe back on board Azimuth for a couple of nights. The lads went out for a big session in Kinsale one evening!
Ethan & Joe
Despite Ethan’s hangover, the next day we talk a walk round the harbour and visited Charles Fort which was a great afternoon out.
I tried to recreate a moment in the Pearce family history involving our kids sat on cannons…. Not sure it worked that well?!
Finally we had to say goodbye to Joe and Ethan. Ethan is off to start a new working life in Belfast. We wish him all the best of luck and we shall miss him! STAY IN TOUCH ETHAN!!
Time to move on down the coast and revisit some more of our fave anchorages and explore some new ones ….
Its been a rollercoaster ride getting to the 1st of July, when we left the dock for the final time from our berth in Portishead and headed out through the lock. All the years of preparation, planning dreaming and scheming had come to this defining point in our lives.
Despite what anyone says, leaving is never easy. Yes, we have the excitement ahead of what’s to come, but we have had to say goodbye to so many family and friends, and its been tough! Of course this is not the end my friend, and we look forward to seeing many of you again in far flung and exotic places onboard azimuth.
Here’s some galleries of a few of the people we have seen over the last few weeks. Please send us any more pictures you want to share, and we will add them here
A few weeks ago, we had a farewell bash with Dom’s band Fat Digester at the Yard Party at the Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham where we caught up with some of our friends from West Bridgford. Here was Dom thinking this would be the first time he would actually see Fat Digester from in front of the stage! However, they dragged him on stage, and he has been buzzing for weeks after the chance to play with them again. Thanks guys!
Listen to Fat Digester Here (sorry for the plug!)
We celebrated the wedding of Ailsa’s cousin Laura to Ben at an amazing venue near Bolton Abbey. It was a fantastic weekend and a great chance to see the whole of Ailsa’s family. Many thanks to Laura for inviting us!
We celebrated Vinnies 18th birthday. Well done mate! He bought his first round of drinks and they didn’t even ID him. He was well annoyed!
Ailsa’s oldest friends from school came to visit Azimuth for a boozy night even though Ian was supposed to be “taking it easy”! Well done Ian for still managing to get your second black belt the next day!
Dom caught up with Matt & Martin for lunch and reminisced about the “Pink Palace” . They know what I mean!
We had a lovely weekend in Notts visiting family, went out for Sunday lunch and had afternoon tea at Dom’s parents, with enough cakes to sink a small battleship (or even Azimuth!). Thanks guys, we love you all!
That evening we caught some more West Bridgford friends and celebrated another 18th birthday … Well done Arthur!
… And in the last week before we left, we caught up with all our friends in the marina at the Plough in Portishead, where apparently they didn’t have any beer for sale? It was still a lovely evening!
Emotionally exhausted I think is the expression after so many goodbyes!
So finally, the day arrived and away we went. It was awesome to have all the family here and Ethan and Caleb are joining us for the trip to Ireland. Saying goodbye to Vinnie was the hardest of all the goodbyes … we love you mate. We tried to capture the moment on video and with a few pictures!
Stay in touch everyone, and come and visit us anytime!
The standing rigging on Azimuth was about 15 years old. This is all the stainless steel wires that hold the mast up and take the strain when she is sailing and heeled hard over. We always had it in the back of our minds that this rigging would probably be need to be replaced before we set off, but that always felt like a long way off and so we put it off! We started talking to boat insurers late last year (2021) about the boat and our planned passage across the Atlantic in 2022. It was a good job we did, as all of them pointed out that the standing rigging was now past its sell by date and needed to be replaced, and by the way they wouldn’t insure us until it was done. That kind of forced our hand then!
Getting the rigging changed is easy on a small boat. You just drop the mast, change the wires and off you go. This is not the case for Azimuth. She’s a big old girl, and the rigging is very heavy duty, some would say over engineered. But then, that’s a good thing right? … until you decide to get the rigging changed, then you realise the cost and the time its going to take!
There are quite a few companies that will change your standing for you. They are all congregated on the south coast of the UK. No good when you need your boat to live on and your son is at college in Bristol. Fortunately, there is a great rigger based in Cardiff Bay, about 20 miles from Portishead by sea, close enough for us to get to relatively easily to have the work done.
The whole process took about 6 weeks, and man it was hard work! My advise when buying a boat is never get one with a painted mast. It took me at least a month to patch the paint. Sanding, undercoat, primer and top coat. 6 coats in all on your hands and knees on a windswept crane dock…. hopefully never again!
I tried to capture the moments in video. This video shows we are no good at filming or editing! Sorry if it makes you feel a bit ill!
Ailsa and I were over the moon to be asked to go on a cruise from Portishead to Plymouth to help out our friends Harriet and Dom move their boat Budge to their new home to Kings Point marina in Plymouth.
The timing had to be right … any trip down the west coast of Cornwall can be tricky but to do it at the end of march?? Surely a little insane?! As it happens though the ideal weather forecast appeared with unseasonal warm and settled weather predicted for at least 6 days before the weather was to change to a howling gale. Just enough time for a leisurely cruise around Lands End?
We set off on the Friday with great frivolity. A mad dash to try and catch the lock at high tide, with all the last minute preparations and loading of supplies. It’s always a little stressful to leave Portishead, but all that was quickly forgotten as we got out in to a windless but sunny Bristol Channel. Everyone soon settled in to the trip and we headed for Dom & Harriet’s first night at anchor on Budge on the North coast of Devon at Porlock. No wind at all meant a comfortable night which was cold as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon, reminding us that this was still March.
The next day was a leisurely start to catch the tide out of the Bristol Channel, around the corner with a planned stop at Clovelly. Skipper Dom did his tidal planning well and we were blessed with a force 5 blow from the East and downwind surfing all the way out of the channel. Truly unheard of sailing in this part of the world!
The tide helped us too and we quickly sailed past Combe Martin and Illfracombe, around Morte point and down towards Clovelly where Our good friend Charlie had provided some useful information for the best place to anchor in this remote spot. Thankfully we arrived before dark, as none of us knew this anchorage. It was a little rolly, but the wind soon died away and the sea flattened out. Getting to shore proved to be a little tricky though. At low tide, all we were presented with was a steeply shelved rocky beach and no access to the inner harbour. We four intrepid sailors loaded ourselves in to Budge’s dinghy and skipper Dom rowed us to shore heading for a large concrete structure that looked like a likely landing place. It proved to be somewhat different, slippery as hell and in fact useless for access to the beach, so much to the amusement of anyone watching we fought our way up the rocky beach and tied the long painter to a large rock.
At Anchor in Clovelly
The next part of the battle to conquer Clovelly was the need to feed hungry sailors and Charlie had already determined that the pub at the bottom of the hill was not serving food that night, so we set off on the steep climb through the pretty town on the hope that the only other pub in town would be open and have a table. Charlie and Jen had agreed to drive down and meet us. So it was with relief that the friendly landlord went out of his way to sort us out with a table for 6 in what turned out to be our own private room for a delicious meal and a few local beers / gins. Highly recommended.
Leaving a boat in daylight is all well and good, but forgetting a torch as well as forgetting to put the anchor light on on Budge meant that on our return to the beach, we were met with pitch blackness and the trip back to the boat looked to be very difficult! Charlie ‘never without a torch’ Phillips came to the rescue again, producing a torch capable of lighting up the entire boat from a distance of 300m! The beer definitely helped the scramble back down the beach and the launch of the dinghy in fits of giggles from all involved and Charlie’s torch guided us back to Budge in style. Such was the power of the beam, we felt we were being pushed along by the photons! All arrived back at Budge without incident, well maybe some wet feet.
Another comfortable night at anchor, and we set off again for the trip down the coast to to Padstow. It was another sunny day and the sea state was flat with a gentle swell. It was a bonus to see a pod of dolphins.
Yet again we were blessed with ideal sailing conditions with 15 knots on the beam all the way down the coast. The wind picked up to force 5 as we approached the entrance to Padstow and skipper Dom expertly helmed us over the doom bar without breaking a sweat an hour after high tide. Time was pressing though and a call to Padstow Harbour Master confirmed fears that the inner harbour was about to close. Harriet and Ailsa had been promised the possibility of a shower …. a dangerous precedent had been set, and skipper Dom was not about to let them down, so he decided there was no way we were not getting in. Engine revs were set to max, forget the 5 knots speed limit, Dom helmed us through the narrow channel with skill and got us in to the inner harbour just in time before the gate was shut. A 180 degree spin later and we were moored up on the wall in front of an enormous crowd of onlookers. The shower was secured and Dom had saved the day!
Arrival in Padstow!
The town of Padstow (or should we call it Rick’s town?) was very accommodating. The showers were hot. Ricks fish and chips were palatable and filling. However, the supreme effort of getting here had caught up with the skipper, he hadn’t slept well on the trip so far, and the safety of the inner harbour led to his collapse in to bed and 14 hours of sleep. All that sea air is definitely good for the soul. Also, now we were in the harbour there was no way if getting out again until high tide at 3pm the next day. We were all pretty knackered, so enjoyed the break and took the chance to spend the next morning perusing the shops and enjoying a pasty for lunch.
No rest for the wicked. Tide and time wait for no one, so 10 minutes after the harbour master opened the gate, we were on our way following the inward track back over the doombar and out to sea on our way to St Ives. We wanted to get to arrive before dark but it was a tough call. No wind meant the motor all the way, and the tide was against us. The daylight eventually ran out and we edged in to the anchorage under darkness. Harriet was posted at the front of the boat with the torch checking for lobster pots. Last time we were in St Ives, Ailsa and I had had to weave in and out of them on our approach. As it turned out, this time there weren’t any, sorry Harriet!
We dropped the hook 200m off the pier and then realised that even though there was no wind, and virtually no swell all the way down, Sod’s law had decided that a really annoying swell was entering the anchorage from the North West and Budge was flopping from side to side. A decision had to be made…. stay here or press on round lands end in the dark. In the end, we decided to stay, but all experienced a rough night of rolling and listening to all the creeks and groans of Budge. You have it take the rough tank the smooth with sailing!
Bleary eyed the next morning, everyone eventually surfaced and off we set again to take on the challenge of rounding Lands End. Accompanied by more sunny weather but with an ominous mist hanging over the coast. The sea state was flat again though, and Budge motored round the coast as we waited for some expected wind to pick up. The conditions were perfect to go through the inside passage at Lands End, so skipper Dom took the helm from Fred (recently named autopilot) after the Brisons and took us through the gap between Longships and Lands End. The mist cleared and Harriet produced cold beers to help us celebrate the moment!
The plan was to make it all the way to Falmouth (another shower had been promised!) and having rounded Lands End, there was still a good distance to go across the bay and around the Lizard. We are still not sure what sacrifice Dom and Harriet must have made to the wind gods before we left, but it must have been considerable …. the wind picked up to Force 4/5 on the beam and pushed Budge onwards to her destination at a great speed.
Skipper concentrating hard on the sailing….
We entered Falmouth harbour at dusk just as the sun set below the horizon and pulled up to the dock at Pendennis Marina. A wonderful sail!
We woke the next day to a grey sky and cold. It looked like the spell of good weather was coming to an end? However, after leaving Falmouth, once again the skies cleared, the sea went glassy smooth, and Budge motored on towards Plymouth under blue skies. 6 hours later and Skipper Dom navigated us carefully in to Plymouth, dodging various fishing and pilot boats and large ferries all the way in to Kings Point Marina, their new home for the year. It’s not the easiest place to get in to as you have to navigate past a line of 72 foot multi million pound princess motor boats, but we pulled up at the dock (with a little help from Dom and Harriets new neighbours) and sat in the cockpit enjoying the moment with a cold beer.
Arrived in Plymouth!
All good things come to an end. It had been a wonderful trip, but there was just enough time to explore Plymouth and enjoy a farewell meal and beers before we had to leave the next day. A walk from the Marina past the Plymouth Hoe took us to the Barbican district where we ended up in the Dolphin pub and met an old friend from Portishead as well as met a new one, a local shipwright called Reece who regalled us with his sailing stories. Hunger finally forced us to seek out a curry house and we enjoyed some great food, slightly inebriated and bizarrely entertained by our persistent waiter Callum who proceeded to tell us his life story and philosophies whilst we pretended we were interested? It looks to us as though Plymouth will provide plenty of evening entertainment and interesting people for Dom and Harriet in the months to come as they settle in to their new home!
The evening descended in to Drunken banter as we discussed the possibility that Dom, if he gets too drunk, could maybe miss the entrance to his marina on the long walk home and possibly find himself in Roscoff the next morning courtesy of the ferry terminal right next door!
The next day, we eventually emerged from the cabins and all felt a little tired and emotional from the excesses of the previous evening. Big thanks to Charlie who had offered to pick us up and whisk us back to Portishead in his comfortable Jag! He saved the day as the prospect of several hours on trains and buses was not appealing!
We want to say a huge thank you to Dom and Harriet for taking us on this adventure and looking after us so well! We had a wonderful time, and felt like we were waited on hand and foot at Budge Hotel! Well done Dom and Harriet for all your efforts in getting Budge ready to go, and feel confident that you are great sailors and able to take on the challenges of sailing in the UK. We wish Dom and Harriet all the best in their new Marina and hope they really get to enjoy the new sailing opportunities the south coast has to offer. We would be jealous, except we are off to a better place too! Adios Portishead!
Sailing last summer was a wonderful experience! It is hard to describe what it feels like to have the freedom to roam wherever you want without time pressures and free from the other burdens of life. We think we did the Western Isles of Scotland and the West Coast of Ireland justice, and we gained a lot of sailing experience, as well as some of the skills required to live full time onboard a boat away from port. Read about our trip summer here
Azimuth is a great boat, but like every boat, stuff breaks! One of the purposes of taking a long cruise last summer was to test out some of the changes in equipment that we had already made in the previous two years. Similarly, we wanted to find any problems, so that we could fix these over the winter in time for us leaving this summer for blue waters.
Well, there was plenty of stuff that broke! These are some of the major things:
Gas Oven
An oven is something you hope you can rely on. Whilst we were in Scotland, the gas started to play up. Basically we would turn the gas on and light it to be presented with a flame thrower! The gas bottles on Azimuth sit in the anchor locker. This is a pretty inhospitable place, right at the front of the boat, continually soaked by seawater. It turns out that the regulator that sits on top of the gas bottle really does not like this salt water environment. Its been a constant source of problems over the years. This time though was a problem we had not seen before. The regulator basically stopped doing its job, and released the full pressure of the gas to the cooker. Hence the flame thrower effect! Even scarier was lighting the oven. It was a fateful day somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, that we decided having gas on board Azimuth was no longer for us. Ailsa had prepared a wonderful loaf of bread, and went to light the oven to bake it. The oven erupted in to a mass of flame. Shutting the door quickly, flames were shooting out of the sides of the oven door! Luckily we have a solenoid operated by a switch right next to the oven that disables the gas at the bottle, so turning that off saved the day, otherwise things might have got significantly worse.
So it would have been an easy fix to get the oven working again. Just replace the regulator…. We have tons of spares onboard, but the law seems to be that however many spares you have…. you never have the part you need. We hunted for a new regulator all the way down the West coast of Ireland. There was not a single red propane regulator for sale anywhere! Apparently covid had led to a general shortage of things like that. We had plenty of food onboard, but no way to cook it!
Microwave to the rescue. We had to get creative, and download lots of recipes for microwaves. Actually its surprising how much stuff you can cook in a microwave with a bit of experimentation. After a month though of reheating food in tins, its starts to wear a little thin.
The Solution?
We have decided having gas onboard is not for us. Despite the experience of nearly blowing ourselves up several times this summer, there are some other things about gas we don’t like. Gas is a fossil fuel, so we want to do our bit to reduce our environmental impact and stop using it. Getting gas bottles around the world is notoriously difficult. We have read plenty of forums and watched videos from other people sailing the world, and the difficulties that they have sourcing gas. All the fittings for bottles are different from continent to continent, never mind trying to find gas in remote places.
A year ago, we upgraded the electrics on Azimuth, and changed to Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. Life with Lithium batteries is sweet. We have solar and wind power onboard to charge the batteries, and we have enough renewable power to run pretty much all our fridges / freezer and other electronics onboard. We have also installed an inverter. This allows us to run our AC devices from the Lithium battery bank, such as the microwave, Ailsa’s hairdryer (very important, and this is how I justified the cost of the inverter!) and other stuff like laptops, kettle etc. Taking this one step further then, this winter we have removed the gas oven and replaced it with an electric induction hob, and mini electric oven mounted in a custom built housing.
New oven installedOld oven waiting to departOut with the old, in with the new…
So far we are pretty pleased with the new oven. It took some getting used to cooking on an induction hob. However the electric oven is a great success, and much better than the old gas one. Time will tell whether this is a practical alternative to gas onboard, we hope so!
Outboard Engine
We all take our cars for granted these days. Easy to jump in the car to do your shopping, or visit friends. Well having a decent dinghy and an outboard engine is the equivalent of your car when you live on a floating home. Never was this bought home to us than our trip last summer! We had invested in a brand new (to us anyway) dinghy bought from a friend in the marina. That was a vast improvement on our ageing inflatable dinghy. The new dinghy has an aluminium hull that makes it go through the water much better (and potentially faster) than the old one. That given, whilst we were enjoying the new dinghy, we were still stuck with our old 2.5 horse power Tohatsu two stroke outboard. A workhorse for sure that had been fairly reliable with a good deal of maintenance thrown in for good measure. However, 6 weeks in to the trip, and the old workhorse decided it had had enough and no amount of stripping down and rebuilding would coax it back to life! That made our lives a lot harder. Basically we had to row everywhere. Great for fitness, but several times we found ourselves stuck onboard looking at a beach, pub or shop in the far distance from an anchorage in the knowledge that it was too far to row, or the simply too difficult due to weather or tidal streams.
The solution?
Well its obvious isn’t it? Get a new better engine! A visit to the boat show in Southampton last September allowed us to do the research and identify the one we wanted, and we managed to secure the last one in the UK of our chosen one.
Looking forward to trying this out soon. Electric start and everything!
More to come …
This post is just a small flavour of what’s going on at the moment.
We wanted to say a huge thankyou to our friends Lynne and Geoff and particularly Lynne for her gift to us of a very special painting of Azimuth that she has given to us. We went to dinner at their house the other night for the “grand unveiling”!
We are thrilled with the picture. Lynne is a very talented artist and we think she has caught the essence of Azimuth in this scene inspired by the picture appearing of the front page of our website. The picture will have pride of place in the boat and we shall post another picture when it is hung.
Again, many thanks to Lynne for this special present!
Saturday 4th September, 2021, Kinsale to Dale, Milford Haven
We woke up with thick heads! Both feeling hung over and had not slept well. So we headed in to Kinsale to get some supplies for the trip back and then pulled up the hook after some lunch and with a heavy heart (and head) started the long trip back to Wales.
The winds weren’t ideal for the trip back, but now we had no choice if we were to make it back in time for Vinnie to start college. Sailing on a schedule never works! It was a good start though, as we sailed out of Kinsale Harbour doing 8 knots on a beam reach. The forecast for the wind was from the South East and was due to veer further South later. That never happened! We had to fight our way across the Irish Sea. The sea state was not too bad, but the wind angle meant we could do one tack all the way up the coast to almost 15 miles from Dunmore East on the South East corner of Ireland. Then the wind completely died.
We motored for 6 hours directly towards Milford Haven towards the Traffic Separation Zone just off the first of the Smalls. Now the wind picked up again and we tacked our way across the TSS. Finally after waiting almost 24 hours, that Southerly wind kicked in. The last 25 miles were bliss with 6-8 knots at 60 degrees apparent which whisked us right round St Anne’s Head and into the entrance to Milford Haven. We motored the last couple of miles in to Dale and dropped the hook with a big sigh of relief.
165 miles in total; 28 Hours of sailing, and the 8th crossing of the Irish Sea! Arrived Sunday 5th August @ 1700.
Back in the anchorage at Dale
Monday 6th September, 2021, Dale to Portishead.
No rest for the wicked as they say. There was still 90 miles to go to get back to Portishead. In the end it was very easy. The wind gods decided to take a couple of days off. We were sad to be leaving and entering the muddy waters of the Bristol Channel once more, but we were looking forward to being re-united with Vinnie again!
We motored the whole way to Combe Martin, taking advantage of the strong tides. We saw a huge pod of dolphins, which is rare to see in the Bristol Channel in our experience. The the dreaded fog descended and we had to very slowly edge in to Combe Martin Bay to drop the hook for a 6 hour rest whilst we waited for the next tide.
Off again at 0100 to catch the tide….
It was a beautiful starry night as we motored back up the channel. We could clearly see the milky way, Jupiter and Saturn. It was a quick motor back on the Bristol Channel super highway, averaging 9 knots and as the sun came up, we were on the last leg up to Portishead. Finally we arrived at 0700 with an easy lock in and tied up at our old berth…. like we had never left!!!???
It had been a long time coming! The lead up to to this trip had been a long slog. 28 years of working came to an end on Friday 20th June and finally retirement started. What did it feel like? Well it started with a 3 day hangover after a night out with my work collegues. Then it felt stressful as we did the final preparations and dropped off the kids at a dodgy looking Air BnB in Bristol. Final shopping and rushing around and then it comes time to leave.
We left Portishead at 1430 to find that the wind prediction was actually right for a change? Enjoyed the downhill tide past Barry, steaming along at 10 knots SOG. Made it across Swansea bay at 6-8 knots until the end of the tide and then the wind shifted more downwind and we slowed to between 3 & 5 knots SOG for several hours towards Worms Head.
The wind filled in again at 2 in the morning giving us a beam reach with 12-20 knot apparent, and 8-11 knots SOG. Shifted to a close hold with SOG 5-8 knots off Milford Haven until it turned in to a 25 knot headwind! Motored the last 2.5 miles in to Dale anchorage and arrived 0530. Right now after a few hours kip… retirement feels great!
