Confessions of a newbie dinghy cruiser..........

Confessional!


Dear blog readers – I have several confessions to make and some will surprise you and I’d like to apologise now. Please forgive me my sins for I have let down the dinghy cruising community. Confession 1 – I was sea sick 6 times on my first day of sailing to Salcombe; and I had only just cleared the Plymouth Breakwater. I am sooooo sorry! My humiliation is complete....I have nowhere to hide such shame!

I supposed to start at the beginning would be best.....so........

Day 1 August 11th 2010.......my first solo open coast voyage: destination Salcombe!

Firstly a quick summary of my intended route so that you can compare it with what actually happened on the Google GPS summary and my SPOT tracker page. (Go to this website page for the SPOT tracker details; see the Google map below for overall summary of route) http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0FlAQBV00qKabiiRj1PkYn3Um9x90T0yy
 (note that on the menu on the left – there are three pages and page three is day one! It works backwards!)

I departed on time from Duke Rock Buoy at the eastern end of the breakwater – 0830am. The weather forecast was for 10 – 15kt winds with gusts to 20kts – from the North West. General weather was to be sunny spells with good visibility and slight sea state.

Dukes Rock Buoy inside breakwater at eastern end

FOG! Loads of it – couldn’t make out the breakwater; visibility reduced to 200m; dead calm – virtually no wind! Ha! Good start – brushed up on my pilotage skills more rapidly than I thought.

Confession 2: I can read Lat and Long from a chart accurately but can’t enter waypoints into my GPS with accuracy – nope – managed to have ALL my waypoints wrong – clearly how I read Lat and Long and how I enter them on GPS is different – please don’t say anything – my humiliation is only just starting....I did warn you! Anyway I had a compass, an ordnance survey map and detailed charts – so it was back to grunt chart work on Arwen’s side thwarts.

It was high tide at 07.30 and so I was leaving the sound on an outgoing tide. The tidal stream along the coast was up to 11.00, in my favour tracking at 0.6 kts easterly as well. The distance I calculated on the chart was 20nm. My intended route summary was Gt. Mewstone rock (south west side); Stoke Point; mouth of the Erme and across to Burgh Island; from there across to Bolt Tail and along the cliffs to Bolt Head and into the harbour. You can see the intended track on this previous blog at http://arwensmeanderings.blogspot.com/2010/08/over-ambitiousor-cautiously-ambitious.html
I’d marked everything on a passage plan and on my chart – each leg had tidal direction, distances, timings, compass bearings – I like to be prepared – an old mountaineering leader’s habit! The wind coming from the North West should give me a sort of close reach along the coastline....or so I thought! As it happened the wind blew directly from the west and so it was virtually a downwind run all the way to Salcombe – wonderful!

I had several escape routes planned – into the yealm; into the shelter of the rocks at Mothercombe (more on that on day two); tuck in behind Burgh Island; and in desperate circumstances – soar mill cove – a dangerous manoeuvre only to be attempted in offshore northerly winds.

Got to sort out how Lat and Long is stored in this GPS unit!

So how did the day go?

I 'hurled' at 08.40am; and repeated then for an hour around the west side of the Great Mewstone – over both side decks of poor Arwen! The poor boat is now truly christened! You see there was no wind – and the boat just drifted aimlessly.....only there were huge troughs rolling in off the Atlantic from far off ocean storms – the troughs were 6 – 8’ deep and beam on......oh Lordy me did we roll! And roll! And Roll! Up came breakfast..........and note to myself – NEVER hurl over the windward side deck! Nough said on that topic! Then the fog cleared, as it does, the sun came out, the seas continued to roll in but the wind picked up and we started to make 3.5kts around the south of the Mewstone and I craved a double decker chocolate bar.....how weird is that.......violently ill one minute - eating chocolate the next! We passed the Mewstone at 0915.

The Great Mewstone island in Wembury Bay

Across Wembury bay we at times started to get 4.5kts – fun. Romping along we approached Gara point and the old abandoned coastguard cottage high on the cliff tops at just after 10.40. And then, wait for it, I saw my first gannet along this part of our coastline – it soared up high and then plummeted at missile velocities into the sea – it was awesome – what a fantastic bird and much bigger than I thought – graceful in the air- and up it popped with what looked like a large launce or garfish.....it is amazing how such a sight can cheer you up so much.

The Gannet - graceful and awesome diver - copyright David Tipling

Stoke point passed at 11.00 ish and we were 20 minutes ahead of my chart timings......at which point I decided to do something brave. I had originally intended to keep very close to the shoreline in case of accidents and so would head across to Burgh Island. Around me – a number of larger yachts were heading straight across Bigbury bay for Bolt Tail and so I decided to do the same.....it meant being 3 miles offshore but hey, the wind was behind me......we were going along at 4 kts or so; the waves were rolling in from behind and making us surf along ( more on that later) ...it would cut off a bit of distance...and so.......confession 3.......I changed my route and went off into the deep blue sea! Deviated off my passage plan route! We passed the Erme estuary entrance at 11.30; Burgh island passed by at 11.41; Reached Bolt head slightly ahead of time (at 12.48) and then went further out – about 1.5 miles....I was conscious of hidden ledges and reefs marked on the chart and didn’t want to come a cropper on those on my first outing! Having reached out to sea to get some speed; I then reached back in again towards the towering cliffs. We passed the Bolberry communication tower at 1318.

Bolt Tail with Bigbury Bay on the left and four miles of cliffs to Bolt Head

At this point I then discovered something else not thought about – no mobile phone reception. Although I have a SPOT tracker, which should send messages to my wife’s mobile phone it doesn’t.....don’t get me started on this one...but here in the UK, mobile networks like virgin and orange won’t recognise the signals from SPOT and won’t support turning them from emails into SMS texts...........I haven’t finished with them on this one yet believe me – but I arranged with a friend to keep an eye on my progress via tracker and I would send SMS updates from my mobile phone to my wife who was away at her Mother’s for a few days. Of course, with no regular hourly SMS messages – she began to worry.....so this is something we have to put right for next time. It takes a couple of hours to sail along Bolt Tail to Bolt head (reached at 1413) and by then, the tidal stream had reversed and I was facing a 0.8kt stream going west! At Salcombe harbour mouth – still no mobile phone and so I tacked across the bay and eventually got one message off...so she would be reassured and not reaching the phone for the coastguard! It was fun tacking around in the outer Salcombe estuary – the wind had risen force 4 and at times we were making over 5kts.

Burgh island with the famous art deco hotel

It also gave me time to listen in to channel 14 – the harbour master’s channel...for here comes another confession.....confession 4 – I have never used my VHF handheld radio – I have completed the course but never yet used it and actually I was unsure how to request a berth in a harbour........I know.......please, dear readers, don’t cry......I did warn you! So I listened to all these people calling up on channel 14....and I realised something......there are some really snooty overbearing and over-demanding sailors out there – they want this and that; they don’t want to be alongside X....I think the harbour team at Salcombe, although raking in the money, are really patient souls.....they have to be!

Dusk over Salcombe

Anyway, after playing in the estuary (around 15.00) – it was time to turn head to wind, furl all sails and take a deep breath and call up the HM......I followed protocol and got an immediate reply....mooring buoy 79 – a red plastic can just off ditchen beach on east Portlemouth side – oh joys of joys – what a fantastic location..........I love that part of the harbour – just out of the main fairway; wonderful beaches; able to look out over the town – wonderful!

I motored up the fairway, weaving between the Pico dinghies, the little hire boat dinghies and dories......and then suddenly realised something – like a bolt out of the blue.......confession 5 (I know you are now about to reach for the Kleenex - in tears of pity and horror!).....how on earth do you pick up a mooring.....I’ve never moored Arwen to anything; my level 2 RYA course only touched on it very briefly.........ouch! Yep, the mooring was in full gaze of the beachside public....all those families playing, all arrived on beach via little inflatable rib dinghies...all hardened sailing families – this was about to be SO publically humiliating. So I found mooring 79; took a run past it; idled the motor, watched which way the tide was running; tried to decide which was strongest wind or tide....and then realised it didn’t matter much as I was under motor not sail....and so into the tide won.....I idled up; came alongside it; grabbed it with the my mooring pole – slipped a pre-prepared (oh yes – I’m nothing if not professional!!!!!!!) mooring line through the eye and took it forward to the bow; Arwen obediently fell back gently – I tied off on the Samson post and hey presto – my first successful mooring – how chuffed was I? And no one took a blind bit of notice on the beach! Huh! (Time? 15.34!)Then paranoia set in – what if the mooring rope chafed on the metal eye? What If a drifted off – so I went back for’ard and secured another mooring line just for good luck – I mean what are the odds of two 10mm mooring lines chafing at the same time eh?

And so I had done it....my first solo voyage – a distance of around 24nm in total; I moored up around 15.30...so a total of 7 hrs and 6 lots of vomit.....this dinghy cruising lark is so much fun!

By 7pm I had cooked myself a meal on my trusted trangia stove and the little butane stove my mother-in-law gave as a Christmas pressie. Soup and crackers, followed by pasta shells in a sauce; and peaches for desert. Some nice Fox’s biscuits and a couple of hot chocolate drinks – wonderful! There is nothing quite like the hiss of camping stoves to tell a man he is truly alive! In the meantime I watched harbour life go by and wasn’t it wonderful.

Look what I moored up alongside - what a beauty!

The little green launch from ICC Salcombe, which only a few weeks ago ferried me back to the whitestrands pontoon each evening during our school sailing course, plied its way between the ferry and the pontoon; teenagers in dories weaved between expensive moored yachts – their laughter echoing over the water – girls wrapped in towels and boys in ‘T’ shirts. The warm, early evening sun reflected off rippled deep green waters; the chatter on channel 14 kept me amused with HM assigning berths and people requesting different things. People played on the beach 30 yards away on golden pristine sands; bright sun tents fluttered in the gentle evening breeze. A huge white 40’ motor cruiser acted as a wind break from the NW winds for Arwen. At 6pm the gig races started in the main fairway – several teams with a klaxon and a race director who was clearly getting frustrated that some gigs couldn’t hold their position at the start line! 8’ dinghy ribs weaved in and out – some looking precariously overloaded with people who didn’t have life jackets on – are people mad? Arwen would rock gently as their wake washed down her sides. At 20.00, the sun began to sink down behind the hill on which most of Salcombe town is found...it became cooler and so I rigged the tent......well that’s too generous a word of it – I rigged a rope between the two masts and slung a black tarpaulin over it – tied it off along the side decks and hey presto – nice and cosy with sea views at either end....what bliss! The beaches and East Portlemouth were bathed golden in the last of the dying sun’s rays; chatter on channel 14 was dying down; the irritating buzz of yacht tender dinghies fell away. Harbour master launches chugged up and down collecting mooring fees from huge yachts; the smell of beachside BBQ’s wafted over the water to Arwen. The giant Scots pines flanking the beach, fell silent as the breeze died......and tranquillity descended....just in time for my quick snack of crackers and hot chocolate drink....the warm hiss of my stove the only sound – perfect!

The other side of me!

I mused over whether bringing a piece of hose pipe to put over my mooring ropes might reduce chafing.....(still paranoid!); and then strains of trumpet rippled out across the water from one of the water edge bars in town......and boy was it good – old war time jazz numbers...smoochy stuff......lines of pretty coloured lights twinkled; the sounds of people’s laughter echoing across the water; one by one house lights switching on until Salcombe was bathed in a warm neon orange glow. That trumpet playing was wicked – nothing like live music in a waterside pub – wow! I was half tempted to gate crash by calling over the water taxi – but only half tempted...I was enjoying my first on board camping session on Arwen.

My mooring buoy

I laid out my down sleeping bag (made by Rab – 30 years old and absolutely fantastic – duck down and indestructible – it’s been everywhere with me – up Mt Blanc; up Kilimanjaro...across the Serengeti.....and up most mountains in Wales!) I tucked it into my gortex bivvy bag also 20 years old – one of the first generation of gortex bags and still going very strong. I haven’t made extension thwarts for Arwen – so it was laid along the side bench........I have learned to sleep in a very narrow space since being with my wife....who seems to sleep diagonally across a bed! At 22.00, the last revellers came back to East Portlemouth via yacht tenders...wrapped up against the chill...some bizarrely still eating ice creams...true holiday spirit I feel! The first twinkling star appeared in the sky; there was a sunset glow over the town......and finally by 23.00....Salcombe was asleep........the harbour crew did their last rounds.....checking moorings were secure; sorting out last minute problems on various rafts of boats; retrieving a Pico dinghy loose from its moorings.......and then I was asleep......must have been because I don’t remember anything after that!

East Portlemouth ferry steps

And so to statistics – total journey length was 20nm. Average speed was 3.1kts. Maximum speed was 5.2kts. Total travel time from start to finish – just about 8hrs. (My longest voyage to date was a round trip to the river yealm and back which was 13nm; and within the sound – 16nm – around the breakwater and over to Penlee point and back).

More about day 2 posted later this week...along with some short video films as well......remember forgive me my sins!

Steve