Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Wednesday 6 August 2014

off up the Lynher

Departure has been bought forward due to the arrival of ex-hurricane 'Bertha' at the weekend. Tomorrow is light winds from the west - not ideal for sailing up a river that runs west to east! So I suspect some motoring will be unavoidable.  High tide at St Germans is around 1515 and I want to get there a couple of hours before so I can survey and find a good spot for a grounding. High tide Friday morning is around 0355am 4.60m and I want to make sure that I can ground where there will be sufficient tide to float me off Friday at daybreak around 0430!!  I don't want to be trying to move off under darkness at 0355 am!

I reckon that if I put out a stern anchor in deeper water to act as a kedge anchor if need be and I then tie warps together and run them around something so that I can retrieve them at high water without having to get out of the boat......then that will be the way. Alternatively, there may be a spare mooring I could pick up. We will see!

I have two potential spots - either St Germans as mentioned above; or heading up to Boating World up a neighbouring tributary. There I could tie up to a pontoon overnight. I know they wont mind if I pay the fee.

The third possibility is on the river beach on the inside of the Dandy Hole meander bend. if there is sufficient tide and beach to enable a reasonable departure into deeper water first thing on Friday morning, then I could sleep on the beach and light a very small camp fire as well. Now that would be nice.

Tides on Friday are 0355 4.60m and low tide is 1041 1.60m. Winds will be slightly stronger and from the north around to the east so behind me for some of the way and beam on as I sail back down the Tamar. Showers are predicted towards the late afternoon.  High tide will be 1630 4.90m so at least I wont have to wait around to get Arwen back on the trailer.

Here are the Passageweather.com charts







 
 
Arwen is now out on the road ready for an early departure. Everything is packed ready in the hall way. I just need to make packed lunches; load up final food and pack it all in the big dry bag. Then outboard is loaded; dry bags secured and we are ready to depart. I am to be away by 0630am; launched by 0745 and away by 0815 at latest. 
 
 

2 comments:

Bursledon Blogger said...

dried out at the top of Lynher while a blow comes through sounds like a good plan.

steve said...

Funny isn't it.....the winds failed to materialize for these two days. They were nice breezes but just didn't appear.

So far, Plymouth seems to be escaping the poor weather we are said is coming our way. It skirts to the north of Dartmoor each time!