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
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.
dried out at the top of Lynher while a blow comes through sounds like a good plan.
ReplyDeleteFunny isn't it.....the winds failed to materialize for these two days. They were nice breezes but just didn't appear.
ReplyDeleteSo 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!