Jonny and Kate's Sailing Adventures

We now have the Newt safely tied up in Fleetwood! 

Our delivery trip from the Hamble took place the week before the week after the Easter weekend. It was a great trip and we have now confirmed our love for Newtsville!

We arrived in Hamble on Friday evening and spent Saturday unloading the hire car, collecting the new SSB radio and the liferaft and stocking the boat up. We intended to head out early on Sunday and make for Weymouth, however we were blocked in our berth by a motorboat who wouldn't move until high water, so it was lunchtime by the time we had fuelled up and left the river. We had a great sail in lovely weather through the Solent and out past the Needles and across the bay into Poole (our reserve port of call given our late departure). We had fun in Poole with a cross-channel ferry, chain ferry and local water taxi's to contend with on our way into the harbour. The marina was quite small and very expensive, but we got in and out fine and had a good nights rest.

On Monday we set off for Dartmouth, a long sail and we left Poole early (6am) to make the most of the day. We sailed all the way past Portland Bill and were making good speed until the wind dropped around 8 miles west of Portland Bill and we were forced to motor the remaining 4 hours to Dartmouth. We arrived at dusk into Dartmouth entrance, but by the time we had navgated into the river and found our berth on the town quay it was well and truly dark (around 8pm). Entering in the dark wasn't too bad - although we probabaly should have chosen a quieter river for it for our first time! We moored on the ferry berth which is unused during the night, which was great as it fitted with our early sail the next day and meant we didn't have to pay mooring fees!

An early start for Falmouth saw another tired crew as we left port at 7:30am. We raced past Start Point at 8knots under full genoa and 2 reefs in the main with the wind a force 6 - 7 on our aft quarter. The waves were huge of the point, at times upto 3.5 metres, but the Newt coped with them really well, (so well that Kate and Roo slept in the cockpit through the worst of it!). We sailed all the way to Falmouth, arriving early evening at around 6pm, we even saw Dolphins on the way into the harbour!

We spent Wednesday relaxing and doing some jobs on the boat and had a wonder around Falmouth - it was nice to have a lie in and not be up to catch the tide and daylight for another long sail. Did some good jobs though; fitting the command mic for the VHF, topping up the batteries, cleaning all the gelcoat on the decks, filling the water tanks, and generally having a good clean and tidy.

Thursday morning was an early start - away by 5am to catch the tide around Land's End. Kate took the first watch starting at 6am once we were clear of the Falmouth entrance and took us around to Mount's Bay with the sunrise astern. We then took 4 hour watches between Kate and I with Roo (Kate's youngest brother who was with us) performing 4 hours of overlap (ie Kate 6am - 10am, Roo 8am - 12pm, Jonny 10am - 2pm, Kate 2pm - 6pm, Roo 4pm - 8pm, Jonny 6pm - 10pm etc). We motored all the way to Land's End in a dead calm, and saw a mirror like sea at Land's End (we were tempted to turn left and head off to warm climes, but we stuck to the plan and duely headed north for home). We continued to motor all the way due to lack of wind.

We had originally planned to head for Milford Haven, but we were making good time under engine, so decided to press on for Abersoch, and sailed around the Bishops and Clerks off St.David's head between 3am and 6am (narrowly avoiding a large French Ferry who didn't have any radar on and hadn't seen us until the coastguard leant his assistance!). We got the sails up around an hour out of Abersoch, and had a good sail for the last hour or so. We arrived in Abersoch on Friday at 4pm (35 hours after we left Falmouth), and found a mooring and headed to the yacht club bar were lots of friends and family were waiting with cool beers!

The weekend was spent entertaining people on board who were desperate to see the boat. We spent most of Saturday, Sunday and Monday anchored off the beach and at one point had 14 people on board! When Monday night came we were glad to be the 3 of us on board again and we slept on the moorings ready to head for Holyhead on Tuesday.

Tuesday proved another windlass day and we motored to Holyhead were we fuelled up and made plans for our final run for home. We could leave at 4:30am on Wednesday and make the tide to get into Fleetwood at 18:15, although it was the lowest tide of the year and we were concerned over depth in the channel. Never the less we set off on Wednesday morning and managed to find our way out of the mooring bouy ridden harbour of Holyhead and off we went. We rounded the Skerries rocks just as the sun was coming up and at 9am we were clear. I rang Fleetwood to confirm the opening times, only to hear that due to the high pressure (we know all about that - still motoring!!) the tides were lower than expected and they may not even the lock gates at all - and if they did it would only be for 15 mins! Arrghh - a quick decision and we decided to divert into Douglas on the Isle of Man and try the tides on Thursday which were still low but a foot higher than Wednesday.

The Isle of Man was great and we berthed on the Battery Pier in the outer harbour. The town is like stepping back in time and we did some provisioning for our final day before catching an early night. On Thursday we set off at 9am (just after the Sea Cat Ferry had left!) and headed East for Fleetwood. Again, no wind (good job we had the engine serviced and she runs well!), so we motored across towards Morecambe Bay. We backed the engine to almost tickover as we approached the bay as the 2.5 knot tide had us racing along far too quickly (even with the engine just idling ahead we were making over 6 knots!). On our approach to the main Lune channel into the bay the wind filled and we got just over an hour of good sailing past the wind farms and oil rigs upto the Fleetwood channel. We motored down the channel (again very slowly as we were around 30 mins before high water), and waited for some traffic to leave the marina before heading down the very shallow channel to the dock (we draw 6ft and at one point we only had 3 inches under the keel!). We tied up in the marina just after 7pm with parent's waiting to catch lines and take us for a meal after our trip!

All in all, we're amazed with the Newt, she handles so well and sails beautifully, never once feeling over pressed. Our shake down only revealed a couple of short comings (the fridge doesn't seem to get very cold, the domestic batteries don't charge from the engine, and the sink in the forward heads doesn't drain to the seacock, it drains to the bilge!) but apart from these everything went well (I have to confess one slight moment of panic off Holyhead when the autopilot seemingly went mad - we traced the cause to the nut holding the autopilot to the steering shaft coming off (which also mean the steering wheel came off!!), but it was all resolved in a few panicked minutes!).

The Route: (593 Miles)

Bring on the summer!

We set off from Fleetwood on Saturday afternoon on the high tide at 4pm. The weather had been bad all day, but we only had a light spattering of rain as we caught the ebb tide down the channel and past the gas rigs with the wind farm in the distance. Once clear we set a course for the Skerries off Anglesey and settled in for a night passage. We arrived at the Skerries at first light and after rounding Holyhead made a course for Bardsey.Once round Bardsey we had a good sail across to Abersoch, finally picking up a bouy on Sunday evening at around 6pm.

We expected to stay in Abersoch until Wed / Thurs but the weather set in on Wednesday for a few days and we had force 6 – 7 winds for the latter half of the week. The exposed moorings became untenable and Pwhelli marina was full, so we abandoned ship and stayed with Kate’s family in the village for a couple of nights (and took the opportunity to have a meal out with friends and sample a beverage or two!). During the week I had promised to do some sailing with Jonny in his RS400 – originally only a couple of days due to our schedule.

We spent Saturday doing some jobs (replacing the fuel pump which transfers fuel from the storage tank to the running tank – the handle for this broke on the way from Fleetwood) and fitting a new pump for the aft toilet. We also entertained friends and family on the boat. We spent Saturday night anchored off the yacht club (our first night at anchor – we slept like babies and didn’t move an inch!). Sunday was an early (5am) start to catch the tide through Bardsey. We hit 10.5 knots over the ground going through the sound and had a great close reach across to Arklow We arrived in a busy Arklow and rafted up on the visitors pontoon in the river. We had a couple of nights in Arklow, and then another early start on Tuesday to catch the flood tide up the coast to Dun Laoghaire. We had a great run up (no wind, but with the tide under us we covered the 36 miles in 4 hours!), and got a berth outside the very posh National Yacht Club. 

With a watertight boat now floating proudly in Glasson we set sail. First, another lock to contend with! Worryingly the lock keeper doesn’t have a radio, instead you leave your berth around 2 hours before HW and ‘hover’ near the lock until he sees you! Fortunately there was no wind, so we motored in circles quite happily for around 30 minutes until we could enter the lock. We had a little crowd to watch us down the lock, and then we were back at sea once again!

We motored down the channel in light winds and made our way down the Lune channel acrossMorecambe Bay. On route we got buzzed by 4 helicopters clearly doing some training in the area – they came very close:

The plan had been Howth or the Clyde depending on wind direction. Typically the wind was from the NE so bad for both!! Instead we close hauled and lay course for Holyhead with the target of Abersoch for the next morning. We were sailing in around 10 knots of wind making 6 knots close hauled, and I couldn’t resist playing, so on went the vane, out came the locking pins, and …. Wow – the Hydrovane works! It was so easy, literally get the boat sailing happily and then just let Henry (the Hydrovane!) steer the boat. He took us bang on course unsupervised for the next 7 hours until the wind dropped, swung on the nose and we resorted to the engine.

I left the deck at midnight for a change of watch, the tide was against us and speed over ground was down to 3 knots. We were off Anglesey. When I came back on watch 4 hours later Kate had got us round Anglesey, through the shipping lanes, past Holyhead and towards Bardsey, and we were rocketing along at 10 knots (I may stay in bed next time!). We passed through Bardsey like a mill pond and by 9am we were tied up to a mooring in Abersoch.

Abersoch was very quite, only 2 other boats on the moorings, we went ashore for a quick wonder around and lunch before an afternoon of sleep for everyone except me, who started on some jobs (clean out oil from under the engine – oil leak apparently not fixed, fit new pump to front toilet, re-attach shaft grounding wires, clean out all bilges, strip down Webasto exhaust system, and hunt for the oil leak on the engine!). Anyway, Abersoch was very pretty in the sunshine and Newt looked amazing:

Next morning we awoke early to set off for Ireland – not sure Roo is used to all these early mornings! We headed through Bardsey and then turned to get some wind to sail. We decided Dun Laoghaire was the best destination and set sail. The wind was very flukey and after an hour put the engine back on. A couple of hours later the wind filled and backed, so up went the sails, on went Henry and Ireland appeared on the horizon.

About 2 hours out we hit some squalls, sunny force 3 to rainy force 6-7 in 15 minutes (just long enough to pull a couple of reefs in). We arrived in Dun Laoghaire looking like drown rats in full wet weather gear just as the sun came out – we did look a little silly!

The next day we went into Dublin for some culture and a day out, and then set to work on some jobs the day after. I finally tracked down the oil leak which was a pipe coming out of the top of the sump designed to drain oil through (unfortunately it was inaccessible and therefore not much use) – there was a crack in it which was the cause! We got the log working again by tweaking the transducer.

Sunday dawned to more sunny weather (is this really Ireland in April?) and we set off for a short hop to Howth. The wind was on the nose but with nice weather and plenty of time we beat past the headland before bearing off before Island’s Eye and into Howth. We had good speed and at one point were matching a fully crewed 34 foot racing boat for speed and direction. The crew brushed up their tacking skills, and by the time we reached Howth the genoa was coming in much quicker (damn that competitive racing side of me!).

We spent a nice day in Howth, eating Ice Cream from our favourite shop and relaxing on deck:

(Note - the new 'team shirts'!!)

The next morning we got up early to make the tide to Carlingford. All ready to go and we started the engine – it turned over but wouldn’t fire! We tried everything (fuel filter, enough oil, cleaned the water filter, checked battery voltage and all electrical connections – nothing worked). We gave up on Carlingford and went to find an engineer. Just before he arrived I wondered past the helm and noticed the stop lever still pulled out!! Red faced (and with a confession from one of the crew members) we spent the rest of the day in Howth. While the engineer was around we tackled the oil leak – removed the offending pipe and put a bolt in the hole. Bought some new fenders at the chandlers, and also got the new mast head unit for the wind fitted (for the first time ever we had fully working instruments!).

We set off on Tuesday for the Isle of Man. We didn’t have enough time to get to Carlingford and still be back in Fleetwood on Thursday (Alan was coming on Friday to help fit some new shelves). We had a good sail away from Ireland and did 9 hours with just Henry steering. Then the wind dropped and we needed to pick up the pace to get the best tide past the southern tip of the IoM. We motored for around an hour and I decided to check the oil leak – nightmare, 3 litres of oil under the engine. I topped the oil back up and we motored on toward Douglas.

Douglas was … interesting! They had removed the pontoon from the outerwall so we had to tie up directly to the wall – thank god for those new fenders! After tea I set to work stripping down the engine again. I found the problem – the bolt we had put in was too long and was sticking out ¼ inch. This meant the oil was coming up the bolt threads. I removed the bolt, cut it down and put it back in place with plenty of PTFE tape and some sealant. However, we needed more oil and some proper sealant – that would have to wait until morning. We had an awful night – the wind kept shifting and blowing the boat around and we spent most of the night adjusting lines to keep her lying nicely against the wall. Urgggh!

We needed to leave Douglas at 10:30am to make the tide into Fleetwood – at 9am Roo and I were stood outside the chandlers waiting for them to open. We got the oil and then off to a plumbers merchant for some high temperature sealant. Back to the boat and the engine was re-assembled. The oil went in at 10:20 and we cast off at 10:30 – cutting it fine!

We left Douglas in rough seas due to wind over tide and the wind was bang on the nose! Nevermind, a good test for the engine! The seas flattened off as we got into the Irish Sea more and we motored on with the wind bang on the nose. About 4 hours out of Fleetwood the wind picked up to around 18 knots and as the tide turned we got some chop on the sea. Thirty minutes later and we had 38 knots of wind and seas of around 3 metres or more. We had waves breaking over the boat and foaming white water rushing down the decks! With no real option but to press on (Douglas would be horrid in those Easterlies) we pushed the engine hard to power us through and prepared for a soaking! The engine was giving us 7 knots in between waves and 2.5 knots when we hit a wave. The motion was horrid and the wind was howling. We eventually battled through and got into Fleetwood just as the sun set. A tricky berth as 38 knots of wind was blowing us off, but we got in, tied up, mopped up (we found a leak on the deck – but we know where it is now – the water was so bad that it was being forced through a minute gap in the hatch as the 3 inch water channels couldn’t cope with the water being forced under the sprayhood!).  The boat certainly coped better than we did!!

We spent Thursday cleaning and tidying, and Alan came on Friday to help us cut some shelves for the saloon. We had a great shakedown and everything worked well. The batteries were awesome, with the wind genny and solar panel we never had less than 12.7 volts despite running the new fridge (also excellent!) 24/7.

Total trip 363 miles