Friday 25 September 2009

Final leg, return to St Katherines Dock, London


Well the boat was lifted out of the water and took a couple of days to repair. We had to borrow the parts from another boat and somebody drove up with them all the way from Brixham. The boat was out of the water overnight so we had sleep on it when it was sitting on its keel, some 8 feet up in the air. See photos of boat being lifted.




Unfortunately the repair work meant we missed a couple of days sailing on the Rivers Orwell and Stour and a chance to practice our boat handling under sail and do some blind navigation (eg as though you were in fog). Nevertheless we were fortunate to get the boat fixed so quickly and not delay our return to London.


I was skipper taking the boat from Harwich to Queenborough on the River Medway where we picked up a buoy for the night. This navigation into the Thames Estuary approaches was fun, dodging in and out of the shoals and avoiding the large ships, using only compass and charts. Again the weather was perfect for sun bathing, but not sailing under sail - so we motored. When we arrived we opened a beer in celebration of having sailed around Great Britain (see photo below). Although we were not yet home in St Katherines Dock, we had so called "closed the circle" of sailing around Great Britain by sailing into the River Medway, where we moored at the start of our passage.





As I write we are motoring up the Thames, about 45 miles, to pick up a buoy by the lock gates to St Katherines Dock. The locks don't open until around 5:00pm, so we will have an hour or so to wait and enjoy the views, and no doubt reminisce about our trip.

A short while ago we passed underneath the QEII Bridge - the bridge was completely full of cars and lorries stationary in a long queue. This was a gentle reminder of London life - I have rarely been in a car, watched television, seen a queue, stayed more than a few days in one place, for three months.


Update 4:00pm




Well, as you can see from the above photo, we have arrived and are tied to the buoy by St Katherines Lock so all that remains is to motor into the lock, and I have been given the honour of taking the boat in this final few yards.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog, I have certainly enjoyed sailing around Great Britain - it has been everything I had hoped for, and more. I am very fortunate to be able to make such a trip, coastal Great Britain and Ireland have many wonderful places to visit, fascinating history and friendly people. By sailing you usually go right into the centre of the historic city or town as most were built up around their harbour. With my folding cycle and Rough Guide Travel Guides I made the most of each visit.

Finally, a sincere thank you also to all of you who contributed to my chosen charity, Link Ethiopia via JustGiving. If you haven't yet contributed but would like to, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/chrisveys

I have now both cycled from Lands End to John O'Groats (in my twenties) and with this trip sailed around Great Britain; all that remains is to walk across it (Wainwright's Way) - to do all three ie "cycle, sail and walk" is a bit of a personal goal for me! but please don't tell my close family !!
Regards,

Chris










Monday 21 September 2009

East Coast of England, to Harwich

So Chris, the skipper who we started with at the beginning of the trip is back on board and he has stepped up a few gears in the standard he expects from us as skippers and crew, but particularly when we skipper for the day. This is in preparation for my fellow crew planning to take the Yachtmaster exam after the trip, and in my case gaining the Coastal Skipper certificate.

To illustrate, he now turns the electronic chart navigation system off. The first time he did this was mid passage pretending it had broken down! but now we are not allowed to turn it on for the entire journey. So we have to navigate using the paper charts and compass, taking into accounts tide, leeway, depth and pilotage into ports - without the comfort of a GPS (like the car navigation systems - see picture below)

telling you where you are! We also have to do this at night, and last night was a good case in point sailing from Hull on a long passage, unfortunately under motor again, down to Harwich. There are several narrow passages between sandbanks and other hazards, and at times you are out of sight of land, for example across the Wash. Although I wasn't skipper on that passage, the skipper was on the other watch from me so when I was on watch I effectively had to navigate in the dark relying on lights from lighthouses and buoys. Each lighthouse or buoy has a particular light signal that helps you identify it, providing you know roughly where you are and can take a compass bearing. For example continuous white flashes means cardinal buoy that you have to pass to the North off, or you have green or red lights with particular flash patterns, eg 4 flashes every 20 seconds. Providing you have a plan and know the sequence of lights expected as you progress, it is not too difficult. I should however say we were in ideal visibility under motor on a flat sea - I dare not think how difficult it must be to navigate such a passage in challenging seas with poor visibility -or maybe you wouldn't, you would rely on electronic navigation tools instead!


The passages since Edinburgh have been to Eyemouth in Scotland, then to Newcastle with a lunch stop at anchor in Holy Island, then on to Whitby, then to Hull and finally a long full day / overnight trip to Harwich - see photo showing our early morning entrance into Harwich, passing the docks.
In Newcastle and Hull we had some time to explore and I was impressed with the regeneration that has gone on in - I can thoroughly recommend both as destinations for a weekend sightseeing visit - see picture of our boat moored in the harbour right in the centre of Hull and also a photo of our boat moored just down from the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle.
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When I was in Hull, I also cycled down to and across the Humber Bridge - an impressive sight. We also had an afternoon to explore the attractive harbour town of Whitby and treated ourselves to fish and chips - judging by the number of fish and chip shops in the town, a speciality of the town! See picture of narrow entrance to Whitby which I had to steer the boat through - entrance in to this harbour is impossible in a strong wind from the East, even in the slight swell we had on the day it was difficult keeping boat in a straight line!



I also fulfilled one of my ambitions of the trip, which was, much to the amusement and surprise of my fellow crew and skipper, to swim around the boat. I did this in nice sunny weather when the boat was at anchor off Holy Island, although had to swim hard in one direction as there was a tide. The only remaining ambition, apart of course from finishing the trip, is to get hoisted up the mast!!

Unfortunately we seem to be experiencing some trouble with the engine, or more precisely, the gear box. We have had this problem from near the start, but it has recently occurred more frequently and today when entering Shotley Marina in Harwich the failure occurred frequently. The issue is that the engine will not engage forward gear when you have been in reverse. Some manoeuvres require this, and if the wind is strong dangerous or potentially damaging situations to the boat or other boats can develop very quickly! I know our skipper Chris is now very concerned and mechanics have been called - but our concern is that the boat might need to be taken out of the water to be fixed as the gearbox cannot be worked on otherwise. Hopefully this doesn't interrupt the final few days of our journey now that we are so close to home.

As I write I am sitting on the back of the boat in Shotley Marina, Harwich. It is a pleasant evening and lots of other boats are returning from day sails in the area. When we arrived after the overnight sail from Hull we motored up river and picked up a buoy, then after catching some well earned sleep to mid morning, we sailed up the River Orwell to just short of the Orwell Bridge, then back to the marina at Shotley. The sailing was great. The plan for the next couple of days is the same, to sail in the area practicing sailing techniques such as pickup up buoys and refining our handling the boat under power coming alongside pontoons and so on. I really enjoy sailing the boat and am the first to insist the sails are put up in the slightest of winds - we really have motored too much across the top of the country and down the East Coast. Timetable, lack of wind or wind from the wrong direction has meant we have had to motor far too often.

Next time I post an update to the blog hopefully we will have arrived back in St Katherine's Dock, London .. plans are that we arrive on Friday when the lock gates open ... until then.






Monday 14 September 2009

North East Coast of Scotland, to Edinburgh

This section has taken us from Wick on the North East corner of Scotland down to Edinburgh, and as I write we are a day sail south of Edinburgh. From Wick we called in at the commercial fishing port of Peterhead, then the attractive small harbour of Stonehaven and the interesting town of Arbroath where Graham a fellow crew member was born too long ago to mention! Then we attempted and succeeded with an overnight anchorage in the Tay River outside Dundee, despite the strong current (the log on the boat recorded some 11 miles travelled overnight although we went nowhere as we were on anchor!).


Next we sailed up the Forth estuary into Port Edgar on the outskirts of Edinburgh, virtually underneath the road and railway bridges - a wonderful sight.



Lucy and Simon visited me for a weekend in Edinburgh. We had a great time, taking the bus tour of the city, a walking witches and ghosts tour late evening, supper at the cafe that J K Rowling visited frequently when writing Harry Potter, and much walking - including crashing out on the grass outside the new Scottish Parliament building for a snooze - the weather was so nice and with all the walking in the heat we were all exhausted. There is so much to Edinburgh - there are so many layers of fascinating facts and history to uncover - and it is so attractive, particularly given nice weather.



As for the sailing, unfortunately a bit too much motor sailing again as the winds continue to be in the wrong direction. For example when we sailed to Edinburgh up the Forth estuary the winds were from the West and therefore against us. This morning when we sailed back out the Forth Estuary the winds had changed to generally Easterly and were therefore against us again for much of the way. Anyway, we have done some sailing, including tacking (zig zag sailing up wind) up the Tay River in flat seas and a good breeze and sailing past Bass Rock on the way out of the Forth Estuary watching the 100,000 birds (we think the were gannets) covering the rock making it look white all over, as well as the distinctive smell when we were down wind and close in to the rock!




I thought it time to describe some of the more mundane housekeeping matters on the boat. With only three crew and one skipper on the boat we are all fortunate enough to have our own cabin - two up front and two aft. You can see my fantastic cabin in the photo.
We also have two heads (toilets!) with showers - although as yet I haven't used the shower (on the boat that is !!). The galley has a small oven and two ring cooker, a fridge and a freezer, which doesn't really freeze. The boat is very comfortable and spacious as boats go, and is designed to sail fast - it has a flat bottom at the front to create minimum wet area and we easily achieve 7 to 8 knots when sailing, even in light winds. However there is a downside to this design, because the front is so flat on the bottom, when sailing up wind, and especially when motoring, it bounces, or as they say in the trade, slams - very uncomfortable and tiring. We have a budget of £30 per person for food per week, do the shopping, and take it in turns to cook, wash etc. I have stuck with cooking four recipes, "Dad's pasta" as it is known at home (farfalle pasta with parma ham, parmesan, creme fraiche etc), spicy salmon with coriander mash, curry from a jar (surprisingly good with fresh meat) and sausages with savoury rice or mash. Many evenings finish with a visit to the local pub. Also I seem to have overcome my dislike of Whisky (see earlier blog) and the souvenir bottle is no more a souvenir - it is work in progress !!

I also think I have now found my sea legs - although being naturally cautious want to say I haven't really been tested out in tough sea conditions when down below. In all but rough conditions I seem to have no problem now staying below deck and doing chart work in cooking. Strangely I find if I look up to the sky I instantly lose my balance!! I have also learned to sleep in all conditions, day and night. At night the stretching or rubbing ropes, or fenders, or wind can make quite a racket, and the boat can move and rock quite a lot on the water - but nothing stops me from sleeping - not even the snoring of fellow crew .... !

So now we are a day into the final section of the trip - from Edinburgh down the east coast of Scotland, then the East Coast of England and up the Thames. Chris, the skipper who started with us on the first leg of the journey is now back with us, although he takes much more of a back seat as by now we should know what to do.

It is now well into September and distinctly colder, not just the fact that we are in Scotland. The evenings get dark much more quickly - 8pm this evening. This is when gales are much more likely although I think we have had more than our fair share of gale warnings already - and strangely enough the forecast at the moment is an unusually stable high pressure all over the area. Yes, we have also learned about weather systems on this Round Britain Experience .. so from one high up here in Scotland, I wish all the lows will stay away at least for the next two weeks ..unless of course they bring a nice Westerly wind to allow us fast and smooth sailing back to London. See you soon ....

Thursday 3 September 2009

Orkney Islands and Shetland

Currently I am in Wick having sailed overnight and non stop from the Shetland Islands, a journey of some 130 miles. We seem to be hampered by bad weather, or gale warnings. Anyway, I am really pleased we made it up to Lerwick on the Shetland Islands, this is higher than the 60 degree Latitude parallel - quite high for a small sailing boat.
Since my last blog, our passages have been:
-Kinlochbervie on the top North West corner of Scotand to Scrabster (the port for Thurso) on the top North East corner of Scotland. Scrabster is a commercial and fishing port and we had to moor against the wall which is not ideal as in some wind conditions you have to keep adjusting the ropes as the tide rises and falls. Also to get ashore you have to climb a steep slippery ladder and sometimes even pull the 13 ton boat in to the wall if the wind has blown the boat away. On top of all this we were next to the noisy Ice making plant (for the fishing boats)! See photos:


- Scrabster to Stromness on the main island of Orkney, Stromness is a most attractive harbouside town
- Stromness to Fair Isle, a small island in between Orkney and the Shetlands miles from any other island; I only had a few hours on Fair Isle but we were fortunate to have good weather so I cycled all over the island - spectacular remoteness and a bird sanctuary


- Fair Isle to Lerwick, the main town on the Shetlands, an unspoilt and it seemed to me prosperous harbour town

- Lerwick to Wick, on the top North East corner of Scotland

Apart from the odd passage, or section of passage, the saling has not been great as much of it has been motor sailing. This is because we have limited time to wait for the right weather window and wind direction, so sometimes have to motor against the wind to get to our destination quickly before bad weather sets in, for example last night when we are expecting gales and didn't want to be caught out miles from any safe haven on the long passage in open seas from the Shetlands.

So I am a little disappointed that we have not sailed more, but nevertheless have taken every opportunity to explore with my folding bike. I cycled to John O'Groats to have my photo taken under the same sign I stood under some 27 years ago when I cycled from Lands End. Actually I had to cycle the 20 miles from Thurso in two attempts, giving up after 12 miles the first time due to rain and worse still strong headwinds -a cyclists nightmare. I called in to a hotel exhausted, had a coffee and a beer, and the landlord kindly gave me a lift back to Thurso. The next day I caught the bus back to Mey where I had stopped, popped in to Castle Mey which was the Queen Mothers summer residence and had a personal tour of the castle as I was the only person on the 10:20am tour - most interesting!




We also now have a new skipper Aubrey who joined us in Scrabster. Like the others, he has extensive experience of sailing including in his case a large number of yacht and motor boat deliveries (eg new boats, or to / from the Mediteranean for owners who want their boat there for the summer) so seems to know everybody famous. He chats non stop and jumps from topic to topic - most tiring for me as you can probably imagine! Aubrey is not keen on the modern electronic chart navigation, which I am because I am not intending to take the Yachtmaster exam. I find the traditional chartwork is much more likely to make you sea sick as you have to spend significant time at the chart table in the cabin plotting "dead reckoning, estimated positions, depths, log of distance etc". Nowadays all this information is readily to hand or redundant as it is instantly available at the push of a button with an electronic chart plotter and GPS. Anyway, it is great to see the different approaches to being a skipper - so I am learning nevertheless.


We had a narrow escape in Stromness after an evening sail and arrival in the dark. As we arrived late we decided to pick up a buoy rather than go to the pontoon. This avoids paying pontoon fees and it is usually easier to pick up a buoy which requires only one or two mooring lines, rather than tie up to a pontoon which requires at least four lines and more work. We then planned to go on to the marina pontoon the next morning. Anyway, we tied up to a buoy which seemed to have lots of seaweed on and went to sleep. The next I knew our skipper was waking us up at 5am saying we had "dragged the buoy" so all on deck. Our boat had been blown right the way across the harbour, which was used by a large car ferry (!) about a hundred yards to the other side and we think the buoy then hit the bottom again and thankfully stopped before we went aground. We were very fortunate not to have been blown in a different direction hitting something or going aground, or into an even more dangerous situation ! Anyway, no harm done and lessons learned.
We are now on to the final East Coast passage of the trip on the way back to London. It continues to be a fantastic trip - I just wish the weather would stop interferring! Maybe we are in for an Indian summer .... I wish ..