This has been a hard blog to write and I'm not entirely sure why, I worry too much, I am not a natural writer and the blog is a personal challenge for me so bear with me for this one.
We got away!!!
We broke things, suffered Mal de mer, realised some hard truths, ran aground even. Despite all that it was wonderful because we were together, enjoying something we all dream of and enjoying that time together on the water.
We started off in the second week of September heading towards Southampton up the English coast to ensure we would get to Andrea and David's wedding.
Our mooring dries and we need at least 4.5m of tide for us to escape so on the Thursday high tide was midday we carefully manouvered Janna out of her tight spot with lines and help from fellow sailors and we went over to Mayflower to finish prepping and so Mia could join in a Horizons sailing session, her last until the spring.
From Mayflower we picked up some friends from Kingsand and had a shakedown sail to Eddystone lighthouse. Before we could hoist the sail I was hoisted up to clear what ever was fouling the track (one of the screws for the track had hit and old screw and gone in wonky!). Sails up we left but the wind started to build and the sea state was moderate (to big ships, quite big to us little people) and although Janna was OK some of the crew were finding it difficult so we returned. On the return leg we noticed the alternator was giving out 16 amps, normal was 13.7 we treaded very carefully until we anchored in Cawsand bay for the night.
After disconnecting the alternator to avoid any damage we sailed off to Salcombe. We were hoping to anchor but unfortunately the holding wasn't great and our anchors just didn't bite. So we trundled up the river and found the visitor pontoons. Seeing as we were nice and secure Mike went about diagnosing and fixing the alternator which took him all day. We had beautiful views and the.children even spotted a heron with Mike on their evening row.
We left on the early tide out of Salcombe to cross Lyme Bay for Weymouth. It was an uneventful, quite nice sail. We had been planning on Portland but thought we might try the anchorage off of Weymouth beach, it was glorious. The following day we went for a swim, Mia free dived to the bottom at around 3m something she is very proud of. We went out for lunch and spent the afternoon on the beach. Note to any sailors, despite accessing the almanac and the shell channel pilot we were not aware that there is a local byelaw and no unguarded propellers are allowed to the beach!
That evening we left for Southampton, some tricky night navigation lights made us feel an AIS would be really valuable. We arrived safely in Southampton the next day where we were warmly welcomed by family and friends it was nice to be back.
We settled in, booked a hire car for the wedding (note to self avoid enterprise) and got on the bus to go and look round the Southampton Boat Show. It was about the same size this year. Our shopping list was limited, a handheld VHF radio and a offshore sailing coat for me. When I was looking for clothing for me (Hilary) two years ago woman only sailed as far as offshore they didn't do ocean races (now we all know that is rubbish) manufacturers offered nothing so I settled for a pair of Gill OS2 sallopettes. This year at the boat show both Gill and Henri Lloyd were well stocked for ladies ocean wear on almost every clothing stand. Come on Musto you are letting yourselves down! Well we got both, we went for an ICOM VHF unit and I got a Henri Lloyd clipper smock, people can laugh even harder now when I fall in!
Andrea and Dave's wedding was amazing, I have said it before and I will say it again, it is the love that the two people getting married share that makes the wedding amazing and it shone through so brightly, thank you for sharing your day with us.
An altenator to fix, restocking and a trip to Paultons park saw us end our stay in Southampton.
We left on the afternoon tide to pick up a buoy off of Yarmouth and then the early morning tide to Poole. Across Christchurch bay, we were graced with the presence of large Dolphins (phin phins) which I believe were Risso's Dolphins they are so special. The sail went well and it was an uneventful trip into the harbour where we refuelled and then hunkered down behind Brownsea Island. It was a truly magical place, we saw lots of red squirrels, deer, peacocks, chickens and hundreds of different types of mushrooms but we were brave enough to pick any. We spent two days exploring and then we mooched on the boat doing little jobs, playing board games, reading it was lovely. We watched the weather really carefully as the tail ends of the hurricanes were sweeping over. We thought we had a break to get to Alderney so we went to the marina for washing, shopping and lunch.
We put the children to bed and then off we went into the night. The winds that were meant to decrease stayed a fairly steady 25knots meaning an uncomfortable sail with moderate seas for 18 odd hours, we did however, manage to get 7.4knots of boat speed out of Janna until the sail ripped.
We arrived in Alderney on Imogen's birthday, putting decorations up and wrapping her present was not easy in big seas but hey another lesson learnt. We spent the afternoon in glorious sunshine on the beach and explored the island the following day. We walked to the other side of the island where we found the gannet colony, we explored the forts, saw the planes take off and land and visoted the museum. The next day we had to wait for the weather to calm and we were going to go for lunch. When we arrived the kitchen was closed. October it would appear most of the Island sinks into winter hours. So we had a bit of cake and walked back we found a nice dinner at the Divers Inn and then headed back to the boat. Alderney was lovely however the breakwater means we were held side on to the rolls that came in urghh it was not a restful place or easy to get in or out of the dinghy.
We set off the next morning to Tréguier, a well lit river in Brittany, we knew we would be arriving at night but our boat speed was lower than we had expected so we were going in on the last bit of a spring outbound tide, the tidal range is 12.5m and the rocks loomed over us in the dark. We had good paper charts and a new forward facing depth sounder! Both the old and the new sounders read 3m but we were very much wedged in soft mud just on the last corner!!!! We had about 1/2 hour of tide left to run, so on went the kettle, we had a hot chocolate to warm us up and got all the fenders and lines ready and soon we were being pushed up the river by the tide. We decided the waiting pontoon was a good option as we had crept up to the marina but couldn't clearly see any spaces and there were a few expensive boats.
In the morning as we untied to go into the marina the harbour master came out to us told us which berth and helped us with our lines a lovely warm welcome. While we were tying the boat up we were greeted by Daxon and Ronan from SV Zephyros two young boys who with their parents are just starting out on there adventure on a fabulous boat. The children had a great time playing together. It was a really interesting city with a gorgeous cathedral. The bakeries were delicious and the local dish was savoury pancakes (gallettes) and crêpes both were delicious.
Unfortunately, we only got one full night there Sunday afternoon we trundled off down the river to come back to Millbrook, Cornwall. The sail back was lovely 10-15 knots of breeze most of the time smooth or slight seas a stark contrast to our trip over to Alderney. It was a very pleasent end to the trip and made us feel as if we could keep going. We were graced with some more Dolphins on the way back and these were smaller we think they were common Dolphins. Just so elegant, they stayed with us for ages playing all around the boat. We made it back in 22 hours, refuelled and back to our berth took a little longer and I may have ended up with a black nose, no laughing (well not too hard).
Anxiety is rife during any long trip, we both stay in the cockpit with a makeshift bed in the bottom so.we can rest but be available instantly if required. Our list of repairs is longer and finances worse off. But we are better people with more resilience, more perspective and more experience.
Little by little we are getting there, all of the encouragement and kind words you lot find for us, carry us through those dark mal de mer moments. Thank you
Love to you all
From all the Pirates xxxxx
Ps I love reading your exploits and stories too keep posting to Facebook, commenting or writing :-)