Tzu's new Odyssey

I knew on Saturday evening that if I wanted to reach Porthmadog the following day I could do with an early start to make full use of the rising tide, although with a 10 hour journey ahead this would naturally entail pushing into an ebbing tide too. Tzu leaving Old Fishguard Harbour Anchorge   Geology dictates that you cannot use the full flow of tide out to sea to best advantage and duck into the coast where the tide flows slower as the Sarn Badrig juts out to sea for some miles thus meaning you need to pick which 'end' of this you go round and live with the tides you get given.   Sarn Badrig is the Welsh for "St Patricks Causeway" and presumably he used it to walk to Ireland.   I thought I was leaving early on Sunday morning at 5am but as I raised the anchor from the lovely anchorage at Old Fishguard Harbour I noticed that one of my seven neighbours from the previous night had already upped and gone.   I set a course to the Cardinal buoy marking the e...

 Some Wikipedia quotes - Jack Sound is a treacherous body of water about 80 metres wide between the island of Skomer and the Pembrokeshire mainland that contains numerous reefs and a tidal race of up to 6 knots.  It is used by boats to avoid a three mile detour around the island and has its share of sunken shipwrecks. Leaving Dale The Bitches are a tidal race and set of rocks between Ramsay Island and the Welsh coastline near St Davids.. and I have to read this sort of stuff before going to sea through Jack Sound, Ramsay Sound and past The Bitches However; I woke early while at the pontoon at Dale Anchorage probably as the last couple of days weather had set up a swell in Milford Haven Water and Tzu was snatching at her lines every time a wave came through.  The day started misty and cold but the sun came out as we left the anchorage at 11:30, an hour and half before local low tide.  It is important to get to Jack Sound at either slack low water or just before if go...

 So you last joined me after arriving cold, tired and slightly damp after crossing the Bristol Channel and dropping anchor at the Dale anchorage near Milford Haven.  What next? The port spreader is the where you fly the marine ensign or flag of the country you are visiting  As we are in Wales, Tzu is proudly wearing the Baner Cymru Having looked at the weather and tides for getting through Jack and Ramsay Sounds, more on those later, and being well on schedule for getting to Porthmadog I booked into the marina at Milford Haven.  The weather was also a bit grotty in the morning with plenty of rain and some strong winds First step for going to the marina was getting the anchor up which was no mean feat.  The wind was blowing strongly so it took some patience to dig the anchor out as the windlass would not be strong enough for that alone. You have to bring the chain in then wait for the boats buoyancy to lift the chain.  As the boat drops, wind in a little mor...

 The weather when we left Newlyn was poor visibility and some wind on the nose.  We left at 11:50 and by 14:45 we were off the Runnel Stone Cardinal buoy which marks one mile off the southern extremity of the Lands End peninsula otherwise known as Gwenap Head.  Longships Lighthouse and rocks We passed rocks and rock formations with evocative names like Longships (which has the lighthouse), The Armed Knight and Sharks Fin.  We also got to see the Lands End tourist bit and I wondered how many £10 signpost photographs we would be in the background of. As we'd left, as usual, at the appropriate time for the tidal conditions all was calm and a really nice trip.   At 16:25 we were still motor-sailing with the Genoa only, the wind behind us and only 94 miles left to travel.  Our realistic ETA into Milford Haven being around lunchtime the following day.   The Lands End Complex By 20:00 we were within about three miles, according to our AIS display, o...

 With a rather nice sunrise behind us as we left the pontoon at Fowey we headed off south down the Lizard Peninsula.  There was almost no wind as we left harbour, 'a little' for the middle third of the stretch down the east side and full on reefed sails, leaning boat, and for gods sake dont let go of that tiller stuff until the turn westwards.  As we turned downwind, giving Lizard Point a healthy respectful distance of about 3 miles, we reached the southern most point of our journey in a most undramatic wind from behind and rolling around manner.   Lizard Point, most Southerly point.  With pointy rocks It was then a straight downwind 15nm / 3hour slog into Newlyn across Mounts Bay.  Newlyn is primarily a harbour for fishing vessels but fortunatley accepts yachts, I say fortunately as the only local alternative is Falmouth.  And as Falmouth has tidal access then getting back out at the right time to round Lands End is not possible without anchorin...

After listening to the early forecast which said there were to be no gales, a smooth sea and light winds against us I slipped the lines 2 hours before HW in order to make Start Point at slack water.    Sunrise from Dartmouth before leaving Start Point is another of those notorious headlands that have horrible seas if you get there at the wrong time in the wrong weather.  As I'd again left at the recommended time and with the right forecast we arrived to a tranquil sea albeit with a few strange currents. Start Point  A very useful tool on the boat is the plotter,  a gps unit that shows me a chart of the area, where we are on the chart, our speed and our route.  I have my AIS equipped radio plugged into it too so I can see other vessels marked on the chart  that have an AIS transmitter.  I can then see what they are doing and even get an alert if the clever boxes see that their route is too close to mine . The plotter, just off Start Point, other ve...

We started out by unpicking a route out of Newtown Creek, Isle of Wight, at 2330 a couple of hours before high water in order to get to Hurst Point just before the tide turned.  This worked and I was glad I'd given it plenty of time so I could adjust to being in familiar waters but without daylight.   I was also glad that my exit strategy included noting the light signatures of all the buoys and marks down the Needles Channel along with where they were and when I should expect to see them.   It all went smoothly under motor in the benign but cold conditions and I even got some fore sail out as we left.    Leaving the Isle of Wight behind, with the sky full of stars, we were pushed along nicely by the ebbing tide and were off Portland and Weymouth when the sun rose to a sunny day that remained cold while at sea.  We followed a course that put us 8 miles from Portland as there is a tidal race there that can be deadly in the wrong conditions at the w...

  Just add water..   In order to start the journey Tzu needed putting back in the water and provisioning with what seemed a huge amount of shopping from Tesco.  So a thank you to Nick Kieffer the driver and Tim Robson at Marchwood Yacht Club for so ably depositing Tzu in the water along with four other boats.   It almost seems a shame that Tzu had no emergencies on May Day but I'm quite glad to have avoided that.   After waking up to the cruise ship Aurora almost quietly sneaking in to port just after dawn (appropriately, Aurora was the Roman goddess of the sunrise) the followng day I did a few tidying tasks and the shopping and we did a test sail down to Newtown Creek, down the Solent towards Yarmouth.  A rather beautiful place and one of the quietest places in the area to park a yacht. I've been doing a fair bit of planning for the first leg of our journey which will probably entail an'early o'clock' star...

Today was launch day and typically, the day after glorious sunshine in the sunny South, it started to drizzle just as we lined the rig up to lift Tzu. Today's journey totals about 60 metres I think including swapping moorings Google seems to be keeping a close and accurate eye on us.. . Stay tuned and come back later for the next exciting update