Tzu's new Odyssey

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

  Welcome back to Tzu's Odyssey, a somewhat grandly titled page about an "average bloke with a boat", sailing an average boat, on what to some is an average journey.   The planning for the Odyssey continues..   Just some of the charts and books that I'll be using to plan the journey, not only in the comfort of my own home but also probably on quaysides and in pubs during stopovers and from the boat when plans change.   As well as the paper charts and pilot books I will also have electronic charts (Navionics) on my Ipad and phone as well as the fixed on board GPS plotter.  I need to give credit here to Mike who lent me most of these.  You might be surprised how much there is to see at sea with various lights, buoys and features on the shore, all of which are used to know where we are so can plan where we should be heading! Meet Dave.. Dave the Owl.  Dave the owl joined the crew last year as security manager to keep the seagulls away while I'm ...

  Welcome back to Tzu's Odyssey, a somewhat grandly titled page about an "average bloke with a boat", sailing an average boat, on what to some is an average journey.   The Odyssey..   So the route might look a little like the chart above, I know we are starting from Southampton and likely to spend a night in Yarmouth.  After that the only 'almost definite' stops will be at Newlyn (6) and Milford Haven (8) but who knows?  We are at the mercy of the sea and the weather.   The route on the chart is 433 nautical miles,  it will be interesting to see what the final mileage looks like.   Nautical miles are used to measure the distance traveled through the water.  A nautical mile is slightly longer than a mile on land, equaling 1.1508 land-measured (or statute) miles . The nautical mile is based on the Earth's longitude and latitude coordinates, with one nautical mile equaling one minute of latitude. so our planned journey is closer t...

  Welcome to Tzu's Odyssey, a somewhat grandly titled page about an "average bloke with a boat", sailing an average boat, on what to some is an average journey.   Lets start with Tzu..   Tzu is a 31' Westerly Longbow, made in 1973.  she has one mast, one keel and can accomodate 6 people apparently.   However she's set up so two of us, me and the admiral, who  can comfortably stay aboard for a week or two at a time.  Tzu has a 2 cylinder Volvo Penta diesel engine, some decent sails that are probably past their best and has always been a better sailor than I am! Tzu has been part of our life since late 2014 when we bought her and me and co-sailor Mike sailed her round from Hartlepool to Wales via the Forth & Clyde canal.  In 2017 I'd made the decision to change our sailing base from Porthmadog in North Wales to the Solent at Marchwood Yacht Club.  Although an expensive move as I got her trailered down, I've not regretted this...