2007 Cruising Reports & Logs
C.C.C & P.Y.C CRUISING SECTION 2007
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Plym Yacht Club Easter Cruise
Ok, so the River Yealm, Dandy Hole and the Torpoint Mosquito Sailing Club aren’t as adventurous as the places visited by the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, neither is there a need to round the Horn, be on the lookout for pirates or maintain constant touch with a shore base by Iridium phone. Going to these places over the Easter Weekend was fun though and, of prime concern to all serious cruisers, the beer was good!
Eleven boats braved the hot sun and gusts of up to ten knots to spend the night of Good Friday at the Yealm Yacht Club. Less intrepid members arrived by car and 24 of us helped raise the bar takings! Rafting up at the visitors pontoon in “The Pool” meant a flotilla of dinghies chugging up to YYC and, more erratically, back again in the dark. Nobody has reported in as missing so I guess all survived!
Only a couple of boats made the Dandy Hole barbeque on the Saturday. As it turned out, those who didn’t were wise! A couple of us ventured ashore in the dinghy, lighting the barbeque just in time for darkness to fall. If any of you have ever tried to BBQ in the dark you will understand that glowing charcoal underneath the sausages, chops and burgers does nothing to illuminate the food, or indicate when its ready to eat. Not wishing to risk salmonella, we drank a couple of beers, washed down by a couple more and, on the third liquid course someone wondered if the solid food might be ready. Ready is, in this instance, an understatement of monumental proportions! We dined on sausage crisps, pork crisps and had fun with burger frisbies! According to those who were up early on the Sunday morning, the food we left on the beach for the birds was munched (crunched?) by a deer just after dawn. I thought deer were vegetarian but I guess they like charcoal too!
Several boats and seventeen people made it to the Torpoint Mosquito Sailing Club for the Sunday. On the way up the Hamoaze we took on Roger and Celia in “Paloma”, our Rival coming a close second on arrival off the Ballast Pond. The ability to sail well, fast and point is one thing but, according to new rules devised by me, no race is over until the first boat picks up a buoy! Celia did a grand job manouvering Paloma up to the buoy, improving with practice every time she did it. Roger, meanwhile, ably proved that he is no cowboy – in fact lasso, buoy and Roger should not be used in the same sentence (unless the word “missed” is added).
The TMSC did us proud with a great welcome from one of their committee members and an excellent meal in their restaurant. Over the course of the meal, Roger grasciously accepted the award for “Dork of the Day”, for which he will soon receive the coveted yellow T shirt – but beware, he will be awarding it to the next DoTD at the Easter Salcombe Cruise! If the weather is half as good as it was for Easter, we should have a great time – please let me know if you want to join us.
Finally, apologies for the poor quality of the pictures – down to my poor photography, not the camera. Apologies also for those missed out in the pictures – we will get you next time! Dave Andrews
Pictures in the Picture Gallery
A tale of a cruise of three men in the West Country last year. It was accompanied with pictures but I can’t get them on at the moment so you will have put up with what is presented until someone else’s log appears. We have had a summer “Three Men in a Boat” cruise for the last five years but I haven’t managed to print them yet. So watch out.Mick.
THREE MEN IN A BOAT 2006
21/6/06
We loaded up and left mooring about quarter past twelve and motored up to Yacht Haven fuel bunker and topped up with the diesel and water and set off from there just after one o'clock. We motored across the Sound. John made some cheese and tomato sandwiches which we ate. Having nourished ourselves we set sail, two reefs in the main and number three genoa, The wind was westerly approximately force five. We had a hard beat to Fowey. We averaged over five knots. The sea was a little lumpy and a few white horses The sky was mostly overcast with the odd sunny spots. Luckily it didn't rain but it looked very close sometimes. We arrived at Fowey about half nine. John made cup of soup and started on his chilli which went down well. We finished our meal with Pauline's apple and rhubarb crumble with custard, all washed down with the some red wine. We then settled down, Alan his usual bunk, me in forecabin, and John in Pete's usual place.
Forty-
22/6/06
We aroused about 9.15. Alan and John made tea and coffee. Alan cooked a breakfast of egg, sausage, bacon and toast preceded by cornflakes. We got the inflatable out and pumped up, and put the outboard on. Pauline rang and arranged meet on the town pontoon with my missing pills at half past twelve. We were to go in the inflatable but decided to take Khadine instead is there was plenty of space on our pontoon. We left the inflatable on the pontoon tied to a cleat on the pontoon next to another boat who had gone out in their own dinghy. We met Pauline at the jetty, she and I went for a tea and coffee at the Toll Bar. Alan got some pasties and apple turnovers for lunch and we sat taking the air and the ambience. We eventually saw our pontoon was filling up so we upped and all made tracks for the pontoon and our dinghy. Luckily one hole was left which we duly took. We did various jobs on and in the boat, Alan fixed the front fairleads,I measured out new spinnaker halyards ( still got it wrong ) and replaced the main sheet with the new rope, may be still be the wrong diameter. Alan cooked the evening meal, macaroni cheese except it was not macaroni but spaghetti.The weather was good with lots of sunny periods that the window was westerly three and had a bit of an edge to it. Turned in about tennish. We got caught by the harbourmaster and cost us £12.50 for the night.
23/6/06
We were woken by the boat bumping against something. The aft warp had come loose and the bow was banging the pontoon. You just can't get the staff these days. We sorted it out and stayed up for morning tea etc. Alan started breakfast as we cast off and went to the town quay to top our water. We had breakfast there. John and I went shopping for more victuals. We left the pontoon at 10.30 and set off for Helford. The wind was very light southerly so we motorsailed across Austell Bay to Dodmans point. The sea was very calm and we had many sunny spells out although the wind picked up a bit later and we sailed to St Anthony's at about 5 knots. The winds was West South West about two to three going across Falmouth Bay and that the wind dropped and it gradually clouded over. We each motorsailed into the River Helford and moored up in the pool about four o'clock. We got ourselves settled and had a cup of tea. We had supper about 8 o'clock. Supper was steak pie, vegetables followed by fruit salad and evaporated milk. The other two had bananas with a fruit salad. It had got cooler so we ate inside. We played CDs most evening whilst reading. We retired just after ten to Alan's" goodnight John boy" etc. routine. Thought he'd got over it by now. Somebody with bag pipes was playing on the shore somewhere, and it sounded quite good, otherwise all was very calm and quiet.
24/6/06
We all decided for shower etc. that the sailing club. Unfortunately it was not open, though usually it is, although the garage store was wide open. Eventually a committee member came and let us in. They always have nice showers here and you get eight minutes for one pound. Plenty enough time to have a good wash and a soak. We returned to the boat and had a cooked breakfast courtesy of John. Eventually after breakfast John and I took the tender to get rid of the rubbish and get some more vituals and water. We had a look at the beach by the pub to land but it was too seaweedy etc., so we went back to the point pontoon and walked up to the Post Office for the victuals and then tendered across to the sailing club pontoon for water and waste disposal. There's no a longer skip in our pub car park and the club skip has been moved into the main car park with all the variations, that being the only place for waste now. Alan had been busy doing the housekeeping, having cleaned the heads and surrounds and had even screwed the starboard berth leeboard back, and made lunchtime sandwiches. We spent the afternoon lolling about on the boat, we had Pauline's chicken stew for evening meal, and retired early to bed. John was fast asleep in the cockpit when Alan and I retired to bed .
25/06/06
We rose about 8.30 and the river was shrouded in mist. John went across to the Helford
Yacht Club. I cooked our usual breakfast. At 12 ish we all went ashore in the inflatable
with our waste bags. Alan and I went up to the Post Office to buy some more victuals
and continued on to the sailing club. John took the dinghy round to the club pontoon
as we wanted to fill the water container up again. Whilst we were then we decided
to have a jar in the bar. We were too late (apparently) at two o'clock for any snack
or lunch. They had several barrels of real ales, but they weren't very organised
and gave appearance all not being switched on for steward ships. They were youngish
girls . We weren't impressed so we took the water and the stores back to the boat
and went on to the Helford passage. They also had ceased to do food at three o'clock
so we had another beer and they had a very large TV screen so we stayed for the England/Ecuador
match. Not a very impressive game. At the end of the game we returned to the boat.
Alan and John got the tender aboard, cleaned the sand out whilst I cooked Paulines'
curry, followed by fruit salad. John washed up whilst Alan put the tender away. The
weather was quite good but almost rained mid-
26/06/06
We rose again about 8.30. Alan received a text message from Kay. We got dressed and left the mooring about 9.45. We needed to catch the tide at Penzance. There was hardly any wind and variable as well. The weather was little cool and cloudy but fair. We had to motor as the wind was almost as zilch, and absolutely nothing at other times. We rounded the Lizard at the entrance to Mount Bay we saw some sharks!! In actual fact all we saw was their fins and tails couple of times as they dived and they were only basking sharks. Tide was with us and we achieved eight knots over the ground very occasionally. We reduce speed in Mount Bay to 4.5 to 5 knot as we were well ahead of schedule. The weather was still variable, sometimes warm, sometimes appreciably colder. As we were so ahead of time we went to St Michael's Mount and went round the west side and almost into the harbour but we were running out of water so we decided enough was enough and went We then went to Mousehole and went round the island outside the harbour and then went on to Penzance. We calculated the lock gates should open at 4.15 which they did that but they wouldn't let us in as the Scillies victualling ship had to come out but they had to move a sail training ship in the harbour first. Later we found out that the crew was reputed to have gone to watch football in the pub as Australia were playing in the World Cup and wouldn't come back until it had finished. We were nearly swamped by an old lifeboat which came out of the harbour at a tremendous speed and created a huge wash and came back fairly shortly afterwards. Thus we milled for a while around outside the harbour and eventually went back on to the waiting buoy. All the time the skies were getting darker and darker and St Michael's Mount disappeared from view and the rains came in torrents. By this time they were about four British boats and about six French, German and Dutch boats waiting to go in. One of the British boats Seaxe radioed the harbourmaster and found he had forgotten us so we were last allowed to go in, although the French and Germans pushed, in front. We had been waiting for over 21/2 hours to get in. Not pleased. We moored up in the basin. We were rafted fifth boat out and concocted an evening meal. But we were a bit limited by now but we scraped enough together to get a half decent meal. We had stayed aboard listening to radio Cornwall. It was still raining hard and we went to bed about 10.15. The cost of mooring was £14 per night but you could have three nights for two.
27/6/06
Roused early as Seaxe wanted to catch the early morning gate opening but he managed to slip out without all of us releasing our mooring ropes. We had a chat with a German couple on the boat inside us. We filled up with water. After breakfast we made a shopping list as we were very low on vituals and eventually we set out for the shops with the map of the town from the previous visit. We went to Iceland and bought so much we had to borrow the trolley to get it all back to the boat. Alan also needed to go to the launderette so he took the trolley back with him to collect his washing. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent chattering with the Germans until they had to make ready to go. We helped arrange the ropes and they slipped out. During the afternoon Alan spotted a seal happily swimming grip in the basin. By tried to take some photos of the same but not terribly good as he/she kept diving under the water. We didn't know whether he/she left on that tide. Two more boat moored outside us but it was no problem as they are also going on the morning gate opening. John cooked a Lloyd Grossman satir chicken the evening meal for. Not bad at all and we finished off with a fruit salad. John fell asleep about nine o'clock in Alans' bunk, a bit early for Alan and I so we sat outside in the cockpit and chattered..
28/6/06
We roused early again and left Penzance just after eight o'clock. Virtually no wind so we motored to the Lizard. Sharks!! Just before St Michael's Mount there were about three. We milled about to get some pictures of them but not very successful, We saw some more later in the Bay. The weather was a bit cloudy and cool but warmed up later. The cloud was over the land and the sun came out that the wind hardly appeared. The whole trip was spent motoring. It got very hot in the sun. We motored up the Carrick Roads, up the Fal end up the River Truro to Malpas. The visitors buoy was occupied so we came down the river to the first pontoon and arrived there about 4:30 pm.. We inflated the dinghy and went to the Heron for an evening meal for a change. We sat out with a beer looking down the river and watching their herons nesting in the trees on the opposite bank. We came back to the boat about 8:30 pm. John took the helm in the inflatable from the pub. He started the motor in reverse position, it cocked in the air and we backed off in a flurry of spray but managed to stay upright and motored back to the boat. We sat in the cockpit and listen to the radio and read.
29/6/06
We had a lay in, and eventually a cooked breakfast. We moved the boat up to the visitors buoy off. Malpas. The it is the only buoy that is available for visitors, hence it is always in demand and rarely free but we were lucky. Alan went ashore for a shower and to investigate whether any gas was available. The cloud broke up and we had lots of
hot sun. Alan came back later and we had a salad dinner. After lunch I went ashore for the gas and had a shower. I went to the Post Office for milk and saw some nice looking strawberries, but I thought John didn't like them: wrong. John then went across and came back with some and clotted cream and some booze. We had a quiet day but it was very warm and sunny. I went to go upstream in the inflatable but got stuck the mud bank, set off far too early.
30/6/06
We had a leisurely arousal ( not what you're thinking ). The weather was good again. Alan and John went ashore for shower and I prepared breakfast of scrambled eggs. We were visited by the harbourmasters man who had a long chat partially about the royal family. We eventually set off, the wind was about force 2 down the river. We set sail after Turnaver point, making about 41/2 knots and sailed down the Carrick Roads and off towards Fowey. The wind was southerly and we made slow but steady progress. We were overtaken at Dodmans Point by another Ballad, "Balu". We tried to match them but never achieved it, although we kept in touch, just. When we got fairly close to Fowey we packed in and started the engine and motored into Fowey and moored on the town pontoon. We went to Sam's Other Place for our evening meal. I had oysters for the first time, they were very good and have my seal of approval. When we finished we motored across the river and moored on Pont Pill pontoon. The other pontoon looked like an old lifeboat convention. A notice on the pontoons said the town pontoon was to be taken over tomorrow.
1/7/06
Up at about 8 o'clock, and we had breakfast. We left the pontoon about 11 o'clock.
The wind was very light, but not enough to sail by so we motored. There was a boat
load of women fishing in the middle of the river opposite the castles, a bit risky.
We motored out and didn't bother even getting the sails out to motor-
This year's catch phrase "It's on the boat somewhere"
The End.
The good Ship Khadine
Plym Yacht Club Salcombe Cruise – May Bank Holiday
What can I say about the May Bank Holiday Cruise? Well, six boats sailed up to Salcombe on the Saturday, in light winds and sunshine, some of us occasionally experiencing the thrill of making almost four knots! Six more boats (very wisely as it turned out) left it to the Sunday before making their decision not to come!
As I write this, sitting in my nice warm office, tea in hand and the gas fire toasting my feet, five of the six boats are still in Salcombe! More of this later.
Eight of us had supper on Rick and Carol’s Moody 35 “Port Star” on the Saturday night – proving that Moody’s really are the best for accommodation (and large saloon tables). My wife, Alex, provided the starters of asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon, chicken wings and bean salad. Corrine Horrel provided one of the main courses, chicken curry, and Rick produced alternative mains of chicken wrapped in bacon with a cheese topping. Alex produced the Tiramisus (spelt wrong, I am sure) dessert and Graeme provided the cheese and biscuits (bankrupting himself in the process as he bought the cheese in Salcombe!). Everyone provided some of the six bottles of red and one white wine consumed and Rick produced a nice bottle of port to round the evening off.
Sunday was windy but hot and sunny, so most of us went ashore and walked out to the westerly point, overlooking the Salcombe Bar. Obviously looking at bars isn’t as satisfying as drinking in them, so we all ended up in the Salcombe YC for a liquid lunch. The launch from the Egremont picked us all up at 6.15 for the evening’s Vicars and Tarts do. The boatman was a little surprised at having several tarts (two looking amazingly like men in drag!) and the general synod of the Plym Yacht Club on board. Given we had booked for twenty and, due to the wise decision of those not coming on the Sunday, there only being 14 of us, I invited people from other visiting boats, who again were a little perplexed at being proposition by a fat guy in Basque, fishnets, blonde wig and mini skirt (I also had purple shoes, but was a bit worried about those because I didn’t want to look silly!). We all had a good evening and the Egremont is now much richer from the beer sales!
Monday came and nobody went. Westerlies gusting forty knots meant we all hung on and pushed the takings of the SYC bar up. Monday morning a few people got lifts back, abandoning their boats to the mercy of the rest of us that stayed. On Tuesday Alex and I decided to test the theory that Rivals are great sea boats and we, in company with a Westerly Sea Hawk that had joined us for beer and fun in the last couple of days, took advantage of a slight drop in the wind late afternoon, crossing Salcombe Bar about five and getting back to Sutton Harbour at nine forty five – in time for a pint in the Marina Snooker Club and an Indian takeaway on the Seahawk. Cruising is not normally done in fifteen foot waves and those that stayed, and are still there, are the sensible ones but we needed to be back for work. It actually wasn’t a bad trip back for us, but the Seahawk suffered a bit! This is the only time in three years we have ever sailed with two reefs in – I hate to think what conditions we would need to put the third in for, but I don’t want to be on her when its needed!
Salcombe has never been one of our favourite places but I know we are all grateful to the Harbourmaster and his staff on this occasion. We were given a 20% discount for group booking, nothing was too much trouble and they kept us updated with weather information and advice. The staff of the Egremont were also great, not only giving us a brilliant evening on the Sunday but also giving us a couple of free lifts ashore when we found ourselves weather bound.
Roger Coleman has managed to pass on the dreaded yellow T shirt awarded for Cock up of the Cruise, passing it to Rick (whose only crime was to leave his ensign up at night!) – I guess those of us who were daft enough to get storm bound in Salcombe all deserve a joint one!
I’m sure some of the pictures taken will end up on the web site – particularly the embarrassing ones taken on the Sunday night!
More Pictures in Picture Gallery
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A reminder that there is a annual cup the “DCP Cup” for the best log offered for that year so you cruising editors get composing, you could win it this year.
Salcombe MayBank holiday 2007 -
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