August 4th - August 18th 2021
The Plan.......
Cardiff - Tenby - Milford Haven - Skomer - Lundy - Padstow - Combe Martin Bay
The Reality
Cardiff - Dale - Milford Haven - Padstow - Lundy (Briefly) - Cardiff
Day 1. 4th August
We left Cardiff 0250 ready for the 0300 lock out in Cardiff Bay barrage, off we went just an hour and a bit before first light - a light wind, but enough to assist us in a motor sail, perfect sea conditions, sun shining, even though we had to motor sail the conditions at sea were almost perfect; it was a very kind crossing, no problems and a great start, we sailed directly to Dale and got there in about 14 hours - I knew of the floating pontoon that is available in Dale, but I had worried as it was such a nice day I wouldn't get a space, anyway as we approached Dale and saw the pontoon I had no need to worry - there was plenty of space, so we moored up, jumped off and enjoyed the safe arrival of the crew and Dione, although all very tired a brilliant, successful and enjoyable sail.
We had greetings from the other boats all moored up, shared details and started to settle down for the evening - however before we did settle down - another boat told us how we should consider moving across to the other side of the pontoon - due to the direction of the wind in the morning, they explained it would be more comfortable for us to be blown off the pontoon rather than onto the pontoon, so we moved - this is the first thing that went wrong, our Yanmar engine decided it didn't want to start - and gave us no ignition at all.
I had a little play and look but to be honest a mechanic I am not, luckily for me though on the boat directly in front of me was a very kind and decent guy who was a land based electrician - who jumped on board and gave me about 3 hours of his time trying to help me fault find and fix the ignition and start the engine, unfortunately the attempts failed - however he did show me how to jump start the engine with a pair of pliers from the engine bay - I took this as a lesson learned for future emergency situations.
Day 2. 5th August
A pretty decent sleep all round, a fairly early start - around 0630 as we knew the weather was going to come down - and the wind and swell was going to pick up - however we didn't prepare for the unbelievable situation that we found ourselves in!
The long, heavy, concrete topped pontoon - was now like a long sausage of wobbly jelly, and the boat was being shaken all over the place - so we prepared as quickly as we could to get away and head for Milford Haven, as we got ready to leave I was down in the saloon when I heard the loudest BANG I have ever heard - "WHAT WAS THAT?" - scared of what on earth the noise was - yelling out to my wife - as the stern of the boat started to drift out - "We have lost a rope" - yup, one of my 16mm mooring lines had snapped with the sheer force of the pull of the boat being pushed by the wind! So I jumped out - or should I say I fell onto the pontoon straight onto my side - however with no time to feel sorry for myself I quickly got a new line on the stern - now with the help of a gent from the only other boat still on this pontoon - new mooring line in place - and BANG!!! yup we had lost the 2nd mooring line, ok so we MUST get out of here now - my wife starts to prepare to leave, and plop - off falls her Apple Watch straight to the bottom of the sea -leave it - don't worry we need to go I say!!
OK so off we went on the little sail to Milford which was just under an hour away - massive swell - force 6 wind - Alison had to try and go to the bow of the boat in the worst conditions ever to try and tie the tender down - this is not recommended and is something I never want to repeat again. Tender successfully secured a very wet Alison gets back to the cockpit - and we make our way very much with our tails between our legs into Milford Haven Marina.
A few other mishaps on the approach into the marina - but for the sake of my sanity and dignity I am just going to say - we live and learn :-)
Milford Marina
Day 2 to Day 7 (5th August - 10th August)
Birthdays, Walks, Food and Visitors
I don't want to bore you too much and don't want these blogs to turn into a novel so for your sake I'll keep this section small!
Milford Haven is a fantastic marina, the staff and the people all around are some of the most pleasant people I have met - the facilities are great - restaurants and shops all around, there is a Tesco within 5 mins walk of the marina - we had a fantastic stay at Milford and I very much look forward to going back on my way west.
Alison's sister Nicola and husband Julian came to visit and surprise Alison on her birthday which was lush - we had a great time, went for a fantastic meal in Madison's and then played drunken bar games to the small hours of the morning - it was a perfect evening.
I did still have an ignition problem so after calling the local marine engineer from WindJammer Marine, who came out and fitted some new connectors to my ignition wire - this seemed to fix the problem and we now had a engine that would start on the press of the ignition - I'd like to say a very special thanks to Dave from Windjammer - absolute superhero and a thoroughly decent chap - helped me out no end and was absolutely fantastic.
We stayed longer in Milford than I would have liked, we just couldn't find a break in the weather.
Padstow Harbour
Day 7 to Day 13 (10th August - 15th August)
A rough crossing / the DOOM BAR, and meeting "virtually" Dave.
There really isn't any other way to say it other than it was rough lol, a pretty big swell of about 6-8ft and directly on our bow - which as I am sure most of you will know means a pretty rough sail however Dione mostly took it in her stride, let's say it wasn't the boat that was struggling, it was entirely the captain and the crew!
Approaching Padstow I started reading my pilot books again and started to panic inside quite a bit about the famous Doom Bar - the pilot books make it sound very treacherous and pretty damn scary - of course it is or at least can be both of those things if you don't give it due consideration - however as I came to find out - approach it at the right time - HIGH TIDE and stick to the very well laid out buoy system and you will be fine, on approach though and with my panic inside I reached out to the sailing community by the way of a post in the local sailing and cruising wales Facebook page - looking for reassurance and perhaps some guidance - which I found in abundance - one notable helper was a gent called Dave - who after seeing my call for help reached out and sent me a direct private message - who then kept with me pretty much the whole way in, constant check-ins as to where I was and how I was doing - really felt like I had an angel on my shoulders looking out for me, and gave me great comfort - I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dave who secured that virtual view of such a nice chap that I had - thank you Dave - another sailing friend I now have...
Needless to say we manoeuvred the Doom Bar safely without any problems, and we got into Padstow Harbour just before last light - what a welcome sight it was - I can understand how old time mariners felt now - spending months at sea and finally seeing the sight of land lol, the harbour was full of lights, smells of delicious food, and protected from the wind that had been keeping us company most of the day - Padstow Harbour was a delightful sight, after we had moored up on the wall, and secured our lines - keeping in mind the slight rise and fall of the tide, I looked out upon the harbour and uttered the words "Padstow I am going to enjoy the hell out of you!"
....... and that's what we did for the next week or so - we had a fantastic time - seeing the sights and enjoying the local restaurants - some of which can be seen in the pictures below, once again the staff of Padstow were fantastic, helpful and friendly, we had a great stay - thank you.
Day 13 - Sail to Lundy
Not a lot to say - sorry to be seeing the back of Padstow - but also happy that it was time to move on, and really looking forward to showing Alison and Leah the delights of Lundy - I have visited before with friends on Dione but it was their first time, and I was looking forward to showing them the sights.
It was an OK sail, it wasn't too bad at all - nothing like the crossing from Milford to Padstow perhaps now our tolerance had increased. Approaching Lundy I was however hoping for calm water and a nice, not so rocky, night at anchor - I wasn't disappointed - the shelter of the massive cliffs of Lundy provided us with perfect shelter for a nice calm night - A Fray Bentos pie later and it was time to turn in for the night! (Alison didn't find the stay quite so calm, her and Leah sat outside to eat as they still felt too sick to come inside and didn't have as good a night's sleep as I did!! :-{ )
Day 14 - Sail home to Cardiff
We woke up at Lundy to a lovely calm sea - and of course a fantastic view of the island - there really is nothing quite like waking up in such a special place, we had planned to spend the day on Lundy looking around - and seeing the wonderful wildlife that there is to be seen - I have been here before but Alison and my Daughter Leah haven't so I was very much looking forward to giving them a tour of this amazing place.
Now light, I had a look around and decided that I felt like I was anchored too close to a yacht just off my stern - so after confirming with her captain that she was staying I decided to up our anchor and move into a wider space - just so I felt comfortable that should I drag at all I would have enough space to do so.
So we upped our anchor and moved Dione - on re-dropping our Anchor I let out too much chain and ended up letting out the rope attached to the end of my chain - I have done this a few times and it causes me some issues as my windlass doesn't work to bite the rope and bring it back up - the last few times I have done this I managed to attach another rope to the warp and use one of the winches to bring it back in - however on this occasion it just didn't work, I battled with the rope for a good hour trying to get it back in - until it got caught and twisted around my windlass - I tried to get it free but failed so I decided that I needed to cut the warp, so I did my best to secure the warp so that when I cut it it would still be connected to my cleat - PLOP - as I cut the warp from around my windlass the chain pulled and I lost the lot, anchor, chain, warp all gone! Worried about the fact that Alison was at the helm and not yet confident in steering the boat, and with the reality that I was now anchorless - I immediately announced that we had to leave for home - anchorless and without any choice we had to set course for home - this was going to be an experience as again (and predicted by the weather reports) the sea state was rough with a 6-7ft swell and a force 5-6 coming in the afternoon, but as I said we had no choice (I did have a spare anchor onboard but no chain.)
As predicted it was rough lol, however this time the wind was mostly behind us the whole way back to Cardiff, which did prove for a more comfortable sail - the waves broke behind us - sending us down at around 12 knots at a time - again it was a little scary - but Dione managed it well and kept us safe - a long 10 hour sail from Lundy to Cardiff, and we had made it back safe and very happy to be back on our mooring in Cardiff Bay Yacht Club.
Summary
Things go wrong, I have listened to enough experienced people and read plenty of tales of how they do plus now have experienced for myself that it doesn't matter how much you plan - and prepare - Things Go Wrong, we just have to learn from the mistakes - of course making as much preparation for when things go wrong is important - especially when you're dealing with the sea, weather and potentially people's lives, so having the right equipment is essential - and planning and preparing for when things do go wrong. Obviously you can't always prepare for everything - so thank goodness that so far the things that have gone wrong for us we have come out the other end safely - whilst always learning lessons for the future...
Lessons Learned
To correctly tie down the tender on the bow
How to jump start the engine in an emergency
How to dead kill the engine in an emergency
How to not lose the anchor
Trust weather apps and information, it is almost always correct or close to being correct
Slow down and think about what you're doing - plan and it will go OK
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