2024 September 6thd Days 23 - 24, To Milford Haven

WIP DRAFT 

Thursday was, as expected, very wet and the wind stronger than forecast the day before at up to F7. I spent most of the day hunkered down, some of it advising a fellow solo sailor on passage planning on  the part of his round GB trip onto the Solent a stretch he had not done before. He left early on Friday to get around the Lizard before the tide turned probably heading for St Mawes. I left a few minutes ahead of schedule at 09:50 and was sailing as soon as I had the fenders and dock lines in and stowed.

This was not the plan of the day before as the weather did not match the forecast which was no wind and rain until the evening, but was welcome and I sailed until almost at the Longships when the engine went on as the wind was almost on the nose.

The Runnel Stone East Cardinal buoy. The Long ships just to
the right of it, Gwennap Head extreme right.

Lands End

The Longships Light

Unfortunately the engine was to stay on for much of the trip because the wind stayed on the nose at 8 - 11 knots until it died to almost nothing at 21:00. At 22:00 I started to see flashes of lightning to the north, not good, I always feel very vulnerable at sea in lightning with a 40ft lightning conductor the highest thing around for miles. For the moment it stayed distant and from 01:00 I sailed for a couple of hours when the wind came in from the WSW, again not in the latest forecast models. 

Light to moderate rain started at 02:00 (and lasted till about 5:30) and the lightning drew nearer, fortunately it did not get within about five miles and most was not going to ground or rather sea. From the radar the heavy rain was also about 5 miles away by which time all of the portable electronics was inside the cooker to protect it. I learned later that the storm had kept people awake around Milford for much of the night.

Short range monitoring when below by Radar on the
iPad replicated from the plotter, longer range by AIS
on the lap top but I spent most of the time on deck
as to move back and forth would have brought a
lot of water down below.

Unusually there were very few fishing boats around but there was a fair bit of shipping and the timing was such that quite a few boats that had come out of the "Off Lands End" TSS and heading for Bristol, Milford and particularly Avonmouth were coming close, particularly three all over 250 metres long that passed within 1.5 miles on a course only 10 - 15 degrees different to mine. 

With AIS and radar I was perfectly safe, but it gets your attention when you see them 20+ miles away at which point, even when making a reasonably steady speed through the water under engine, the predicted closest point of approach varies from a few metres to a mile or so. In the event all passed ahead of me but with our courses so similar it took a long time for all three (1 leading and 2 very close together an hour behind) to clear.

With so much use of the engine and making about 5.5 knots, at a relaxed cruise in fairly calm water despite the fouled hull, I was well ahead of schedule and at daybreak I was past Turbot Bank, that did make it harder to see the channel buoys but it let me get to Milford Marina when the lock was in free flow, saving me from working through, and I was on my berth just before eight.

I had planned to start laying up on Sunday to return home by train on Monday to get the car, but with the early arrival it seemed pointless to waste the time and if I slept too much I would not sleep that night so, apart from a nap of an hour or so in the afternoon, I worked all day getting the running rigging, dodgers etc. off the boat ready to go. 

Sunday's trip home was rather frustrating, the train to Swansea was delayed because a low branch took the windscreen wiper off the front of the train, so they turned the train round and went backwards into the terminus although it was not raining and the buffers are under cover. It then went on to Newport and if they followed the same procedure would have had to turn the train around again.

As the train was being turned round, the train I was meant to be on passed. Some quick searching on the network rail journey planner found the quickest way back, instead of changing at Reading and Oxford, I would have to change at Swindon, Didcot and Oxford. The change at Didcot was very tight and the train was very crowded, I was one of the last off and did not make it, not wanting to try running, including down and up the stairs of the underpass, with a heavy bag and arthritis. 

Having left the boat at 08:45 I finally got home just before 17:00. In theory I should have had my fare refunded for the long delay but GWR refused to cough up because the delay was on the Welsh service even though I had booked through them as the main carrier.

120 miles in 22 hours and 10 minutes berth to berth/