Pwllheli

 We enjoyed being at Neyland and the Bristol Channel Old Gaffers put a lot of effort into making the gathering a success. Most of the rest of the fleet was going to Southern Ireland in preparation for further festivities in Dublin at the weekend. Sadly Bonita will have to miss this as I need to go home for a few days for Felicity and Wills wedding and a bit of grandparenting. 

The winds remain persistently from the north. On Sunday morning Jerry and I, after much discussion of likely and possible combinations of wind and tide,  decided to leave at first light to avoid deteriorating weather.  With a spring tide behind us we soon passed the islands off SW Wales which are important bird sanctuaries and are surrounded by complicated swirling tides. Things slowed down considerably once the tide was against us.  

However, after 24 hr at sea we watched the sun come up behind the mountains of Snowdonia and entered the little port of Pwllheli. My friend Geoff who is studying Welsh tells me this should be pronounced by pressing the tongue against the back of the teeth. I tried this but it still didnt come out right. In a packed marina we were allocated a berth in a tight corner surrounded by many considerably more valuable boats. Fortunately, despite a strong ( northerly) crosswind, with Jerry on the warps we managed to get into the berth without damage. And there Bonita stays for a few days, surrounded by white plastic until we hope we will be able to rejoin the gaffers further north.

 

Neyland

Bonita spent the day in Nayland. Several other Gaffers turned up during the day including Susan J, Cygnet, and Martin and his dog Jack on Charlotte Elizabeth. There was a strong northerly wind all day.

 Nayland is completely sheltered, but the northerlies are predicted to last for pretty much as far as the forecasters can forsee, which is concerning.

Geoff left us yesterday as he has to go to a wedding, and Jerry and I spent the day pottering about the boat, talking to other gaffers and seeing something of the neighbourhood. We have been well cared for while we are here by the members of the Bristol Channel OGA who have put a lot of effort into making our visit a success.

We had supper in the marina restaurant and were entertained until late in the evening by the excellent Swinging Nettles quartet. (The seats in the picture were soon filled.)

Wales!

After a long night at sea motoring into a light head wind, at dawn we saw the gentle hills of Milford Haven. The gaffers are gathering at Neyland, about 8 miles into the Haven, a rural spot though to get there you go past quays, oil storage depots and moored tankers. This, as far as I know, is Bonita's first visit to Wales as when we went round Britain ten years ago we kept to the west side of the Irish Sea. We had to buy her a courtesy flag with a Welsh dragon on it. 

There were several Gaffers at the marina, with more arriving later and some due tomorrow.

The picture shows Bonita with the prawner Laura. Laura was built by Crossfields at Arnside in 1906, and with both boats together it's interesting to see some of the differences between them and how the design progressed over the 20 or so years that separate them. Laura has been well restored and at one time was well known as a racing boat. She looked in very good condition and is currently kept in North Wales.

The Bristol Channel Gaffers welcomed us with drinks and a fish and chip supper and made us feel that now in Wales and with Lands End behind us the Round Britain cruise has really begun.

Lands End

We have spent 3 days in Newlyn waiting for better weather, and yesterday evening we were joined by our friend Jerry who has come over from Canada for the experience of sailing with the Gaffers. There was quite a gathering of gaff rigged boats in Newlyn harbour and some anchored outside and this morning we all left at about 6.30am. Its sunny, the wind is still northerly, but much lighter and may change in direction later.

The picture shows Geoff and Jerry with a background of the Longships lighthouse off Lands End. 

This was not the first Longships lighthouse: the first one was built in 1795 and was sketched by Daniell for his book.

Previously these dangerous rocks had been unlit.The old lighthouse was shorter than the present one and sometimes obscured by high seas. The current lighthouse was built in 1869 and the old one dismantled.

We are now heading northerly towards the Welsh coast nearly a hundred miles away.

Hoping for better weather

We spent the day still in Newlyn, with a brisk and cold northerly wind. No new gaffers have arrived today so we still have Recipe, Lahloo, Indian Runner and Susan J for company. Tomorrow the wind is predicted to be just as northerly but rather more gentle, so we are hoping to be off in the morning.

We spent the day quietly in Newlyn. This is a lovely little harbour dating back to the fifteenth century, but was enlarged with new harbour walls constructed in 1887/8. The picture shows the harbour today with many fishing boats of varying sizes and a few yachts.

We walked to Mousehole with its quaint village and miniature harbour. There are memorials everywhere there of a tragic disaster in 1981 when the Solomon Browne lifeboat which was stationed nearby was lost with all her crew attempting a rescue in a storm in the middle of winter -a reminder of the hazards lifeboatmen face even today with the best equipment that is available.

We have filled up with fuel, water and food, so are ready to be off tomorrow if things look hopeful in the morning. 

Newlyn....

We spent the day in Newlyn as the forecast is for strong Northerly winds and so we are waiting for something different. Almost anything different would be better. Geoff and I walked along the shoreline of Mount's Bay as far as St Michael's Mount and back.

Newlyn is one of Britain's busiest fishing ports but it does seen to be quieter than when I was last here several years ago. If Brexit was supposed to help the fishing industry, it doesn't seem to have been much of a success, and there are no more fish in the sea, British or otherwise, than there were before.

Sadly fishing stocks have been depleted for years by industrialised fishing methods. In Daniells book about travelling round Britain written in the 1820s he talks about small fishing boats under sail catching enough fish to completely fill the boat within a couple of miles of the shore. Those days are unlikely to return.

On a more hopeful note ( for the industry if not the fish) the photo shows a brand new boat at Newlyn, 'Winter of  Ladram', nominated for fishing boat boat of the year 2023. She was in harbour transferring tons of newly caught shellfish to a Spanish refrigerated lorry for export.

We now have several other Gaffers in Newlyn all waiting for a favorable wind : Susan J, Recipe, Indian Runner and Lahloo. We all had a convivial supper in the Red Lion pub.

Furthest South and Newlyn

Having had a substantial breakfast in the excellent Fuel restaurant in Falmouth we felt ready to face the challenges of moving on. There wasn't much wind at first but we mostly motored to the Lizard, the most southerly point in the UK. 

The picture shows Geoff concentrating on the steering with the Lizard behind him.

After that a little southerly breeze sprung  up. We got to Newlyn about 6pm. Predominantly a fishing harbour that is more accomodating to yachting as fishing continues to decline.

Here we found that Ricks in Recipe had got in before us. The picture shows the two boats together.

The weather over the next few days is not looking good - strong northerly winds predicted. So here we stay put until  at least we get a more promising forecast.

Falmouth!

We had originally planned to stay in Plymouth until Saturday morning. There was to be a Gaffers Parade of Sail in front of Plymouth Hoe with press coverage and with Bonita in lead position.  However this morning it emerged that things might be rather different. We were told by the King's Harbourmaster - who is in charge of a naval port- that there would be a nuclear submarine passing through the harbour at about the same time. Any naval ship in the harbour area is accompanied by patrol craft, an exclusion zone etc and even the most venerable gaff rigged sailing boat could be seen as a potential risk to a  submarine entrusted with carrying the nations nuclear deterrent. Moving the parade of sail either back or forward an hour or so did not resolve the security concerns. Regretfully therefore the Parade had to be cancelled.

It was too nice a day to stay in port longer than necessary, so we left Sutton Harbour in Plymouth at about 11.30.

We were originally planning to go to Fowey and had light head  winds. However just as we were approaching the port a moderate N breeze sprung up. After all our days of contrary winds this was too good to miss so we decided to carry on to Falmouth. We had a fine sail along the Cornish coast with the boat at times exceeding 7 knots (with a fair tide but only about 0.5 knots). At the time the picture was taken the GPS showed a speed of 7.5 kts

We tied up in Falmouth about 8.00, in time to find at least one restaurant still open

Sutton Harbour

We left Dartmouth at first light - about 4.30am- to catch the tail end of the tide. We had a good sail in moderate winds down to Start Point. After that the trip followed a pattern that is becoming familiar on this cruise - fog, rain and head winds. Usually we seem to have been experiencing one of these at any one time and often more. Eventually we got to Plymouth Sound which is all pleasantly familiar as I kept a boat here for a year.

The SW Old Gaffers had arranged for us to berth in Sutton Harbour which is in the most picturesque part of town. Bonita berthed alongside our old friends Dave and Julie in Susan J. Many of the assembled Gaffers were dressed overall with flags proving a fine spectacle.

We all assembled for supper later. Everyone is naturally a bit anxious about the weather for crossing the Bristol Channel but that is still a few days away. There was good food, drink, conversation and musical entertainment. But a little of this goes quite a long way after a 4am start.

New Crew!

Bonita was in Dartmouth all day today drying out a bit from yesterday. Sadly Justin has now run out of time having helped us all the way from the Swale, and has had to return to the real world. My new crew is Geoff who arrived this afternoon after a rather tortuous journey from Canterbury.

The most pressing job that needed doing was making a new boom crutch to replace the one that got washed over yesterday.

The picture shows the final product. The previous one was in oak with a patina accumulated over many years of varnishing. The new one is in knotty pine as that's all they had in the shop. However it should do OK until I can either make a more sophisticated one or maybe just get used to it.

We had a jolly supper in the yacht club with Martin Pound, sailing a shrimper, Charlotte Elizabeth singlehanded. 

A stormy day

We left Dartmouth with a forecast of moderate SW winds, with Justin as crew. There was thick fog past Start Point, but with a bit of care and watching the GPS and AIS that's not too concerning as there is very little traffic in these waters apart from fishing boats which usually seem to carry AIS. We were sailing along fine with a fair tide, and expecting to be in Plymouth by mid afternoon. Then there was a tremendous squall from SW with driving rain, and very quickly a heavy swell sprung up. One advantage of sailing a gaffer is that it's very easy to drop the mainsail - the weight of the gaff brings it down whereas Bermudan mainsail can be difficult to get down in bad weather. When the squall hit us we dropped the main completely and rolled up the jib so we were roaring along with just staysail and mizzen. This strong wind wasn't forecast. I thought it was at least force 8 ( gale force). It was obviously quite widespread. Of the Gaffers, Indian Runner a few miles from us recorded a strength of 35 knots and had to turn back,  and Dave Patuck on Susan J off Plymouth recorded gusts of 60 knots. In Lyme Bay the pilot cutter Lettie suffered rigging damage due to the strength of the wind and had to put back for repairs.Pilot cutters are pretty solid and robust craft

I thought it might be a passing squall so we carried on under staysail and mizzen for a bit, getting very wet in the process due to clouds of spray coming over the boat. But after about half an hour we decided that we couldn't go on so we had better go back. So we ran back to Dartmouth and tied up to the pontoon we had left that morning. I had thought of going into Salcombe, which was nearer, but it was near low tide, and there is a bar at the entrance to Salcombe Harbour which can be dangerous in heavy onshore winds.

Bonita seems to have stood up to this poor treatment quite well. Sadly the mainsail boom crutch - which had been tied on- disappeared overboard at some point. A pity, as it was nicely made of oak with brass hinges. We need to stay in Dartmouth tomorrow for a crew change so I will try to make a replacement boom crutch.

Of the Gaffers in Dartmouth, Swift and Step Back in Time were sensible enough to stay here all day. Charlotte Elizabeth, Hilda and Bonita have put in due to stress of weather.

The Gaffers gathering in Plymouth tomorrow may have fewer boats attending than they expected, though we hope to get there some time on Thursday.

Lyme Bay and Dartmouth

We left Studland Bay at midnight to get the tide and had a reasonably quick journey so far as a point 3 miles off Portland Bill.

It was a clear moonlit night, as as the sun rose over the horizon we saw a rainbow high in the western sky.

After the excitement of passing Portand Bill, the long trek across the fifty miles or so of Lyme Bay can be a bit of an ordeal. We had strong SSW winds and at one point had to take in several reefs. There were clouds of spray and solid water over the boat and plenty of damp below. Then we had thick fog with visibility at times probably less than two hundred yards. In very poor visibility we cautiously approached the rocky entrance to Dartmouth. Even with GPS this sort of thing is difficult: without GPS it would virtually impossible.

We found 2 boats from The OGA Round Britain fleet already here - Swift and Step Back in Time.

Studland Bay

This morning started misty with very little wind. Sadly D had to work and went back home on the train, or rather the Sunday version the 'rail replacement bus'. Justin and I left Cowes on Bonita at about 7.30am. There was little sign of life among the Gaffers at that time. By the time the west-going tide started, about midday, we were off Yarmouth, and a moderate head wind sprung up. We are keen to get to Plymouth in time for the next gaffer gathering if possible, but its tedious trying to make progress against head winds and spring tides. The tide was almost spent by the time we got to the Dorset coast so we stopped in Studland Bay near the Old Harry rocks.

Rather than anchoring here as we have in the past, we tied up to an ecologically friendly buoy.

The sea bed here is rich in sea grass, but this is a popular anchorage and the anchors disturb the grass. Rather than anchoring we are encouraged to tie up to an eco-mooring. I think it's much the same as any other mooring really but only disturbs the sea bed once when it gets installed. 

SW winds are forecast for the next few days but we hope there may be an opportunity to move further west before too long.

Coronation Day!

 A wet day in Cowes (and London) with intermittent showers. We were joined by D and Vic who came on the ferry last night. Not really a vert good day for sailing but we watched to coronation in the dry on a big screen in the Cowes Corintian yacht club, which was certainly more comfortable than being in the crowds in Central London. Later Justin and Diana joined us and we went to Sian and Ants flat in Cowes for a cup of tea. A bit of drama then as we got in the lift to go up to the flat, but it broke down leaving Diana, Ant and myself trapped in the lift between floors.Eventually we managed to attract attention by shouting, and after about half an hour were released by the excellent and very efficient Isle of Wight fire service.

After recovering from this trauma, we joined the Gaffers for a jolly evening meal with music and dancing at the Corinthian. Altogether - apart from the lift episode -  a very successful visit to Cowes thanks to the excellent organisation by Sue Pennison and her team. 

Sadly after many days of northerly or easterly winds the prospect for the next few days does not look so good but we hope to be on the move in the morning.

Gathering gaffers

Lots of gaffers of all sorts, shapes and sizes have arrived in Cowes today testing the patience and resourcefulness of the marina staff used to more modern boats. There is a fine display of assorted flags with many boats dressed overall in the bright sunshine.

Some boats put up assorted flags at random which is fine. In theory there is a proper procedure for dressing a ship overall with code flags though it's hard to see that it matters much. In flags etiquette I try to follow the guidance laid down in Miranda Delmar-Morgans little Maritime Flag Handbook. Miranda spent her childhood on a gaffer- the Morecambe Bay prawner 'Laura' - and so is an authority to be respected.

The Cowes Part Port celebrations have been ably organised by Sue Pennison and we had a fine supper at the Island Sailing Club.

Cowes....

Bonita spent another day in Cowes, and several other Gaffers arrived today. We now have the Dutch boats Helen and Recipe together with Cygnet, Louisa May, Lahloo and Agapanthus. Enough for a jolly evening in the pub. We went to the Duke of York; very likely named long before the current Duke took up any official duties.

There are lots of flags for Saturdays coronation all over Cowes - no sign of any republican dissent here.

The picture shows a local gaffer sailing in the Medina river. She is the pretty little Vivid: built in 2008 to a Victorian (1886) design.

Cowes

Except when she is in a gathering of gaffers, Bonita always looks strikingly different to todays modern boats. The above picture wasn't taken by a drone, but by Justin from the upper deck of the Red Funnel ferry which passes alarmingly close to the marina on its frequent trips to the mainland.  Every time the ferry leaves we hear the recorded message over the ships loudspeakers telling the passengers to stay calm and what they should do in the unlikely event of an emergency. Justin has had to go home for a couple of days and as it is blowing quite hard from the east, Bonita is staying put while I get on with a few jobs and general sorting out. While going to the supermarket I had a look at the excellent (and free)  Max Aitken museum in the High Street which has lots of fascinating nautical items. Aitken had a remarkable life and was the son of Lord Beaverbrook, the enormously rich owner of the Daily Express: not all children of high- achieving parents succeed so well themselves. I was the only visitor to the museum  and there were two staff on duty so it makes you wonder about their business model. Certainly worth a visit.

Cowes!

After leaving Ramsgate at 4am we thought it best to carry on and by 11pm we were off Beachy Head motoring against a light head wind. Part of the reason we carried on all night was because the forecast promised an easterly breeze. It was a bit late in coming but off Brighton we got a nice NE wind which shifted round to the east and blew all day. We got to Gosport by high water, 10.30 am. But we decided not to stay as Justin needed to go home for a couple of days. So we had a fine sail to Cowes and Bonita is now berthed at Shepards wharf where the Gaffers are gathering later in the week. 

As always Cowes is full of interesting people, shops and boats even though the sailing season hasn't really got going yet.

There are some pretty extreme boats to be seen as in the picture. What are the chances someone will still be keeping her in sailing condition in a hundred years time?

Kentish coast

Although the Heritage area of Ramsgate inner harbour is very convenient for the town, it is also close to several nightclubs that keep going with great energy till 2 or 3 am. So we moved Bonita to a pontoon in the outer harbour. Several more Gaffers have appeared and we had a gathering in the Ramsgate Wetherspoons - it is said to be the largest Wetherspoons in the country, and is certainly very large. A fitting start the the OGA Round Britain cruise we hope. We said goodbye to Jan and Robert who have so ably organised the weekend.

The picture is of their boat Emanuel in Ramsgate harbour. 

We left at 4am to catch the tide and as this log is written we are somewhere between Dover and Dungeness. We have successfully dodged all the ferries coming out of Dover and so far have not been troubled by the many Border Force vessels searching the Channel for small boats. We are  motoring in calm weather but hoping for a favorable breeze.