Scubacat Log

Scubacat

We are 'off west' on our holiday.
Left Chichester at 13:45, decided not to stop at Cowes, so missed meal at the Folly, but arrived Newtown Creek at 18:30, with a Lasagne cooking nicely in the oven.
Exceptionally calm In the moorings.
Lovely sunset.
Heading further west tomorrow.
D&C

Scubacat

Left Newtown Creek 8:30, seriously thought of crossing to Lymington as we saw 32kts and had some spray splash into the cockpit. 0600 forecast was for f5 to F7, but decided to go for Poole as the detailed hourly forecast suggested the wind dropping slightly for the next 4 hrs. We saw about 9kts sog as we left Hurst. Then kept reasonably close to the coast all the way to Poole, with the wind almost dead behind, arrived Poole about 12. Photo is of us passing Bournemouth, no white tops as wind had dropped a bit by then.

Scubacat

Took advantage of winds today to cross to Portland. Only ten minutes in the overfalls at St. Albans head, rest of the way was smooth.
Took this picture off Old Harry Rock as we passed. Arrived Portland marina to find there are no food shops and the Harbour lights restaurant does not open on Sunday evenings!! Meal on the boat tonight!

Scubacat

Great day. Left Portland at 10:00, after fixing autohelm, whose wires I had caught in outboard cables day before and had not noticed when I severed one. Portland Bill smoothest we have seen on inshore passage, then excellent motorsail to Dartmouth, greatly enhanced by seeing two pods of Dolphins. First set was going east, and passed us, but half an hour later a single dolphin started playing in the bow wave, then eventually we had about six in total, crossing from one bow to the other. We were doing about 5.5 through the water, but the surface in front of the boat was almost without ripples, and you could see the Dolphins playing underwater.
Ended day with excellent half rack of ribs ashore in Dartmouth.

Think_Again

Hi D & C, sounds as though we just missed one another, we had a meal at the Folly last Thursday, back to Christchurch on Friday,have a good trip

Scubacat

Moved down river, in Darthaven marina for a couple of nights Luxury..

Scubacat

Left Darthaven at 9:00, and topped up fuel at the floating barge. Left Dartmouth entrance about 9:30 in very light winds, which looked to have south in them. Got to salcombe circa 1, having had very light wind on nose pretty much all the way, as we were motoring. I had expected a beam reach down to start point, but presumably the sea/land breeze predominated. Should have turned into Salcombe, but thought we could just make Plymouth close hauled, so we tried that, but waves got bigger, and wind turned a bit more North, so we had to motorsail into the wind. Tacking through about 100 degrees, but making decent if bumpy progress to Plymouth. Finally arrived in Mayflower Marina at 5:25, Cathy quite tired, and stepped ashore with bow line unconnected to boat... Much amusement but no damage.
Will stay at least two nights before deciding if winds are ok for Falmouth. Thought I'd add a picture of Dartmouth!

Scubacat

Tried for Falmouth today, left mayflower Marina about 12, great NW wind, but sea was just a bit too lumpy. Waves coming from SW were ok for a short trip, but we decided that for 8hrs it would be too much, water speeds a of 6 it's outward, but 7 on return, surfing down the waves. Returned to Plymouth, decided to top up fuel, so went to Queen Anne's battery marina, winds gusted here, and we had great difficulty berthing in the limited space. Have decided to stay here tonight, and will fill up my fuel cans on foot, rather than try to manoeuvre around to the fuel jetty.

Scubacat

Arrived Falmouth this evening after 9 hrs motor sailing from Plymouth, mostly into the wind. Sea state was slight., Safely moored now at Mylor marina, along with RUMPLETEASER, met Gallivanter on the way in, and then all met for drinks in Castaways. Very good day.

Scubacat

Now in Fowey, will be here a couple of nights while winds settle.

Poor internet here, so just this text message for now, will add some photos from our stay in Falmouth later.

Scubacat

Now arrived in Salcombe after one night in Newton Ferrers, no signal in NF, so was not able to update log.

Scubacat

Met with Redouble, who moored in front of us a couple of hours before we left Salcombe, and then literally nearly ran into Sea Spirit on our way out, while I was raising the main.. No time to take a photo!
Trip to Dartmouth was great, bumps on the way out of Salcombe but Start Point was no problem. We saw peak sog of 8.4, but we were motorsailing. Found place at pontoon by upper ferry at Dartmouth. Almost exactly three hours pontoon to pontoon.

Scubacat

Arrived Portland 8:55 pm having left Dartmouth 11:05 no pub in marina, so we had
our 40th wedding anniversary meal on board! Pasties with waggon wheels for desserts! Yum!

Scubacat

Left Portland 11:45, with aim of trying for Solent, but tides are such that hurst narrows at about 8pm was the only option. After St. Albans head, tide turned against, and since we had a long sail yesterday we decided to pop into Poole for one or two nights depending on the weather.

Scubacat

After three nights in Poole, waiting for the right wind and tide, and after enjoying a couple of excellent meals out, we finally left today at 9, and got back to Chichester at five pm. Everything is now off the boat. Now we just have to mow the lawn!

Scubacat

Thought I would close the log with a picture of what the lawn looked like when we got back...

Scubacat

I thought that I would see if I could visualise some of the trip. I used INavx on my IPad for a lot of the time, and it stores the track as a GPX file. This can be saved and visualised, I then used GPS Visualiser. We did not have the IPad on all the time, as you can see, but the log is fun to look at. 

The Image below shows what you can get. (Click here to get the actual map) 

The lower plot (also by GPS Visualiser) shows how the tide pushed us very fast off Portland (150 Nm into the recorded part of the trip).