Thursday 11th September 2025
0000 hrs
Lat: 50° 24.33' N
Long: 004° 12.32' W
The Mooring
0700 hrs
Spent the night onboard as the J24 World Championships were being hosted by Saltash Sailing Club and Plym Yacht Club and everybody was invited to a 'Cornish Evening'. A social with pasties and cream teas, I did have a chuckle to see the pasties were made in Devon and the cream teas were served in both the Cornish and Devonian style, they also had a very, very loud band.
While I've not sailed Aphrodite over the summer she is staying on the mooring so I can sail over the winter. However, I have been down on the boat several times checking her and working on some improvements, but today was going to be the first time I'd take her off the mooring and raise the sails.
1245 hrs
After a morning of sunshine and showers, the forecast was spot on, hoisted the main with two reefs in and slipped the mooring.
Delighted to say that leaving the mooring was a lot easier than I had envisaged. Took off the port bow line, past it in front of the forestay and attached it to the karabina. Repeated the process with the aft lines, slipped the aft lines then walked forward and slipped the remaining bow line and the boat drifted away from the mooring buoys.
John was on the wheel in case it went horribly wrong.
I left John on the wheel as he had not helmed on a boat with a wheel before and set about unfurling part of the genoa as we headed down river close hauled before turning off the engine and settling down to the task of looking after the sails.
As we passed the Lynher river to our starboard we were hit with a 30 knot gust! Turned smartly round and headed back up river under the Tamar Bridges, where we lost all wind, before heading towards Cargreen.
With just over three metres of water under the keel, don't you love big spring tides, we turned south again just off Devonport Naval Base and got in a right muddle. Hammered by 35 then 0 knots with speeds through the water ranging from 0 to 7.5 knots!
On seeing that we were doing zero knots, both SOG and STW, I started the engine to get through a tack. Thirty seconds later the engine sounded a high temperature alarm and I went into 'Don't panic' mode.
We sailed up the river discussing the option to sail onto the mooring. We did attempt it, but did not quite manage the maneuver and I sadly lost an old and faithful boathook. Time for Plan B and I gingerly turned the engine on just as we were hit with a 20 knot gust, crossed my fingers and took the wheel. Thankfully, no temperature alarms this time and came alongside the mooring at ½ knot. John sprung onto the foredeck and picked up the lines.
1515 hrs
Back on the mooring.
While a short shakedown I was delighted to see that getting on and off the mooring was not as terrifying as it had become in my head. Given the amount of time the boat has been on the mooring and the visible slime on the hull she moved at about six knots through the water at times! A couple of small issues were found, I had not rigged the reefing lines at the end of the boom correctly and there was on sail slide not in the slot. Both are easily fixed.
While I need to investigate the engine temperature alarm I am sure it was something partially over the raw water intake, we did have some cooling water exit the exhaust.
After sorting out the sails and tidying up I noticed that the club bar was open and a celebratory drink was in order.
All times are UTC.
The Log
| Distance NM |
Underway |
Avg SOG knots |
Max SOG knots |
Night Hours |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day: | 7.30 | 2h 30m | 2.92 | 7.00 | 00h 00m |
| Year: | 12.60 | 3h 36m | 3.96 | 7.00 | 00h 00m |
Crew: Sandy Garrity (Skipper), John McMurdo
Sunrise: 0542 hrs Meridian Passage: 1159 hrs Sunset: 1931 hrs
Weather: The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 00:15 (UTC+1) on Thu 11 Sep 2025 for the period 01:00 (UTC+1) on Thu 11 Sep 2025 to 01:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 12 Sep 2025.
There are warnings of gales in Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Shannon, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle and Faeroes.
The general synopsis at 1800
Low Malin 987 expected Faeroes 975 by 1800 Thursday
Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth
West or southwest 5 to 7. Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough in west Plymouth. Showers, thundery at times. Good, occasionally poor.
© Met Office Synoptic Chart 11/09/2025
Updated: 14/09/2025
