August 2017 was a cold and wet month, not ideal for jumping on the boat and heading off for a sunny trip in the bay and early in September I had visited the Solent to try my hand on a much, much bigger sailing vessel, but finally I has some time and the forecast was good Met Office saying Cyclonic F4/5 and Meteo France saying N or NE F4/5. Meteo France matched our experience on the water.
I arrived at the sailing club before first light and set about getting the dingy on the water for the ride out to the boat. Opps forgot my can of petrol! Thankfully, a friend helped me out. Alex arrived and we loaded the dinghy up and set off towards the boat.
Arriving onboard we prepped the boat for sea and headed off on a falling tide, half way between Springs and Neaps, with enough water to get out of the river for another hour and a half. Just off the mooring we "kissed" a sandbank, perhaps the direct route to the channel was not a good idea! Eventually, in the channel we headed off to sea without further mishap.
Motoring down the channel it looked a bright sunny day with the wind coming in all sorts of directions until we arrived at the open sea. The navigation authority has replaced the safe water mark with a tiny marker, difficult to see, I wonder why they have done that?
We ventured out on a lumpy sea, I'm beginning to learn that when the wind is from the east in Lyme Bay near the lee shore is not a comfortable place to be. We motored out a bit more and set raised the main, unrolled the genoa and switched off the engine, always a magic moment. The plans was to try different points of sail and we started with a beat up towards Budleigh Salterton, we would not be going ashore for ice cream today, and arrived after several tacks - spotting Bob in Erin tight into the shore beyond the reef that comes out along the ban of the river Otter. After several attempts to raise him on the phone, VHF and horn we gave up. Only to hear him quarter of an hour later asking Solent CG if the range at Straight Point was live. Just a tad worrying as they reported that ie as liver, we and several other boats were in the middle of the exclusion zone and no safety craft were to been seen. We finally called Bob and arranged to meet up later in the day. On exiting the exclusion zone shots could be heard on the range, clearly they were checking that the exclusion zone was empty then doing what they do.
We zoomed off towards Dawlish on a training run at about seven knots so spend an hour or so enjoying the down wind sailing, sunshine and a brew. I always find it odd that heading into a sea is much rougher than sailing away from one.
Arriving off Dawlish we headed back to the Exe, after checking that we had enough water to cross the bar. Just as we arrived at the Exe Safe Water Mark we spotted a group of about six motorboat moving slowly in a group passing behind us towards Dawlish then realised they were watching a pod of about 20 dolphins, always good to see.
Arriving off Dawlish we headed back to the Exe, after checking that we had enough water to cross the bar. Just as we arrived at the Exe Safe Water Mark we spotted a group of about six motorboat moving slowly in a group passing behind us towards Dawlish then realised they were watching a pod of about 20 dolphins, always good to see.
We started the engine, dropped the sails and headed in. Then those worrying sounds started again, the engine was dropping revs then picking up - a problem that I though had been fixed! As we continued in I asked Alex to ready the anchor and get a few fender out just in case the engine stalled as we were at a difficult part of the motor up river. Thankfully, she puttered along and we headed for the mooring. I abandoned any thought of doing a few practice pickups - it was really a matter of getting Aphrodite back on the morning and having another look at the engine. About 30 meters from the pickup buoy the engine cut, but we had enough headway to reach the buoy and attach the boat to the chain!
Crew: Sandy Garrity, Alex Bowling
Trip Stats: Distance: 31 nm Moving Average: 4.80 kts Max: 7.1 kts
Weather: Met Office Shipping Forecast Issued 17 September 04:05 UTC
Sea area: Portland Wind: Cyclonic 4 or 5, becoming variable then north or northwest, 3 or 4 Sea State: Slight or moderate Weather: Thundery showers Visibility: Good, occasionally poor