Saturday, August 03, 2019

Mylor to Plymouth

After a lazy start to the day after tea and showers we did a radio check with the marina and cast off at 0930 UTC the wind blowing us off the pontoon, I do like it when it does that as it makes life a lot easier but I missed the channel out through the swing moorings so had to do a quick 360 turn round a boat, just to test the steering you understand.

We raised the main in a brisk F3 and headed down to St Anthony Head where we unfurled the genoa and headed out to sea. We were going to be spending the day sailing to windward with the tide against us.

Very quickly I realised that the hull was a lot smoother and on a beam reach we were getting up to hull speed, seven knots, without trying.

The sky was overcast and it was not as warm as the previous day so we added a few layers to tee shirts, I have this "ancient" Breton smock and it is brilliant at keeping the wind off while you do not get all hot and sticky as in some modern materials.

An enjoyable motor sail up the coast knowing we were sailing to windward and did not want to get in too late we motor sailed a fair bit, but for some reason we were going in the opposite direction to every other sailing vessel. This trip was to get Aphrodite back to her home berth in Plymouth. Everybody had wind and tide to their advantage and cracking along at great speed. I was very happy with the progress we were making.

Passing Dodman point I was quietly crossing my fingers and hoping the new impeller would hold, which it did, I really, really did not want a repeat of the westward journey. At least I knew where the spare impellers were.

Dodman does have a habit of being forever present along that part of the coast, it takes ages to get there, ages to pass and even longer while you see it over your shoulder.

A few miles of Rame Head I requested another radio check with the National Coastwatch Institute and was delighted that they could receive us and see us on AIS, the sparky at Mylor was a bit concerned about our antenna, but it is a Metz and connected differently to most.

Rame Head from the west. Credit Garry Lester

Turning into Plymouth Sound as it started to cool down we furled the genoa away and just of Asia buoy dropped the main. Just the "parking" to do and we would be back on our home berth.

With a following wind I turned the engine to neutral as we entered Millbay. With wind and tide we were doing just over two knots as we entered King Point, a hard starboard turn, then hard to port and another hard to port and we had arrived - Garry stepped onto the finger and attached the mooring warps. No gelcoat was damaged and no sudden bumps as we arrived at the berth.

It being almost 1900 UTC we tied up, plugged in the shore power and headed to the restaurant in the marina for a meal. Followed by a good sleep after all that sea air.


Crew: Sandy Garrity, Garry Lester


Trip Stats: Distance: 49 nm, Avg speed: 4.90 knots, Max speed: 8.10 knots, Under way: 10 h 00 m


Weather: Inshore waters forecast to 12 miles offshore 07:00 (UTC+1) on Sat 3 Aug 2019 to 07:00 (UTC+1) on Sun 4 Aug 2019

Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly

24 hour forecast: East or southeast becoming variable, 3 or less, increasing 4 at times. Smooth or slight, becoming slight or moderate in west. Showers, mainly in west. Moderate or good.


Friday, August 02, 2019

Copper Coated and ready to go...

Leaving the boat for a month while the family went off and did some other things was interesting. As an engineer and active in the maintenance of the boat I like to know what is going on, with us in France while Aphrodite was worked on I was unable to see the progress and that was disappointing, but I knew it was the best use of time.

There had been a few emails and phone calls while the work progressed and all was in progressing as planned. On Wednesday 31/07/2019 I received an email to say all the work was completed, but due to the time of high water at Mylor Aphrodite was being launched at 0700 UTC and there was no way that Garry and I could get down for the launch.

The original plan was to get down to Mylor, inspect the hull, check the mast, do a modification to the windex then watch her being launched; not that I am paranoid but like to be present when the boat goes back in the water. Having watched one boat launched and slowly sink when the skipper failed to check all the through hulls! But that was not to be, time and tide wait for no man person.

I had arranged to meet Garry in town and drive down to Plymouth, from there to pick up the train and complete our journey to Mylor by taxi.

At Turo I picked up a message on the phone to say that Aphrodite had been launched, but they had spotted a leak. Sat on the train about half an hour from the boat with a message that did not give much information about where the leak was, what the ingress was like and unable to do anything until we got there was somewhat disconcerting. So disconcerting we missed the call for Penryn and only realised when we left the station heading for Falmouth. The train crew were very understanding and we sayed onboard for the return journey. Gathering my thoughts I call a local taxi company to be collected from the station.

We arrived at Mylor to see Aphrodite afloat, not in strops and looking good. Popped up to the office for a coffee and meet Spike for a handover and an update on the leak which was not as bad as I thought.

Having got on board we were shown a weeping seacock on the cooling water input and were happy to accept the boat as is.

The hard work started of getting boat back ready for sea, sails had to be bent on and after the usual mistake of winding the furling line the wrong way and having to drop the genoa and start again. After a couple of hours all was complete on the sail front and it was into the cabin to move everything to where is should be.

After a few hours thirsty work we adjourned to the bar for a well earn't pint of beer, dinner and a long catch up on a warm summer's evening.

Bow ready to be Copper Coated. Credit Mylor Marine Team

Bow Copper Coated. Credit Mylor Marine Team


Crew: Sandy Garrity, Garry Lester