Delivery Trip - Cowes to Lowestoft Day 1

Back in 2019 I had registered with Halcyon Yachts to work as delivery crew and widen my experience by sailing with RYA Ocean Skippers, in areas that I had not sailed and on different types of boat. In early March 2020 there was a request for crew at the end of the month and I volunteered thinking that some "winter sailing" would be a useful experience.

As Coronavirus 19 was loose on the planet the voyage was delayed as the night before we were due to meet up the British Prime Minister addressed the nation on television saying we should all stay at home and after a few phone calls the delivery was postponed. With the Lockdown in England opening up boat deliveries were being allowed following a few guidelines about the health of the crew prior to departure. This was the rescheduled voyage and the plan was to sail non-stop from Cowes to Hartlepool on the North East of England, but mother nature had different ideas.

We assembled in East Cowes said our hellos' and checked Velocity Girl, an ocean racing yacht with an impeccable list of race wins and long distance voyages.

Following a check of the boat and all of the systems, we found the autopilot had been reconnected incorrectly and took some time to trace the problem. After which we set off down the Medina river and into the east Solent heading towards Hartlepool in the north east of England a trip of some 375 nautical miles that would see me sailing in the North Sea for the first time.

A watched system of three on, six off was agreed and Will took the first watch once we were clear of the breakwater, I had a try out our the helm as it had been some time since I steered with tiller and had not sailed for some time; she was flighty but manageable.

With everybody happy I climbed into my bunk as I was on the 2000 - 2300 UTC watch and needed some rest as it would be dark by then and it had been some time since I had last stood a night watch by myself.

I came up on deck as we were passing Beachy Head, the lighthouse flashing its usual rhythm Fl (2) W 20s and took over for the passage towards Dover when Peter came up as we arrived, with two on deck this made passing the entrance to the port easier as there was an inbound ferry from France. With that out of the way I clambered back into my bunk and got some sleep.

The first six hours rest period passed extremely quickly and at 0500 UTC I had my warm kit and oilies on ready to take the next watch. The F5 had developed into a F6 with the wind instrument reading 25 knots true most of the time. Velocity Girl was flying and were were mid way across the Thames Estuary heading for the coast of East Anglia.

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Crew: Peter Vandenberg (Skipper), Will Armitage, Sandy Garrity

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Trip Stats: Distance: 200 nm, Avg speed: 7.00 knots, Max speed: 12.50 knots, Under way: 28 h 30 m

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Weather: Inshore waters to 12 miles offshore 13:00 (UTC+1) on Thu 21 May 2020 to 13:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 22 May 2020

North Foreland to Selsey Bill - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: Variable 2 to 4, becoming southwesterly 5 or 6 later. Smooth or slight, becoming moderate later. Thundery showers for a time. Good occasionally moderate.

Gibraltar Point to North Foreland - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: Variable 2 to 4, becoming southerly 4 to 6, veering southwesterly later. Smooth becoming slight. Thundery showers for a time. Good occasionally moderate.

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A Consolation Sail

Shortly after 0600 (UTC) I heard the kettle being put on the stove, Alex was up.

After a lazy breakfast and and several pots of tea we decided that there was more than enough power in the batteries for a day sail and the weather was perfect.

Just as we exited from Millbay I spotted a convoy of MOD Police launches, pilot boats and tugs, in Plymouth that only means one thing there is a submarine movement and sure enough a black conning tower hove into view. As we were motoring I headed toward Sutton Harbour and let the convoy pass.

Once the convoy had passed we raised the main and headed to the eastern entrance and went to play with the wind.

As this was a consolation sail we headed west in a F4 with no firm plans, just go and have some fun. With a clean bottom, wind from the north west and a flat sea we had a cracking time, easily up to hull speed at times and usually tripping along around six knots.

A few hours out we turned onto the other tack and headed back. Rounding Rame Head and into the western approach to Plymouth Sound we followed the wind round and managed to do it in one tack, well over canvased we heeled well over, sailing at its best!

Just by Drakes Island we dropped the sails and motored into King Point to attempt my second parking attempt of the day. Gelcoat intact we tied up the boat, tidied up and went and found a restaurant I had been recommended.

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Crew: Sandy Garrity, Alex Bowling, Joe North

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Weather: Inshore waters forecast to 12 miles offshore 07:00 (UTC+1) on Sat 7 Sep 2019 to 07:00 (UTC+1) on Sun 8 Sep 2019

Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly

24 hour forecast: North 3 or 4, occasionally 5 at first. Moderate in far west, otherwise smooth or slight. Mainly fair. Good.

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Trip Stats: Distance: 30 nm, Average speed: 5.00 knots, Maximum speed: 7.00 knots, Under way: 6 h 00 m, Sailing hours: 5 h 0 m, Engine hours: 1 h 0 m (inc warm up cool down).

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Not the Alderney Crossing

An end of summer long weekend had been planned for several months. Loosely based on the old Starcross Fishing and Cruising Lads Trip where we would head for Alderney and if the weather and wind was good end up there, if not then end up somewhere.

Originally a crew of four, one had a better offer and decided he would sail another day, leaving the three of us.

Joe and I drove down on Thursday evening, called in for victuals and fuel then headed to the boat, grabbed a bite to eat and got some sleep.

Alex joined us on Friday morning and we set about passage planning and checking the boat.

Departure was planned for 1900 (UTC) just as the sun was setting, heading east to Prawle Point, then due east to the north east point of the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme finally crossing the TSS and into Braye. A passage of about 100 nautical miles or 20 hours.

We slipped the pontoon and headed out into Millbay and started to raise the sails when the ship that was docked there announced her departure with a loud blast on her horn just as we were raising the mainsail, we hurried back into King Point to let ship get underway.

With the ship well out of the way we sorted out the main and headed for the breakwater.

Joe, Sandy and Alex departing Plymouth Sound. Credit: Alex Bowling

With the sun setting the crew picture was taken and we past the break water. I went below to start the passage log and was worried to see the battery monitor displaying 12.7 volts with a discharge rate of 0.5 amps with the engine running something was wrong with the electrical system; either batteries or alternator.

Sitting quietly at the navigation station I came to the decision to turn back as we had no way of recharging the batteries at Alderney as we would be on a swing mooring. Time to address the crew!

I climbed back on deck and explained the situation, Alex and Joe were disappointed but agreed with my decision. We turned the boat round and headed back to the marina.

My next challenge was a night berthing, with no wind in the marina no gelcoat was damaged and once tied up, plugged in and in the saloon we all poured a large drink.

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Crew: Sandy Garrity, Alex Bowling, Joe North

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Weather: Issued by the Met Office at 19:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 6 Sep 2019

Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly

24 hour forecast: West 5 or 6, veering north and decreasing 4 for a time. Moderate, occasionally rough at first near Isles of Scilly, becoming slight, but smooth at times in Lyme Bay. Occasional rain then showers for a time, mainly fair later. Good, occasionally moderate at first.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: North 4 or 5, becoming variable 4 or less. Mostly slight. Fair. Good.

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Trip Stats: Distance: XX nm, Avg speed: X.XX knots, Max speed: X.XX knots, Under way: Xh XXm

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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.

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Crew: Sandy Garrity, Garry Lester

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

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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.

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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

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Crew: Sandy Garrity, Garry Lester