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| -- 2 to 16 August 2014 -- |
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Just a short English break in our nordic adventure, because it's actually a very nice area ! Well, at least west of Dartmouth...
More pictures "so British" can be found in our page "Pictures".
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526 milles sailed
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Winter
has been cold and humid, and we can't wait for good enough weather to
sail away with Saltimbanque ! The navigation area around Newhaven is a
bit poor in exotic destinations, and in general we prefer sailing with
a objective to reach.
The Norwegian gastronomy being what it is
- a bit repetitive - we have found the perfect goal: let's go to
Boulogne-sur-Mer to eat their famous mussels & fries, and we sail
back ! This sounds like a reasonable plan for a 3-day week-end like
Easter :o)
Great navigation not too close-hauled in 20-25
knots of wind, we swallow the 65 MN in less than 11 hours of sailing !
Ready to run into the first "brasserie" we will find. It was without a
small engine problem at the arrival and the local custom officers who
decided to spend their evening on Saltimbanque. As we follow the rules
properly everything goes well, the officers give us a hand with the
engine while we discuss about liferaft certificate and regulation in
the overseas territories.
It's late when we push the door of the restaurant, but eventually we have our mussels & fries !
Going
back to the UK will be a bit simpler, running with the wind. A short
pit-stop at Estbourne which is no more interesting than anticipated, and
we are back home in Newhaven !
Ok this is done ! When are the holidays again so we can sail a bit further ? |
Well deserved mussels & fries ! |
Newhaven - Weymouth | |
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Friday August 1st finds
us on the platform of the train station at Gatwick Airport, backpack
on , on our way to Newhaven... At last holidays ! At last going
back to our beloved little Saltimbanque ! We are dreaming of long
distance sailing after a year of maximum 3-day trips.
Saturday,
we buy a lot of food, prepare the boat, install the new weather vane at
the top of the mast (the old one broke, certainly because of an
overweighted gull), and we leave with a big appetite for miles and
miles !
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The weather
is inline with our realistic expectations: westerly wind moderate to
fresh breeze, bumpy seas, and off we go very close to the wind. We
quickly remember how coastal sailing is much more tiring than blue
water sailing: we have to tack often, which prevents the one off-shift
to sleep properly, the wind changes all the time, we need to watch out
for the fishermen, and the tide stream prevents us from sailing at
decent speed during 6 hours. After a pretty rough beginning of the
night - which will finish to mash-up Laure's stomach- the wind brutally
drops which will forces us to manoeuver a lot, for finally getting
frustratingly stuck for a while. Fortunately the stars are always
beautiful, our companions of so many nights at sea...
As a new
day arrives the thermal breeze from the night dies away, the westerly
wind slowly picks up again and the tide stream turns, we get closer to
the Isle of Wight. The weather is nice but the first night has left its
marks and we still need to recover. But the wind picks up again in the
afternoon requiring more manoeuvering. We quickly become again quite
good at reefing the main sail and changing the front sail. With the
thermal breeze the wind now reaches a good 5b, the tidal stream becomes
stronger offshore the Isle of Wight, in bumpy seas and bubbling
whirlpools of current: we rush at 8 knots speed over ground. |
Sunrise at sea |
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Weymouth, here we come ! | Second
night at sea, same scenario of dropping wind. But we now feel better at
sea and we enjoy these slow moments under the stars. Nestor - our
engine - helps us a bit to finish the night... he is perfectly well
thank you ! As the sun rises, we are in the large bay of Weymouth,
sheltered from the strong tide streams, sailing slowly but surely
towards this harbour. The sun is shining, the sea is flat, what a
peaceful morning...
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Weymouth,
that we reach on Monday 4th at noon after a 40h sailing against the wind,
is a nice small seaside English town. We discover its colourfull houses,
its crowded beach with particularly fine sand, and its quays packed
with people enjoying the local sport: crab fishing ! Just drop a small
net full of fish bait in the water, and the crabs pinch to the line.
It's extremely popular...
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The charming port of Weymouth |
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Weymouth - Dartmouth
Lighthouse of Portland Bill and its strong currents | But
we quickly go to bed as, in spite of our 2 nights sailing in a
row, we need to wake up at 3am tomorrow to pass the next obstacle:
the Portland
Bill, a land head where the tide stream is very strong and creates a
dangerous sea if we are not right at the right place right at the right
time.
And that's the things done right: we sail just under the
lighthouse at 6am on Tuesday morning. The wind has turned slightly to
the South and we can sail (almost) directly to Dartmouth. That's good
news as the Lyme bay, 40 NM long, is of little interest. It's nice
weather in between the squals, we sail fast, perfect !
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| We
arrive in Dartmouth in the afternoon. And suddenly something strikes
us: it's gorgious here ! Long gone the white cliffs and urban shores
from Eastern England ! The river of Dartmouth winds in between the
green hills, we enter the channel in between 2 middle-age towers and
arrive in a very cute town with multicoloured houses. Welcome to
Cornwalls ! Plus the dolphins play a festival for us at arrival... | 
Dartmouth, where Cornwall begins.... |
Nice houses in Dartmouth | To
go ashore, we have to dig out the tender from the locker where it had
been sleeping since we came back from the Atlantic trip. We start
feeling really well onboard... The walk onshore is nice in spite of a
quite insisting rain. After a few medieval houses we get shelter in the
first pub to come: very good choice as the fish meals are delicious !!!
And finally we are back onboard right before it starts raining
seriously, what else could we ask for :o)
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We
leave at dawn as we always have the tide stream with us in the morning.
It's just the perfect weather, 3-4b, brigth sun, like we don't even dare
dreaming of... We pass Start Point, then a long run brings us to the
River Yealm. This is the great inspiration from Laure last night who
has found this destination in a nautical guide. The entrance is a bit
sinuous and requires to follow two alignments of beacons to avoid the
bar of sand which closes the river. Then behind the head, the area gets
wider and many boats find shelter in there. It's magnificent and we
take a mooring buoy under the trees.
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Evening light in the end of the river Yealm
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Sunset on the River Yealm |
It's nice
weather, almost warm, what if we swam from the boat ? The current is
strong so we let a rope with a fender floating behind the boat so we
have something to grab if the current washes us away. Actually the
water is warm as well !! We can then check the hull, play in the
current, Laure jumps from the boat like in the good old time, then we
can take a seawater shower and use the spray to get a fresh water
rinse... We feel so good here... In the evening we visit the shallow
part of the river with the tender, it's absolutely superb. The perfect
stop really....
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Thirsday,
the wind is still calm, forecasted from the North. So we have to tell
you that a few years back (well something like 8...) during a holiday
in England, we visited a very cute village stuck in the rock - Polperro
- that we really loved but which already back then seemed very
difficult to access by boat. Today the conditions (weak wind blowing
from the shore) seem to be favourable, so we give it a try.
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The
entrance is even more microscopic than in our memories. We just have
enough room to U-turn in the cut of rocks, but we are in ! So far
we are the only ones and we take one of the 4 mooring buoys, according
to us the only one where we don't swing either on the rocks or in the
middle of the "channel". A bit stressed but pretty proud of ourselves !
We enjoy our tiny rocky gem, at the doors of this little inaccessible
fishermen village, and we climb in the tender to go ashore,
self-conscious of our privileged status.
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It was a small fantasy of ours, Saltimbanque is proudly moored in Polperro...
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It's very beautiful ! It's also very known...
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What a shock
when we arrive onshore... Yes, human invented roads to join isolated
villages, then he invented tourists and finally coaches... It's
crawling with people everywhere, and even though we recognize the small
village of our memories, we feel a bit offset with humanity (admitedly,
nothing new here...) A bit bothered and Camille a bit stressed by the
thermal breeze which picks up and threatens to blow into our
"shelter", we get back onboard and leave straight away. A few other
boats had tried to join us at the anchorage, only one had dared to stay:
its crew passes us with their tender and leaves even faster than us !
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But
we still did it and we are happy to join for the night the (wiiiiiiide)
river of Fowey. All the more that a maginificent schooner passes by us
on the way. On the evening we walk the quiet streets of the city, and
end up at the local Yacht Club to check the weather forecast: the
former hurricane Bertha has decided to come and tickel us, we need to
find a proper shelter in a few days.
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Colours of Fowey |
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But
so far, so calm... On Friday we wanted to reach Helford River, but
there is not even a breeze. Nestor works hard on its single piston, and
we quickly pull the tiller towards Mevagissey just a few miles away.
Mevagissey is another "pocket port" in Cornwall, but after Polperro it
looks pretty wide to us! We stop in there and spend a few hours
onshore, swimming and enjoying one of our favourite local delicacy:
Cornish Pastries !
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Mevagissey |
Back to Fowey | Still
no wind, we decide to get back to Fowey, not without making sure our
spinnaker takes some fresh air as well. After all we are now going
Eastwards, running with the wind ! No more close hauled sailing! The
spi holds fine in a light breeze, we head to the river, we enter it,
still flying the spi... we must be beautiful seen from the surrounding
cliffs... Well, at some point we need to stop, we get the spi down and
pick a mooring buoy under sail power, it's much more elegant ! Short
walk on the surronding cliffs to finish the day. |
Saturday,
it's time to get sheltered for the gale soon to arrive, direction
Plymouth ! We are running downwind and exploit our competency in
rigging the pole on the genoa. The idea was to visit the Tamar river
before heading to the marina. Rather sporty navigation in strong gusts
and no less strong current, but except from this excitment this is
actually a very ugly place.... We had spotted a much nicer anchorage
place close to Drake Island: let's U-turn and get back to the beach.
Aaah, an actual anchorage, it's been a while... sounding the depth,
getting the chain ready, arguing about the exact place where we shall
drop the anchor (actually not even too much this time), drop it, check
aligments onshore do not move, and dive to check the anchor visually.
Laure ? Laure I said dive to check the anchor ! What ? It's cold and
more than 8m depth ? Ok it will be strong enough for the duration of the lunch...
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Ah no, actually she did jump in the water... |
Plymouth, waiting for the gale to get out of breath | Let's
head to Plymouth Marina for the duration of the gale, and discover the
city of Drake and Nelson. It suffered quite a lot of bombing during the
2nd World War, but still has its charm and even a few middle-age houses
which survived, a really nice esplanade with a sea view, and many
nice bars and restaurants. And we also enjoy this break to sleep,
sleep, sleep without any alarm clock for the tide...
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We
stay stuck during 2 days because of the gale, even taking a bus to the
Yealm River area for a great walk along the wild shore.
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Waiting along the coastal trails
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On
Tuesday the wind is supposed to drop a bit, and the tide is still with
us in the morning. We wake up at 4am and leave at dawn in a reasonable
wind but still quite heavy seas. Running is fine in these conditions.
We sail pass Salcombe again, then Dartmouth where the wind seriously
picks up, probably above 30 knots at time. We continue a bit worried
about what conditions are waiting for us beyond Berry Head, the next
cape. We meet porpoises at this time. Finally the "Tor Bay" is more
sheltered and we can enter Brixham.
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Replica of Drake's ship | So,
Brixham is a cute town, but for us it's been the place where we
struggled with mooring... First on a mooring buoy, then we have to move
to a very bad berth, alongside another boat on which the strong wind
pushes us to. We bend (a bit) a stanchion in the fight before leaving
this trap and ending up on the lee of an old gaffer with a very
welcoming crew. In between all these movements we walk a bit the
fishing habour, rather authentic, and which displays a full size
replica of the ship on which Drake has sailed his mythical navigation
around the world. Between us it's a clog !!! Unbelievable that he has
passed Cape Horn against the wind in this... thing!
But we don't
have time to stare it too much, a few hours of sleep and we leave at
midnight (after a 12h stop), to join the ugly part of the country... sorry Eastern England !
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We
cross again Lyme bay, this time dead running, first flying goose wings
then with just the genoa on a pole. The tide stream si against us but
weak while in the bay and we are making good progress. We are right
offshore Portland Bill at the tide change, and the rythm start
increasing. The tide coefficient is 114 today and the current is pretty
impressive. We sail faster than 10 knots over the ground... Godd news
is that we swallow miles quickly and we are already in Swanage bay at
the next tide change. The wind is rather strong and we are happy to
find mooring buoys in this bay strategically positionned right south fo
the Pool Bay, a mess in which we really don't want to get into !
We
have a good night of sleep, shadowed by the Tenacious, a large British
3-mast shooner who also anchored here for the night, and that we had
spotted in Bergen a few weeks before.
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Swanage bay, the convenient mooring buoy ! |
The Needles, mythical rocks at the South-Westerly end of the Isle of Wight
| Thursday,
let's go to the Solent ! We get in through the mythical Needles
channel. The entrance is very choppy because of the stron current. Then
the Solent conveyor belt brings us to famous Cowes is a wind becoming
quite strong on th edge of these gray clouds. To our highest surprise
the marinas are not very expensive, we were expecting much luxury, not
at all ! To be fair the surroundings don't really allow for it... it's
kind of ugly ?!... |
Before
exploring the sailing Mecca, we head to East-Cowes using the chain
ferry boat to visit the Osborne Castle. This villa and its huge
backyard used to be the summer house of Queen Victoria, and also where
she died. Interesting visit where we learn a lot about the Britich
Royal family and the customs of the 19th century. The walk in the parc
and privta beach is humid but still enjoyable.
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Osborne, the summer house of Queen Victoria |
Sun set over the Yacht Club of Cowes | Back
to the city for a rather disappointing walk. Indeed everything is about
sailing, we can find all the equipment we dream about and even more
(wait, oily -shorts ?? ), we can spot prestigious yacht clubs, bright
canons firing starts for regattas, and the photographer Beken of Cowes.
But these is not much atmosphere, no amazing racing boat or old gaffer,
and finally we quickly go back to our bunk. |
Friday
we leave with the currnet (why doing differently !) to get out of the
Solent towards the East, slaloming between the tankers and the
regattas. A few miles after the exit, sharp turn to the left, passing
over the sand bar (there was enough water thanks) and we enter the
meanders of the bay of Chichester. It's a closed water area that can
only be entered through a narrow gully and it's bar then, made of
several rivers whic spread over a very flat area. There is indeed
something of the Dutch inner waterwys here... Sailing (with sails, back
to our elegance concern) in these channels is very peaceful... or would
be without the hundred if not thousand dinguies which joyfully sail
everywhere !!! Well, we haven't found any mosquito smashed on our bow,
but that was close! We sail up to Bosham, really cute historical town
(well, hidden behing flashy sails), and we go back to a beach close to
the gully to drop the anchor for the night. Still without engine as
pure sailing is the - elegant - theme of the day. It takes us some time
to go onshore as the current picks up to a good 4 kts then a big squall
hits us. We finally touch land at dusk, the time when the clams get out
of their hidden places to get some fresh air: we don't even need to dig
in teh sand we can simply pick them up like seasnails ! Perfect we
didn't know what to eat tonight... Going back onboard we realise
that the boat is way to close to a mud bump and we quickly move to a
deepr anchorage place using the engine, elegance has its limits...
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Amazing sunset, but we were way too close to the beach...
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Approaching beautiful Newhaven | Saturday,
it's time to head back to Newhaven... There is bad weather coming and
the wind is supposed to pick up progressively during the day until it
reaches force 7-8 in teh beginning of the night. We leave at 6:30 for a
day where we will use one after another all our techniques of sailing
when pushed by the wind! First with the spinneaker until about noon,
then the genoa on a pole and main sail in goose wings as the wind picks
up, then without a pole, then with a reef, then no more main sail, and
finally we roll the genoa a bit to reduce its size just before luffing
into Newhaven channel. A great navigation and a perfect timing: hardly
2 hours after we are back, the wind start reaching near gale force and
we enjoy our optimization of the weather window ! |
An
excellent trip where we got back to our life as "Saltimbanques". Laure
even baked bread ! We could definitively sail a bit further on a west
heading...
Just one thought for our beloved engine Nestor as it was its last trip... Thanks Nestor for never totally let us down !!!
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