Dover, February 2005

"Oh, I've bin to Plymouth, I've bin to Dover -  I've bin ramblin', boys, the wide world over." (Rudyard Kipling)

On 21st January 2005 the weather set fair for us to leave Limehouse, London and sail to Dover. It was good to be on the move again, after four months in Limehouse Basin. At Dover, our old base, we could meet and spend time with all our old friends in the White Cliffs Motorboat & Yacht Club while Andrew continued to work until his job finished with a conference in Brussels in March. We endured the worst winter for some years with inches of snow on the deck for a couple of weeks.

We had a wonderful send-off from Dover, leaving early on Sunday 6th March for Gosport. The trip was not without incident. After leaving Brighton in a head wind we motored through the Looe Channel just before dark and could turn the boat off the wind, which was just as well because the engine decided to fail. By accident we had emptied one of the fuel tanks and the lines were full of air which just could not be bled off. So we sailed to Gosport, obtaining clearance from the Queen's Harbour Master to enter Portsmouth harbour without an engine, where we were towed without charge into Haslar Marina.

While in the Solent, the photographer from Yachting Monthly came and took photos of us first inside the yacht, then sailing outside the Hamble River. We hope this will provide them with stock photographs of us if we are able to write anything exciting about our travels. We have not yet seen the results.

After a few days we continued on our way, first to Poole harbour, and then on to Weymouth, but we were going so fast with the tide, specially with the races round the headlands, we continued straight on to Brixham. We sailed through the middle of the Portland Race at the height of the tide, bumpy but we covered 11 miles over the ground in one hour!

We reached Plymouth at the end of March. The original plan had been to set off to the Azores at the beginning of May, but an unanticipated problem caught up with us, that meant we were obliged to go back to Dover. We returned from Plymouth via Pontrieux in Brittany and the Channel Islands. Denbigh and Bon Gabbitas gave us a great break in Pontrieux with real beds for three nights in their gorgeous new home there. We next took the opportunity to join in the WCMYC annual rally to Holland for May Bank Holiday, with friends old and new. A pleasant week with good weather around the usual destinations of Middelburg, Veere, Zierikzee, Goes. En route we called into Nieuwpoort and met up again with Jan Maes, our friend from the BYM forum, who took me for a spin on his 'Beemer'.

Lyn pillion on Jan's BMW

WCMYC Rally Barbeque at Goes

After, we had two weeks in Dover. Andrew had several days’ work in Canterbury and London. Then, on the afternoon tide of Tuesday 21st June, for the second time we left Dover. Light winds down channel made for slow progress, and we anchored first off Rye, then east of Brighton, and then in Hayling Bay for the foul tides before reaching the Solent where we spent the night in Osborne Bay.

This was the week of the bi-centenial Trafalgar celebrations. The actual day on Tuesday 28th June was breezy and with hundreds of small boats anchored at close quarters, it became quite exciting at times. To be honest, we only saw a few of the actual events. The centre of East Solent was filled with warships and tall ships from 40 countries. In the early afternoon, in the distance the Queen appeared on what looked like a bus shelter perched on top of the bridge of HMS Endurance and toured around the fleet, followed by the The Grand Turk pretending to be HMS Victory. Horns were blown for the Queen and the immaculately turned out crews of the warships applauded as the Grand Turk sailed by. Then there was a lot more waiting while unseen ships sailed past the Queen, now anchored near the entrance to Portsmouth. The air display was pretty much obscured by a heavy thunder shower. It cleared by the evening, when we moved closer to Portsmouth in the hopes of being able to see the simulated battle of Trafalgar between the tall ships. All we could see was a blue light, and vaguely one tall ship, though we could hear the bangs and the excitable commentary on the radio. But it was followed by a most spectacular firework display, well worth the waiting. We then returned to anchor in Stokes Bay, turning in amidst the horde, but by morning it was just us and the warships again.

Sentinel in Fishcombe Cove

A couple of days later saw us in Brixham again where we anchored in tiny Fishcombe Cove, a curious seal paying us a visit. Then around to Dartmouth, for a pontoon mooring in the river that cost a mere £11 for the night.

The next day we set off for Plymouth, motoring in light south-west winds. But before we reached Start Point, the engine alarms were buzzing and all the red lights were on. The engine had overheated and was hissing steam. So the sails had to go up and we tacked slowly towards the headland, unable to reach it before the tide changed. An hour or so later the engine had cooled down enough to check, and we found the cooling water had completely drained. It needed an awful lot of fresh water poured in. To our relief the engine started OK though there was a leak on the back end of the heat exchanger, a couple of bolts having worked loose. We continued to beat very slowly towards Plymouth: the 25 mile passage took 9 hours before we finally picked up a buoy off Torpoint.

The beginning of July and 1,500 miles logged since we left London in January, yet we had still only reached Plymouth!