Dartmouth Devon UK

The beaches of Herm glowing in the sunshine

The highlight of our 1300hrs departure from Guernsey was being intercepted by JJ, Matt and Simone to wave farewell to us and wish us good luck on our travels.

The beaches of Herm glowing in the sunshine

It was a fantastic send off which had intended to be with a boat on each side of Blue Velvet but, in the finest traditions of seamanship, Simone in the other motorboat found himself distracted taking in tow a sailing vessel that had got a line wrapped around its propeller.  We waved to Simone as he towed the disabled vessel in the opposite direction towards St Peter Port whilst enjoying being escorted up the Little Russel by JJ and Matt.  It was a grand farewell from Guernsey.

Tuesday morning in Dartmouth on the midstream pontoon

We actually needed to get to Falmouth to have our new pulpit fitted but the weather was not playing ball.  The westerly wind might not have been good for Falmouth but it was ideal for a passage towards Dartmouth; perfect for seeing our friends Nici and Strevs who live there.

So, we set off close hauled on starboard tack and 11 hours later, at just after midnight, we completed a 73 mile passage to Dartmouth and tied up on one of the mid-stream pontoons by the Upper Ferry across the River Dart.

(Top) The Britannia Royal Naval College and Upper Ferry and (below L & R) the Dartmouth Steam Railway
 train running down the Kingswear side of the estuary close to our mooring 

The morning brought delightful views of the River Dart with the Britannia Royal Naval College overlooking us on the high ground above the Upper Ferry, the Dartmouth Steam Railway train running down the Kingswear side of the river close to our mooring, and the picturesque estuary laid out before us.  But it was a prompt start for us because we had arranged to meet Nici and Strevs for breakfast at a café in the town before spending the morning at their house catching up on the latest news.

Looking upriver from above Warfleet Creek

We hatched a plan for an afternoon walk, followed by drinks and then dinner out before heading our separate ways for a few hours, which allowed us to catch up on a little ‘post passage admin’ on BV.

Kingswear

A couple of hours later, mid-afternoon, we met up again with Nici and Strevs (and Saffy their dog) and set off on a leg-stretch out to Dartmouth Castle at the southern entrance to the river.

(Top) Looking across to Kingswear from Warfleet Creek and (below) the
Britannia Royal Naval College and Royal Dart Yacht Club 

(L) Looking up-river and (R) across to Kingswear Castle

It’s a lovely walk with great views up-river and across to Kingswear and the tea-room at the castle does great ice-creams too!

Looking out from Shoals seafood restaurant over the Shoalstone Seawater Bathing Pool

After evening drinks up at Nici and Strev’s house, Nici drove us out to Berry Head just to the east of Brixham for a lovely seafood dinner at Shoals restaurant which overlooks Tor Bay.  A perfect evening with friends, with perfect weather to enjoy the views.  It would have been nice to dally longer in Dartmouth but overnight the wind was expected to veer to the north and we needed to take advantage of the brief period of favourable wind if we were to get west to Falmouth. The tide meant it would be an 0700hrs departure, so Dartmouth turned out to be a lovely, but brief, 36 hour stop-over.

Dartmouth, Devon, UK

St Peter Port Guernsey

A lot has happened in the first half of 2024.  Whilst spending February in the shed at Boatworks, Blue Velvet had new skin fittings, the scratches on her topsides patched up, the bent stanchions and bases all sorted, a new genoa Furlex, the staysail Furlex refurbished, replacement guardrails, the mast wiring replaced, the chainplate bolts replaced, and a complete new set of standing rigging.  The outstanding work required was a refurbishment of the backstay tensioner, which needed a new bearing and seal, plus a new pulpit.  The latter was a bit of a drama as the one sent from the UK in January had poor quality welding and legs of different lengths.  It was rejected as a proper fix but we still needed to get BV to the UK so the guys at Boatworks managed to work it into position and bolted it down with one bolt on each leg to allow us to sail to Hayling Island for the next phase of the storm damage repairs; the respray.

The mast being re-stepped before relaunch

The respray was going to happen at the Hayling Yacht Company on Hayling Island on the south coast of the UK, just east of Portsmouth.  Typically for March the weather forecast was not looking good for a Channel crossing and we had the added complication that the Hayling Yacht Company is based up a small drying creek so arrival times were critical. Slightly later than we would have hoped, we departed Guernsey on 10 March with no wind for a motor up to Alderney in the hope of catching a weather window the next day for a Channel crossing.  The 0930am start had us sailing hard on the wind but by late afternoon the wind had backed to the west and we were able to get across to Portsmouth arriving at 11pm. Portsmouth was a bonus as it allowed us to meet up the next day with a good friend, Richard Farrington, and also to pick up a new genoa car (to match our discontinued models) which I had tracked down as old stock held by a supplier in Gosport.  It also meant that we could depart Gosport on Wed 13 March and time our arrival at Hayling Yacht Company to fit in with the tidal constraints of the drying creek.

BV sat high and dry at low water with her keel dug into the mud

It was quite windy on the Wednesday, so we took the opportunity to drop the genoa whilst we were en-route to Hayling Island, rather than wait until we were in the marina with the risk of the sail catching on surrounding boats and/or piles. Having felt our way into the marina towards the top of the tide, and hauled the keel through the mud into or berth, we spent our first ever night with BV in a mud mooring. As the tide went out, BV’s keel settled into the soft mud so that she was high and dry well before low water.  The following day we crept around the shallows to position her off the slipway so that she could be hauled out.

BV being hauled out at the Hayling Yacht Company on Hayling Island

After the haul out we spent a night on board and the next day watched as the mast was craned off.  At that point it was time for us to be picked up by our friends Jonathan and Anne Lloyd who very kindly hosted us for the night and even dropped us off at the ferry port first thing in the morning for our return to Guernsey.

BV in the spray bay

A proper respray is not a quick process.  BV needed to be put into the spray bay, and then after hours of careful preparation work and masking up, multiple layers of Awlcraft 2000 were sprayed on and left to fully harden.  It wasn’t until mid-May that it was time to get the ferry back to Portsmouth to pick her up.

New Coppercoat on the waterline

Anne very kindly picked us up from the ferry port and dropped us off at the boatyard, and a week later she and Jonathan hosted us overnight, which was a delightful break from hard work at the yard.  Deliberately arriving a few days before the launch date, which was constrained by the tide, we knew that we would have a busy few days ahead of us.  Before we launched, we wanted to gently sand the Coppercoat antifouling to expose fresh copper and reactivate it.  We had been told that we would have to do that inside the spray bay where there were properly filtered extractor fans.  However, our expected one day of work before BV was ready for the mast to be put back on turned out to be a few days longer.  The surface prep work for the respray had necessitated sanding away some of the Coppercoat along the waterline.  So, as well as reactivating the Coppercoat, we also found ourselves with the extra task of repainting Coppercoat along the waterline and then leaving it for a few days until it had hardened enough to be sanded ready for relaunch. 

BV being inched out of the spray bay

With the Coppercoat work complete, BV could be removed from the spray bay.  Easy enough to say, not so easy in practice!  BV was a very exact fit for the spray bay and the tractor/trailer driver and manoeuvring team needed to be absolutely on the ball to work her out of the bay, with just centimetres of clearance at times.  Once she was out (and we’d stopped holding our breath!), she was ready for the mast to be re-stepped.

And with the mast re-stepped, she was ready to be launched at the top of the tide on Friday 24 May.  But, as soon as she was back in the water, we needed to skedaddle from the Hayling Yacht Company slipway quickly before the tide dropped too much for us to get out of the creek. Once we were out of the creek we were able to relax a little and, while Nicky motored us along gently, I checked the rig tensions which you can only do when the hull is in the water.  Our backstay tensioner was still in Guernsey because the bearing needed for its refurbishment still hadn’t arrived from Italy, so instead our rigger had given us a huge bottlescrew and Dyneema strop as a jury-rigged replacement to get us back to Guernsey. So we were never looking for perfect rig tension, just something in the right ball park to allow us to sail safely back home.

We split the passage home to Guernsey over a few days.  Our first passage was a short one: Hayling Island to Shepherds Wharf in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  Here we met up Tim and Ann Walters, some Guernsey friends who fairly recently moved to the Isle of Wight, and had a lovely evening catching up with them and admiring their new home.

We weren’t the only yacht taking advantage of the good wind to set off from the Solent

We left Cowes the following morning and had good sail across the Channel arriving in Alderney just before midnight.

Braye Harbour, Alderney

Aside from letting us to spend the Bank Holiday weekend in Alderney, our stop off also allowed us to pick up our new outboard motor from Mainbrayce Chandlery.  Our previous outboard motor had been damaged in the November storm and Mainbrayce had recently had their new stock delivered including our 9.8Hp Tohatsu to replace the one that had been damaged.

Alderney

Returning to Guernsey on Monday 27 May, the plan was to fit our refurbished backstay tensioner, do the final packing of BV and then set off on our next sailing adventure at the beginning of June.  However, we found out that the bearing had still not arrived from Italy.  All indications were that it had been lost in the post.  After an extensive internet search, I found one supplier in the UK that had just one of the required bearings in stock.  However, at £125 each it wasn’t something that I wanted to order on a whim when potentially we had 2 arriving from Italy “any day”.

The new bowsprit – wooden template (top left) and final version in position (bottom left and right)

As we were stuck in Guernsey waiting for the bearings to arrive, “any day now”, 2 tasks bubbled up as priorities.  The first was a new bowsprit.  Getting that welded was suddenly possible as our Guernsey supplier had got the right thickness stainless stell tubing in stock.  I made a wooden mock-up of the locating plate, tested the fitting with that and then the stainless steel version was made and welded onto the tubing along with an eye fitting and end plate.  To finish the job off, I shaped the heel of the tube to fit over the end of the anchor point on our foredeck.

The generator with the cylinder head and ancillaries removed

The other major job that I needed to tackle was sorting out an oil leak on our generator.  Two seals needed to be replaced but to do that the whole cylinder head needed to be removed, along with a lot of ancillary attachments.  It was a job that I had been putting off for far too long but with the delays I had no excuse not to get on with it.  The generator looked quite bare with the head off but despite my concerns about the size of the job, everything went back together seamlessly with new seals and gaskets to replace the old ones.  Better still, once the tappets had all been set up again, the generator fired up and ran perfectly and with no oil leak!

However, having been distracted for a further week, the bearings from Italy still hadn’t turned up. We decided that order was most likely lost and so ordered the last one in stock from the UK supplier.  In typical comedy style, on 13 June the bearing from the UK supplier and the 2 bearings form Italy all arrived in the same postal delivery.  The 2 bearings had been posted in Italy on 16 April and didn’t arrive in Guernsey until almost exactly 2 months later!!

Needless to say, our rigger, Mark Terry at INOX, who had been equally frustrated by the delays was a star.  The backstay tensioner was rebuilt, fitted and the rig tensions all set up properly within a couple of days.  That allowed us to set to with stocking up the fridge and rations lockers plus the last few clothes and other gubbins that we needed to squeeze on board.

BV all packed up and ready to go

With everything set and the weather forecast checked, we announced our departure time as 1300hrs on Sunday 16 June.  The time was fixed as the earliest we could get out of the QEII marina, and the day was set by the packing being finished and the weather being favourable. As an added bonus, it was also our 23^rdwedding anniversary so a further reason to celebrate.

Having announced our departure we had some leaving drinks on board the preceding evening and it was clear that some of our Guernsey friends JJ, Simone and Matt were plotting a departure surprise for us; we’d have to wait until 1300hrs to see what they had planned.

St Peter Port, Guernsey

St Peter Port Guernsey

 Blue Velvet’s forward stanchions and pulpit were badly damaged, her rig was bashed and she also got some scratches on her topsides when the marina pontoon that she was moored to broke up during Storm Cieran, 1-2 November 2023.  The 80 knot gusts of winds snapped the hinges on one of the hammerhead finger pontoons she was tied to and the remaining pontoon cleats that she was attached to were ripped out, allowing her to bump into some other yachts in the marina.  Not great news as it has turned our pre-departure minor refit plans into a pretty major refit and repair session.

Blue Velvet has hauled out on Tuesday 30 January for the start of that repair and refit work.  It will take a couple of weeks to get the first stage of that work completed and then we will need to sail over to England for the next stage.  Photos of the work and an update will appear shortly but it will be a very busy 2 months if we are to hit our planned set off date of 1 May.

St Peter Port, Guernsey

Loch Spelve Mull Scotland

When we had returned to BV the previous evening we had kicked ourselves for forgetting to take to the barbecue with us an OCC burgee for John (at that point the newest member of the OCC).  So we hatched a cunning plan to hand one over as we left Craobh Haven Marina.

Nicky handing over an OCC burgee to John Blair (Ballyhoo).  It was a windy and drizzly morning so she tied it
onto a boathook to give a little more reach and to reduce the risk of that fender actually being needed!

Sunday 7 August dawned drizzly and wind, and the wind was now blowing directly into the bay where John was anchored, not ideal conditions for doing a slow ‘drive past’ an anchored yacht to hand over a burgee!  But with the aid of a boathook to add reach, and large fender to hand, Nicky managed to pass the burgee across whilst I got BV as close as I dared and held her there a short time until the wind necessitated I back out.

A brisk sail towards the south tip of Luing

We had debated whether to go into the Firth of Lorne via the Sound of Luing (to the west of Luing), which would necessitate a short leg south from Craobh Haven or whether to route through the Cuan Sound to the north of Luing.  The pilot book’s description of the Cuan Sound, featured dire warnings about the speed of the tidal flow, the imperative need for accuracy in your course, and concerns about a couple of rocks at a steep turn in the passage.  Plus we certainly wouldn’t be sailing through Cuan Sound (too narrow, too ‘dire’) but with the wind direction we should have a good sail taking the longer route.  We opted to go south to go north.

Smoky McSmokeboat

We had a brisk sail, hard on the wind down to the south tip of Luing and as we prepared to turn north up the Sound of Luing a small vintage fishing boat appeared from the south heading up the Sound.  Periodically, the funnel pushed out clouds of evil, black smoke for a good 5 mins, before the effluent became a more reasonable grey for a short while…. And then reverting to deepest black again.  Presumably, the black smoke was generated by the crew throwing a few shovels of coke into the boiler but, boy, did it look unpleasant.  In fact it looked so bad that one large motoryacht called up the vintage fishing boat to ask if there was a problem, to which a broad Scots voice replied laconically that everything was fine and that the fuel with which they were feeding the boiler was ‘a wee bit smoky’!  Understatement of the century!

11.9 knots SOG (speed over ground) with only about 6 knots boat speed as we headed through the top end of the Sound of Luing and into the Firth of Lorne

Towards the top end of the Sound of Luing, the channel narrows and the large volume of water flowing through the narrow gap results in a huge increase in speed.  As we passed through we saw 11.9 knots over the ground – a tidal flow of around 5 knots – not bad given that we were going through not long before slack water.

Entering Loch Spelve

Our destination was Loch Spelve, a large, deep loch on Mull, with a narrow entrance and good number of mussel and fish farms along the shoreline.

Anchored in the northwestern arm of Loch Spelve

Once through the entrance we headed up to the northwest arm which the pilot book recommends as the best anchorage and which the Cruising Association’s CAptain’s Mate reports recommend, due to the presence of the mussel farm HQ and an honesty box system for buying mussels.

John anchored by the mussel dock

We anchored as far up to the west as we could, John on Ballyhoo (who’d come the shorter route via Cuan Sound and had caught up with us at the entrance to Loch Spelve) anchored a little closer to the mussel farm pier.

There’s a huge mussel farming operation in Loch Spelve

John had his dinghy on davits which made it easy to launch; ours was rolled up on the deck and a half hour evolution to launch.  So he picked us up and we all went ashore for a look-see and to find out if there were any mussels left to buy.

The sign says it all – and the mussels were delicious!

Being a Sunday we didn’t expect the that the cool-boxes would have been replenished but there were plenty of bags available so we splashed out on 5kg of mussels, had a chat with a couple of other yachties doing the same thing, and returned to BV.

View out to the anchorage.  Ballyhoo in the middle BV somewhere behind

Toasting the Queen with a tot

Our last meeting before this year had been in Antigua in 2019 where we had drunk a tot (or more) of rum at gatherings of the Tot Club.  So it seemed appropriate to have a tot together under the Tot Club pennant…..

A mussel feast

…..as well as a slap-up moules feast – and, no, we didn’t cook all 5kg but we all probably ate more than we should have!

John’s present to us – a replacement GPS antenna for the AIS

As he left John said that he had a present for us.  It turned out to be the exact AIS GPS aerial we had been trying unsuccessfully to find in Scotland.  He had a couple of spares on board Ballyhoo and very kindly gave us one so that we could get our AIS working properly again.  It was a very thoughtful and much appreciated gift and one that, every time we switch on our AIS, will have us remembering a lovely day with John eating mussels in Loch Spelve.

Loch Spelve, Mull, Scotland

Craobh Haven Argyll Scotland

BV entering Simon and Sally’s bay from the north (photo by Simon Currin)

We left Achanarnich Bay early on the morning of Saturday 6 August, partly to ensure we had fair tide up to Craobh Haven Marina and partly because we wanted to arrive early enough to get a space.  Even flying just the genoa, we made good time, but when Nicky called the marina ‘first thing’ as previously directed (ie at about 0830), she was told that the staff do a check of berths at 0900 and that we should call back once that was complete.  So we took a bit of a sail around, looking into Lock Melfort and returning to ‘Simon and Sally’s Bay’.

BV approaching Craobh Haven Marina (photo by Simon Currin)

We rang the marina again at 0930, probably a little earlier than they were likely to be expecting us to call but……  Happily, the lady I spoke to said that we could have a berth on A pontoon, which saved us another half hour’s circling.

Moored at Craobh Haven Marina.  We found Westward, the newest Rustler 42, berthed just forward and to
starboard of us (right, stern towards us with beige canvaswork)

With the wind blowing from the south, it was rather tight to get into our berth if expecting to make the approach directly from the marina entrance.  However, by going past the berth and turning in a pool to the north of the pontoon run, I was able to make a nice accurate approach to the finger pontoon so that Nicky could step off and neatly side-step the dog (from the next-door boat) that was pacing up and down on the finger.

Views behind our berth at Craobh Haven Marina.  Top: the rocky point which hampered our swinging room
to turn directly into our berth. Bottom: the pool in which I turned BV and from which I made the
approach to our allocated berth

Westward.  Commissioned only 18 months ago she has carbon fibre spars,
lithium batteries, a large inverter, 2x 160Ah alternators on the main engine
and a Watt and Sea generator.  Her interior is also significantly reconfigured
compared to the standard layout and includes a bow deck locker, no forward
heads, no pilot berth, a large aft heads with separate shower and a
reconfigured wet locker/machinery space area.  
See https://www.rustleryachts.com/rustler-42-owner-review-sketchley/

Ahead of us in the marina we saw Westward the newest Rustler 42, which was Rustler’s display yacht at last year’s Southampton Boat Show and, we found out, will be displayed this year too.  We popped across to say hello to David and Michaela and ended up having a full tour of the boat with David showing us all the changes made from the standard layout.  He’s incredibly happy with his yacht (as the article linked above will testify) and we have no doubt that many new prospective owners will be specifying similar changes.

Not the warmest of days for a barbecue but at least it dried out nicely!

Simon and Sally Currin had invited OCC members to join them at their house for a barbecue from early afternoon.  We walked up from the marina – a nice stroll through the woods along the shoreline followed by a half kilometre dash along a surprisingly busy road.  It was a lovely afternoon with a good turn-out of around 30 OCC members.  Our friend, John Blair, whom we had met in the Caribbean in 2018 and with whom we shared Net-controller duties in 2020 as we crossed back across the Atlantic became the newest member of the OCC at the event.

The survivors’ photo.  Taken rather late in the day because we were all enjoying ourselves too much to remember
 to take any photos so several people had already gone home by this point.  [Ed:  Reg looks surprised that he
made it to the survivors’ photo!]

As is always the case at OCC gatherings, we met lots of interesting people who have undertaken fascinating passages.  In comparison, our travels seem remarkably tame.  The conversation flowed and with the distraction of talking sailing the barbecue was left rather later than might have originally been planned. However, I helped out with the cooking, the potluck supper theme worked well and we all enjoyed a lovely meal.  We could have stayed all evening talking and, indeed, as the rain set in again we did extend our stay to let it pass.  As ever, the day was over far too soon and we’re sure that there are people we didn’t get to speak to or with whom we would like to speak at greater length to pick their brains on routes and countries and passage-making ideas.  But we’re all members of the same club and so, worst case, can get in touch via email or phone.  Best case, we’ll meet again out on the water somewhere.

Craobh Haven, Argyll, Scotland

Achanarnich Bay Scotland

The pilot book gave dire warnings of the strength of the tidal streams from the top of Jura to the Firth of Lorne so we left Lussa Bay on Jura at 1530hrs, at the start of the north-going flood for the short 13nm sail to Achanarnich Bay on the mainland shore close to the tip of the Craignish Peninsula.

Approaching Achanarnich Bay

Again, we had a good northwesterly breeze and had a lovely close reach up the Sound of Jura.

Achanarnich Bay is a wild place and feels very remote though, in truth, it is only 4nm from Crinan.  However, there are no roads down this side of the Craignish Peninsula, no houses on the shores of the bay and more distant signs of human habitation are difficult, if not impossible, to see.  The mouth of Achanarnich Bay is open to the southwest but inside boats are apparently surprisingly well sheltered from southwesterly winds by the strong tidal flows outside.

After only two and a half hours underway, we arrived as the light was fading and the sky became more overcast which added to the sense of wilderness.  There are 2 possible entrances, both of which are narrow with strong tidal cross-currents.  We nosed in carefully, paying close attention to the Antares charts running on a plotter on my phone.  Though the space is quite restricted, the depths are good and entry was straightforward.

We dropped anchor on the east side of the long rock which runs down the length of the bay, a little to the west of the bay’s centre.  The anchor dug in well first time and we were happy we had good swinging room for the forecast wind overnight.  We had a prompt start planned for the following morning with the OCC BBQ in the afternoon.  But, for now, we could enjoy the solitude of the area and the beauty of our wild surroundings.

Achanarnich Bay, Scotland