4. Stuck in Padstow…….

We had planned to stay in Padstow for a day to fix a few things on the boat that weren’t quite right – and to  have a day off - before continuing our trip round to Fowey on the south coast.  However things didn’t quite work out that way.  The weather forecast became worse every time we heard it.  We’d touched on force 6 winds between Porlock and Lundy and that had been very unpleasant indeed.  The forecast on the Wednesday evening before our departure was threatening force 8 and there are no sheltered bolt holes between Padstow and Falmouth.  We decided to stay on for a couple more days until it had blown over.  Peter took the train home so that he could get on with some sensible things but we didn’t have that choice. His taxi driver thought that we’d be stuck until the following Tuesday – and here we are: stranded!  It is now Monday and the winds and tides look right for tomorrow.

 

 

Padstow has been a lovely place to get stuck, albeit a bit on the pricey side. The weather for the past few days has been wonderful, although not so good out along our planned route round to Fowey.  A few other boats got stuck by the weather too so we had some drinking partners to commiserate with.

 

 

Hopefully we will be leaving Padstow at 1400 on Tuesday 22 July and arriving at Fowey sometime on Wednesday morning.  We just have time for a last taste of Rick Stein’s fish and chips…..

3. Towards the open sea……

We left Cardiff at 0830 on Monday 14th July and set off across the Bristol Channel to Porlock near Minehead in order to visit Brian Debney, former Harbour Master at Porlock Weir.  Brian built Severn Swan during the late 1970’s and early 80’s. We first tracked him down about 5 years ago via google and Thornbury Yacht Club.

We knew that Brian was out with the binoculars so we tried to put on an appropriate show as we approached, with all sails up.  We are too big for Porlock Weir so Brian guided us by phone to the anchorage off the beach opposite the pub and we rowed ashore. We had help from Jim, the Commodore of the Porlock Sailing Club, to haul the dinghy up the beach and then went to the pub to find a very emotional Brian.  We had a wonderful couple of hours hearing his tales of circumnavigation, downed a pint and then had to scarper quickly as the weather started to deteriorate.

We left Porlock at 2000 in big waves (to me anyway), rain and increasing wind. I threw up all the way to Lundy where we anchored at 0330 in relatively calm water.

 

 

 

 

 

Our schedule only allowed us 3 hours to get ashore, explore Lundy, and get ready to leave again.

 

 

The weather could not have been better after such a hideous night. We pretty much galloped round the nearest end of the island (which is only 3 miles long and half a mile wide thankfully) and managed to squeeze in half an hour for puffin spotting.  I would definitely like to come back here one day as it must be one of the most tranquil place I have visited.  It would be a brilliant place to unwind.

Up anchor again and off to Padstow.  Despite the blue skies and sunshine, the sea was very lumpy for the first couple of hours and cooking bacon butties was a challenge that I had to abandon half way through.

We threaded our way up the estuary to Padstow Harbour during the early evening with a non-functioning depth sounder, managing to nearly run aground in the process, and tied up to the wall in the inner harbour. It was a lovely summer evening and Padstow was heaving with tourists (can’t make any gaffs with parking the boat with such a large audience).  We did a quick, and increasingly desperate, tour of the streets around the harbour looking for Rick Stein’s fish and chip takeaway and then sat on the wall to devour our bounty.  I have to say that it really was the best fish and chips that I have ever tasted, and not much more expensive than the average chippie.

Leaving Sharpness, Portishead and Cardiff….

We made good our escape ! Thanks a million to everyone who turned out at Sharpness at 0600 to wave us off. After so many months of aching to leave Sharpness it was actually very sad to leave.  We shall miss all our friends at Sharpness (and Penny’s chicken curry half and half at Sharpness Dock Worker’s Club) and at Cranham (and Lissie’s wonderful roast chicken and mummy chips). Not that we are obsessed with food or anything…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

We we so very lucky with the weather.  The wind was northerly which allowed us to get the sails up shortly after leaving Sharpness. It was wonderful to be able to sail under the two Severn bridges. Paul Simpson (along with Cathy) was our helmsman for much of the way and we are grateful to Gordon and Bill for giving us the benefit of their in-depth knowledge of the River Severn.  It is a bit of a scary river to navigate.

We locked in at Portishead without mishap at 0845 and filled up one of our two tanks with fuel (a sharp intake of breath at the cost) 

We had hoped to be able to take Severn Swan to Bristol Docks to see our old work colleagues but we realised a while back that we would be strapped for time.  It was wonderful when some of them came to us in Portishead instead. Thanks – we really enjoyed seeing you.

 

Peter Shaw joined us at Portishead on Friday morning. We locked out at 0930 and had a cracking sail over to Barry on the ebb tide and then back to Cardiff on the flood.  With such a massive range, the tides are certainly something to be wary of. We locked into Cardiff Bay late in the afternoon and Cardiff Yacht Club had kindly saved an easy-to-get-into space for us on the pontoon at Mermaid Quay.  We had a prime position opposite the Parliament building and a stone’s throw from the food festival.

 

 

At last we found a use for the huge bag of signal flags that came with the boat all of those years ago – there was a competition for the best dressed ship. However we cocked it up somewhat when the string of flags came apart in the middle so I had to go up the mast to retrieve the broken end.  Nice view from the top though…… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of highlights:

The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Margaret Jones, gave an address to a gathering of boaties on the pontoon from our foredeck and we won the prize for best dressed boat ! (but we didn’t get to keep the Welsh dragon trophy).

Yummy cooked breakfast at Cardiff Yacht Club, lots of alcohol (not for breakfast though), any sort of food that you can imagine was available from street vendors.

We got to look around other boats (including another ferro boat – we are not the only nutters) and met a lot of very friendly Bristol Channel yotties.

 

Certainly a weekend to remember (but I don’t think that we shall be getting the flags out again!). 

Bit of a change of plan next – we aren’t going to Milford Haven.  We are still going from Cardiff to Porlock but then we are going straight down the English side rather than going over to Milford Haven.

 

 

 

 

Almost ready to go – but not quite…..

The pressure is mounting whilst we finish getting the Severn Swan (and ourselves) ready to launch forth into the big blue yonder. Martin has hurt his back again and I am still recovering from a recently broken wrist. All systems go then….. (Fortunately we had some help).

Our current plan is to leave Sharpness on Thursday 10th July on the 0630 tide.

We will only be going a couple of hours down the river to Portishead where we will fill up with fuel (we will need a mortgage for that) and stay overnight. On Friday we intend to go over to Cardiff for the International Food and Drink Festival.  I haven’t been to this before but with a title like that it must be good!

After the festival we will spend a day or so messing around in Cardiff Bay to test various systems before setting off for Milford Haven, hopefully via Porlock Weir so we can see the Harbour Master who build Severn Swan during the 1970’s and 80’s.

The tale of how we got to this point  - ie how we came to buy Severn Swan and then strip her out and rebuild her is set out on our website: schoonercharter.com (and it is nothing to do with chartering).