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.