A May Bank Holiday Experience

It can not be often that a weekend cruise with the ASC has provided a crew with so many new experiences and opportunities to practise different aspects of sailing. However by the time Monday evening saw those of us on Opalescence safely back on terra firma we had had the chance to practise the following:

Anchoring

Picking up a buoy under power (voluntarily)

Picking up a buoy under sail (not voluntarily)

A night time approach to Port Solent (well the last half)

A sixty mile plus passage

Making friends with the Portsmouth Harbour Police

Making friends with the Queens Harbour Master at Portsmouth (QMH to his friends) "

Entering Portsmouth Harbour the long way

Seeing Fizzgig airborne "

Securing a boat whilst aground (and re-floating it)

Pumping up the dinghy (twice)

It had all started fairly leisurely, thoughts of a cross channel expedition had shelved on the Thursday before due to an adverse weather report, so it was agreed that Sophy, Guy and I would meet up with Robin on Opalescence on Saturday morning at Gosport. Then rendezvous with Fizzgig and Lucrece, which were sailing up from Chichester, for lunch. After being acquainted with the boat by Robin we slipped and spent some time practising picking up Opalescence's mooring in case conditions were difficult on our return (Opalescence is kept on a mooring off Gosport). So a brisk sail out to the forts and we made contact with the Chichester contingent by VHF, agreed to meet in Port Solent that evening and to do our own things for lunch. Having discussed lunch options we popped across to Bembridge to look at the tide gauge, there being only 3 metres of water in the channel it was decided to pass; after all one wouldn't want to be go aground on a falling tide would one. A quick motor round and we anchored of in Priory Bay. Lunch over we had a nice sail back down to Portsmouth and headed down the channel toward Port Solent.

At this stage in the narrative I would like to introduce a what-happened-next competition, was it:

1. A Scenic Dinner: It was a beautiful evening, the view of the harbour and Porchester Castle that can hardly have changed since Roman times lay before us. The crew decided that rather than sitting in the marina eating dinner we would just nudge the boat into the mud for the last part of the outgoing tide. Have a leisurely dinner and motor on into the marina in 3 hours after the tide lifted us back off.

2. Training: The Skipper enquired of us if we knew what to do in the event of going aground, our answers were not up to standard so an immediate change of course was ordered to put us in the mud and learn.

3. Sabotage: A deliberate deviation was engineered by one member of crew in the knowledge that entry to Port Solent would be delayed by 3 hours, thus allowing the shops to close and preventing the family credit card being abused by said saboteurs spouse.

4. A Cock Up: on a busy boat with sails being stowed in failing light a red marker was missed, a corner cut resulting in the boat going aground.

Send your answer along with a tiebreaker in the form of a 20 word, or less, finish to the following. "The time I went aground ………………………………………………………….."

The winner will receive the co-ordinates of the most exclusive dining location in Portsmouth Harbour along with menu suggestions for waiting for tides to rise.

Having arrived in the situation of being in the mud, on a falling tide, the usual desperate attempts were made to get off [that rather blows the competition - Ed]. Try to reverse out, heel the boat over, try to spin the boat round. Nothing. The marina dory tried to pull us off, a halyard to the dory to heel us off. Nothing. Islands of mud appeared about us. When you do your theory classes you are given tidal calculations of the type;

At what time on the morning of the 28th of Dec will there be enough water to enter……

Or

What is the earliest time you can depart port X on 28th December?

We now settled down to calculate what time we would re-float; 3 hours. So oven on and make fast. As the wind was tending to blow us on we pumped the dinghy up and laid a kedge anchor to windward and enjoyed supper. The police launch came by and asked if we were OK, nice man he waved the next time he went by. As the tide rose we spun the boat round toward the kedge and 3 hours later we entered Port Solent.

Grab the glasses and bottles and over to Lucrece, what an understanding bunch our club attracts.

The ASC boats were the only ones that had any activity on them at 05:30 the next morning. All three boats locked out at 0600 and with a very low tide gingerly made their way out through the channel up to Portsmouth, some more gingerly than others. The plan was to head East to Brighton which meant that we had to get around Selsey Bill and the Owers, through the Looe channel, at around 11:00 to gain advantage of the east going stream. As it was a glorious sunny morning saw us eating a cooked breakfast as we exited the harbour and set course via the submarine barrier gap. A brisk motor sail followed up to the channel. The almanac says "a combination of tidal stream and strong wind produces heavy breaking seas and overfalls over a large area" it is not wrong. As we approached the buoys marking the channel the sea started to become extremely disturbed. It felt as though someone was standing at the bow of the boat throwing buckets of water at us. We were sailing in close company with Fizzgig and had several good views of her multicoloured hull, at one point we were sure she became airborne. Past the Owers and it was a beat up to Brighton with ample wind and a sunny day progress was good until the tide turned. That evening saw two crews in Brighton's version of the floating restaurants of Aberdeen Harbour Hong Kong and a restrained evening.

The next morning saw another early start; not quite as early as the day before but anything prior to 10am on a bank holiday Monday is early. Lucrece and Fizzgig planned to leave earlier than us as they had a constraint in getting over the Chichester bar, as it turned out Robin seeing us all up and almost awake decided to leave earlier than planned, this as it turned out was just as well. Out of Brighton we headed west, tide and wind against us so we were motor sailing. After an hour or so we were up with the Chichester contingent battling on toward the Looe Channel.

The engine note changed, or did it. A debate, not sure. Ten minutes went by and this time the engine note definitely changed, a check on the tachometer showed a definitive reduction of RPM. But all was OK, throttle back then return the throttle to its previous position and full power is restored. Now this was not good, we were still the wrong side of the Looe channel with the wind and tide coming from where we wanted to go and a long way from Portsmouth. The engine was inspected, nothing out of the ordinary, the diesel topped up, well you never know.

Another three or four times this occurred; loss of power, throttle back, wait a while and throttle back for full power. Then the engine stopped. It re-started a couple of times only to stop again as soon as load was applied, something round the prop? It soon became apparent that the engine was not going to behave which left two options, sail back the long way South of the Owers or get a tow through the Looe channel and sail back from there. A chat with Fizzgig, the obvious towing candidate, and it became obvious that we needed to sail back. So we plotted John's parting advice to us, "put in a long port tack", and decided to put in a starboard tack as Bognor has no marina facilities or moorings.

To get around the Owers it is necessary to go seven miles south of Selsey Bill, so south we headed. The problem was that on starboard tack we were being taken East by the tide and port tack took us back toward the Owers so we spent the rest of the morning heading south with the occasional port tack to stem the tide. As we came closer to our turning point the sea became rather bouncy and some of the crew thought it good time to feed the fish. We arrived at the south cardinal marking the edge of the Owers at about the start of the west going tide, now we started to make real progress with the GPS showing a steady six or seven knots over the ground, in the direction we wanted. From there we went slightly further south than strictly necessary to find smoother water and we headed to the Nab and a reach toward Portsmouth harbour entrance. Our only difficulty was identifying the Nab, there appeared to be two of them, checking the chart shed no light on the situation, was it a ship, no. After a while the penny dropped, it was the millennium tower in Portsmouth.

We went back via the submarine gap and as we approached the shipping lane tuned into the Queen's Harbour Master's frequency, established one addressed him as "QMH" and warned him we would be entering under sail, we were asked to call him once we arrived at No 4 buoy. It has to be said there was a touch of irritation in his voice that we had called, until we explained our predicament. About now the tide turned against us so we would be entering against the tide. A couple of tacks were necessary to avoid large ships exiting and we went for it, past No 4 buoy we called QMH and toward the entrance. As we drew up to the entrance all eyes were on the GPS for speed over the ground. The wind was still in the west and the tide against us so we knew that we would be at one stage in the wind shadow of Haslar and struggling to make way. As it was the sails did flap a bit and we did go down to less than one knot over the ground but we made it through. Breathing again we made our way to Gosport, after saying goodbye to QMH. Picking up the mooring was done on the second attempt and no drama, 65 miles and 13 hours after leaving Brighton we were back. However by now the courtesy ferry had stopped running so it was out with the dinghy for the second time and after several trips to ferry gear ashore it was getting on toward 10pm by the time we were on the road home.

A tiring but enjoyable weekend, throughout our adversities Robin remained the epitome of the unflappable skipper, who inspired complete confidence in the rest of us. Robin informs me that the engine is fine now, all that had happened was that dirt in the bottom of the fuel tank had been disturbed and blocked the fuel supply.

Barry and Sophy Gaines