I’ve known Scott since 1998.  By his own admission, when we started on this joint he was a complete novice and had borrowed most of his foul weather gear.  

I could not have found a better companion who was able to give up the time to do this jaunt. Scott is a giant of a man, natural sportsman and perhaps the most affable character I know. His great love is rugby playing for Worcester and during his career, he has never thrown a punch on the pitch.  This is a rare quality especially taking into account the level that he has played at.

He is the type of bloke who can diffuse a situation by words alone and has been a rock of support on the trip so far.  He also has the ability to get to sleep on a boat without question and this has enable us to stay fresh on our watches.

One of the things I was criticized on my progression through the RYA certification of competence scheme was that I did too much myself and did not delegate.  This is because I’ve spent a lot of my life doing things by myself and become probably too self reliant.  I also find it difficult to fit into a team.  Because of his nature, I am learning to delegate more and by that I mean not bark out instructions but to ask with purpose instead.  However this will be the limit of my integration into team life.

During the recent rough weather experience, I would not let Scott on deck.  There were two reasons for this: Firstly I needed him to be rested so that when things calmed down he could take over at the helm and I could pass out.  Secondly I did not want him to be put off by being out in the cockpit.  I was quite concerned  and after the big waves was rather shock up.  It was better that I dealt with this myself rather than pass on my anxiety onto him.  Also he would have just got soaking wet and cold for no reason.  He accepted this without question and later confirmed to me that he understood why when he asked “Can I come up”  to be greeted with a short sharp “NO” from me.

In short, with regards to being in my company for any length of time,he is the best man for the job.  My faults are many – stuffy, bigoted, outspoken, right of center and I tend to judge a book by its cover.  There are few that can stomach it in a small space for any length of time.  Scott can and we work very well together.  Bit of a Ying and Yang situation.  Oh and just for the record, we are not poofs.

Plan was 180 nautical miles and  36hrs, straight up the Irish sea, across the North Channel and up the Firth of Clyde – Non stop.  Forecast over the next 2 days was  sea state smooth/slight, winds 3-4 occasionally 5. weather fine, fog patches.

Scott arrived back on the boat on the evening of Monday 16th with a curry.  We set the alarm of 0300hrs to leave and with the aim of being just off our North stack waypoint (Holy Island, Anglesey) at 0400hrs.

More fog again

The first 18hrs of the journey were rather mundane with the exception of fog however we rattled along at 5 knots keeping a good lookout.   Nothing much happened, some dolphins turned up for about 10 minutes, we past a lot of shipping heading south and slowly the Isle of Man came into view some 15 miles off to starboard.  Later, to the west, we could start to see the tops of the mountains of Mourne.  As we neared the top of the Isle of Man, dusk came along, the lights of the NE coastal towns of Eire shone on our port side. Visibility was for this period good.

Isle of Man

As we past Carlingford Loch, I spun a few dits about bandit country and then explained to Scott that I didn’t have any good memories of the locals be they from either side during the troubles.  Scott being a civvy all his life however did.  Accepting each others point of view we tucked into yet another boil in the bag of Lancashire hot-pot.  In hindsight, I should have got some beef stew and dumplings as I think these are a bit more tasty but the hot-pot was not that bad.  The chilli is however too salty.  While eating, we picked up Belfast coast guard and the weather forecast was now changing.  Irish sea F4-5, slight moderate, visibility good and very poor.  I assumed there was more fog on the way.

At about 0320hrs the forecast had changed again, F4-5, 6 in the North, moderate, viability good and very poor.  I was in the process of changing course at the time to cross the North Channel.  I had set the boat on a close reach and went down below to do a nav check etc when this forecast came in.  I not slating Belfast Coastguard, because the Coastguard service has seen many cuts and closures over the past 4 years and here they appeared to be covering what seemed to be a massive area from Carlingford loch to what it seemed most of the way up to Tiree, but they were just crap, their times were not regular and also at one point they appeared to have hired in Ian Paisley wannabe to  bark out the messages with fierce unintelligible conviction.

Scott went down below to get some rest.  The wind increased in strength and the sea started to build. I mad sure that I was clipped in to a strong point within the cockpit as the boat started to take on 2m waves coming in on the port-side bow.  I was off course being pulled Northwards.  The sea state rose to a steady 2.5m with the occasional breaking wave.  Scott came up and I promptly told him the best place is down below.  The sea required all my concentration and this was really the limit of the type of stuff I felt comfortable in.  Looking continuously over to port, trying to assess the next set of waves, I pulled the boat up wind then bore away to try and get back on track.

Then, it went all weird. I could suddenly sea a wave, one wave away, starting to develop a breaking crest that was getting bigger and bigger.  There was a pause and the wind seemed to die down, the wave face darkened up slightly and the crest started to tumble.  I remember saying “Oh shit” aloud as it towered up high above the bow, just as we were in the preceding trough.  I reckon it was a good 4m high. I slung the boat over to meet the wave head on and  then turned so we were climbing up the face at an angle of about 30 degrees.  The wave broke fully as we were near the crest, and to some extent we fell down the back side only to be met by a second similar wave and then a third.  I shouted “hold on” down below but didn’t have time to see where Scott was.  This shook me up for about half an hour afterwards as I constantly searched what area up wind I could see for more large waves.  About 0830hrs, I tuned East by South East as that would in theory slow things down a bit.  It worked and once we were in the lee of the Mull the sea-state dropped to a steady moderate.  Scott came up and I handed over the helm with strict instruction on what to do and what not to do.  I went below and fell asleep for 3hrs.

What we had just experienced was due to a number of factors

1. This area has a reputation for troubled waters due to the proximity of 2 large land masses with protruding headlands
2. The winds were strong and were being channeled through the North Channel which is only 12 miles wide at its narrowest point,
3. The tides were in opposition meaning that the flood coming around the North of Northern Island was meeting the flood coming up the Irish sea at the point where we were.
4. Waves were of such distance apart that they had a tendency to combine giving steep breaking faces and deep troughs

The result was blustery wind, steep waves with short wavelengths and sea mist.  As said earlier this was all new to me and the fact that there was no other vessel about said for itself that these were probably not the best conditions to be in.  However I was pleased with the boat and with our conduct.  You can’t teach these thing, you just have to put yourself out in theses conditions and cope with a bit of luck as well. The shift pattern worked very well.

Aisla Craig

By 1000hrs, everything had calmed down, we had past Ailsa Craig and were staring up the Firth with the East coast of Arran on our Port side.  As much canvas as permissible went up and we were getting an average of 6 knots which was great.  The weather improved to a North westerly force 4, sea state slight and brilliant sunshine.  Scott was crashed out below and we held our course no further. About 1930hrs we we tied up in the James Watt marina and set foot onto Scottish Soil.

For those of you who have donated and want evidence then go to https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/.  Put in my boats name which is Tongareva in the search box and its will show you where I am.  Note I turn it off in port but it will show you which port I’m in.

Scott gone I set off leaving Milford Haven at 0630hrs.  No fog just which was good however i could now see the 4 massive oil tankers and associated port traffic that was obscured the previous day by fog.

fortunately moored up

Again I considered splitting this into two parts by staying over night in Fishguard.  This again would have been the most sensible option as I was now alone – single handed. Again I thought sod it.

The whole trip took 23hrs for which I stayed wide awake throughout. What a trip though.  Doing this meant that I would experience flood/ebb/flood/ebb as far as tides were concerned. During the flood the boat speed was over 9knots and during the ebbs the worst was 1.4knots.  On average I made 5.6knots which is good for my vessel.   Not the fasted old bird but can take the shit.

Winds were more lighter than the previous so the engine was on for about 50% of the journey.  I past Bardsey Island at dusk and then had to navigate the rest of the way in the dark.  This was probably not the best move as not only was this going against the tide, but also meant keeping well off shore to avoid the turbulent maelstrom of South Stack whilst trying to avoid the ferries coming out of Holyhead. Again thanks to radar and AIS.

Total day was 22 hrs 125 nautical miles.

I’m staying here to Monday for 2 reasons.  Firstly I knackered and the locals have poisoned me and I got the trots.  Secondly I need to do work so the company keeps on track.  Although as any self employed business person will know its not the dickhead at the top that makes the company work its the staff that do it (thats another thing the marines hammered into me) Also although this is for charity I don’t want to be seen to be taking the piss too much with this one.

Sunset passing Bardsey Island

Dawn at Holyhead

It was essential that we left by 1030hrs as that was the last window for a favorable tide.

Mounts Bay did their final check and I paid the bill.  Just short of £2K including the vat but the insurance is paying out for the whole lot as getting tied up in a net was in their view totally unavoidable.  On that note it is amazing of how much crap their is in the sea – logs, nets, bits of rope but for the most part we see the  red labeled plastic Coke Cola bottles.  Pisses me off.  Next time I see someone drop one they will be given a choice, pick it up and put it in the bin or get dropped themselves.  Regardless of the legalities of such action I think this is a morally right approach to take.

We knew this was going to be a long one, there was the choice of splitting the passage up by an overnight in Padstow and perhaps a more cautious approach after having repairs would be to take it easy but in my view that would be avoiding the inevitable as we have several long passages ahead anyway so to hell with caution in this case.

Quite an uneventful crossing overall. The wind was fickle and it was engine then sails then engine etc, etc. Sea state was smooth and for about 3hrs in the latter part of the night we were joined by about 4 porpoises.  Hard to tell them apart as they all look the same.

About 10 miles of Milford we noticed low lying fog in the estuary.  Not ideal as its an oil refinery port and therefore massive ships that would squat us like flies.  On with radar, with a continual watch on the AIS plus listening to port traffic, it blind navigating from buoy to buoy with having to put a rather hope more than trust in my calculations of heading and speed plus the electronics.  About 100yrds, or half a cable in nautical terms, from the marina lock the fog lifted.

Stayed overnight, Scott left to go to Madrid to play rugby and I got shedded on Rev James Bitter and devoured and Indian.

Finally after nearly 4 weeks since the incident, the work was completed and we returned to Newlyn on Tuesday 10th June to get ready to leave the following morning.

Many thanks go to both Newlyn Harbour Authority and the exceptional repairs carried out by Mounts Bay Engineering.  Particular thanks go to Dave, Dan and Cameron who would not let me have the boat back until they were of the opinion that they would sail around the UK.  Dan and the Harbour master are ex-Navy and gave us an impeccable service