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Voyage to Lundy
The wine came out & autopilot went on!This first blog has taken a while to write - Firstly (and blissfully) Lundy didn't have any mobile or internet reception. Secondly we have only just had a moment in St Ives to sit down & relax.
Sunday 1st June We left Bristol at 8pm, extremely hungover & very behind schedule. Last minute rush to sort out boat. Mike drops his mobile phone into harbour during clean up op. Lovely send off from all our gorgeous friends. Thought the boat might sink under the weight of them all on board! Locked out of the harbour @ 8:15pm. Motor up to Portishead Marina. Arrive @ 10pm and straight to sleep for us all!
Crew Morale = 6
Monday 2nd June Up at 8am to get the engine serviced. Then a last minute bit of shopping, fuel, water & a quick tidy up before we get over to the lock for an 1130am lock out. Mike's parents, Sister Ceri, Jamie and ickle Elin wave us off! We're out on the lovely milky brown Bristol channel, the wind isn't blowing much so we motor for a while. Soon realise the wind isn't going to pick up, so decide to
motor-sail all the way to Lundy. Lots of tide under us so we are making 6 knots easily with only 2000rpms. Autopilot goes on, wine comes out and we relax for the first time in quite a while.. It's not very sunny, the odd bit of rain, very windy. We decide to beast it all the way to Lundy - want to wake up somewhere special. Seth and I kill the time with him showing me how to make pizza dough from scratch, then making amazing pizzas. Only problem is that makes me feel sea sick as boat is rolling around quite a lot. Anti-nausea drugs come out for first time (8hrs into voyage!!). I pop below for a nap and the boys take Disco Volante the final 10nms into Lundy. I wake up with lots of commotion on deck as the rather drunken boys are trying to anchor using the windlass for the first time in the pitch black. Cries about finding the search light so they can find a mooring buoy, I stick my head back under the pillow. Hear a commotion on the shore, think the Irishmen on the boat next door are trying to find their
tender in the dark. Watch amused as they try to find their yacht - it's blowing quite hard. We help out by shining Mikes search light light at their boat - it seems to help!
Crew Morale = 7
Distance travelled = 74nms / 13.5hr sail
Tuesday 3rd June Wake up at around 10am. The sun is shining and we are smiling. The only way to start the day is with a bottle of champagne and some strawberries! Seth does the honours and we sip on some ice cold fizz whilst watching all the tourists arrive on the Lundy ferry. We look like total yachties!!!!! LOVE IT! Already addicted to our new binoculars. Watching the twitchers watching the birds.. We spot a seal playing with buoy on the harbour - one of many we see that day.
We dig out the tender and outboard ready for a motor to land. Broken foot wrapped in a Morrisons carrier bag! I am unceremoniously carried to land by the boys. Love Lundy instantly - peaceful haven after the madness of the last few weeks!! We go exploring (I gets of sympathy for the foot) around the island. With
stops at the church, pub, lighthouse, post office. Wander through fields of baby lambs and then buy some lamb from the shop. (Yes I know realise that is a little wrong).
Head back to the boat around 6pm for drinks and some cheese and crackers. Then the pizza dough gets a second outing. Drunken dancing on deck. Off to Padstow after lunch tomorrow!
Crew morale = 9.5
Distance sailed = 0nms
Wednesday 4th June So the boys tell me I am to write my own version of this, then they will write theirs afterwards - so here goes!
SARAH'S VERSION OF EVENTS: We wake up a little dehydrated. Decide a full fry-up is needed! The sun is shining again, but it is very choppy on our mooring. The boat has been very rough all night - very strange to be rolling around in your sleep - One of us has to be braced against the wall of the boat and the other one wrapped around them, or there is a danger of rolling out of bed. We have decided not to stay in Lundy for another day as the forecast is rain all
day. We may as well be at sea, so decide to go for a mere 40nms to Padstow. Our main reason being is we fancy some chips. We set out with a forecast of force 6 NW winds, going down to variable force 3 at 6pm. HOW WRONG COULD IT BE?
We get the boat ready as it is still pretty messy after our rushed departure from Bristol. Once we are ship shape and fed we pull up the anchor and leave the beautiful island of Lundy behind. AS soon as we get out into the sea we realise it's going to be a bit of a wild ride. The waves are about 2m high already and with the tide under us we are averaging 8-10 knots. Mike comments at this point that he didn't design the boat to go this fast (I am suspicious he downplayed the boats speed), we are certainly flying along! It's pretty sunny at this point, but we are constantly being hit by large amounts of spray. For those of you who haven't had a large bucket-sized amount of water hang above your head before coming in sideways and managing to tip perfectly into
your hood - LUCKY YOU! Freeeeeeeezzzzzing.
At this point we are unaware that every time a wave crashes onto us, most of the water is going through the coach roof hatch and into the saloon - we would only properly discover this in about 4hrs. (When we would also realise the main bilge pump wasn't pumping out the water, as the boat was on a port tack and the water wasn't making it as far as the pump!) The boat is handling very well in heavy winds and seas. Rather than the wind and seas dying down like we had hoped, it appears to be building. The wave pattern is making for a rough ride. It's getting to about 4pm and we are starting to realise that a) we are arriving way to fast as we can't get into Padstow until 7pm b) The wind is blowing straight into Padstow Harbour which means it would be directly behind us as we are entering the harbour - very dangerous). By 5pm we have to make the difficult decision to divert from Padstow to St Ives instead. 28nm miles further on, approx. 4-6hrs further on. By this point morale is low.
Mike is the only one confident to steer in such heavy seas. He ends up steering for 8hrs straight in the end. (Has bum boil to prove it) We are all freezing, wet & scared and know we have another 4+ hours to go. I start to feel really seasick, but it's too rough to go below deck. We haven't eaten or pee'd since we left Lundy @ 12 O'clock. It's so crazy no one can really risk going below. We have had the same Rolling Stones CD on for 5hrs - It's starting to make us all go insane. Seth finally needs to take a leak so bad he can't hold it anymore. We also badly need him to change the CD & tune is into the 6pm shipping forecast on BBC Radio 4. Somehow he manages to get below. We hear a lot of crashes and swearing. He returns to deck battered and slightly green. His only comment being that down stairs was 'like hell - imagine the scene from Star Wars when Luke goes into the cave'.. We didn't know what scene he meant, but we understood...
The shipping forecast doesn't bring the good news we
were hoping for. Weather is not going to improve like expected. We made the right decision to divert to St Ives. But imagine knowing you had just committed to another 4-6hrs in these conditions. I try to sleep on deck, but get constantly woken by bucket loads of water hitting me in the face. I actually managed to sleep for an hour, whilst maintaining my grip on the guardrail. Even Mike starts to look scared. I eventually can't take any more and decide to go below - not easy even without a broken foot! I have to get warm as I am almost constantly shivering despite having 6 layers on including two waterproof jackets. I work out I just need to make it to my cabin floor where I can wedge myself in enough to stop myself getting injured and hopefully get some sleep. I still don't know how I did it, but I did. Without jarring my foot too. When I get into the inside of the boat I realise the full enormity of the disaster zone below. Water sloshing about a foot deep. Everything covered in salt water. I open the bedroom door to find half my clothes,
the duvet & two pillows on the floor and absolutely soaked. I manage to pull off my sodden top layers, but can't get my trousers off due to my boot/cast. I sink into the sodden duvet and finally manage to sleep for a few ours until we reach St Ives Harbour. The boys got us there in one piece! They are both absolutely broken and exhausted. Mike accidentally sets off his life jacket as he is getting the search light out of the locker - We don't even have the energy to laugh! We all struggle into bed after anchoring outside the harbour. The main harbour dries out, so we have no choice!
It has taken until today for me to be able to share the details of this voyage - We have learn't a lot of valuable lessons from our first proper rough sail!!!!
MIKE'S & SETH'S VERSION OF EVENTS: The Brave Story of Hercules
So there was this pigeon, Hercules. Heroic, stout and courageous in soul, but frail, withered and weatherbeaten in limb. Hercules found himself miles off course and trapped at sea in a torrid storm. He thought to himself with hope and
desperation, "hark, there lay land; nay, there there be floating land. What type of strange land be this?"
*Meanwhile, on the Disco Volante, after having ridden the wild sea for nearly 12 hours, Seth stated in excitement, "look, a land bird!
Hercules, in trodden spirit wondered how much longer he could keep his wings flapping amidst the relentless wind. With his desperate last energy he had to make a landing. And he did.
*Meanwhile, on the Disco Volante, Mike exclaimed, "he's coming in!"
With a thud, Hercules flopped into the nestlike after-area of the floating island, which appeared to be moving. This was a new sight for Hercules, who had never been this far from dry land. He then noticed two humans present in the nest. This nest was not for him, so with another gasp and mighty flap he took off in an attempt to land on the white rooftop a short distance away. The roof, however, was slippery with rain and seawater, and he spun helplessly out of control. From nowhere appeared a taut rope. He grasped, he secured, he landed. He rode six miles in a storm clinging to the rope aboard his
floating island piloted by his human saviours.
*Meanwhile, aboard the Disco Volante, after safely having reached anchor, Seth points out "He hung on the whole time," to which Mike answered, "We definitely saved that bird's life."
The End
(Hercules did indeed exist - Sarah)
Crew Morale = -1
Distance travelled = 65nm
Thursday 5th June Wake up after a terrible nights sleep. Boat bucking around on it's anchor & the water under the bed slapping around all night. Mike gives in and bails some out at 4am. Make's a bit of difference, but not much. We are all bleary eyed and shell shocked after the day before. We also have a huge clean-up operation ahead of us today. First thing we notice when we go on deck is we aren't where we were when we anchored. We are very far from there. To be continued..
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The slayer
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Trip to Dale
We lost an anchor and washed up on rocks, sailing with our great captain Michael walker is far from boring!!