Fighting wind, tide, and a time table

After a week of watching the weather and hoping the wind on Saturday morning would drop from force 5-7 easterly to 4-5 south west  we were out of luck. The tides dictated that we needed to leave Deganwy by 07:30 to have a hope of reaching Liverpool and getting in to the marina on the evening tide, so we had to cope with a top end four gusting 6 from the east, on the bow for most of the way. The only relief was the wind was supposed to drop away to nothing by 16:00.

We got away from the berth at 07:35. Julian got out the bowsprit and bent on the no 2 jib as we motored down river against the last two hours of the rising tide. Being neaps the current was not desperately strong against us, and once I got the staysail up Robinetta was making a comfortable 3 knots over the ground.

Wind against tide raised a swell in the channel, but nothing too uncomfortable until we reached the safe water mark and turned towards Great Orme Head.

Once we changed heading Robinetta started crashing through the waves, and rolling, but we were making decent progress. With the engine on full revs and the staysail we made 3 knots, and once we unrolled the jib that went up to 4. The extra sail area also helped steady Robinetta but unfortunately the wind was too gusty to raise the main. Julian went below and cooked breakfast, and we ate in shifts.

We could see a sail training ship anchored in the lee of Great Orme Head. Having seen Royalist's blue hull and distinctive white masts and spars recently at the tall ships parade in London we thought it might be her at first, but it turned out to be Lord Nelson. There were plenty of sea birds around; we saw sheerwaters ( I think), gulls, fulmars, gannets, and cormorants/shags. Definitely the middle of the breeding season.

Unfortunately we could not stay on the same heading unless we wanted to go to the Isle of Man. We had to turn to follow the coast if we wanted to reach Liverpool. Heading directly into the waves on just engine was never going to work. We had to sail across the waves or they would stop Robinetta in her tracks. As soon as we tacked round leeway and tide direction conspired against us; we were sailing across the waves, not straight in to them, but we made at most 1.5 knots on the making tack. Our chart plotter gives a very simplistic arrival time, based on current speed. It was depressing when it suggested we would take 24 hours to make it to Liverpool!

We crawled across Llandudno Bay, our tacks taking us closer to the pier than we had planned when Julian laid in the course. It was not the weather for photography, very grey with the mountains hidden on the clouds. The gusts were easing though and we raised the main, with two reefs. We were not done with the engine, keeping it on to let Robinetta point much closer to the wind than she could without it.

I spotted a dolphin's back in the distance just after we passed Rhyl then a minute later caught another glimpse of black back and fin crossing our wake. Both sightings were too far away to distinguish the species but the size looked more bottle nose than common. It did not come to play alongside!

By 15:00 the waves were gentle swells, the full main was up, and we were using the no 1 jib. These were conditions that the Tiller Pilot George could cope with and we set him to work. We were still on engine though as we had to keep our speed up to have any hope of making the marina lock before it closer at 22:00. The tide was with us and the Chart plotter said we might make it... I tried calling the marina to arrange a berth, but there was nothing but an answering machine that smugly told me to call in office hours, or leave a message. Only problem was that it WAS their office hours, and they did not return my call even though I left my number.

By 16:00 the jib was rolled away, and the main was down. Crashing through the waves had changed to motoring through smooth seas at 5 knots, with the tide helping the engine and an arrival time at the lock of 21:30.

Mary Gibbs, who is a member of the Liverpool Sailing Club, had made sure we had a copy of their sailing directions for the Rock Channel, and we followed them carefully. The CA almanac says the Rock Channel is not recommended for visitors, but we decided the LSC instructions counted as local knowledge, and encountered no problems, with more depth of water than our charts predicted.

The drab day gave way to evening, and we turned on our running lights, even though the chart plotter was still in day mode. It just felt dark enough to want them.

Neither the Anglesey Pilot, or the CA had the frequency for calling Mersey Radio, although both said we needed to do it before entering the river. Maybe both assumed people would know that they would use the normal VTS channel, 12. Julian looked it up on his phone, and it was indeed 12.

I called up Mersey Radio at 20:00, telling them we were about to enter the river through the Rock Channel, and they warned me to keep a good look out as there were freighters moving.

I tried calling the marina lock, and got no answer. There was always the possibility of picking up a mooring buoy at Rock Ferry if we could not get into the marina, so we ignore the vacant moorings we spotted at New Brighton and continued up river. George went of duty and we hand steered to avoid the mooring buoys.

Liverpool from the Mersey

Eventually Julian did manage to raise the Marina Lock, so the lock keeper knew we wanted in. I had questions for him, were there pontoons, which side too etc, but his reception was terrible and he could not hear me. Luckily Mary Ellen, a boat based in the marina who was also locking in, could hear much better, and answered all my questions in a very helpful way. I got the bowsprit in while Julian helmed.

Julian had plotted the end of our route right by the marina, but it still took me a little while to find the entrance in the long dark quay wall. I found the lights in the end, and as I watched they went from green to red. Had we been too slow? It was 21:25, we should be fine. I grabbed the radio and called, to be told he had lowered the bridge to let pedestrians across, and we would be clear to enter again almost immediately.

Mary Ellen was still waiting for the lock in to the marina when we arrived, we must have delayed them horribly, but they were still friendly, and advised us to follow them as there was a free berth right next to them. Having someone to follow took all the worry out of entering a strange marina in the dark and finding a berth.

We tied up on the pontoon at 21:35. just over 14 hours after leaving Deganwy. Our route was 41nm in thoery, but all the slow tacks around the Great Orme added significantly, and we were both shattered.

A lovely lady called Corrine called from Windfire to ask if we needed help. She lent us her marina access card so we could go for a shower and a well deserved drink in the bar and get back afterwards. It had been a long day, and not the best sailing with the engine on all the way, but we had got Robinetta to Liverpool, 80 years to the week since she was launched at the Enterprise Small Craft Company, only 1.5 nm away over the Mersey at Rock Ferry, Birkenhead.