Bristol towards Cardiff

Julian and I drove down to Bristol together on 20^th, and Julian got very grumpy about the state of the boat. There was too much to do before we left on the 21^st and the work we had had done was not obvious, except in negative ways. We bent the main sail on easily enough, but when I came to run the main sheet the shackle which held the block onto the horse fouled the tiller. It seemed as though when the horse was put back into the cockpit it was set about 5mm lower than before, so there was not enough clearance for the shackle when the tiller was centred. Julian ended up making a shallow grove in the tiller so the shackle could run freely.
I went up the mast again, to re-run the topping lifts. I had put the rope the wrong way round in the blocks before, so they were fouling themselves.
I suddenly noticed that the main cabin lights were on. I must have left them that way when I was last on the boat a fortnight ago. Then Julian checked the solar panel and realised that when he replaced my chock block connections with a more solid soldered one he had accidentally connected them up the wrong way round. Our battery had been trying to charge the solar panel not the other way round, and that combined with the lights being left on meant there was not enough charge left in the battery to start the engine. Even when we tried switching batteries to “both” the engine did not have enough power to start. Hand cranking did not help.
We bit the bullet and bought a new battery. It will replace the old one (which should have been replaced in 2016 at Tobermoray). Julian hunted on the web, and found the best deal was at GO Outdoors. Luckily there was a Bristol branch and I could drive and collect it in the morning.
I had damaged the water pump when fitting the new filter, resulting in a constant drip from the connector. Julian had a look at this while I drove to get the battery and some supplies, and decided that the simplest thing to do was replace the whole pump. The new pump solved the leak, so I filled the water tanks that I had cleaned on the last visit. Another job ticked off the list. What with £74 for the battery, £71 for the pump, and paying for a month and a half’s mooring at Bristol it felt like an expensive day, and we had not even left the berth yet!
When I got back with the new battery we found we could not get the old one disconnected and free from its snug housing. In the end we used the new battery to jump start the engine. This worked fine, and we warmed up the engine, then came off the berth at 10:30. Ready or not we were due at Junction Bridge for the bridge lift I had booked last week at 11:00. We motored out of the marina, and through a flock of small Pico dinghies, crewed by even smaller sailors, then headed up the harbour, to have a look at the SS Great Britain from the harbour. Julian bent on the stay-sail as we traveled.
The bridge swung for us (and only us) just on time, then we were in the Cumberland Basin and waiting for the duel carriage way bridge to swing and let us into the lock. We waited for what felt like ages, and I began to panic slightly. I was certain the harbour master had told me that once the Junction Bridge swing was booked everything else was too, but what if I was wrong? A slightly panicked radio call to the HM reassured me that they just had to wait for the crew to get from the Junction to the Basin bridge, and everything would happen...
We were in the lock, once more having it to ourselves, by 11:20. This was the last lock out of the day, nearly high water, and we only had to drop 2’ before we were released into the river.
Down the Avon toward Cardiff
We left Bristol in bright sunshine, and motored down the river. The depth gauge was not hooked up to the chart plotter yet, but at high water, and with our inbound track to follow I knew we did not need it. The river was just as interesting heading down as it had been heading up, but unfortunately the sky clouded over just as I suggested we should have our bread and cheese picnic before leaving the river.
Big ship entering Avonmouth docks as we exited the river, saw 2 other yachts heading for Portishead
I raised the main sail, it was past time I did that again rather than always leaving it to Julian, and bent on the no 1 jib. We then sailed most of the way to Cardiff, making 7 knots at times, but the speed mostly due to the tide as the wind was very light. Kept engine on most of the time to charge main battery, only used it once, in the middle of shipping lane when we lost steerage way and needed to get across pronto rather than drifting down the middle.
Took the inshore route, vie North Cardiff buoy, the one I had bottled out of when Julian wanted to take it on the way to Bristol. The river “water” was more like thin mud, with thick clumps of denser liquid swirling on all sides. I was sure that I felt the keel dragging on mud a couple of times, but we hardly slowed down, so I was probably imaging it. None the less Julian ducked below and connected up the depth gauge to the plotter so we could check the drying areas marked on the plotter had not moved too much and there was enough water. There was. We turned the engine off as we approached Cardiff, and the quiet was wonderful!
Once we reached the entrance channel for Cardiff docks at the North Wrass buoy the engine had to go back on as the wind was now on the nose. I dropped the main, then three fishing boats powered past us to make the 16:45 lock in. They were friendly and waved, but the wash was a bit nasty. I heard them calling up the barrage lock to ask which one to use, and they were told no 2. By the time I called them, at 16:40 just as Julian headed Robinetta into the side channel to the barrage lock, I was told no 3. They had obviously cycled the lock early since there were already three boats in it.
Hanging around in the lower lock basin for half an hour gave us plenty of time to get the bowsprit in and ropes and fenders sorted. Once in the lock (by ourselves again!) it was crash filled, with water surging everywhere. We were at dead low water, and there was a long way to go up. I was glad we were alone and tied on with our newest lines!
Our antics were watched by tourists on every side and when I waved as we headed out of the lock we got a lot of friendly waves back.
We intended to go to the Cardiff Yacht Club for the night. They had been very welcoming back in October and their free pontoon berth made them even more attractive! First we decided to go to the Town Quay “pay and display” pontoons; at £1 an hour, maximum stay 24 hours, it was not a bad price, and very cost effective for a larger boat. There was plenty of space and we could haul Worm out of the water onto the wide pontoon. After a good look round at the wide range of restaurants we ended up at Carluccio’s and had a very nice meal with wine.
We got back to Robinetta at 21:00, just as the last light left the sky. Once we had put Worm back in the water and switched on the running lights I backed us carefully out of the berth with Julian checkeing we were clear at the bow, then set off to follow our chartplotter track to the Yacht Club. Julian suddenly announced, “It’s dark. Lifejackets!” and dashed below to get them.
Once we were properly dressed I decided to speed up a bit, and put the throttle forward. Nothing happened. No change in the engine note, no increase in speed. We were in gear, and moving forward, but at only 1½ knots. Luckily it was not far to the yacht club, and the engine did come out of gear when I wanted to slow down in the approaches. Robinetta carries a lot of way, and it takes her a long time to slow down unless I give her a burst of power in reverse. I was sure that option was not available to us. We were safely tied up by 10:00, with Worm once again hauled up on the wide visitor pontoon.
The club house was deserted, so we lit Robinetta’s paraffin lights and relaxed for a little before getting out the bed and turning in. There was no point looking at the engine problem in the dark, especially after a bottle of wine!