Thursday’s forecast was slightly daunting. Westerly 4 gusting 6, moderate swell with some poor visibility at times. Friday’s was worse, then no wind Saturday and Sunday. The tides control when it is possible to leave Watchet, the flap gates open and shut 2½ either side of high water although the marina operator advises that it it better to rely on 2 hours either side. If we left on Thursday we would need to take the early tide, which meant 5 am out of the harbour at the latest, which would give us a hour to get back in if the sea state was too much for Robinetta. We learnt leaving Portaferry that “moderate” near the Irish Sea can be untenable in our boat.
We set the alarm for 4 am, and checked the weather on XC. Westerly 4 gusting 5. We were good to go. We left harbour at 05:10, with enough daylight to see well and sails ready to hoist as soon as we had sea-room. The swell was not terrible, and quarter of an hour later we had the no 2 jib, stay-sail, and main up with 1 roll round the boom and were heading across the Bristol Channel towards Swansea.
Our speed was good with the tide under us, and a rather grey morning gave way to a bright and sunny day. But cold, and very windy, with the swell confused by wind over tide. We did not even think about trying to rig the tiller pilot, conditions were way too rough for it. By 06:00 we had reefed the main down and dropped the stay-sail. I went up to the foredeck to pull it down properly and untie the lowest mast hoop on the main sail so we could reef further is we needed to. Strapping on was essential and I got very wet with waves swilling over the foredeck. By 07:00 we were fully reefed with the jib away and the stay-sail back up.
Robinetta coped with the conditions beautifully, although her bows were out of the water at the crests of the waves more than normal. Every now and then we could hear a wave thumping the hull, the foredeck was being constantly washed. An occasional lump of sea also made it over the bulwarks in the cockpit to run down and start the bilge pump. The scarf joint and its through bolt in the forepeak stayed dry, the mend carried out in Bristol had worked, but we did get some water running down the anchor hawser and round the forehatch. These were the roughest conditions we had sailed in since our arrival at Holyhead, and compared to that occasion we hardly pumped at all!
We got the Met Office forecast for 06:00 UTC for the Bristol Channel at 07:50. Westerly 5-6 backing Southerly 3-5, going cyclonic 5-7 later. We would probably have stayed in Watchet if that had come out before we left, but we never felt in any danger, and were making good speed (over 5 knots) towards shelter.
We had laid in an “ideal” chart plotter course, to the east end of the Nash Bank, then threading through between the Hugo Bank and the Kenfig Patches. This was the way we had left Swansea last October and it seemed to work for the wind direction. Half way across the channel we thought the tide was carrying us too far down channel and our course was taking us straight for the Scarweather sands, so we decided to head further west to leave them to the east of us. The wind did not co-operate though, so in the end we returned to our original plan, which was made easier by the tide slackening.
Stay-sail and fully reefed main saw us almost all the way across the channel. Julian asked for the jib again as I caught sight of the cardinal at the east end of the Nash Bank, and we easily threaded through between the West Nash cardinal and the East Scarweather cardinal. We were at low water Swansea now, and surf was breaking violently on the Hugo Bank, making it easy to find! Swells were also breaking on the Kenfig Patches, and the tide had started to run against us. We were nearly head to wind, in a place we did not want to linger, doing less than 2 knots, so I furled the jib and put the engine on for an hour until we were in more open water.
The sail across Swansea bay saw us shake out a little of the reef, but only a little, and Robinetta was still well heeled over. Now we had wind with tide the seas were much more regular and spaced further apart, and the sailing conditions were rather wonderful. The wind was rising again though, and we had had a long day, so neither of us were sorry to be putting the engine on again and dropping the main sail before heading through the breakwaters and into Swansea harbour at 13:55.
Conditions at sea had not encouraged us to eat. For the first time ever both of us had felt queasy when below. Two gingernut biscuits and a dry oatcake had seen me though the day, while Julian had managed an apple as well. Once we were booked in to the marina and tied in the berth putting the kettle on was my first thought. Then once Robinetta was ship shape and Worm securely moored too we headed for The Pump House, which serves food all day.
After eating we thought we should have a snooze, and the next thing we knew it was 06:30 on Friday!
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