Unreliable forecasts and heavy weather

When I looked out at the surrounding yachts in the light for the first time, at 07:30, I was surprised by our position. We had definitely dragged the anchor and were now on the starboard side of a Westerly we had dropped anchor to port off... Luckily there had been no bad results.

What with the rolling and the wet weather we decided not to stay the day at Bray. This meant we needed to leave as soon as possible to avoid the tide trying to take us back to Jersey. The anchor might have dragged, but it did not want to come up now. I got most of the chain hauled in, a foot at a time, but could not shift the anchor. Julian came forward and used the purchase on the jib halyard to help. All of this was under the watchful eye of the couple on the Westerly. (I had asked them to keep watch in case we failed to notice we were getting too close). Rain started pounding down, and I was getting damp and cold.

Suddenly Robinetta came free. Julian stayed on the foredeck to finish raising the anchor and stow it, while I motored slowly away. I spotted a large Beneteau much closer to a Dutch yacht than it had been last night, in fact they looked about to collide. I headed towards the immanent disaster, yelling the boat names, and managed to get crew of both yachts on deck before any damage was done. I did not hang around to see what happened next as Robinetta had a tide to catch.

Robinetta made very slow progress away from Alderney. Julian did all the deck work to get her back in sailing trim while I helmed. Moving around warmed him up nicely, but I was getting steadily colder; when he finally settled in the cockpit for a rest I had to ask if he could do it while helming. I needed to go below and warm up. Luckily I was soon feeling better, and offered to make porridge, which was very welcome.

We were too late to make use of any favourable tide and we had to motor sail all morning. We let the set of the cross channel tide bring us far enough off the wind to use the sails, but since it was mostly northerly and we wanted to head north we were still very close hauled, not a good point of sail for a gaffer. We discussed changing plans, and heading for Cherbourg rather than Weymouth, but the French town was not that much closer, and we would still have to cross the channel later. We decided to stick with the plan, as the wind was supposed to go west and increase to force 4 in the afternoon once we closed with the English coast. We did decide to go onto a watch system though, 2 hours on and 2 hours off, so both of us had a chance for a good rest after the bad night.

By the time we were in the middle of the down channel shipping lane the rain clouds had cleared to leave a sunny day and the wind had picked up enough to sail. In fact soon after we turned the engine off we put in two reefs, although we still had both the no 2 jib and the stay sail flying. After lunch the wind fell again and we shook one reef out and put George to work. I retrieved a melon we had bought in Morlaix from the bilges, and sliced it up for a snack. The rind had got a little mouldy in places, but the flesh was beautifully sweet. We were running low on provisions though, not having been shopping since Tréguier.

After eating our melon we relaxed a bit too much, and before we noticed the swell had got up too much for George, so the tiller pilot mount broke AGAIN! I caught the Inshore Water's forecast for the evening. West, backing South West 5 or 6 decreasing 4 for a time, increasing 7 later. 6 would be a bit much, but we would be at Weymouth long before "later".

When I came up to helm at 17:10 I wanted a second reef, and 20 minutes later I needed the jib away and the final reef. Robinetta was heeling so much that water kept swirling over the gunwales. It is times like this that remind us that Robinetta actually has very little freeboard. The promised westerly had arrived with a vengeance. The sea state increased with the wind and I had an unhappy half hour on the helm, trying to hold the course into the waves. I needed the engine on to make any progress.
Julian had another look at the tides on the Weymouth approaches and decided we were better off going round the east end of the Shambles Bank. This was a big relief as it meant I could turn off the wind and have the waves on the stern quarter, not the bow.

Now wind, waves, and tide were more astern our speed rose dramatically. 5-7 knots, rather than 3. I could steer directly for Portland Bill, knowing the tide would sweep us past it. I relaxed on the helm again, no longer worried about the waves I had to steer though and able to feel the roll of the boat first and compensate after.

Julian took the helm at 19:30 and decided jib out, engine off. Looking at wind speed records later this was during a slight lull when the wind was 15 knots, gusting 22. 10 minutes later he reversed the decision. He saw speeds of over 8 knots and Robinetta stayed above 7 most of the time. Some of this was tide, but a lot came when coasting across the waves.

A lot of the time we had 26 knots, gusting 32, as recorded on the North East Breakwater of Portland Harbour. This is a top end force 6, gusting top end 7. Not something we would ever take Robinetta out in deliberately. I stayed on deck, and warned Julian when a big wave rose behind us. This let him steer down it rather than have it roll Robinetta too far over. We had to mostly steer across the waves though, or we would be carried off course away from Weymouth. I watched Worm swooping and twisting in the swell, heavier than normal with rain water from the previous night, and knew that if a wave broke into her we would have no real option other than to cut her loose. Luckily it did not happen.

It began to get dark, and we put on the running lights. It became easier to steer as the navigation lights of Portland Harbour gave Julian something to steer for, and eventually we were in smoother water. It was my turn on the helm again and we motor sailed across Weymouth bay, finally getting the sails down just before we entered the harbour,

We found a berth on the visitor pontoon across the river from the harbour office. It meant rafting 4 boats out, but had a nice easy boat to come along side that already had fenders out. Once we had set shore lines and moored Worm along side we got out the half bottle of wine left from the night before, and celebrated our safe arrival.

“This was a good day,” Julian decided. “We did what we meant to, and kept safe doing it.”
We had heard a lot of Pan Pan calls on the radio, including one from a larger yacht than Robinetta whose rudder broke. I was very glad our only gear failure was the tiller pilot fitting.