Can we start cruising now?

We got to Hartlepool on Friday afternoon and did a bit of food shopping before heading to the marina. Bright sunshine and no wind tempted us to a drink on the quay side before going aboard. It felt like the start of a holiday since we were planning to leave tomorrow. Was this the start of cruising rather than passage making? That was certainly the plan with tomorrow’s intended destination of Amble, only 43nm away. We had a lovely dinner at Gracie’s restaurant, then prepared for tomorrow’s trip.

43 miles is at least a ten hour passage in Robinetta, and we had to be in Amble by 7 to have enough water to enter the marina. And we had to leave Hartlepool with a tidal gate as well… The alarm went at 5 a.m, and by 6 we were out of the lock, having visited the fuel dock and paid our dues.

We had been weather watching all week, and Saturday had been looking almost windless and 100% overcast. The reality was much better with bright sunshine and enough wind to be worth raising the sails. 06:40 we were under full main, staysail, and no 1 jib with the engine off. Unfortunately we were only making 1½ knots. We ate out breakfast under sail, then furled the jib and put the engine back on.

We made good time with the tide under us, passing both Sunderland and Newcastle by 11:00. We had spent nights in both in 2014, but this year Julian had much less time available so we were not tempted to stop. Plus, the wind had got up by 11:40 and we could turn t,he engine off and sail on a broad reach at nearly 4 knots in the sunshine.

Unfortunately the wind backed more southerly as the afternoon wore on, and the sky became gray. We could have sailed longer, and spent time tacking, but there was that pesky tidal gate to worry about.. We rolled away the jib and put the engine on, but left the main and staysail up for another couple of hours.

When we were 1 nm south of Coquet Island I asked for the main to come down.  We would soon be threading our way through Coquet Sound, and I did not want to think about the sail. The CA Almanac says not to go through the sound without local knowledge, but we felt we had this, having sailed through it twice in our dayboat Tiki in 2020. Plus our chart plotter had good data for the passage, allowing Julian to plot a perfect course.

Once we turned head to wind we began to feel cold, and the sail did not come down easily, making us both aware that we were tired and would be glad to get into harbour. Going round Coquet rather than through the sound would add at least another 30 minutes to the trip, so I was very glad we had decided to go through the Sound. A scatter of crab pots were the only visible dangers, but my course to steer through was far from straight. We got through without any excitement, but it began to drizzle, and the wind rose until even just the stay sail gave us noticeable lee way. We decided that the wind had changed from a Southerly force 2 to a Northerly 5 in less than 10 minutes.

When we got to the marina the depth gauge showed 3.5m over the sill, so we were in plenty of time. It was after the marina office closed, but I had called them earlier in the day and knew exactly where our assigned berth was, and where to pick up our information pack and marina access card. The Marina berths are clearly numbered, and I had no trouble finding ours. In addition the berthing master was actually on the pontoon to help with our lines, even though he had finished work 40 minutes earlier.

He looked at us, and suggested we had a cup of tea on board before doing anything else, and we gladly took his advice. We were in bed by 10, ready for another early start in the morning.

Grimsby towards Newcastle

Julian and I got to Grimsby just after 3pm, and were on Robinetta by 4 having walked from the station via Asda to get provisions. The intention was to head out of the dock an hour before high water to make the best of the ebb out of the Humber.

Engine checks revealed quite a lot of mud in the water filter, so I cleaned it out before calling up the lock (which was on free flow) and turning the engine on to warm up. With permission to leave the Marina we cast off from the pontoon and headed out. Unfortunately I had failed to take into account that permission to leave the marina was not permission to exit through the lock, and as I also failed to notice that the lock lights were red I had a justifiably irate lock keeper yell at me. It did not help that he had been trying to call Robinetta on the radio, which I could not hear over the engine noise…

Once through the lock we got the staysail up, then the main. We had hoped to sail, but the wind had too much east in it, and we would not be able to use it until we turned north after Spurn Head. That was still a couple of hours away, so we lowered the main again. Then Julian realised he could see a lot of steam coming out of the engine exhaust. If there was a problem we would have to get back through the lock , and given we had just annoyed the lock keeper I was not keen... We turned back towards Grimsby, and turned off the engine to check the water inlet was not clogged with mud. The wind in the staysail gave us steerage way and as the tide had not quite turned we had a decent speed over the ground.

The Fish Dock Lock runs at free flow for a couple of hours before high water, then operates as a request lock for the next 2 hours. With the engine off we could hear the lock keeper warning that the gates would be closing in 5 minutes. There was no way we would be at the lock before free flow ended, and we did not really want to go back in anyway… Julian declared the water water inlet clear, so the engine went back on. I looked at the exhaust water, and was happy with it, so at 18:20, an hour after leaving the marina, we turned to head towards Bull Fort, following our inbound track. Julian rigged up our tiller pilot “George”, and checked that the electrical connections were working, but I felt that Robinetta was rolling too much to put him to work.

A constant stream of freighters passed us heading out of the estuary, while only a couple came by in the other direction. The light was beginning to go by the time the trail of outbound traffic tailed off, but by then we were by the Bull Sand buoy and could point across the channel at the Spurn Head light house. This was the first recommended yacht track we could find on our chart to cross the channel, and I did want to cross in daylight, so I pointed across the channel. Once we closed with Spurn Head the sea state deteriorated.

The CA Almanack states that wind over tide should be avoided when sailing in the Humber and that evening trying to get from Spurn Head out to its guardian cardinal made it clear why. We were well clear of the shoals, in 10-12m of water, but the seas were hellish. The biggest waves had to be faced head on or Robinetta felt on the edge of capsizing. The conditions were worse than any overfalls or wind over tide I had helmed her through before, and I never want to do it again. I tried turning Robinetta’s stern to the waves and heading back into the deep water channel, but we were at half tide, and while her motion was much easier we were actually being carries backward towards the shallows. I turned back across the waves and we made 4 knots…. After sunset yhe full moon made it easy to see the waves to steer through them, but did not help in any way with the sea state.

After we fought our way out to the Spurn Head Cardinal the sea state was less confused, but the waves were still uncomfortably large. However we could now take them on the stern, with no more white water over the bows. Once on course north the wind was dead astern, so we left the main down and proceeded under stay sail and engine. There was no way that our tiller pilot could cope, and neither of us could helm for more than an hour before needing a rest, but sleep was hard to come by. When I went below to “relax” I made my bed on the cabin floor as the berths have no lee cloths and Robinetta rolled constantly. Julian and I were both bundled up against the cold and stayed fully dressed even in our off watches. Using the heads took me at least 10 minutes as I had to peel off multiple layers in an unpredictably moving cabin, and Julian was no quicker… Hot drinks were essential, but then we had to use the loo again….

I managed to drop off to sleep a couple of times, and when I woke at 04:00 Robinetta’s motion had eased. I got up to tell Julian I could take the helm from him, but he had got “George” on duty, and said he did not need relieving. Sharing the watch with “George” made life much easier, and we settled back into our familiar 2 hours on, 2 hours off system.

As soon as it was light we thought about setting more sail. Rather than raising the main we set the jib, expecting it goose wing it with the stay sail. However it wanted to come out on the same side and after a few minutes of it sitting there steadily we decided to get the main sail up.

The helm was very heavy, so we began to reef the main. The sail plan did not balance until Robinetta was reefed past the first mast hoop, at which point we turned the engine off. Sailing felt like a wonderful reward after the night just gone, and we were making good time, but I was uneasily aware of how tired we both were. We would not reach Newcastle until midnight, and heading up the Tyne then felt like too much of a challenge. Julian agreed, and we talked about our options.

Scarborough was the obvious place, but entering its harbour on a spring tide was impossible 2 hours either side of low water which was about 11 am, so that was out. Whitby was further on, so should have enough water by the time we got there, so that became our target. The problem with Whitby was that last time we thought about going there we were told that visitors could only stay for 3 days… That was back in 2014, and we did not know if it were still that case.

Only 50 minutes after getting the main sail up the wind shifted slightly, and we were on a dead run again. With the main reefed we could not rig Robinetta’s preventor, so we centered the main and turned the engine on again and put George back on duty. A yacht appeared inshore of us. It seemed to be sailing so we changed our course and headed gradually towards the coast. The swell was still too high to risk sailing on a run, but we were no longer in a hurry if we were going to Whitby, so we decided to sail, and broad reached in towards Robin Hood’s Bay with Julian on the helm. With the wind direction we had there should have been no shelter from the cliffs but the wind did feel more manageable. We talked about Whitby, and decided that we should skip it and make for Hartlepool where we knew we could leave Robinetta for longer.

We tacked to reach out of the Bay, and when I took the helm I found I was not strong enough to control Robinetta. She wanted to round up constantly, and I could not hold her on course. The wind was gusting up to force 6 and it did not feel safe to center the main and leave it up, so we went head to wind, and pulled it down.

The other yacht had pulled ahead of us and disappeared into the distance as Robinetta motored on.

“George”’s old mounting block was beginning to fall apart, and though it was still usable it would probably not last if asked to helm in bigger seas. These began to appear round lunch time as the tide turned against us and the wind over tide caused sharper wave crests; some of these broke against Robinetta’s beam and splashed into the cockpit. There were also a scatter of crab pots markers, and what looked like dive site buoys. The swell made these invisible until they were quite close so I disconnected George and went back to hand steering.

We dodged cargo ships going into the Tees, and finally reached Hartlepool Marina Lock at 19:00, exactly half tide, so in good time to go in. One last adventure awaited as we were lee shored on the pontoon in the lock, and lost one of our fenders as we motored away. The berth numbers were really hard to find and maneuvering Robinetta round in the tight confines between the rows of berths more difficult than when we were fresh. However we were securely tied up by 19:30, and after some basic tidying up headed ashore for food.

We have no plans for more long passages this season, and fully intend to return to our usual day sailing regime. I am looking forward to it.

100nm 26 hours underway. Wind F4-6, SE-SSE

Things to fix

Safely in Hartlepool after what turned out to be a more challenging trip than we had hoped. More on that later.

Just a to-do list for now for things that broke so far this season.

Handy Billy. Small double dinghy block to replace failed one.

Starboard running light. Check connection.

Parrel beads. Replace broken ones.

George. New mount. George (our TP22 tiller pilot did a great job in following seas but the old mount broke completely. The new rudder seems to have brought the tiller aft so a dedicated mount behind the backstay cleat is now sensible.

Jib sheet blocks. Need new fixings to the cabin.

Staysail. New tie to the horse.

Another interuption to the voyage

 The weather in April does not encourage an early start to the season. Robinetta is safely in Grimsby, but Julian and I are on our way home. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Grimsby with our fingers crossed that we could move on after Thursday's high winds, but once we checked the swell forecast for Whitby we realised there was no way that we could safely take Robinetta out into the North Sea.

We will try to get to Hartlepool over the Easter weekend, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for better weather then.

We enjoyed our time in Grimsby, with visits to Cleethorpes for fish and chips, and Riby Street for the fishmongers. Julian made a lovely kedgeree, and we entertained a young French couple to dinner on Robinetta. They are heading North to visit Norway in a steel yacht and like us found that Grimsby is not a bad place to spend a few days.

Heading North again

With a weekend of decent weather in the forecast we decided it was safe to leave Southwold to head north. I say decent weather, but that did not mean good wind. North Easterly, going North Westerly later meant we would have head winds all the way to Grimsby. We wanted to do the whole 114 miles in one shot as a delivery trip so that meant motoring. Lowestoft was the only sensible closer place to stop, and at less than 15 miles from Southwold we could always duck in there if the sea conditions were too rough for an overnight passage.

After taking a look at the waves of the harbour mouth we backed off the pontoon and motored out of Southwold against the last hour of the ebb. Robinetta's trusty stay sail was the only one flying as we left harbour. It's function as a steadying sail helped keep Robinetta from rolling too much as we motored across the swell towards Lowestoft, but there were times when it felt as though we were in a washing machine... Luckily we had the shelter of various sandbanks to minimise the swell and as we reached Lowestoft we decided that yes, we were up for heading to Grimsby.

Lunch was packet soup, and just as I was about to put the lid on my travel mug a nasty bit of swell knocked Robinetta about. Julian's soup, in a bone china mug, did not even slop over the side, my wide based travel mug fell over and tomato soup spilled everywhere... We were making good progress with the tide still under us, but we knew it would not last.

The wind shifted a little to the west, and as we were still heading north east Julian unrolled the jib to see if it would draw. It did, so we got the main up as well. The engine stayed on, but motorsailing felt much steadier that just motoring. We settled into watches at 7pm. The sea state was still too rough for our tiller pilot to cope, so two hour watches made sense. By ten we were heading slightly more to the west, and the jib began to flog so I rolled it away and centered the main sail. The only other event of that watch were crab pots. They were well marked, but in the dark I did not see them until they were level with the cockpit. First one to port, about 2metres away, then 15 minutes later one to starboard, only 1 metre away. Both were much closer that I would have left them in daylight.

The stars were clear, with Orion, the Dipper, and Cassiopeia very easy to spot, but the sliver of Moon sank below the clouds on the horizon early on. I could lie back in the cockpit and navigate by keeping the handle of the dipper against the mast, which was fun, but it was very cold. When off watch down below I only took off my lifejacket and oily jacket as I huddled beneath two sleeping bags. Even my boots stayed on

I came back on watch at 3 am, when the tide was against us and we were only making 2 knots even with the engine at full revs. We were making the expected progress though, passing between two wind farms, and all was well until 04:50. That is when the engine died. I had asked Julian to check that both fuel tanks were open as we passed Lowestoft, and he thought that they were, but the way the engine stopped felt very much as though we had run out of fuel rather than any other problem.

I called Julian to investigate, but it took him a little while to come up, so I got us sailing in the meantime. We could not head anywhere useful, but at least we were not going backward with the tide. Once he was ready he had a look at the fuel tanks, and realised that maybe one of them had been closed after all. After a little bit of a struggle I got the fuel tank open, but of course that was not the end of the event as Julian had to bleed the engine before it would start. At least it was beginning to get light, so I could see to sail while Julian worked below. At 06:20 the engine fired up again and we could make forward progress again.

By mid morning we had the main sail down and stowed as it was not helping us along at all.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we made better time than expected, passing the Outer Ross Reach safe water mark at 14:27. We had the tide under us taking Robinetta into the Humber at 5 knots in bright sunshine. The north westerly wind was much warmer than the north easterly had been, so even though we were still heading straight into the wind Julian managed to shed a layer of clothes.
Only his oily jacket though!

We were ready and waiting to enter the Grimsby Fish Dock when the lock went onto free flow at 6pm, which was two hours earlier than we expected to arrive. Quarter of an hour later we were safely moored up in the Humber Cruising Association marina, and even got to the bar before it shut.

One good thing about running a tank virtually dry is that we now finally know exactly how big the tank is. I squeezed in 19.6 litres when I filled up. The other tank took nearly 15, so running the engine at virtually full revs for 30 hours is our maximum safe usage. We normally run our engine more gently than that!

Not leaving harbour

 For a short moment the weather looked as though we might be able to leave port this afternoon. We went to have a look at the entrance to make sure. NO, not a chance!

Wind strength does look less scary for Saturday and Sunday, so as long as the seas go down we will be off. It's headwinds again, so no saying how far we will get.

Sleeping on the boat at the end of March

On Wednesday night Julian and I were at the Cruising Association, picking up an award for my log of the trip from Tollesbury to Southwold. Duncan Wells, the judge for the award, said that he kept waiting for the next breakage, with the expectation that it would be the newly installed engine. Well done to French Marine for that not being the case!

Our aim for the next week is to continue that cruise north now that all our breakages have been mended, so we headed to Southwold by train and bus. Walking from Southwold to Walberswick, weighed down by our bags tired me out, so it was just as well that the weather forecast would not let us leave that day. Ah, the weather... After 3 sunny weeks of Spring Winter came back with a vengeance. We saw snow lying from the train, and the north easterly wind was blowing at force7, gusting 9.

We bundled up against the cold to sleep, and were quite cosy in double sleeping bags, woolen base layers, pajamas and hoodies. This morning we have snow flurries, a temp of 4C, and a wind forecast of force 6 gusting 7 until 4pm. When I got back to Robinetta after a trip to the shore heads and the deli Julian had porridge on the go, and the spirit heater alight, which made the cabin feel toasty warm after my walk. I don't think we will be gong anywhere today.