The Holiday 24th July - 08th August

Saturday 24th - Chichester to Cowes

Our holiday had started on Saturday the 24th.  We had taken two weeks of annual leave in the hope that myself and Carlotta could sail our first big voyage on Troskala and reach the West Country; Salcombe to be exact.

Saturday morning was spent waiting for the delivery of our new bed.  As we are hoping to live aboard in the future no expense was spared in getting a marine bedding company to fit Troskala out with a new mattress, sheet and fitted duvet.  The bed arrived around 09:00, so after having this delivered kindly by premier marina to the boat all that was left was to victual the boat making sure we had enough food and water although the short hop to Cowes meant we did not need to stock up too much.

As mentioned our overall plan was to reach Salcombe in Devonshire a trip of around 120 miles.  We knew that we had a couple of long passages to make but thought it best to break up the journey as much as possible.  We would sail to Cowes, a short trip and then on to Yarmouth (even shorter) and spend a night there in preparation for our crossing to unknown territories.  We would leave Yarnouth heading for Studland bay and anchor overnight before taking on the challenges of St Albans Head and then onto Weymouth.  From Weymouth we planned to head straight for Dartmouth and then onto Salcombe to spend the weekend there.

So, here we were ready to leave although still slightly light headed after sharing a few drinks with Helen and Kelvin aboard Yacht Dizzzy, they had also kindly loaned us some charts of the West Country which softened the blow expense wise.

We left Chichester around about 12:30, and reached the Bar around 13:00 to which the wind had picked up to force 5 and the sea gave us our first battering of the day.  Unfortunately we were experiencing South Westerly winds so the trip to Cowes was hard work, but we eventually made it into Shephards Warf around 17:30.

We ate on board this night promising ourselves that we would go out for breakfast the next morning, so after Fajitas, a shower we were enjoying our first evening in the new bed, which I think we both agree was worth the £1,200 price tag.

 
 
 
 
 
Sunday 25th - Cowes to Yarmouth
 
We left Cowes quite late, or should I say early in the afternoon.  We only had a short sail to accomplish so we were in no hurry to leave.  We went to have breakfast in a fantastic Portuguese restaurant called Manuels just in Shephards Warf marina, the service, food and and value for money were all above average.
 

We set off around about 13:00 into a busy entrance to Cowes, but this is of course expected when the sun is shining and it was a Sunday.
 
The wind was a good force 5 from the SW again so we tacked back and forth until we reached Yarmouth by 16:00.  I was more careful this time in making sure I had reduced the Main and before I reached the entrance to Yarmouth as before I had left this too late and therefore it took me half an hour to motor in against a foul tide.  This time we had reduced sail at just the right time to prepare fenders and warps for our entrance.

As always Yamouth is such a pleasant harbour, this was made more so by the glorious weather we had. 
We had lunch and then managed to have some time relaxing on the deck until I was stung by a hornet, this did however instigate the search for the first aid kit which finally found.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
We went for dinner at The Blue Crab restaurant, a favourite for us both and then off to bed for a second night in the luxury bed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Monday 26th - Yarmouth to Studland Bay 
 
This would be our first trip fully out of the Solent in Troskala.  We were heading to Studland Bay and 'Old Harry's Rocks'.  Again we did not have to rush out from Yarmouth so managed to have a bit of sleep.  The forecast looked good with 3 to 4's expected but still from the SW.  We were planning to tack further out to sea and then complete a broad raech into Studland.
 

When we left there was hardly any wind to speak of so we set full sail and motored until the Needles were in sight, after this we managed to pick up enough wind to start sailing and try avoid Christchurch ledge, which was clearly visible just under the waterline.
 
We had a pleasent sail although for Carlotta there was still too much healing.
 
As we approached Studland Bay and could make out the entrance we were struck by a swarm of hornets, at one point there were Severn on board, which made the stress of arriving at a new destination even more stressful as we only had two plasters left.
 
Studland Bay was everything that people had said, it was sheltered and incredibly beautiful.  We still anchored fairly far out from the beach just to be on the safe side although I am sure I could have made it closer if I had wanted.  We dropped anchor and did the cup of tea test (have a cup of tea and monitor the horizon).  Once the tea was over it appeared we had not moved so we opened the wine and finished the rest of our Fajitas.

Studland Bay (Whilst dragging anchor)

After dinner, to my horror I realised we were slipped anchor, the horror was due to the fact that I had paid out 30 meters of chain so it would be a pain to haul the lot back up, but this was what had to be done.  Upon raising the anchor the cause was made evident as a clump of sea grass came up with it.  I circled round  a few times and then re-anchored, although I had noticed that I was slightly close to a Sadler 26.  I hailed over to ask if he was concerned to which he stated that he would feel more comfortable if we were further away to which I obliged without hesitation although never received a thanks; it would surprise me how many fellows sailors would not even ask the question.
Eventually we set anchor and it held.  We finished of dinner and watched a bit of TV on the laptop. Although sheltered we still had a fairly bumpy night.
 
Tuesday 27th - A day in Studland Bay
 

To Carlotta's pleasure we were to stay in Studland for the day.  The weather was set to be a beach day and therefore there was nothing to keep us from packing our tennis rackets and going to the beach.  I completed the morning sponge down of Troskala and took a look at the facilities on the beach.  After this we both went over and had a fantastic day walking the beach and swimming in the sea.
 
 

 
On the evening we went to the one local pub (The Bankes Arms where we had a very pleasant meal although we were very tired after our day of walking.
 

On our way back to Troskala from the pub we had the most amazing sunset as displayed on the right.
 
Once we got back we went to bed early as tomorrow we had our longest passage so far from Studland to Weymouth.
 
That was the end of our Studland visit, we will one day return to this spot. 
 
 
 
 
 
Wednesday 28th - Studland Bay to Weymouth
 

We woke fairly early, based on the tidal calculations we needed to pass St Albans Head around 10:00 to use the tide to our advantage. We left around 09:00 taking in the views of 'Old Harry's Rocks' and Swanage.

We motored for a while due to being sheltered from the SW winds, it was pleasent and gave us chance to have a cup of tea whilst underway, little did we know of the torture that faced us around the corner.

We had made an error in our calculations and should have left 3 hours later, instead we were faced with force 6 winds against a foul tide which left us battling for 3 hours to round St Albans Head. 

The strategy now was to stop trying to head south out of the tidal race as we were being pushed Eastwards back to the Isle of White, instead we decided to head into to land so that we would at least loose the winds, the battle was quite spectacular, there were a couple of moments where the idea of going back to Studland sounded like the right decision, but we persisted and Troskala took a battering from the waves.

We pushed on and after 3 hours we lost the foul tide and started our journey westwards.  After we turned the corner we began to gain 6 knots, the wind reduced to force 5 but still SW so our tack was positioning us into land.  We carried on taking the amazing sights of the Jurassic coast which was quite spectacular, we knew that if we had any problems we could head to Beer bay, a sheltered anchorage, but the situation never arose and we reached Weymouth around 18:00 completing our longest voyage of 28 miles.

 It was great arriving to Weymouth after what we had been through during the day.  We were requested to come alongside a ship called 'Haywire' a Feeling 850 owned by Martin and Hillary Williamson who were to become help full, knowledgeable and kind friends that we would now come across time and again throughout our voyage.  We settled down for evening and after having an agreeable meal in Prezzo we both agreed that instead of completing Lyme bay the next day we would take a day off and explore the sights of Weymouth.

Thursday 29th - A day in Weymouth (Great!)

I had not taken to Weymouth when I had sailed here whilst crewing last year, and I was in two minds whether or not to put a blog for this day.  I am glad we stayed, Weymouth's Yacht facilities were most welcome as we had to catch up on some washing and charge mobile phones.  We walked along the the old Harbour and had a lunch of Mussels followed by a trip into the main center.  We came across a shop called Atmosphere, which donned a beautiful hanging chair in the window, we immediately brought it and after collecting our washing we heading back to the boat top try it out; the photos speak for themselves.  The chair was a complete success with Carlotta and spectators alike. We went back to shop that sold us the chair and thanked them to which they rewarded our feedback with a block of Whiskey fudge.  We then had our first fish and chips and settled down for the night going through the charts and almanac for our next days voyage to Dartmouth which would take us further 50 miles west, our longest voyage yet.

Friday 30th - Weymouth to Dartmouth

This was our the largest leg of our voyage, we would need to gain a favouable tide top push around the UK's most dangerous headland, Portland Bill and contend with the Portland race.  On our second day in Weymouth Yacht Haywire with Martin, Hillary and there two daughters had left although we had promised to get together for a glass of wine when we reached Dartmouth,we were then joined by Yacht Pez Espada with Simon, Claire and Simons father, the skipper; we would leave with them and hopefully stay in visibility through out our leg; this gave myself and Carlotta great comfort in knowing that someone would be nearby to aid any difficulties we may get into.

We followed Pez Espada out of Weymouth and started our voyage South to Portland Bill and the Race.  The weather and tide were kind although we had to motor through Portland as the wind died, so Genoa was brough in and we motored under main. After passing Portland safely and moving out of the race we started to head West.  The wind was now a good force 4 and the tide in our favour meant we could maintain an average of 6 knots.  We had turned west earlier than Pez Espada so as the day progressed we started to loose sight of them, although we could always make them out.  We enjoyed a good sail with the sun shining and wind light but we started to loose speed and it was evident as we crossed the half mark that we would possible be heading into Dartmouth by night fall.  It was around 17:00 when we lost sight of Pez Espada, they were on a much better southerly course, which meant they were more in line with Dartmouth, we however would need to take south in order to make a good bearing but this would mean we would have to back track slightly and put hours on our journey, we continued for another 2 hours on our more northerly course.

 We had heard from the shipping forecast that wind would increase later and after 17:00 the wind speed crept up to a force 5 then 6.  We had full sail but this was becoming uncomfortable, as soon as we tried to take south we were hit hard by the waves and making little progress.  The situation was now concerning, we were 17 miles from Dartmouth it was evident we would be night sailing and the weather was closing in with the distant sky becoming heavy with rain.  We made a tactical decision to head to Torquay as we were on a more suitable course and it shaved off a few miles.  On the course we had set it would take us another 3 hours to reach Torquay and the time was already 20:30.  After another hour the wind speed started gusting to a low force 7, our visibility went to zero and then came the rain.  We werfe both, by now soaked and entering the tanker anchorage of which we had now lost all sight of all the other vessels. All we could do was check our navigation, look out for other vessels and count the miles on the chart plotter as they fell away. At this point I started feeling worried, every half hour seemed like an eternity, but eventually we started to see the shapes of the tankers and eventually the dark outline of Torquay.

By now the rain had eased making visibilty a lot easier although now it was night time and we relied heavily on our chart plotter for safe guidance into the marina.  We made it into Torquay marina around 11:30 but could not distinguish where the visitors berths were.  We tried to make radio contact but to no avail so I found a spare berth and we slowly came in.  As we appraoched Carlotta stepped off only to fall over on some bird sh**t a twist her ankle; this was a great welcome.

Saturday 31st July - A Day in Torquay

Relaxing after the experiences of Lyme Bay

We decided that after the hell of the previous day we would spend the day in Torquay and see the sights.  I was up early standing next to the harbour office to explain why we had decided to pick a berth that was not dedicated to visitors.  In the end we managed to iron things out and took to the streets of Torquay. 

We did not particularly like Troquay and the weather did not help.  We later found out that we had moored in the harbour and not the marina thus the facilities were appaling.

In the evening we went to a restaurant called Man Fridays and the most amazing seafood although it was not cheap.

Torquay by day

After dinner we walked around the town and along the harbour wall but like so many towns in England it was full of drunks so the experience was not exactly pleasuable.

We had a faily early night as the next day we were to sail on to Dartmouth to join up with friends that we had met in Weymouth, yachts Pez Espada and Haywire.

Sunday 01st August - Torquay to Dartmouth

We left Torquay around midday after fueling up.  The voyage was a simple passage heading south along the coast.  The wind SSW so at times we had it on the nose which made for a long passage in the end.  The weather was fair although it started raining 1 hour into trip but we still maintained visibility of the coastline which was stunning in areas.

We arrived at the entrance of Dartmouth around 15:00 and managed to navigate with ease.

We had already arranged to meet our two friends in Dartmouth and upon locating Pez Espada we tied up next to them on the town pontoon.

Troskala in Dartmouth

After a tricky maneuver to tie up next to Pez Espada we invited Haywire (Martin & Hillary) and Pez Espada (Simon & Claire) for drinks and nibbles in the evening.
 We rowed ashore to investigate Dartmouth, but the weather was still miserable, which also made the town seem fairly miserable.

Party in Yacht Troskala

 By now we had eaten out most nights so we decided to treat ourselves to homemade pizzas aboard.  After a shower in the modest facilities that Dartmouth has to offer we had our friends over for what turned out to a really nice evening, which made up for a poor day weather and sailing wise.

Monday 02nd August - A Day in Dartmouth (Up the river Dart)



We woke up early considering the late night we had.  We were ready to make a journey up the river Dart with Simon and Claire who had kindly offered to take us up the river in their dinghy.  We left around 10:30 in glorious sunshine although it was fairly breezy.  We were heading to Dittisham about a couple of miles up river.  We did have some issues with the outboard which kept cutting out, but after changing the fuel the problem did not persist.

The sights were fantastic as we slowly motored up the dart, in fact once the engine had been cut the serenity and beauty of the River Dart were outstanding.

It took around about an hour and a half to reach the jetty at Dittisham but this was against the tide.  The effort to get there was well worth it as Dittisham was the complete picturesque English village with a small pub on the right and a cafe on the left.

We made our exit and walked up the steep hill in the village, past some stunning houses, but that was really there was to see, so instead we decided to retire to the cafe for a coffee and some cake.  The shop at the cafe sold some most unusual ice creams, but as it was chilly we decided against this option.

After our coffee and chat we decided to head back to the boats. Now the tide and wind were in our favour so we opened up a pick-nic of crisps, salami, and other 'bits & bobs' from the previous night.

We stopped the motor for a time and relaxed and enjoyed the feast, we did manage to gather some funny looks from passers by on the tour ferry's as there were four of us in a very small dinghy eating cheese and biscuits, the only shame was that we forgot to pack the wine.

We made it back to Troskala and Pez Espada in good time and chose to spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Dartmouth and sleeping.

Dittisham

Tuesday 03rd August - A Day in Dartmouth (Around the Town)

Dartmouth

We had a full day in Dartmouth to kill but instead we slept in a bit and then took a walk around Dartmouth again.  The town is stunning and I wish we had made time to go on the steam train or ferry right to the top of the Dart but instead we walked around and had some coffees, the weather was not particularly favourable which depleted our spirits somewhat.

We met with Claire and Simon in the evening for a few drinks and were joined by Hillary and Martin.  It was a lovely night and the last night we would spend in the company of Pez Espada as the next day we were leaving Dartmouth and heading back East back to Weymouth.  Yacht Haywire were to accompany us also back to Weymouth but would leave a little later as they had speed on their side.

We were to leave at 04:30 the next morning so we finished a drinks at a reasonable time and went to bed, but slept restlessly as the worry of the mornings voyage was playing on my mind

Wednesday 04th August - Dartmouth to Weymouth (Heading East)