Gwilym's Adventure Blog

 Today was a great day afloat down in Plymouth Sound helping a friend move a yacht round for it's annual lift out.

Today I was down in Plymouth helping Carol to get her yacht back on the water. After it was craned in I shot up the mast to put some lazy jacks back up before rigging the foresail.  As the wind was picking up and it was difficult rigging on a pontoon facing across the wind, we then motored round into the shelter of The Yealm before mooring up and rigging the main sail and other lines. The boat is all ready for some sailing action now. Just hope for some nice weather to coincide with some days off.

On Monday evening I boarded a friends yacht on The Yealm with the intention of preparing her to move round to Plymouth for the winter on Tuesday. All seemed well with a peaceful nigh aboard and some pre trip jobs. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue on Tuesday morning, the move didn't happen but in the words of an expert …. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” ―  Ratty, The Wind in the Willows

This afternoon I was down in Plymouth helping a friend move a yacht from Plymouth round to the Yealm estuary. We chose to motor round for speed, as there were jobs to be done (as there always are on a yacht) and we needed to maximise the work time and minimise the moving time. She is now happily back on her mooring in the Yealm.

Today I headed down to The Yealm Estuary with Carol to help her move her yacht round to Plymouth to be lifted out. A great sunny day but with a NE wind meaning it was a motoring job as we were heading into wind for 90% of the time. It was great to be back on a yacht (I do miss mine) and entering Plymouth which was my home port for 3 years.

Yesterday and today I was helping Carol and Debs with the final part of their yacht move. We took a leisurely 2 days heading west with a great evening meal and night on the pontoon in Salcombe having negotiated the surfers on Salcombe bar and watched the lifeboat go out. A lot of motor sailing required due to the wind but fantastic weather and the boat behaved very well. Sadly I am writing this on my phone on side of M5 waiting for AA due to a suspected coolant leak.

The journey continues....... After a weekend of wild weather where my diving and sailing trips were cancelled, this morning I joined up with Carol to continue moving her yacht round to its new home. We snatched a few hours of reasonable weather setting out from Brixham at 11:30 and motoring round to Dartmouth. As the castle came into sight, so did a massive squall that was brewing on the horizon. We held back to allow the tall ship to exit the harbour entrance and luck was on our side as we managed to get in and moored up before the rain started and we enjoyed lunch inside listening to the rain pounding on the cabin roof. Next instalment next week (fingers crossed)

Today I was back out with Carol and Debs sailing their yacht in the Torbay area. The plan is to get it moved round to Plymouth to the new mooring but a few technical issues and poor weather report for the next few days means is will be resting in Brixham until we get a chance to move it on. We had a mixture of weather today but if we ignore the rainy part just off Teignmouth then it was a pleasant sail and saw us arrive in Brixham Marina around 6:30pm. I felt a small pang of sadness as we passed my old yacht moored up in the harbour where her new owner keeps her but it was good to see her on the water. A great meal in the Breakwater Bistro finished off a nice day

This afternoon I helped a couple friends move their new yacht from Topsham down to Exmouth. It didn't quite go to plan as I had to sort out the engine cooling system on the way down the river that caused it to go dark on us before finding the mooring bouy. Anyway we found a bouy and are spending an unscheduled night on the yacht before trying to get ashore tomorrow morning on the early tide.

After spending 3 days last week sitting through Driver CPC - the most boring and pointless set of days I have ever done in my life (still got 2 more to do) it was great to be able to get out on the yacht today with Deb and Carol. Fantastic weather even if the wind was somewhat light.

Bye Dartmouth Castle  Start Point  The Mew Stone Fort Bovisand, almost home As I was not able to get to Salcombe yesterday I knew I had a long day ahead of me so started at 06:30 to catch the tide around Start Point. This all went very well averaging 6 knts from Dartmouth Castle to clearing Start. After that it was a relentless beat into the wind making about 1 mile in the direction I wanted for every 3 sailed. After a few hours of this I dropped sails and motored into the wind for a few hours on auto helm so I could take a break and have lunch. Then it was back to beating into the wind for the final leg up to the Yealm before I again succumbed and motored in arriving on my buoy at 17:00.  41 nautical miles done today so I am a bit tired. Over the last 14 days I have been living on the boat and managed 9 days sailing in various conditions (some less than comfortable), covered nearly 200 nautical miles, visited some nice harbours and generally...