Well I’m extremely tired but alongside safe and sound in Plymouth (Queen Anne’s Battery)! Pathetic really to feel so exhausted after 24 hrs at sea but in mitigation I guess I was pretty tired before we sailed, this is my first proper sailing this year and the easterly breeze, although generally favourable for our passage west does encourage Little Scarlet to roll in a rather unpleasant and ‘mal de mer’ inducing fashion!
While crossing Christchurch Bay we discussed the option of spending a few hours at anchor to avoid fighting against the tide around Portland Bill but the weather was generally fair (albeit very cold) so we decided to keep on going through the night and keep well off the Bill and out of the worst of the tidal stream in order to make as much progress westwards as possible. It was a quiet night but with extremely slow progress under sail and engine. With a speed of around 6 knots and several knots of tide against us, Portland Bill Lighthouse was flashing four white flashes every 20 seconds on our starboard side for far too long!
There were two noteworthy equipment issues overnight. At sunset we discovered that our navigation lights had been incorrectly connected when they were replaced earlier this year so we were, in effect, indicating that we were both a vessel under power and sail at the same time; likely to cause confusion when viewed by other vessels whose ‘collision avoidance’ manoeuvres are dependent on our status. This was something that needed to be rectified as soon as possible.
We also discovered that the auto-pilot was intermittently failing. The auto-pilot is a device that when fitted to the tiller, allows Little Scarlet to remain on a steady heading without manual control, therefore freeing up the crew for other tasks, for example trimming the sails or putting on the kettle. The auto-pilot really needed to be working properly if we were going to comfortably make some of the longer passages that we planned.
After a pretty cold and rather miserable night it was tempting to head off to Dartmouth , we could be in the pub by lunchtime but after a bit of internet searching it was clear that our best option for either fixing or replacing the auto-pilot was to keep on going to Plymouth.
Things improved with some sunshine and a freshening breeze from the North East and we had a lovely sail past Start Point and Salcombe. At one stage our log showed us doing 9 knots – we reckon the log over reads by a knot or so - however we needed to reef (reduce the amount of sail) in order to keep Little Scarlet under control.
We were alongside in Queen Anne’s Battery, Plymouth late afternoon, just in time to run up to the chandlery to see if they had a replacement auto-pilot in stock. They do and we shall think overnight about whether or not we will buy and fit tomorrow before we head off again.
