Single Handed Back to Devon

Unusually, Victoria Marina provides a good WiFi internet connection. So, over the next few days, I spent a lot of time studying weather sites on the web. One of the best ones that I have found is: http://www.passageweather.com/ which supplies predictions of the likely wind and waves to expect during the following few days. It indicated that Friday morning should give me a suitable weather window to get back to Devon. However, to get the tides right through Little Russel, I would have to leave at 6:00 am. The sill at Victoria Marina was only open around midday so I left the comfort of the marina on Thursday ready for an early start on Friday. Handling Jomima on my own (38 feet long and 10 tons) required a lot of planning to make sure that, in particular, I could safely leave a mooring and then arrive at the new pontoon with fenders, ropes etc ready for mooring up as required. I again checked the weather, before turning in for the night, and it seemed as though it should be ok.

I got up at 05:00, cast off at 06:00, and before I left the harbour stowed all of the ropes and fenders. Little Russel was quiet and a one metre swell made its presence felt as I headed across the Channel. Fortunately the autopilot was able to keep to the course that I had programmed in advance, despite the swell. I passed the mid Channel light Vessel and crossed the two large shipping lanes without too many problems. The swell then began to subside as the tide changed and I began to relax and enjoy the 75 mile journey. The conditions allowed me to average 15-16 knots and the English coast appeared as a smudge on the horizon at 09:30. At 11:00 I entered Brixham harbour and, using the VHF radio, asked them for a mooring and checked which side I would have to place the fenders. I then put the engines into neutral and drifted while I set up ropes and fenders. Fortunately the mooring was quite narrow, and there was little wind, so that once I had got Jomima into the mooring she did not drift away while I attached ropes to the pontoon. It was a great relief to get back safely before the weather changed that afternoon.

Jeff's Birthday

One of the reasons that we headed to Jersey was to meet up with Jeff & Gerry, with their boat Virginia Lady, also from the Broom Owners Club. Once the water level had risen about 2m above the sill we were able to enter the harbour at St Peter Port and moor alongside Virginia lady, another Broom 38. We then discovered that it was Jeff’s birthday and headed into the town for a meal. Good company, good food and wine – what more could you want after a very tiring day navigating through fog.

Goodbye to Brixham

They say that patience is a virtue but I know that I am not very patient. However, if you rush to go somewhere in a small boat, when the weather is not ideal, then you may not live to regret it.



The end of April came and went. On the evening of the 15th May we finally saw a potential drop in the high winds that have plagued us for so long. This, we hoped, would enable us to cruise the 85 miles to the Solent. We set off at 7:00 am to catch the tide in the right direction and programed in to the GPS a stop at Weymouth. The weather was not perfect but good enough to keep going. After 20 miles you can't see land in any direction and we had reached the point of no return. It was as close to continue to Wemouth as turn back to Brixham - so we carried on. As we approached Portland Bill we could see a very large ship on our route, but not on the radar. As we got closer we could see that it was a Naval Warship. It did not actually appear on our radar until we were only 4 miles away, by which time we could see it very clearly indeed. I don't know what they paint them with but it makes them look like a small fishing vessel on the radar. We chose to go around it.



The sea had calmed down so we decided to head for the Solent in one hop. Five hours after we left Brixham we were mooring in Lymington; greatly relieved that we had finally managed to travel past Portland Bill without incident. If you have watched the air sea rescue program you will know what I mean.