Staying North

Ok, the Chrismas present in question was a “Day Skipper Practical” course so it doesn’t actually need opening. To Jean – thank you, thank you, thank you!

The course is roughly a week down in Cornwall back at the village were we used to live, so it was also an opportunity to meet up with old friends.

On Sunday I drove down with Gerry who runs the course and we spent the afternoon sorting out one or two things at a leisurely pace in prep for the official meet-up with other course participants at 6.00pm. For this particular session, there was one other person doing the course who also happened to be called Geoff so we had to sort out a naming convention so we didn’t get confused when telling each other what to do.

As expected, Sunday turned into a pleasant sequence of bumping into friends at various points during the day. Sunday was sunny, and as the tide was in our favour, it seemed a  good idea to take the boat around to moor up at The Pandora Inn for a quick evening drink and pose. A good start to the week and it helped us get ready for the trials and tribulations that lay ahead, at least that was the excuse!

Monday proved to have very different weather as the clouds had appeared and the forecast for the day was for increasing wind and rain, Ho-hum. Course activities for the day started at 9.00 with running through safety topics, checking up on our knowledge of navigation marks, weather terms and such like. Once we had done this, it was time to cast off and carry out a number of exercises, mostly under engine. These included coming alongside pontoons, manoeuvring in confined waters, anchoring the yacht and finally getting back into our berth in the marina. Even though it was wet and windy, this was very enjoyable and we finished the on-the-water part of the day  feeling pleased with our progress.

Geoff, the other student, ass doing his coastal skippers course and so had to prepare a passage plan for a theoretical trip from Mylor (where we are in Cornwall) to St. Peter Port in Guernsey. So, while we prepared our evening meal, he was poring over charts and sailing almanacs to check out all the hazards, states of tide and other fun things to ensure a safe passage to our theoretical destination.

Tuesday was a complete change from Monday’s weather. The sun broke through while we were having our breakfast and after checking the weather forecast I had to put together my pilotage and passage plans for a trip up to Fowey, which is approximately a four hour sail.

After briefing my “crew”, we set off. Once we had motored out of the marina, we hoisted sails then worked our way out of Carrick Roads into Falmouth Bay. That covered the first pilotage bit (Mylor to my first waypoint in Falmouth Bay). Then we headed off to put the passage plan into practice and get us to the mouth of Fowey Harbour. Throughout the sail, the wind was at 16 knots off our port beam and we had a very satisfying run all the way to the entrance to Fowey. Every 30 minutes, I had to take a three point fix (get a bearing from the boat to three landmarks so I could check where we were and see how far off our planned course we were).  One of the highlights of the day was sailing all the way into the harbour at Fowey before dropping the sails and motoring onto the town pontoon. A cracking day’s sail!

Wednesday’s weather was different yet again with little wind and poor visibility (less than 1000 metres). Geoff was the skipper for that day and he had the fun of getting us out of Fowey back into Falmouth Bay and up the Helford River. The trip was entirely on engine and we needed to keep a sharp lookout for other vessels and fishermens floats. The floats are a particular hazard when under engine as they are often difficult to see (fishermen frequently use old plastic gallon milk or vinegar containers) and the last thing you would want is the float’s line tangled around your propellor.

As part of the other Geoff’s Coastal Skipper course, he needed to plan and execute a night passage / pilotage so Wednesday evening saw us cast off from our mooring in the Helford River as it was getting dark and follow Geoff’s plan which took us out of the Helford and past the big bulk carrier vessels moored in Falmouth Bay. Visibility was poor verging on fog and we needed to keep a very good lookout as we moved along. We could hear the horn from the lighthouse at St. Anthony’s Head at the entrance to Carrick Roads all the way across Falmouth Bay but didn’t get sight of its light until we were pretty close. When we were close to St. Anthony’s Head we turned on to a new heading and followed Geoff’s pilotage safely up the deep water channel through Carrick Roads past the channel marks back to Mylor.

Thursday was spent doing all the various bits and pieces we still needed to cover to complete our courses. For Geoff, the main thing was a “blind pilotage”. This simulates getting from a known position to your destination in near-zero visibility without the benefit of GPS. Great fun!

Friday was the final day of the course and we were both extremely pleased to receive our Certificates, me as Day Skipper, Geoff as Coastal Skipper. All in all we both felt we had learnt a lot and the whole week was a very enjoyable experience. A very big thank you to Gerry from Mylor Cruising for being a fantastic instructor and to Geoff for being good company over the week!

Here we are on Boxing Day at Zoe’s and time for a catch-up posting…

The run up to Christmas had included an “At home with Jean and Geoff” at the Lockhouse – good to see lots of friends for a drink and socialise. That was especially nice as Helen was able to come down from Leeds for the weekend before and stayed over until the morning after. The weekend also included an Extravaganza party in Bristol at Rob and Pauls’s on the Friday with lots of lights, brilliant decorations and great company.

Sunday lunch for myself, Jean and Helen was at the Hotel du Vin so all in all a very social weekend! Pre-Christmas get-togethers included a very pleasant mulled wine evening at Nick and Dan’s – more fun & laughter with good friends and finally drinks at The Royal with Heather, John and Jo.

Helen flew back down from Leeds the Tuesday evening before Christmas so we could all travel up to Worcester on the Wednesday. Much excitement on Christmas Eve morning as Jean saw “Hello from Antarctica” on breakfast TV and thought the bearded person was Andrew. “No, we all look pretty similar with the beards” said Andrew later. However, Andrew was actually heard by various people around the Midlands talking on local radio later in the day.

Our original plan was to depart in time to arrive at Zoe’s by midday but our actual time of arrival was 5pm. This coincided with Zoe’s return to the house after picking Tom, Helen’s boyfriend, up from the station. Tom had travelled down from Leeds and taken an earlier train than planned after hearing that some trains between Birmingham and Worcester were being cancelled. So Christmas celebrations began!

Christmas Eve evening was dinner and drinks staying in at Zoe’s  and sorting out the presents in preparation for Christmas morning. Highlight of the evening was a surprise phone call from Andrew from Rothera in Antarctica.

Christmas Day morning started off with Snowballs as our traditional celebratory drink before the communal opening of presents. Everyone was delighted with their presents. Zoe was especially pleased that Andrew had managed to choose really cool clothes for her even though he was the other end of the world and far from any shops. A very pleasant surprise for me was a week’s day skipper course in Cornwall from Jean. Luckily this isn’t to be taken till the weather warms up a little.

Chloe had a very busy Christmas Day.  She started by guarding the goose and giblets from Billy (a neighbour’s lovely but naughty kitten) who tried to get into the house.  After a short nap, she joined us for Christmas dinner (see below) and tried some goose.  Goose was a big hit with one and all.
Then she opened some presents.  She got a nice cushion from Andrew, some catnip treats from John, Lisa and Cassy, and a Christmas tree decoration from Jean and Geoff.  From Zoe and Andy, she got a laser toy and a mouse full of catnip.  She loved the mouse straightaway and drooled all over it.  The laser toy kept Tom occupied and Chloe had a little play with him. After all the playtime, she had a snooze in the lounge while everyone else watched some Christmas TV.

Boxing Day has been a relaxing day. The highlight was a lunchtime visit by Chris and Chris (that is Christine, my sister, and Christopher, her husband) who had driven over from Rugby to spend a few hours with us in a local hostelry.

No gardening this weekend due to a touch of Tennis Elbow. Must have overdone the digging last weekend, even though I thought I was taking it steady.

Jean booked me in with her Yoga tutor, who is also a qualified sports physio, for a session of sports injury massage. After I had this, it felt a lot better but the recommendation was to leave the gardening for at least a week and to regularly do the exercise she showed me. Ironic really, it’s the veg plot to her house that I’ve taken on!

I’ve since agreed to carry on with a series of exercise sessions with her which will be aiming to get my general fitness back up to speed. This should help me stay away from getting this sort of problem in the future. As I’ve done virtually no sailing over the past two years, my fitness level could certainly do with a boost. Next session is on Thursday and lets see how it goes. Update on this anon…

Over the past week, I’ve been playing around with the look and feel of the blog. First off, I changed the theme from the “as installed” one (blue background header) to a Vista style of theme. Latest step was to add a graphic to the header (the banner stuff at the top of every page you visit).  The graphic is the view across Portishead marina entrance and the old steamer pier towards Wales. Considering the blog is titled “Staying North” it’s probably quite appropriate that the view is directly north from where I took the photo.

Just by where the photo was taken, there’s an interesting bit of art – a set of stones of varying heights that when viewed from afar represents a wave. Up close, each stone has an inscription on it which links Portishead with its connections to the sea.

Zoe, Andrew’s fiance, came over on Saturday. Lunch was a quick drink and some excellent hot food at The Black Horse in Clapton. Afterwards, we went back home to drop Jean off then round to spend an hour at the plot.

The first task was to take up and clean off several old car side windows that had been pushed into the soil at an angle to form cloches. We stacked them alongside the fruit cage then made a start on the digging. We soon found that the soil was light and easily worked so it was no effort at all to dig.  The plot had obviously been well looked after and had benefited from good composting and being well drained. In an hour we’d cleared a strip about 2m by 3m then planted a row of garlic and a short run of perpetual spinach (leaf beet is the proper name, I think). (See more in photo gallery)

Our aim for this session was to clear an area and get something planted. By having something growing at the start would give us a good incentive to clear the whole plot and make it productive again. By the time we completed this it was beginning to get dark so we headed back home for a nice hot drink.

Zoe had made a delicious looking panforte. Unfortunately for me, having spent most of Friday afternoon in the dentist’s chair, it was something for the girls to enjoy! Ho-hum

We’ve just been offered the use of a vegetable plot. It’s been out of use while an old house was knocked down and a new one built in its place. It gets the sun for the best part of the day and has a couple of apple trees at one end so should be nice once we get started. There’s a certain amount of clearing needed but it doesn’t look too bad at all. There’s also a fruit cage on it which will be great for soft fruit.

I took a few photos when we went round to see it and they’re in the photo gallery. It’ll be interesting to look back at them once we’ve cleared the site and begun to get something under cultivation. It will also give Zoe an idea of what we can do with it as we can benefit from her experiences with her own plot.

Well, I think our planned trip to Westonbirt Arboretum is off. Looking out of the window this morning revealed plenty of white caps and a rough Bristol Channel. The tugs shepherding a large car carrier into Royal Portbury Dock were throwing up plenty of spray as they ploughed into the choppy water. So plan B goes into effect – a glass of wine, music and reading the latest batch of gastro-porn (Valentine Warner’s “What to eat now” and “Nigella Christmas”).

Venturing out today is limited to a brief shop for tomorrow’s brunch ingredients followed by an evening visit to The Lockhouse for delicious meal with Jean and Zoe. Great to have a good venue just a couple of minutes walk away. Return home to receive a wonderful surprise – phone call from Andrew! Not often you get a call all the way from Antarctica. Amazing how clear it was with no noticeable delay considering the distances involved.

Come Sunday morning the wind has dropped but it’s still pretty gusty. Hopefully it will have blown itself out before the day is over. Still, a relaxing morning to come with a tasty brunch before Zoe heads back to Worcester for an afternoon stint on her allotment.

While there’s still some light we take a short walk beside the steamer pier and lock gates followed by a quiet drink.