Page 18 - Yachter Spring/Summer 2022

18 CRUISING REPORTS
IN THE EYE OF STORM EVERT
24th July 2021. Beaulieu River. All is clear, and we are ready. My Out of Office is on, with the schoolbags hidden away for the summer holiday, fuelled up, provisions stored away, and crew prepared for our passage to the Isles of Scilly for a second time.This passage will be different from last year, as we plan to attempt it in one leg.
We had included our son Alexander in the passage planning, as we wanted him to be fully involved.We felt his input would boost his confidence and readiness onboard. In the past, mindful of keeping Alexander onside, we had done shorter hops to the Channel Islands and France.This was the first time he would do night passages.
Andrew had made the passage plan, estimating 41 hours with arrival in the early morning of the 26th July, just as dawn is breaking and just before high water.
The plan was to have some options on arrival as the wind was forecast to pick up in three days.
Option one:
With strong gusts expected, we wanted to be on a buoy in a sheltered location and chose Tresco’s New Grimsby Harbour.We reasoned some boats would have decided to leave this idyllic island archipelago to go back to the mainland, some for shelter and others just moving on.With that, we expected to see some available buoys. From our experience in the previous year, we knew that boats wanting to leave towards St Mary’s would need to cross Tresco Flats which dries, at high water.Thus the best chance to get a buoy would be to arrive just before high water.
Option two:
If we could not find a suitable buoy, return to the mainland.
With our draft of 4’3”, we were able to get
across Tresco Flats before the top of the tide. I always find it a bit mind-boggling to see all the rocks in the clear water underneath our long keel, knowing full well they will be rising out of the water in a few hours. But in the company of good old Tom Cunliffe’s South Coast Pilot, we made it over safely.
On arrival, my heart sank. I could not see any buoys available, and the harbour was very full; but just as we were going to decide what to do, I spotted activity on a nearby yacht. Our luck was in, and ironically it was precisely the same buoy we moored up to the year before. Perfect, we felt confident
as we knew our yacht was not too big for this mooring as the year earlier, the harbour master had confirmed it was suitable for our vessel, plus it was a new buoy with all new ground tackle.
We felt tired but relaxed and happy after our 41 hours sail from Beaulieu, and we thought we deserved some relaxing times.We took the ferry to St Mary’s and had a day on Alexander’s favourite beach in Port Cressa. On returning to the boat, the forecast had changed, and the talk was the wind would pick up, and it would possibly be a storm. Potentially a bad one.
At this point, with no certainty we could get a snug berth back on the mainland, we committed to staying.We felt that we had the best buoy at the end of the mooring field furthest away from the open sea, and with the forecasted wind direction, there were no boats upwind of us.
Wednesday, 28th July 2021. New Grimsby, Tresco Island, Isles of Scilly.
By the afternoon, the forecast confirmed we were in for a blow.
Thursday, 29th July 2021. New Grimsby, Tresco Island, Isles of Scilly.
Andrew made the boat ready, dinghy on deck with everything tied down.As we have a super strong cockpit tent, we decided to leave it up as it would be easier to keep an anchor watch. He also got out our short length of chain we carried for this exact reason and chained ourselves to the buoy to avoid any chafing of lines in the middle of the night.
Venthe was as secure as we could make her and had been made ready for sea, with the ability to easily slip the short length of chain if we had to leave the buoy in a hurry.
We had the lovely crew from Sailing Cadoha (Youtube Channel), the adjacent yacht, over for drinks and dinner.At around 8pm, we started to feel the wind was picking up, and it was time for them to go.We
tied a long line to their dinghy as they had problems with their outboard motor earlier in the day and wanted to have a backup if the outboard failed.As it was, they got back safely.
At 10pm, I sent a message to my family saying all was well, but a storm will hit us soon.We had the lee cloths up and tucked Alexander away. Venthe is now rocking and pulling so hard it was dangerous to even