Sumara of Weymouth Blog

Approach to St Peters

St Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell on Sea

The Sea Wall protecting the Dengie Peninsular

Salt Marsh on the Dengie Peninsular

Maldon Mud

Maldon

The Jolly Sailor Maldon

John on the Sea Wall

Heybridge Basin

The Green Man Bradwell on Sea

Dunlins on the mud

Dunlins Flocking

Dengie Mud

BAe Base Station

John and I set off on the 0855 train from Liverpool Street to Burnham on Crouch and just over an hour later we were tucking into a full breakfast in a little café by the seafront. It is incredible to think that you can walk for 14 miles from here without coming across any houses or shops. This is the Dengie Peninsular which is perhaps the wildest place you can get to in an hour from London.  Apparently it was the inspiration for both H G Wells “War of the Worlds” which features Maldon and for Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. In just a few minutes you have walked past the posh yacht clubs and are on the sea wall with reclaimed land to the left and mud and estuary to the right. Soon the few moored boats disappear into the mist and the mud turns to salt marsh. We had prepared ourselves for a fairly bleak walk and in some respects we weren’t let down. It was flat and grey but surprisingly interesting walking along the wall. A few twitchers strolled by. We were entertained by flocks of thousands of dunlins. Second world war pill boxes were strategically placed and eventually we came across what seems to be a secret radio establishment owned by BAe with strange ariel structures. At this point we turned inland towards Bradwell. We wanted to save visiting St Peters Church until Saturday when we would be joined by Selma and Grit. We would have walked 14 miles and it was quite enough for the first day.
We booked into the Green Man Pub where we had one absolutely massive room and one very much smaller one. There was a roaring log fire and we had a tasty meal. The Apprentice Ale was top notch. Altogether a good place to stay but perhaps a bit expensive for a simple walking holiday (Large double £80, small twin £70).
On Saturday we walked out to St Peter’s Church. It is Britain’s oldest church (654) and was apparently built in Syrian style! It is a simple square building which was once used as a farmers barn. Nearby is a small Christian Community built as a place of peace after the war. Anyone can stay there of any religion or no religion. After a brief stop at the church we carried on to the sea wall. There is a small copse and a sheltered Bird Watching Sanctury with benches overlooking the salt marshes. The salt marshes are gradually eroding and old barges have been sunk to act as wave breaks.
We strolled along the wall as far as the radio ariels, this time approaching from the north. We turned inland along the St Peter’s Way. The area is a Ramsar Site, named after a convention in Iran in 1971 to protect wetlands of international importance. The area is also an SSI, a special protection area, and a special area of conservation. Soon we found ourselves in Tillingham where a pub tempted us for lunch.
We stayed a bit too long and so we needed to keep up a fair pace as far as Maylansea briskly walking across some rolling low hills overlooking the Blackwater Estuary. We had walked for at least 11 miles and it was clear that it would be dark by the time we reach Maldon. Selma decided to sensibly opt for the bus while we plodded on. Instead of following the winding coastal path we decided to carve our own way through the field paths. To our surprise the paths all existed and even in the dark we found our way across ploughed fields to the bridges across the many ditches. The last field was the site of the Battle of Maldon. The Vikings were camped on Northey Island so Brythnoth decided to get an army assembled to defend Maldon from attack. It was easy to defend Maldon because the Vikings could not get across the causeway from the island. The Vikings complained that it wasn’t fair and they should be allowed into the field to have a proper battle and Brythnoth made the poor tactical decision to allow them across. They went on to defeat Brythnoth’s army but were too weakened to attack Maldon. They went on to attack Sheppy. I learnt this tale and lots of others from Peter Caton’s book “Essex Coast Walk”. The book is so entertaining that I intend to read it cover to cover over the winter. Highly recommended to anyone intending to walk around Essex.
Bang on time, we walked into The Jolly Sailor, Maldon to be greeted by Peter and Mara as well as Selma. After two pints of Doom Bar we headed of for a meal at a restaurant called something Italian. The meal was really enjoyable but no thanks to the food. My sardine starter was appalling and Peter complained about his courgette and lobster. The carrots were rock solid and the steak and wine was poor. I was ill afterwards and didn’t fully recover until Sunday evening. However the staff were a laugh and the company was wonderful.
The rooms in the Jolly Sailor were clean and good value. The beds were strangely low with a solid edge. I suspect IKEA has tried to redesign a standard bed to produce a less satisfactory version. Breakfast was great but the Full English for the third day was beginning to be too much of a good thing. We met up with Peter and Mara for coffee and persuaded them to join us for a gentle stroll to Heybridge Basin and along the canal. We decided not to continue to Tollesbury, or Witham, or Colchester as originally planned.
After a gentle four mile circular walk admiring the Thames barges we got a taxi back to Bradwell to pick up Selma’s car. A very pleasant and interesting weekend.

The Start Line Looks Rather Sad 10 Minutes before Time!

The Sports Hall before the Race

4th November 2012
I had a quick look at the weather forecast on the day before the Sunday run and it said 6°C and 95% chance of heavy rain. And they were spot on! We drove through sodden roads to arrive in Marlow at 8.30. My sister who lives nearby came to wish us well. Actually the rain pretty much stopped as we started running but the roads were badly flooded. At one point we were literally knee deep in water and I am not exagerating. To begin with many runners were trying to keep their feet dry. I’ve learnt that this is a totally pointless exercise and decided to make use of the stream of water down the edge of the road to get clear of a jam of runners.
The route is all on tarmac so I wore my trainers but sadly Nike trainers aren’t designed for running underwater and soon the padding inside became bunched and lumpy. It made patches of the run pretty uncomfortable. The water was quite cold too and it was possibly this combination of fast hill running then cold water that caused Liam’s calf to cease up after about eight miles. This is home territory for Liam and he had been looking forward to the run for a long time. On a good day Liam can run the route in 1hr 35 minutes. It must have been a bitter blow when he realised that he couldn’t run through the pain and would have to retire. St Johns Ambulance looked after him and he got a lift back to base. I can’t understand how I missed him as I ran past but even stranger was that John said he overtook me a couple of times and I overtook him a couple of times too. The fact that I didn’t notice him at all was extraordinary as I was aware of many of the runners around especially those who got past me and there were a lot of them!
The route takes you through lovely undulating Thames countryside. It is more hilly than the Henley Half but none of the hills were real stingers, just a bit of a slog. It made it a slightly slower run than Henley and I think John and I completed it in around 1hr50 minutes with Grit a bit after. I will try to find the results and some better pictures when they are released.
Once we were all assembled back in the sports hall we were kindly invited to Liam and Sarah’s house for a massive lunch and a few beers. Heaven.

Update: Well I now realise why I can’t remember passing John, it was because he got in 7 seconds in front of me! My result was 1hr 53mins and 15 seconds which isn’t too brilliant but the course was really slow because of all the water. Here is a little video from Bucks Free Press from the winner.

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/10025661.Video__Marlow_Half_Marathon_speaks_about_victory/

Here are the results:

http://www.chiptiming.co.uk/pdf/marlowhalf2012.pdf

and here is a great Youtube Video with some intersting shots of the flood at about 8minutes in and some interesting shots of certain people walking up the hill around 19 minutes in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2bp6-SI3gA

John, Grit and Me before the Race

Grit with a Stag in the Flower Pot Inn

The wonderful Flower Pot Inn

The Start Line

Grit in the Clubhouse

When my body says NO I say YES

Liam before the Race

Sunday 14th October 2012
We scraped the ice off the windscreen and drove from Cholsey to Henley through a faint mist and a totally blinding sun. It had been a fairly wet week but it looked like it was going to be a great cool sunny morning for the run. Grit and I had been invited for dinner with the Halsalls on Saturday evening. We took the high risk option and accepted. Not that the food would ever be high risk, it is always amazing, but normally the main course gets served just after midnight and the alcohol can be, well lets just say, generous. Amazingly, we ate scumptious pasta at 8.30 pm (a personal best for John Halsall) and only had one beer! Honest! It was good to see Jack and Ella on top form.
There were about 1200 competitors in the races and we got parked just before the mad rush. It was well organised although the distinct lack of Ladies Loos caused a huge queue which must have been frustrating for some.
Grit, John, Liam and I found a position about midway in the crowd ready for the start. It was chipped timed so the fact that it took a minute or so to get over the start line didn’t matter too much. We looped around the Rugby Club grounds and then exited onto the road. The run was 90% on road which isn’t my favourite surface but it is a bit faster than running on trails. Grit was wearing Merrel barefoots and the rest of us wore trainers. We ran over the Henley Bridge then off onto a great little road heading towards the Flower Pot Inn. I was going for a negative split and only aiming to get within the 2 hour mark but it seemed quite fast and relatively easy. At the half way mark I guzzled half a gel ready for the 100m climb. I was well ahead of my planned time but felt OK and I prefer hills to flat.
About halfway up the hill I got one of my urges to go faster and started to sprint up past lots of runners but sadly I can’t sustain it for long enough and had to ease back I need to really practise more hills but because Greenwich Park has been closed this year it has spoilt my local hill training area. The hill was pretty easy and then there was a nice runnable downhill section for a few miles before getting onto the Fairmile for the last mile or so. I always like to sprint at the very end if possible but misjudged where the finish line was so I had to slow down a bit before the end. More speed practise needed! Liam had already romped in but I was pretty chuffed with my time of 1 hour 46 minutes and 35 seconds which was a personal best by a few seconds.

In fact we all did really well and we all came well inside the 2 hours we had set ourselves. We listened to the prize giving which was a strange affair because the lady announcing the prizes had to face backwards to speak into the microphone and most people just wandered off. It was a bit of a shame because I think all the volunteers really deserved a massive big clap for all their efforts. It was a great run. We celebrated at the Flower Inn, a favourite little pub near the river. Next is the Marlow Half Marathon on 4th November. It is meant to be hilly so it could be fun.

One of the Solent’s Forts

Jet Skis frolicking while the “Strong Wind Warnings” were being issued. Hardly a puff of wind.

The Lovely Brimble off Osbourne Bay

Brawns Restuarant in Cowes with Selma and Grit

The Hovercraft off Ryde

Log ? 6th-7th October 2012
The journey to Cowes from London is rather spoiled by the poor link between the train and the ferry. I get the impression that Southampton would rather you stayed in town instead of spending your money on the Isle of Wight. In theory there is a free bus link between the train and the boat but there is no timetable to be found anywhere and even the bus drivers can’t say if the service is still running. The local taxis milk it for all its worth. It is all a bit of a shame because it adds just that extra hassle which makes leaving the Good Ship at Cowes too much like hard work. Still the boat ride is always fun. The slow boat leaves you in East Cowes, handy for East Cowes Marina, but as it takes about an hour it is only worth it during the daylight when you can enjoy the views. The high speed ferry ends up in West Cowes but costs more, actually it is really expensive. As usual there are a highly complex series of secretive deals to be had. None of which you will find if you use the automatic ticket machines. So to sum up, I left work at 1815LT and got to the rather clinical “Lifeboat” pub by the marina at 1045LT. That is an average speed of 14 miles an hour, about cycling pace.

We had a busy schedule for Saturday. I said I would look over a 38ft Swan with a friend of mine in the morning so the Water Taxi came to pick me up at 10am. A fine Swan she was too with lots of loving care put into her. The only negative bit was the mast step which is so often the case on lots of yachts. I suppose water will inevitably gets down the mast and with a keel stepped mast it is in a rather enclosed area ripe for a bit of corrosion. All repairable I am sure. Otherwise lots of new gizmos and lovely new teak deck and a new engine. My friend is now thinking about buying it!
After seeing the yacht, Grit and I went for a run from Cowes to Newport and back along the cycle path. It is a nice shady run but a bit flat for my liking. The best bit is towards the end when you can divert along a nice dirty trial by the River Medina. Our speed was pretty apalling at 9.33 minutes per mile over 7.57 miles. That would be a very slow half marathon.
We just finished the run in time to spot Brimble on the AIS entering Cowes so we waited to greet them before going for a shower. The East Cowes Marina was packed with Challenger Boats so Brimble had to snuggle in behind them. There is a bit of tide that runs through the marina and one poor yacht really fouled up trying to get into a near impossible guest berth. I felt a bit sorry for them.
Once we were showered, Selma and John and Grit and I headed to the bright lights of Cowes City Centre. As we are doing the Henley Half Marathon next week, in theory we shouldn’t be tanking back the beers but somehow we got a bit carried away and had a fairly boozy night. We had a great tapas/pizza meal in Brawns. Grit and I ate there the week before and would recommend it. John told us of the MayDay they had heard that afternoon. It was text book perfect, very calm with all the details, there was a man overboard in Osbourne Bay. The coastguard couldn’t make contact with them and asked other boats to see if they could help. After a fair while of MayDay Silence etc a yacht called in to say they had seen a training yacht in Osbourne Bay practising Man Overboard! Oh Dear, he must have pushed in the transmit button! All a bit embarrasing.
In the morning Brimble and Sumara left together at 0800LT to catch the east going tide. The sun was out but there wasn’t much wind. However there was enough to move and we weren’t in a hurry. Brimble peeled off North to the Hamble after an hour and we carried on, having to use the motor from time to time. As we ghosted along we listened to the usual strong wind warnings coming from the Met Office. It was like a lovely summer day as we neared Chichester Beacon and headed up the channel over the bar. We eventually moored in a very tight spot on a very very short pontoon in Chichester Yacht Basin at about 1600. It might end up being my last sail of the year. The boat is being lifted on the 23rd November. Awe.

Kerry and Alexander in the Solent

The Team Photo on the Folly Pontoon

Ella definately has not been eating ice cream. Our youngest crew member.

Now I know where Terry got his hat idea from – the lovely Lotte!

Rendezvous with the Good Ship Brimble

The Waverley Paddle Steamer off Cowes

Log ?? 22nd September 2012
The forecast was for a delightful Saturday and a beastly Sunday so I decided it may be best to make the most of the good day and give Sunday a complete miss. My nephew, Alexander and his girlfriend, Kerry were to be my crew. Alexander had sailed with me to Scotland in 2010 but had little other yachting experience and it was all new to Kerry. We arrived in Lymington on the Friday evening and ate in the packed restuarant in Lymington Yacht Harbour. The food was great and the atmosphere was like a ski resort cafe, busy and noisy with everyone having fun. In the morning we prepared the boat and went through the safety procedures before heading out to Jack in the Basket where we hoisted the sails. It was a F4 Easterly but the tide was fair and we were in no hurry to cover the ten miles to Cowes. My friend John was sailing on Brimble with some of his work colleagues. We picked them up on our AIS and after a chat on the mobile decided to rendezvous near Portsmouth. This was a good plan because Cowes was getting near and it was only noon. It was good to see the Waverley Paddle Steamer off Cowes, a wonderful sight. We tacked gently across the Solent dodging the other yachts. I wasn’t used to so many boats after my three years up north so it was fun explaining the colision rules to Alexander and Kerry, who were probably suitably bored but there was nowhere for them to escape to. We made our rendezvous with Brimble near Ryde and took a few photos of each others yachts. Eventually we turned down-wind with the tide now ebbing towards Cowes where we would moor together at the Folly Inn. After a few minutes my mobile rang and it was Torsten! He was on the Red Funnel Ferry with Lotte and Ella heading for Cowes and just wondered if we were around. We certainly were! Torsten had been the the Southamton Boat Show with his children but they were getting bored so he took them on a boat ride. We picked them up at East Cowes Marina and all six of us trundled up the Medina to the Folly where we moored next to Brimble. Torsten was just going to stay for an hour but we eventually persauded him that there was ample room on John’s Twister for three more guests. We all went on the river taxi to the Folly Inn for a few beers and a nice meal. The usual dancing on the tables was taking place big time by about 9pm – not by us of course.
In the morning the rain started as per the forecast and there was a stiff breeze from the east. Brimble headed back to the Hamble and we pottered down to East Cowes Marina and caught the ferry home. Next week I think Grit and I will go down to the boat to do some running training on Tennyson Downs.

Terry describes the Jurasic Coast to Nicky

Anchored in Swanage

You can see the narrow calm patch of water if you keep close to the St Aldhelms Head. On Terry’s advice – don’t try it West bound!

We weren’t going to waste our biscuits by tossing them on the beach.

Terry said he would sail much closer to St Aldhelms Head if it was his boat but it felt pretty close to me.

Log ??? 15th September 2012
I took the train to Weymouth with Nicky, a good friend of Grits. Nicky had completed her Competent Crew course in 2010 but hadn’t had much of an opportunity to use it after a planned voyage had fallen through. Terry Newman, who built Sumara and lives in Weymouth, would join us in the morning. I normally leave my almanac on the boat so I hadn’t had a chance to check the bridge opening times whilst in London. It wasn’t until 0900 in the morning when I realised that we needed to catch the 1000am opening or we would have to wait until 1200. It ended up a bit of a rush. Sumara attract a lot of attention and I had some visitors. Sadly I didn’t have much time to chat. Arthur Meech who had a nice wooden ketch called Noella in the harbour called over to say hello. A bit later Mike Patrick, who helped Terry with the building of Sumara, introduced himself.  Mike did the planking and made an excellent job of it. He thanked me for keeping the varnish up to standard! We couldn’t chat for long or we would miss the bridge. The forecast was for a sunny day with light westerlies. As usual the actual shipping forecast was for stronger winds.
The tide was not going to start to run around St Aldhelms Head until 1700 LT so we had plenty of time to slowly sail along the Jurasic Coast with Terry giving us a fascinating commentry. Nicky and Terry did all the helming and I made all the tea. We saw a couple of groups “Coasteering”. This was a new phrase to me until Alexander, my newphew, told me of his exploits. He has sent me a link to his very professional video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OVXsgXUdr0&feature=results_video .

I think you get the idea- it looks great fun.
Interestingly we were a bit early to round the headland but the tide turned about one hour before prediction so our timing was fine. There is a nasty race off St Aldhelm’s but Terry assured me that GOING EASTWARDS it is fine to sail a biscuits toss from the beach and avoid the bad water. We were nearing springs so it could have been a bit nasty to get it wrong. Terry is 81 years old now and has sailed and canoed along the coast all his life so there is a very reassuring feeling as we are whisked past the cliffs at close range. I normally go the long way round!
We rounded Durlston Point and then left the buoy marking Peveril Point on the port and turned up into the wind to head for Swanage Bay. The yacht heeled right over at this point and Nicky was calmly reassured by Terry that this was a normal sailing angle! Sumara does heel rather easily but it is so normal to me that I foget to warn new crew. We rounded up, dropped the sails and pottered over to a nice space to drop the massive Rocna anchor in 4m of water. For some reason I have never anchored in Swanage before even though I used to come on holiday here every year of my childhood. After a nice supper Nicky and I pumped up the Avon dighy and rowed ashore. We wandered out to the fishermans cottages that I used to stay in as a child and then had a pint before rowing back to the boat in total darkness.
The tidal gateway for Sunday was, of course, the Needles Channel. On spring tides this gate is firmly shut if you get there late. We aimed to arrive at Hurst Castle at 0900 LT to give us one hour to spare. It meant an early start. The shipping forecast was giving a F5-7 westerly but it never happened and we needed the motor to assist us most of the way in order to arrive on time. The tide is truly fierce at Hurst Castle and we were swepted past at about 8 kn. Soon all settled down and we headed for Jack in the Basket beacon before mouching up the river to Lymingtom Marina. (about £27.00 per night).
It is really nice that when we arrived a kind man came over to help with the ropes, as it happened all went smoothly and we didn’t need the assistance but I liked the gesture. Futhermore a few minutes later a very kind lady called Fiona and offered to drive Terry to the station! In fact she ended up driving Nicky and me to the station which was a fantastic help. Meeting helpful and generous people like this make sailing so worthwhile.
I hope our little trip refreshed Nicky’s training. I’m sure she must of learned a lot from Terry – I always do!
We arrived back in London early in the evening after a lovely weekend.

Grit grills Gudrun about not following the course after “Mast Abeam” had been shouted. Gudrun denies being in the race.

I’m not completely sure why Sam is about to hit Alex with her oar. If the judges spot it they will be disqualified , or maybe awarded a prize. Its always hard to tell.

The crew in the water seem to have lost their boat – did it sink or were they rammed?

Mara awards her new prize “The Mara Anything Goes Prize” to its first winner – Nina

Matilda accepts her prize from Yunus and Grit

Anna was awarded a prize but the frantic activity of the day had worn her out

Ella proudly receives her prize!

Grit and Yunus present the coveted awards

Rhonda and Sean pull ahead with real style

Sean and Olivia prepare for the Races

Matilda rows with great skill to win a coveted award

Level Pegging but the Halsalls soon drew ahead

The Halsalls take the lead in the family race. I’m not sure why Jack is looking so miserable!

A typical Father Daughter dialogue – “Please” “No” “Pleease” “No” “Pleeeease” “NO” “Pleeeeeease” “No”

Of all the world’s Classic Yacht Races, The Cholsey Classics, is generally regarded as the “Classic of all Classics”.

It is the one event that every Classic Skipper dreams of being selected for, to helm their, or their master’s vessel around the tortuous courses set up by the Cholsey Race Committee. Many have to make do with the Antigua Classics or the Risor Wooden Boat Festival but they all strive to gain entry to the highly selective Cholsey Classics. Now in its tenth year, the organisation is a well oiled machine, a very well oiled machine. This year we were blessed with spectacular weather which was to promise some dramatic racing. With wind speeds in excess of 2 kn it was all the skippers could do to prevent broaching in downwind leg. Remarkably the first race passed off without major incident but the next sailing race saw some athletic tiller waggling from Peter Mercer (yes you recognised the name – Sumara’s Diversity Officer) which saw him race ahead only to realise that Yunus had spontaneously shortened the course leaving him no chance of achieving the lifetime dream of top prize. Grit Eckert had been appointed Commodore’s Assistant, a stroke of genius by John Halsall to maximize the skills available to the Cholsey Judging Panel. Grit, however, was unaware of Rule 174B: 2005 which allows the Commodore to make spontaneous decisions regarding the length of the course, or any other matter that he feels fit. Once Grit was made aware of this bye-law the adjudication proceeded smoothly.
This year the rowing races saw the introduction of the “Extra Paddle Rule” and in future I feel we may see more developments regarding oar lengths and numbers available. The Children are proving to be excellent rowers. Ella is a true rower of those long thin boats that we often like to ram but she took up the challenge like all the rest of the team to propel these beautiful craft at speeds never before witnessed. As usual the Cholsey Classics excelled with the catering and a fine lunch was provided for all the athletes.

The Prize Giving was held in the evening. The Gala dinner commenced with Rosie’s Bits sponsored by Glossip Garden Centre for which we are indebted. In previous years commercial sponsorship has been frowned upon but it has been agreed that it provides a useful revenue stream so long as subliminal advertising is not used in any way whatsoever. After the delicious tit bits we came to the highlight of the evening – The Race Results and Official Prize Giving. There being no official protests lodged, Yunus came succinctly to the point and after 30 minutes four pansies for £1.00 we came to the first award.
Grit and Yunus handed out the treasured cups and the athletes gave some truly emotional speeches.
The Official Race Results will will posted up on the usual websites as always.
Once the prizes were awarded, the Chefs presented us with a selection of food cooked on an amazing paella cooker available online at Glossip Garden Centre for just £678.00 ex vat, so delicious that I am unable to find the words capable of portraying it’s yummyness.

The evening was a huge sucess and after a good nights sleep the team were presented with breakfast under the shade of a gazebo. The althletes disbanded by lunchtime ready to partake in the victory parade – details of which are to be found on the Glossip Garden Centre’s website where you can also browse and excellent range of tomato fertilisers.

All the competitors and spectators are indebted to our hosts who, as always, provide a day to remember. Selma and John and all the Halsalls in particular need special thanks but Rosies nibbles always deserve a special mention. Yunus and Grit ensured an unfair playing field and entertaining prize giving and everyone did their bit to help including all the children who were just fun and no trouble!

The Commodore and the Commodore’s Assistant look on as an incident unfolds. Grit isn’t happy that Rule 15.5 part B is being followed but Yunus doesn’t seem to care.

Beerenberg seen from Sumara 2011

Walking around the Rim of Beerenberg 2011

It looks like Jan Mayen has been hit by a very large 6.6 magnitude earthquake but no damage has been reported. I wonder if that makes Beerenberg closer to errupting (although Gudrun assures me Katla in Iceland is the next to blow – and it could be soon!).

Apparently is was very big, bigger than any they had experienced before but not enough to trigger a tsunami. The previous largest quake was in 2008 at 6.2 magnitude which was regarded as Norway’s biggest quake.

Beerenberg last errupted in 1985 on the north slope but with little lava. A large erruption happened in 1970 with lava flowing for three weeks and creating 4 sq km of new land. Any new erruption is likely to be a flank erruption on the north or north east side. An erruption from the central crater would be the worst case scenario and would cause a tremendous explosion and catastrophic consequences for everyone on the island.

This recent quake was still a fair way from the island in an area that is frequently hit by quakes.

28th August 2012 Log 8773

We sat on the boat on Monday evening in Dartmouth wondering if the weather would improve. It was wet and squally, well very wet and squally. The forecast was poor, SW 4-5 but 5-7 later, although the grib files showed a good chance of a pleasant sail in mainly force 4 SW to S until at least 2100 GMT. We decided to get up at 0330 GMT to give the weather a final check and then set off in the dark. It all looked good when we woke so we donned our gear and thought how to extricate ourselves from a 27ft long mooring in a 26ft long boat with a running tide. With a big push we set off quietly down river with a fair tide beneath us. The sky was star lit and the sea relatively calm. We hoisted the main, stay and yankee and got underway. The wind was mainly behind us so we dropped the stay and poled out the Yankee to achieve the desired 4kn in order to catch the tide at Portland at 1500. It is always good to see dawn and after an our or so we were once again the only yacht to be enjoying the day. Actually quite a few yachts eventually took the opportunity to head east while they could and about five yachts overhauled us across Lyme Bay. Amazingly three of the yachts were under power, two with tightly hauled mainsails and one with no sail at all. If you are not sailing with a force four up your stern what exactly are you waiting for?!
Sadly no dolphins or whales but just a cracking good sail across the bay. We hoisted the genoa (which needed drying in anycase) and were making 5-6 kn for a good while. As we approached the Bill, bang on time, the wind picked up a bit so I unhanked the genoa and put the Yankee back up, this time without the pole as the wind had backed 20 degrees. I had decided to take the cautionary approach and go outside the race and the Shambles. With a good tide this was a good ploy as when we turned into Weymouth we once again had the wind on the beam and maintained 5 kn. I tucked away the mainsail 15 minutes before getting to the harbour mouth and continued under Yankee eventually arriving in perfect time for the 1800 LT bridge opening.

Log 8826

This morning it is raining very heavily and Terry rang to say he wouldn’t make our meet up for tea. I had forgotten Terry is no longer driving and the weather was hopeless for a long wait for a bus. We made up for it with a good long chat on the phone and he kindly offered to give the boat a good air while I leave it here for a couple of weeks.

Next week, of course, is the famous Cholsey Classics, where up to three highly tuned clinker 8ft dinghies compete for the reknowned Cholsey Cup.

The approach to Dartmouth from the castle

Another appalling day of constant rain and strong winds so we decided to go for a walk out around the headland. We visited the very highly recommended Alf Resco cafe but it was packed with queues on the street so we had to give it a miss.

Dartmouth’s Alf Resco Cafe

We stopped off to look at the church en route to the castle with some fine stain glass.

Stain Glass in the Church near Dartmouth Castle

As it was still bucketing down we went to look around Dartmouth Castle  too (£4.80). A chain used to be rigged from here to stretch across the harbour mouth to prevent enemy ships entering the harbour. Then we pushed on around the cliff path to Little Dartmouth. A great two hour hill walk but a little muddy on this occassion. Once we returned to Dartmouth we treated ourselves to a massive cream tea in the Sloping Deck Cafe. It is our intention to sail in the morning when we are hoping for a short weather break so we bought some nosh and tried to get a river taxi back to Sumara. Alas they were not to be found. After a soaking wait of three quaters an hour the boat eventually arrived and dropped us off with a big wood cracking broadside ram! Just a little slower with the mooring would have been so much better. Oh well, better get ready for the early morning sail.