Trip on Bertie starting 2017-09-29
Plymouth sailing on “Bertie ” Bavaria 44. 29/9/17 - 2/10/17 – report by Bob Buchanan
Skipper. R.Buchanan crew. Samantha Buchanan , Becky Goddard , Becca Paulino , Hugh Hayward , Colin Evans , Kevin Lay and David Winks
Friday.
We met at Q.A B early afternoon and did the handover with Simon. Getting all our gear on board I realised that I had left my G.P.S at home, not a problem, but it was with my wet weather gear, and the weather was not looking too good. Luckily, David said that I could use his as he spends most of the time below anyway. We left at 18.15 hrs and motored down to Cawsand bay
and dropped the anchor.
It was noted that there was a smell of sulphur coming from the batteries, and put it down to the fact the boat hadn’t been used for a couple of weeks. The meal that night was made by Becca and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Saturday
We upped anchor at 07.00 hrs ( yes, seven in the morning ) myself, Colin and Kevin and left the rest in bed. It was a misty wet morning with a SSW and 15/20 kts of wind as we cleared Rame head. Our destination was Falmouth, the reason for the early start. After about an hour I went down below to find that my daughter was a bit seasick and so was Becky. Back up on deck, we were joined by a pod of about 20 porpoises swimming around and under the boat, they stayed with us for about 10 minutes.
As we passed Fowey the wind had gone to S/W and up to 25 kts. We reefed in the Genoa and put a reef in the main, Bertie has single line reefing on the first two reefs so it was easy to reef in from the cockpit. We checked on Becky and Sam to see if they were ok, Sam was sound asleep and Becky was ok, but also commented on the smell from the batteries. We asked if anyone wanted to give Falmouth a miss and go into Fowey but everyone was ok to carry on to Falmouth. Early afternoon the wind was almost from the west and up to 30 kts at times gusting to 35 kts. We were close hauled and the last few miles put the engine on as it was tipping down with rain and we wanted to get in as soon as we could, we tacked into Falmouth and pulled the sails in not far from the marina, the first one in, Falmouth haven marina. We tried calling the marina by radio and mobile but had no answer, so we just picked out a pontoon and berthed. The time was 15.45 hrs a total of 8.75 hrs
That evening we had a table booked at the “Chain Locker” it was booked by Colin’s daughter, she is at Falmouth University and she met us that evening, both Sam and Becky were fine by now. The smell of sulphur was still in the boat so Becky phoned Simon at Liberty. Simon arranged Sea Start to come over on Sunday morning. We all had a very good evening that night, good food and drink and lots to talk about.
Sunday
The man from Sea Start arrived and as he came down into the boat he commented on the smell, a quick test of the batteries confirmed that one was completely dead and was giving off the fumes, the other two were not all that good either, the engine battery was fine. He disconnected the dead battery said goodbye.
We left at midday and headed out to Fowey. The wind was from the S/W F3 so we just pulled up the main and put a preventer on. Sailing downwind we put my daughter on the wheel, it’s probably the worst point of sailing but she coped very well (she gets her good looks from her mum but sailing skills from me ?)The weather was not too bad, the rain had stopped and the mist had lifted so we could see where we were going. We tied up to Albert Quay, next to the lifeboat at 16.30 hrs.
Some of the crew had never been into Fowey before so we went ashore and had a walk around the town, then had a drink in the “Galleon Inn” before going back to the boat. That evening we went for a meal at the “Lugger Inn” ( we booked a table for 7.30 ) The meal and drinks were, as always in the Lugger, excellent. Back on board we cracked a few more bottles of wine open to round off a very good day.
Monday
We slipped our moorings at 10.30 hrs but not before the harbourmaster had relieved us of £27.00 for overnight parking, this is the first time that I can remember this happening.
Again the wind was from the S/W F3 so we put up the main and preventer. It was a nice bright day and we had another good sail. After passing Rame head, we turned up into Plymouth sound, pulled out the Genoa and had a very good sail up to Q.A.B hitting 10 kts
We pulled the sails down and went to the fuel pontoon to refuel, then back onto the mooring.
Simon came over for the handover and was ok with everything. It was 14.30 hrs
We had a meal on board, packed up and went home.