BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter September 2013

Contacts:Kath Liddiard (Commodore)01443 227928

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Jane Jenkyn (Treasurer) 01275 880318

We welcome new members Neil Webber and Emma Fogagnolo. Neil and Emma will be sailing with Phil on ‘Quartette’ 0n November 2nd.

At a recent meeting we were asked if there were any new BSA skippers in the pipeline. Here is a photo of one under training in Bristol harbour, obviously concentrating deeply on the hazards ahead.

(Thanks to Sue Fowle for supplying this image)

Future Trips

Gordon Ogden will skipper the PYC yacht ‘Spellbinder’ for a midweek sail from Haslar on Monday 14th October to Wednesday 16th (boarding on the evening of Sunday 13th). This is fully booked and crew information has been sent to all going. No advance payment is needed as the PYC sailing fees of £30 per day will be collected by Gordon at the time of sailing to be forwarded to the club so please remember your cheque books.

1.2Alan Howells will skipper a weekend from Plymouth on October 18 – 20 for boat handling training. Alan will concentrate on handling under sail, but other skills will be included such as night pilotage. This is fully booked, and paid, and crew information has been sent to all going.

Jeff Birkin will skipper the second boat-handling weekend in the Solent on November 1 – 3. This one, concentrating on handling under power, is fully booked. One deposit of £50 is still due, and the balance of £55 per person was due by October 1st (not October 13th as originally given).

Phil Steele will skipper a weekend on the PYC yacht ’Quartette’ on November 2 – 3. This is fully booked, and no advance payment is needed.

Gordon will skipper another midweek trip on ‘Spellbinder’ on Monday November 18th – Wednesday 20th. There is one place available - will anyone who would like to take this place please contact Gordon, tel.01275 462473. No advance payment is needed.

Phil will skipper his ‘Christmas Party Trip’ on the weekend of December 14 – 15th, again on the PYC yacht ‘Quartette’. This replaces his “Christmas Lights Trip’ of previous years; from past experience, a party is more likely than seeing Christmas Lights! This is fully booked.

Phil is also planning another ‘January Sales Trip’ next year.

****************************************************************************

2.Recent Trips

At the September meeting Alan Howells reported on the cross-Channel trip he skippered from Mylor on August 22nd. Chris and Julia Wallace had sent their August report of sailing around Sardinia; Bob Hayes has since sent a report of the next stage, in Sicily, when he and Maggie joined Chris and Julia. Both these reports are printed below, as Chris and Julia will be giving an oral report of the last stage to their winter berth in Italy at our next meeting.

Bob Buchanan reported on a week to the Channel Islands on ‘Lady Emma’

All these reports follow, plus a summary of an account by Peter Wakeling of sailing in the Baltic.

**********************************************

Trip on , skippered by Alan Howells

*******************************************

Trip on Freya, skippered by

*****************************************

Aremiti in August - report by Julia and Chris Wallace

Greetings from Aremiti, currently off Capo Carbonara - the south eastern point of Sardinia, ready to set off again - eastwards to Sicily. We have 387 miles under our belt this month – our passage to and cruising the west and southern coasts of Sardinia.

After a month in the Balearics almost without wind, weather became a major consideration just at the time we were ready to leave for Sardinia. The passage of 185 miles would take anything between 30 and 40 hours, depending on what speed we could make. We certainly didn't want to motor all that way so needed some wind, but not the easterlies which seemed to have been the prevailing direction of what little wind there had been over the past month, and would make our passage slow if not impossible even with the engine. However, we couldn't afford to be too fussy - the sea between the Balearics and Sardinia is effectively an alleyway, notorious for mistrals (strong north winds producing dangerously steep seas) which develop in the Golfe de Lions off the southern coast of France and shoot southwards for hundreds of miles. We have had two sets of friends caught out in mistrals and know they are to be taken very seriously. We checked Spanish, French and Italian forecasts – all were giving more or less the same warnings of a mistral due later in the week we planned to leave. However, the forecast for the day we wanted to leave was no good, with strong easterlies – which left us with just a two day window for the passage, assuming the mistral didn't come early.

We left Mahon in Menorca with a forecast of south-easterlies predicted to turn more southerly during the afternoon and evening of the first day, and becoming variable and light the following day nearer the coast of Sardinia. We set off just before dawn on the first day into lightish wind more easterly than we would have liked, motor-sailing into a choppy sea which made progress a bit slow going. Early in the afternoon the wind started to come more from the south and we were able to sail for a few hours, before it dropped and we had to motor again. At 11pm – under an awesome starlit sky – a decent wind picked up giving us an excellent beam reach through the night. However, contrary to predictions, the wind then became stronger and more easterly again. This gave us a fast but quite tiring and uncomfortable sail, only loosening up as we approached the coast. We arrived and were safely anchored by 3pm on the second day, tired but extremely satisfied, having completed the passage in 32 hours.

Our landfall was the spectacular Porto Conte - a large almost landlocked bay just north of Alghero, giving shelter from every wind direction in some part of it. We had chosen it for ease of arrival in case we arrived after dark in difficult conditions. It turned out to be a perfect choice as the mistral duly arrived the following day and blew strongly for the next 3 days. Safely tucked up in our bay we started to get to grips with a new country.

Aremiti had spent nearly three years in Spain – apart from the couple of months cruising the coast of Portugal – and we had begun to feel quite at home there. However, we were more than happy finally to have moved on to a new country. Moving from the Spanish language directly to Italian is confusing – so many words more or less the same, so many completely different. We certainly preferred the Spanish word 'jubilado' to the Italian 'anziani' for the over 60s. However, Italian is a wonderful language for making a wild stab at translating an English word and being right.

We made a couple of visits by land from Porto Conte while waiting for the mistral to simmer down. We caught a bus (a rather complex process of uncertain timetables, unknown bus stops, tickets from tabacs and temperamental bus drivers) to Alghero a few miles away. The walled old town dates from the days of Catalan-Aragonese rule. We wandered round the fortified walls, churches and public buildings, doing our best with a mixture of Italian and English descriptions, to follow the deep history of the town. Our initial impression has been that Italy is more affected by the crisis than Spain – more litter, poor roads, dilapidation, but people are just as helpful and from a beach bar on the first night we heard a tenor singing opera.

We also took the bus around the bay to where we had come in, to visit the Grotto di Nettuno - an underground cave set into the seaward side of the dramatic limestone headland of Capo Caccia. Having viewed this fantasy-land of stalactites and stalagmites from the land, climbing the 656 steps down the 110 metre cliff, we subsequently went to inspect the entrance from the sea when leaving Porto Conte.

The west coast of Sardinia is reputed to be less travelled – by yachts or by foreign tourists. And so it turned out to be. Much of the coastline is rather deserted, barren and rock-bound with rather few yacht-friendly 'niches'. From Porto Conte we moved (just as in the Balearics, usually more motoring than sailing) in a series of hops southwards. 28 miles to Bosa – 40% sailing - where we anchored in the busy harbour and had our first encounter with an 'Ormeggiatori' - sinister sounding men who run sections of harbours – this one refusing to allow us to tie our dinghy to the pontoons in his domain! Bosa is an enchanting town built on river just inland from sea - houses in vibrant pastel colours built up steep hillside to 12th century castle.

Then another 30 miles – 40% sailing - on to Capo San Marco – the headland at the northern tip of the Golfo di Oristano. We anchored off the remains of the ancient city of Tharros. Initially a pre-historic Bronze Age settlement it became a mighty port under the Phoenicians and then Romans. (We are also making good progress in our knowledge of Mediterranean history).

The next hop was 51 miles – all motoring - along the Costa Verde – an almost completed deserted coastline of large sand dunes backed by the multiple folds of gentle hills inland – their reddish brown soil and rocks thinly coasted in green shrubby macchia. No roads, no ports. The coast became increasingly mountainous with interesting remains of mining operations. We stopped briefly for quick circumnavigation of Scoglio Pan di Zucchero - a stack rising 133 metres straight out of the sea. Our destination was the small town of Calasetta on Isola di Sant'Antioco, one of two large islands off the south west coast of Sardinia. Unassuming, friendly and laid back this was a most restful place to be. We met couple on their 20 metre traditional displacement motor yacht here who have been live-aboards for 26 years! What they don't know about the Med ….. We also met a delightful local couple – sailing novices – just spent his redundancy money on the yacht. They recommended our next stop – “Paradiso – Tahiti!”

This took us around to the southern coast past Capo Teulada - southernmost tip of Sardinia. Amazing to find that Tunisia is only 100 miles away to the south of here - not surprising that two owners of large fuel-guzzling vessels told us that they would be going to pick up fuel in Tunisia (at around a quarter the price they would pay in Europe).

Porto Scudo in the Golfo di Teulada was not exactly Tahiti – but did have brilliant clear turquoise water. Very remote, being a military area it is usually off limits to yachts, but unrestricted in July and August. Another mistral arrived while we were there, but in this well sheltered cala down in the south of the island had far less impact. Strong winds continued as we moved across eastwards to Malfatano – even more gorgeous. The combination of bright hot sunny weather with very strong winds always seems incongruous to us, coming from experience of British waters where nasty weather always involves getting cold and wet.

Then on along the Costa del Sud – beautiful coastline of golden beaches, headlands capped by little round Spanish towers, backed by scenic mountain ranges. Round into the Bay of Cagliari we spent a night behind the headland of Pula. More lovely water and beaches – and the ancient site of Nora. This is another Bronze Age/Punic/Roman port – wonderful location for an anchorage - although while we were there, in the aftermath of the mistral, it was too rolly to be entirely restful.

Then into the capital, Cagliari, for a stop of a few days. We explored the town - both dilapidated and magnificent. The front has many grand and well preserved buildings. The walled Castello district however tips over the threshold from picturesque decay to derelict. We enjoyed the excellent archaeological museum and the medieval look-out tower and the thriving Marina district.

We hired a car for a day driving about 400 k on winding roads around the island. Highlights were the Nuraghe Su Nuraxi - huge and impressive remains of the Bronze Age 'Nuraghic' civilisation of 3,500 years ago. Into the mountainous Barbagia region we stopped at Fonni - highest town in Sardinia at 1000 metres – and boasting an astonishingly large basilica and a series of curious murals around the town. Returning back south on the eastern side we passed through a series of mountain villages set in a truly spectacular landscape of peaks, crags and pinnacles. We ended the tour by getting hopelessly lost in the outskirts of Cagliari.

Our time in Cagliari was spent at Marina del Sole – the first marina we'd been in for a month. This was delightfully quirky – not much sign of health and safety, but a great welcome and can-do attitude at a great price. A good 'pit-stop' for taking on water, fuel, cleaning the decks, and a good food stock (the marina very helpfully rents a beat up old car for shopping and errands round town).

Now at the end of August, here we are, in a beautiful bay, checking forecasts for our next

passage …..

Julia and Chris

***************************************************************8

Aremiti – Sicily – 4th to 12th Sept 2013 – report by Bob Hayes

In early September Maggie (who last dinghy sailed with me 30 years ago) and I went sailing the north coast of Sicily with Julia and Chris Wallace in their yacht Aremiti, a Westerly Conway. She is a 36 ft Ketch set up for long distance cruising. Originally she was fitted out to sleep eight. But, Julia and Chris have taken out a bunk that was behind the chart table and fitted a book case and stowage for a sewing machine (understandable) and a vacuum cleaner (a first for me). Also, Aremiti has enlarged fuel capacity and has extra water tanks fitted. The first four days of sailing were without Julia as her father had taken a fall, she had needed to return home to visit him in hospital and to support her mother. When he was much improved Julia returned to Sicily.

Day 1: - We left Bristol at 01:45 to catch the 5:40 Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Palermo, then after a bit of a wait and a 60 minute coach journey we met up with Chris and Aremiti at 13:40 in Trapani. It's a port on the west tip of the island and is situated on a narrow strip of land. Chris and Julia had brought Aremiti into a small marina, with just one pontoon, which had been recommended by a Sicilian skipper they had met earlier in their trip. Chris settled us in, showed us our forepeak cabin and took us on a tour of the town. The old town is constructed on a grid system and on a narrow strip of land that gave us good views of the Mediterranean on both sides. Looking inside a church we happened upon our first wedding of the trip where one of the guests collapsed in a heap, whether from heat or alcohol we couldn't tell. Chris then treated us to a great meal on board, risotto with fresh langoustines from the fish market just outside the marina. The forecast for the next day had been for the wind to change from N / NE to SE, just right for us to sail the next day. However, when Chris checked just before we went to bed the N/NE winds were predicted to hang around for longer than originally predicted.

Day 2: - Up and ashore for breakfast of coffee and croissant. Shopping for our evening meal, calamari looked like the best deal. So, Maggie went for that. Then, prepare to sail. Chris, being Chris, does all the navigation electronically. A few flicks of his fingers on the chart-plotter and the passage for the day is planned with 4 waypoints. There are paper charts aboard as back up but they are seldom used. We slipped our lines at around 10:30 to make our way NE and then E to Capo San Vito. We had to motor all the way and on arrival anchored outside the harbour away from the beach because, as is the norm in Sicily, boats were banned from anchoring within 300 metres of the beach. Dinghy down, explore ashore, very much a seaside town. Great church in an old Saracen fort, an amazing mixture of old and new art and artefacts, most unusual. No mention of St. Vito's dance anywhere? Back on board to gut the calamari. A fantastic evening meal, thanks, Maggie, and to bed.

Day 3: - Coffee and croissant, shopping and ready to sail. Scopello our destination. But, we never made it. We ghosted along in the sun and a light breeze with the dinghy in tow until we slowed to 2.5 knots when we switched the engine on. Making ready to anchor in the shelter of two small islands Chris changed his mind because there were too many ribs and pleasure craft in the area for us to get inshore close enough. He decided to make for a beach where a yacht was already anchored. At this point we noticed a cloud over the mountain ahead and a few drops of rain. We started to clear the cockpit when Chris said “this is not going to be nice!” The heavens opened, the mountain disappeared, the shore disappeared, the yacht ahead of us disappeared and the wind speed hit 45 knots (welcome back to sailing Maggie). Chris kept Aremiti's head into wind. Then the thunder and lightning struck. Thunder that came with lightning that was quicker than you can say thunder and lightning. We turned north out to sea to run from the mini storm. After half an hour we could turn our heads back to watch. Most of the island was hidden in the storm. The only place we could see was Capo San Vito. So we made our way back to the west. On the way back to Capo San Vito Chris bailed out the dinghy and we watched a heavy squall out to sea. But it wasn't over for us. We made for our anchorage the night before, but, when we arrived another yacht had pinched our spot. So, we dropped the hook a little way further out in 10 meters depth. The holding was good and all looked OK. As we anchored the rain came again, luckily no wind this time. The rain was so hard it flattened the sea. When it was all over we were wet through and the dinghy needed to be bailed out again. Chris vowed never to tow that dinghy again! A good supper aboard and we had a peaceful night.

The experience of that day brings a thought, I think we should call those weather events “lightning and thunder” that's the order in which you experience them unless you’re dead!

Day 4: - There was a 20 knot wind blowing from the north west. We agreed to head straight for Terrasini which was almost directly to the east. It was small town, with an even smaller harbour, but close to the airport so that Chris could pick up Julia next day. We sailed across the bay in good weather. When we arrived the harbour looked too shallow. We made for a group of ribs outside the harbour and anchored sea side of them. As we did some of the younger Sicilian sea-lions and lionesses aboard the ribs got up to see what was gong on, but they soon settled down again. Some of the older Sicilians did really look like the sea-lions in San Francesco harbour. But, the younger ones looked in good condition! I think the continued survival of the colony is assured. We took the dinghy ashore through the harbour which was packed full of ribs. There could be a problem for yachts cruising this coast if they wish to use harbours because the harbours are so full of ribs. We ate aboard in the evening, watched a fabulous sunset with aircraft flying into the airport, were treated to a firework display (must have been for someone's birthday) and a disco that went on until 03:30!

Day 5: - The Catholic Church in the middle of the town retaliated to the disco with eight rocket bombs and a peal of bells at 08:00 on the Sunday morning. We could see the rockets and then hear the bombs two seconds later. It reminded us how close the lightning and thunder was the day before. We went ashore, Chris to pick up Julia, and Maggie and I to have a look around the town which had a lovely square in front of the church and we were treated to the delights of a marching band. When we finished out tour Julia took snaps of us as we approached Aremiti in the dinghy and greeted us aboard. She said she was still concerned about her father, but that he was OK. Chris set in the passage plan for Mondello and we set off. Initially we motored but then the wind got up enough for us to sail. I had another go on the helm and managed to get her up to 6.8 knots when, good skipper, Chris suggested that I may like to sacrifice speed for direction! Fun over, we started to beat our way towards our destination. Eventually we were headed and had to turn the engine on to get round the headland into Mondello. We anchored on the east side of the bay, but were unable to find any evidence of the village. As night fell and the lights went on we found it 0.4 of a mile away to the west! The sea was a little choppy so we made two dinghy trips ashore for our evening meal. We found a very lively sea side town and had a great meal on the balcony overlooking the harbour. The sea was flat calm for the return journey, so we made a single dinghy trip, with four aboard.

Day6: - All ashore in the dinghy for coffee, croissant and shopping. We went to church to have a look round but there was a funeral taking place. Lots of people in bright colours and very casual wear. Back to Aremiti, a swim off the boat and on our way to Palermo. After anchoring with 2 other British and 1 American boats we tootled ashore finding a very nice place to tie up after being turned away from a marina stuffed full of boats belonging to people with loads of money. This place was called the White Bar and served very good cocktails at very reasonable prices, yum. We had an enjoyable look around the old tuna factory, now a swanky events venue with improbable plastic thrones! Back aboard Julia made a very nice Salad Nicoise.

Day 7: - We upped anchor and headed for a tour of Palermo harbour, impressive buildings on the foreshore and beyond. It is a large sprawling city hugging the rugged mountainous coastline. We then turned away heading for St. Nicola and more amazing coastline. The marina was again very shallow. Chris crept in with about a metre under the keel. We moored bows to on the end of a pontoon, which we could only access via another boat. Dinner was enjoyed in a restaurant garden up the hill.

Day 8: - The last day for Maggie and me. We sailed in a moderate breeze to our final destination, Cefalu. The city can be seen in all its majesty from way out to sea. The twin towered church rises above the medieval town underneath a massive rock. Anchoring off the old town proved to be uncomfortable due to a lumpy sea. So we moved on around the headland to the marina anchoring for a last swim before we tied up. The Sicilian skipper that Chris and Julia met on the Egadi Islands had called ahead to introduce us and Chris managed to get a deal on the price, 70 Euros for two nights. Ashore we sat at a bar to watch the sunset when a wedding photo-shoot arrived. The bride in white and the guests all in black, looked more like a funeral. We all loved the town and ate in front of the church to celebrate our last evening. The church was particularly impressive with its restored Byzantine mosaics. The end of the evening was not good for me (Bob). I developed the Sicilian version of Spanish tummy. Best not say any more.

Days 9 and 10: - Home by taxi, train, plane and car once we'd had the battery recharged by a knight of the road from the AA.

Our thanks to Julia and Chris.

Lessons: -

Being anchored with three or four aboard in the Med. is a lot easier than with five or six in the UK.

Marinas in Sicily are expensive 45 to 60 Euros per night, and we did hear of charges of 100 Euros and over.

There is not a lot of space for cruising boats in Sicilian marinas. Where there is space provision of water and electricity can be lacking and fuel can difficult to find – you have to ask!

Never eat an unwashed peach.

Trip on Lady Emma, skippered by Bob Buchanan

Total miles 255

BSA Sept 2013- 1 -