Fishguard day 4/5

On the 4th day i was woken by Billy preparing to leave. It's a long walk to the Train station, and I had said i'd walk with... however, Billy said I was ok to go back to sleep... and who was I to argue!

As the day progressed I got to work with various little tasks about town, abit of food shopping, looking if the chandlerers could mend my faulty radio, going for a swim. In the Afternoon I came back to the quay to find Golden Cloud being bashed into the Quay wall with the ferocious wind which had started early... Awaiting the arrival of the new Crew in Rachel Parker, I tried to wait as long as possible, until a final bang put me over the edge. Soon we were untied and ready to leave. Just as I prepared a lovely albeit Plastic yacht came in behind me. Seeing the boats majestic beauty i offered my tyres to protect her hull... they were gladly taken!

Underwater Rubbish  now wanted by a second boat of much higher standards!

I then walked the cloud up into the corner of the harbour and with one stout push pushed her nose in and her bum out. A shot of the engine reversed me out in magnificent professionalism. Soon I was across the bay and  anchoring in my new little cove... a sandy beach in the lee of Fishguard town still within the harbour. As evening came in I rigged up the 3 anchors and a pully from the kayak to shore, so as Rachel could pull herself across if required.

Soon a large majestic old working boat arrived, I believe I later found out to be an East Coast Smack, we'd seen it out in the bay sheltering for some time but tonight they were staying on the Quay wall... I'm glad i'd moved off wouldnt like to be near that!!!

So, safely anchored, I tootled over to the quay and met the friends on the "plastic" boat, who although half way thru dinner welcomed me in with open arms and a can of cider. Once dinner was finished we all jumped aboard the big old ship and had a nosey. Sarah and Stu of "plastic" seemed to know the people of the old wooden boat, Sarah having history in old old wooden ships. Just as i'd settled down in the brilliant scenery of the old boat I got a txt from Rachel saying she'd be in Fishguard soon so I ran back to the boat and prepared dinner.

Soon she was on the kayak and pully system  and Aboard. Tuna Curry for dinner and a game of Monopoly (which i won by £1500) and an early night.

In the morning we woke to the boat drying out on the beach. We then donned our survival suits and headed up to town to see the sights of fishguard.

We looked like right pillocks but had big smiles on our faces and warm dry clothes... unlike the rest of Fishguard.

First we went up to the Town Hall to use the toilets, before going through the town Market ...apparently looking inappropriately dressed...

Rachel getting out the boat in her Muck Boots... Majestically

From the market we went to a little cafe called "The Pantry" for brunch. The couple who run it were fantastically kind and friendly, while they and other customers seemed very interested in our journey. We wrote oue postcards for family and friends, before getting ready to leave after lovely tea and pastys. On realising we'd made quite a puddle in the shop we appologised profusely and left.

From here we walked on to Goodwick to try to sort out train tickets for rachel's return trip. You wouldnt believe how bad the weather was walking across the 
open Goodwick Marsh area. Horizontal Monsoonal Rains. On the plus side we found a small helterskelter which in our onezie suits and the torrential rain was super speedy!!

Miserable Goodwick

And so we trudged down to the ferry terminal only to find that u cannot buy or pick up tickets for trains in fishguard, only in Haverford West - 15 miles away! Not really an option when ur on foot/boat.

So back we went towards the boat. we stopped at tesco for supplies befpre we split - Rachel to go swimming me back to the boat - and almost instantly the day changed dramatically to significantly better weather! Thank God for that!

Rachel with food in the rain

I can see clearly now the rain has gone

The old old wooden ship

The Plastic Boat on the Quay

GC on her beach

In the afternoon Rachel Returned (swimming pool was booked) and so she went for a kayak around the coast instead, while i got on with some maintenance work on the boat. Big thankyou to Ally Evans here who gave an old wet suit for use as seals on GC but so far unused for purpose it fitted rachel for her kayak!

As evening came i collected up my chart work materials and we headed off to the Ship Inn once more, meeting Stu and Sarah enroute to chat through leg to Milford. The Guys lent me thier pilot book and we settled down to a beverage, with a lovely chat to add to it with the fab people who were also frequenting the bar. As 1030 came we finished off our drinks and Rachel anf i headed back to GC. Unfortunatly when we arrived we found that the tide was too low for the kayak and too high to walk across, so we trudged up the hill to the Royal Oak pub in upper town for a nice half and some (very salty) crisps...

Another great day and time for bed.

Nos da 

Fishguard Day 3 WW

Golden Cloud - Fishguard, Pembrokeshire

I feel sooo tired, my feet are warn and  my eyes are struggling to stay open. But a glass of Golden Nectar and Billy's chipper conversation returns the smile to my face.

Tonight we dine in The Fishguard Bay Hotel... a lovely Edwardian country manor hotel, not by choice but because every eatery from The Golden Cloud in Lowertown to this establishment 3 miles away is not serving food.

Fishguard Bay Hotel

This evening is also the last night I spend with Billy Whitehouse, he's crewed for me for a few days and its be fantastic, some of the best days of my life. The First 24 hrs with the disappointment of missing the morning tide and the high seas was very hard. But the Un-timetabled Fantastic time we've had seeing Fishguard has been second to none!

This morning we woke on our gorgeous desert beach, the sound of the boat scratching the bed rose me and I adjusted the lines so we didn't land ontop of a discarded oil barrel (despite being deserted 3 tyres and a barrel sat beneath the waves. I did my best to clean and up cycle taking the tyres as fenders for the boat)

Two Tyres fished from the sea

Once the tide receded far enough to paddle ashore I sloshed ashore and set a small fire and cooked billy and I fried eggs. After this we set to work doing some painting on the boat, and cleaning the mud/seaweed slime off the hull. Billy did an ace job of painting the name to the side I didn't get chance to do the other day. While i painted the toe rail and washed the hull. I must say she looked fantastic in the sun, azure waters with her flags and bunting.

Once the tide returned we sailed over to Fishguard ferry harbour to see if it was easily possible to drop billy off for his train tomorrow. Sailing over Goodwick sands we made use of the moveable design Sonar transducer rig, me and Mick designed. Basically instead of bolting the transducer in the hull or on the back of the boat i lashed it to a pole so when entering shallow areas u can hold it at the front of the boat so you know its shallow before you hit it. Were as traditional fixed sonars are normally further back and so only tell you once you've hit!

After this we sailed back into Lower town harbour, and moored up, once again with a anchor and a bow line to try to keep me off the wall, the afternoons high winds showed this was time well spent.

Once we'd rigged up and settled down it was soon time for dinner and so me and billy set off for town. Knowing The Ship of lower town only did Drink we continued up the hill. 11 pubs either closed, for sail, not serving food and a 3 mile walk later we made it to The Fishguard Bay Hotel. Here we joined hoards of pensioners on a coach trip from Great Yarmouth to relax in its once regal surroundings. At the bar we asked if they were still serving food, as the barman stuttered we cried our sob story to make sure we wouldnt have to walk back to the boat with heads hung low to get a tin from the bilge. Luckily he obliged

A lovely walk back along the sea front and back down to the sleepy quayside of lower town to relax once more.

Stay Classy Planet Earth

Joe

P.s. One story i forgot to say from aberaeron: On the afternoon when billy first arrived we were standing beside a street waiting for a gap in traffic. all of a sudden a elderly lady thrust her arm into mine and took me across the road saying "here you look like u were once a boy scout, take an old dear across the road" when i hesitated with a car about to hit us she pulled me on "they pay enough road tax they'll stop for us" .... priceless

Fishguard Day 2

Last night I left you as we settled down to a supper of winkles and limpets.
RECIPIE:
Add limpets and Winkles to a heavy pan of boiling water.
Boil for a minute or so then take off heat and allow to cool.
Pick Limpets out of shells, finely chop (5mm cubes) and put in a bowl of water
Squeeze the limpets under the water,and rinse until water is clear
Remove winkles from shells using a needle. Add white section to bowl of limpets throw the "door" (small plasticey bit) and the brown "poo" spiral.

in a seperate pan melt butter and on a high heat add garlic, and onions, fry till golden brown, add herbs and prepared winkles and limpets

Enjoy

The results were as expected. Both Tasted Fantastic, Winkles the best flavour and texture, Limpets ok taste (mainly from sauce) but texture was like pencil rubber. the act of pulling the winkle morcel out of the shell was also most enjoyable.

As darkness fell a me and billy were chatting out on the foredeck, then all of a sudden the boat in a matter of a second went from horizontal to healing 45degrees. Panicing somewhat with fear it could have been a keel break we removed everything from down below and checked the keel bolts etc, while getting the "Expandy Foam and Condom" hull repair kit out. Fortunatly we had no leaks to find.
We found the ropes to the quay very tight, even at this angle we were hanging significantly. In attempt to aleviate the strain we rigged up some extra ropes from the winches to the quay and tighened them up. with it about low tide we decided it best to go below and watch a film until the boat came afloat again.

At 2 am she started to float, so i got billy to stand on the quay while i loosened off the ropes. If a keel had broke she would now all but capsize with water gushing in the broken hull. If the actual issue was she was hanging on the quay and had deeper water on the side away from the quay then she would float and I would only be able to rock her within a range of angle and that range wouldnt change as the 3 keels hit bottom. Thankfully the latter was true. After a final check of what we could see of the keels over the side and inside the bilges of the hull we put the floor back in and retired for the night.

Morning came and I went up on deck early while there was still water to try to rig a side anchor to aleviate the issue. With a bit of advice from a local fisherman and help from billy once i'd got him up, i was soon off the wall, and found the old girl sitting level when the tide next receeded.

Then Billy and I set about a bit of an exploration of Fishguard Town... I'm not sure if we actually found the town of a side settlement but what we did find was lovely, all bar it all being shut for bankholiday! After a hearty breakfast in the only cafe open we headed back to the cloud and a lovely conversation with a lady who had been at the same high school as me a few moons ago, and her friends.

The Deserted Streets of Fishguard

After this we set off up the other hill of Fishguard to the remenants of the Fishguard Fort. From here we looked across the stunning views of the bay and all the little headlands and coves. Billy and i then decended the jagged cliff and made are way back to the boat via the gorgeous all be it rocky shore.

Then as the tide returned Billy went off caving on the kayak while I set about trying to sort a bit more wiring on board.

 As minutes turned into an hour or so I decided to go back onto the quay to check how the old boy was doing. I looked up into the bay to see Billy Swimming alongside the Kayak, he waved at me quite happily! I didn't quite know if this was stiff upper lip so I ran back to the boat threw off the lines and went to his aid...."Your the Roger Johnson of Kayaking!" To be fair to him i should have re-repaired the crack in the hull after the kayak blew across ynyslas boatyard a month or so ago. The lack of a decent repair made the kayak had become unstable due to a hull full of water and the last straw was the wake off a powerboat. Although I looked the part with the RNLI flags, Billy fairplay had swum best part of half a mile before i "rescued" him.

From here we sailed across to a small cove we'd scoped earlier in the day and triple anchored to keep us in the safe water as the tide receeded. The fishing lines went out overboard and we sat there joyous at how lucky we were to be in such a place.

In the evening I cooked up Mussels from the Harbour Wall (Soak in clean water with a bit of salt and a bit of oats for 6 hours changing the water 3 times, trying to break the mussel open by twisting at each water change, removing beard on first water change, remove barnacles by scraping off with other barnacled mussels, in a heavy pan fry onions and garlic, put in the cleaned mussels add a glass of red wine and herbsput lid on an steam for a few minutes)

We sat eating the mussels on the back deck in the sunshine throwing the shells back to the sea. Much to our ammusement the seagulls kept trying to eat the empty shes and were then very disgruntled when the shells were empty.

As the day drew to a close we kayaked the 3m from the boat to shore and set a fire on the beach, we sat watching the fire and swapping manly stories until about midnight, by which point the boat had dried out and we got back onboard for bed barely getting our toes wet.

Another Great day in Fishguard, What will tomorrow bring?

Fishguard - A town of 2 sides

Fishguard - A town of 2 Sides.
And so the morning we woke rocking about in the swell just off Goodwick Sands infront of the Ferry terminal. As i got up and did some of the final checks on the engine i should have done the night before I got thinking, this is really not a lovely little welsh town, I hope we can leave soon.
Soon Billy was up and we had plenty of tide. After a potato, tuna and peppers curry, we raised anchor and prepared to go. We started to pootle accross to the Vistors moorings of Fishguard "lower town" the more traditional port of the town. As we left almost instantly a hoard of dragon boats swung into the bay excatly across our route. I got billy  to ease off the throttle to save us cutting up the race, while i tidied the anchor up front.
As we came into Lower Town Harbour we saw the plethora of gorgeous coves and caves surrounding it, and a sleepy little town behind it. Sadly the boat race ment our mooring was taken up by dragon boats, so we pulled up a swing mooring while watching the next race come to its finish. While on the mooring we charged the batterys off the engine and got to work on painting the Blog Website on the decks to hopefully get some punters to help the charity causes via the website.
While billy painted in the afternoon i went for a kayak around the bay. The Caves were awesome to behold, some many meters deep. I stopped many times im amazement at how lucky I was too be there. Enroute i picked up a good few limpets and periwinkles to make a bit of a foraged dinner.
I raced the final race of the dragon boats back into the harbour on my kayak, needless to say they won and won well. Once back alongside the boat we got ourselves prepared and as the dragon boats cleared away we set ourselves onto the mooring on the harbour wall for the night.
I spent the evening sat legs danging off the kayak painting the name on the bow of the boat before me and billy retired to "The Ship" pub in the old village... a very old worldly and lovely pub...
What a lovely pub, a lovely afternoon, and how lucky we are that we moved from Modern fishguard to Old Fishguard!
Nos Da
Joe

Too Fishguard

The Golden Cloud 5/5/13 Fishguard Pembrokeshire
90 miles down, ~410 to go.
At 2am Yesterday morning Billy and I made our final preperations and set sail for Fishguard, hoping in the kindest way possible to never see Aberaeron again! However, our excitement was shortlived as we soon found the sea far too rough and a teething problem with the engine again! I knew i could work round this issue, but feeling both tired and not prepared to go into a big sea with only hand start on the engine we tightened up the ropes back on Aberaeron Quay. Not to be detered at first light, after a quick stop to the bakery, we started on some more niggling improvements to the boat and by the time the tide returned, we couldnt be more ready. So at 1445 we slipped lines for what would be the final time in both Aberaeron and Ceredigion, and we set off for Fishguard.
The trip is a reasonably long one but doesn't have any significant navigational hazards, our biggest issue was a mountianous and choppy sea, and strong winds straight on the nose. We prepared sail but in the end these stayed lashed down and we ended up motoring the whole way. We just wouldn't have made enough headroom to make it worth while.
Along the route we were stalked by an incredibly interested flock of guilmots, and one seagull who took a shining to our fishing line... i'm so glad he didnt go for it, needless to say we soon brought it back in. The grace, ease and speed of these proffesional sea goers was a signt to behold, we only wished to mimic them in any way.
As we came to Newquay Head we discussed very quickly that this was the last possible safe haven before Newport (in spitting distance of Fishguard) as Cardigan Harbour had said they were too dangerous to enter. The conversation was Swift.... LETS DO IT!
Soon we sped past, a good few miles offshore, the coastal settlement and MOD test firing range at Aberporth, where i'm sure i spotted a dolphin as billy was sick. Then the first and testing manouver of a refuel at sea. I knew she would make it on one tank but i didn't want another air lock or RNLI call out! So big jerry out, and siphon tube was the order of the day to avoid splashing too much.... Let me tell you know, Desiel Burps are not nice. As sun set we rounded Cardigan Island with giant waves smashing into the coast visible even to us miles off shore. Then as darkness fell Billy spotted Strumble Head Lighthouse and soon Fishguard Harbour lights. Billy masterfully helmed through the big seas, amazing as it was only his first time. While I cat napped between navigating and writing the log. Every time I awoke we were nearer to our destination more lights on the coast were visible and Billy without the aid of seeing the charts was bang on course.
And a lovely supprise as Strumble became a shimmer over the top of a suiluet of the hills of Fishguard. A wonderful fireworks display in Cardigan! Something tells me they didnt want me to harbour their!
As we passed the final headland and officially entered Fishguard Bay the seas and winds calmed around us leaving us oncourse and ontime for my predicted midnight entry. Then on the horizon a beacon of light to steal our thunder, The Stena Line Fishguard-Rosslare ferry was on the horizon and gaining on us fast! I altered our route to take us outside where i thought he'd go and added a bit more speed to make sure we rounded the harbour wall before he did, and thus into saftey.
Soon he was right upon us but we were inside the calm waters of the harbour and preparing to anchor in GoodWick sands. Radio conversations with the Harbour Master and Milford Coastguard to check we were safe insued, before we made the final approaches. It nearly got very hairy here as the mainly unlit harbour (inc. unlit bouys, boats and pontoons) soon caught us out even tho we looked as hard as we could. A half submerged pallet attached to a bouy caught on the bow, neither of us had seen it, luckily it glanced off us and the masterfully added Skeg from the previous owner pushed it's rope away from our prop. We rounded up into the wind and dropped anchor. Successfully in fishguard. Our and my longest leg so far, a brilliant test for the engine and a successful journey. Weather doesnt look ace today or tomorrow, and with Strumble and St Davids Head our next leg I think we'll seak the haven of Fishguard Old Town tonight and continue working on the boat.
In other news I recieved a wadge of donations to the charitable cause from Aberaeron under the impressive flags of the RNLI and Isle of Wight Blind Society. Fingers crossed we can muster some more from fishguard. Just Giving Page should be up and running soon, but thier not making it easy for the IOW Blind Society to join... sounds like its a "charity website" only for the big boys!
As they say in Greenland (but probably don't spell it like this) Ka-shult-ta!
(means cheers)
Joe

Preperation to Continue

The Golden Cloud 3/5/13 - Aberaeron MidWales -
60 miles down, ~440 to go.
And So after the madness of the last few days finally I feel prepared to go again. The issue with the cloud's engine turned out to be significantly more minor than originally realised, although the trouble shooting of the engine and fuel system has lead to significant improvements in the engines running and has given me confidence in both the engine and myself.
In my week in Aberaeron (instead of the 12 hours originally planned) has been fantastic, the weather has been great, and the towns folk (especially those of the Yacht Club and the Grandparents of Heather O'rourke) have been fantastic. Not a moment seemed to go by on that mooring where there wasnt some well wisher or sailor wishing me thier best and offering any assistance possible. It just shows how much the sea can bring us together.
And so as i sit in an Arriva bus enroute back from Cardiff after passing my Naval fitness and medical, I am filled with great excitement for the forthcoming week. Billy Whitehouse is crewing with me for a few days, the forecast is sunny, and hopefully the wind isnt as brisk as forecast so we can safely make Cornwall by the week's end.
Mind you, my engine blues continue... The Bus has stopped on the hard shoulder of the M4, "serious engine overheat" maybe i'm just bad luck for these things!!!
Sadly my internets not great but next time i find an Internet Cafe there will be a few photos to put up!
Bon Voyage
Joe

P.S. This Trip is no longer raising funds for Surfers Against Sewage.

The RNLI "Rescue" video

This made me chuckle alot!

Apparently I was "Unable" to get into Aberaeron due to broken engine... Reality was yes the engine was down, but I was already tacking into harbour and felt ok with doing this. I had radioed Milford Haven in the morning so when i Updated them to say i was heading back with engines down thier words were...
"Please confirm engine down, sailing back to aberaeron over"
"Correct over"
"Well, Newquay inshore lifeboat is out on exercise on the moment, if you don't mind it would be a great help to them if they could practise towing and it would make us happier  if they took you back to harbour, over"
"Well as you asked so nicely, over"

To which Newquay ILB came to assist, although i was fine on my own.

Anyways thats by the by... Here's the video they've put up... and Please help the cause and donate to them if you can...

Joe

http://rnli.org/Pages/Video-Details.aspx?VideoItemID=xnffYYcI

http://rnli.org/donateorbecomeamember/Pages/default.aspx