We undertook the passage from Coleraine to Falmouth late Summer of 2021. Phase one from Coleraine undergoing staged sea trials as we sailed calling in at Rathlin Island, Donagadee, Kilkeel, Howth, Arklow, Milford Haven, Padstow, Newlyn and finally Falmouth, quite an adventure it proved to be!
The map below shows our initial passage plan down to Cornwall from Coleraine, it evolved slightly due to inevitable weather issues but the full details are listed below!
(1) Coleraine Harbour, our starting point and home to J&MJ under restoration since July 2015
(2) Rathlin Island as the initial part of the sea trials and undertaken in dense fog, we arrived in Rathlin harbour safely and were made very welcome by the HM.
(3) Donagadee at the invitation of Quinton Nelson from Nelson’s Boats, without who’s assistance J&MJ would most likely not have been saved from an inevitable demise marooned on the shore of The Moross Channel. The passage down from Rathlin started out in beautiful sunshine until we hit a wall of dense fog passing Larne, which continued all the way to Donagadee. Crossing the Belfast Lough was interesting as the shipping lanes were very busy but a combination of radar, marine traffic app and old fashioned lookouts on the bow got us across safely, we have Type B AIS so knew the ships could at least see us too! The narrow rock lined channel approaching Donagadee was nerve wracking as there was still zero visibility and the Solent will not go less than 4.5 knots without losing steerage with both engines on dead slow. We crept forward at then it was a joy to behold the piers only a few meters off what the instruments were indicating, we literally emerged through a wall of fog and into bright sunshine at the harbour entrance with our fog horn still sounding, a great relief!
(4) Kilkeel A pleasant passage from Donagadee down the coast and then a direct transit into the entrance of Kilkeel harbour. The HM was very welcoming and she gave us an excellent berth alongside the main fish shed with welcome access to the showers. A local skipper called over in his boat and showed me his superb Gardener 8LX engine, he returned later with a bucket of prawns and another skipper gave us a bucket of crabs, we dined well!
(5) Howth After a great run down from Donagadee, the last couple of miles of which we effectively surfed at 11kn with the wind and tide behind us, we were warmly welcomed by our friend Ian on the RNLI crew and his coxswain in Howth. We had showers in the marina and met a couple of Dave’s lady friends from México who were living in Dublin, great craic.
(6) Arklow On leaving Howth we were immediately hit by a violent squall which had the boat boat pitching and rolling vigorously for about 30 minutes (the crew learned here why I kept telling them to stow their gear securely, they hadn’t of course . . . ). We then had a fairly steady run across Dublin Bay avoiding the odd huge ferry or two. After that the Irish Navy were in action doing exercises in fast patrol boats, we wondered if they’d stop us for the craic but they clearly had other places to be! We continued on and tootled into Arklow late afternoon. We were welcomed into the inner harbour by the RNLI coxswain Dylan who kindly let us moor up by his wind farm service boat and get a shore line for mains power (after my crew initially threw our power lead straight into the harbour in a 3 Stooges style sketch)!
(7) Milford Haven We left Arklow first light and as the weather conditions were good with no wind or fog, we decided that we’d cross the Irish Sea that day. It was the most beautiful clear Sunny day, in the middle of the crossing the wavelets were sparkling like jewels in the late summer Sun, we could literally see for miles and watch the huge commercial ships running in the shipping lanes miles away from us, most relaxing! There was a bit of a bluster around the headland into Milford Haven but we soon were in radio contact with the HM team and got our slot into the lock for the marina. We spent two nights here as the forecast wasn’t great for the next day and enjoyed a relaxing time meeting old and new friends including “The Mad Bish” with his historic 47′ Watson Class Lifeboat “Peatland”, The Bish was very generous with his crisps and Heineken. We caught up with our old pal Davey of the RNLI Angle Lifeboat who had kindly arranged the berth for us. We took fuel the next morning too.
(8) Padstow We set off in seemingly good conditions for the passage across the Bristol Channel but unfortunately a strong beam on sea came up out of nowhere and hammered us from Port for hours, I was strapped into the helmsman’s chair with my 4 point harness for the worst 2 hours and had to regularly turn into waves to avoid a capsize scenario which I didn’t want to experience even if the boat is a self righting model! If we’d headed South it would’ve been relatively pleasant but the nearest non drying harbour was Newlyn all the way down and around Lands End, plus I really wanted us to visit Padstow as I had great memories as kid when my dad was stationed as RNLI Staff Coxswain there circa 1971/2. So we pressed on passing Lundy island to port and eventually got into the Camel Estuary and calmer water before dark. We were only 1.5hrs after low water which is the earliest we could enter the river Camel so we kept a careful look out for the dreaded Doombar sand bar and picked our way carefully up the channel watching the depth sounder. Padstow Harbour has a lock gate on the entrance these days which wouldn’t open until midnight so we had arranged to tie up to the RNLI buoy until then. The tide was racing up the river so I spun around upstream of it and briefed the crew to pick up the buoy immediately on arrival, which they did perfectly! Much relived to be safely secured after such a challenging passage we relaxed for a few hours until the HM called us in via VHF at midnight. Mooring up in the dark alongside a brand new Dutch Barge without scratching or crushing the GRP yacht immediately ahead of us it was tricky but we did it and clearly the Padstow gods were smiling as Dave discovered that the PW1 bar was still serving but we had to wait 10 minutes as the HM found us a spot on the harbour wall to moor up at first, then we repaired into PW1 for essential refreshments! After the Milford passage I didn’t want to put us through such conditions again and the weather around Lands End was very bad for a week, so we ended up spending 10 days in Padstow, no great hardship and we had a great time meeting friends off and new. I was a bit concerned about the harbour dues that were racking up but on paying I discovered that the Harbour Commissioners had very generously given us a 50% discount, for which I’ll always be grateful!
(9) Newlyn We left Padstow on the early morning (05.00) tide, of course our old friend the fog was back so picking our way through the myriad moored vessels in the river Camel required nerve and precision but we successfully avoided any boat skittles and passed out into the open sea where the fog soon lifted and we came to Lands End in bright Sunshine and zero wind beyond a refreshing breeze. I’d selected a passage inland of Longships Lighthouse for such conditions which was delightful but which again called for precise navigation to keep clear of the underwater rock pinnacles, at times seeing the depth sounder go from 71′ to under 14′ in a matter of seconds was testing but we were fine and continued into Newlyn without incident. Heading towards Newlyn we were in the company of a fine 1974 built trawler, she had the edge on us for speed but we more or less kept in formation and by chance I met a member of her crew in the pub later. On arrival a new member of the Harbour Team directed us onto a 7.5M finger on the wrong side of the pontoon for a boat of our size (we’re 15M), we got in but clipped a prop on a rock in the process which was disappointing! The weather forecast for the next day was very wild so I decided we’d have 2 nights in Newlyn and with the Swordfish Inn and showers c/o Patch Harvey the Newlyn RNLI Coxswain we were very well catered for!
(10) Falmouth via Lizard We left Newlyn on the morning tide and yep there was our old friend the fog back again and a slight Southerly blow for good measure. I’d devised a passage close in on the Lizard to see our boat’s old 1987 – 88 RNLI station but it was still dense fog and although we could hear the station fog horn, any visual manifestation of it was was denied to us. We were close in too as the waves hitting the cliffs were clearly audible. At this point the port engine stopped and the Southerly breeze was seemingly more vigorous and keen on blowing us onto the shore, definitely a “squeaky bum moment” for me! I gave the helm to Dave with the starboard engine on full and instructions to head due South and away from the cliffs as rapidly as possible . . . I kicked into my chief engineer mode now switching fuel filters over, checking the engine temperature etc. and restarting the engine only to have it stop a few minutes later, after this happened twice I did another visual sweep in the engine room and spotted that the port engine fuel solenoid was in the shut down position, the engine was shutting itself down, for why thinks I very quickly! My analysis was that the capsize emergency engine shut down switch was cutting in, so armed with wire clippers and in a rolling engine room with the starboard engine roaring at full ahead, I crawled under the side of the port engine and looking at the two wires, decided James Bond on an atom bomb style, to clip the red one! Back in the wheelhouse we restarted the starboard engine and all was well! We then spent about 3 hours cruising up and down Carrick Roads until there was enough water to go to the mooring my friend was letting us use. After an hilarious few minutes with erratic phone coverage we eventually located the correct orange buoy amongst the numerous others and moored up with great relief! Our long voyage was completed. At this point a friendly guy appeared in a kayak for a chat and kindly agreed to take the crew ashore in his rib the next day, that was Richard now a very good friend of ours forged over numerous pints of St. Austell Tribute ale in the Pandora Inn!
