Sail 4: Newtown to Yarmouth

We spent two nights in Newtown Creek, the wind was still Westerly and we had a broken mizzen gaff to fix. The first night at Newtown was comfy, we were moored quite far down the creek out of the reach of the incoming swell. However, this calm was not to last, in the morning the abandoned superyacht was within inches of our stern. We had to move to the only available mooring buoy at the mouth of the creek. Not too much of a problem but again more rowing was required, luckily the lovely ladies of the National Trust who manage the creek offered to tow the dinghy and give us a lift to Shalfleet Quay. We decided that we should attempt to seek out some new wooden "boat beads" to fix the mizzen gaff.

We walked to Yarmouth from Shalfleet and found some "boat beads" a.k.a parral beads in the chandlery there, Andy's happiness was restored, much to the rest of the crew's delight. A short bus ride back Shalfleet followed by a long row back to the boat and finally a fixed mizzen gaff! Andy was so happy he spent some time relaxing on Tender Terrance, his favourite place to celebrate boat fixes. We ate on the boat and prepared to leave for Yarmouth the next day.

That night we experienced what the pilot book (a guide for harbours and passages) describes as the "Newtown, spring tide pajama party". Which involved being rocked awake rudely by the incoming swell. The wind had picked up as predicted and we were up nice and early for our passage to Yarmouth.

We were treated to a visit from a seal, basking in the sun in the morning before we headed off to Yarmouth for a shower and good sleep. It's been a few days since we've washed and we want to be clean before we make the hop to Poole.

Passage plan

Wind South Westerly 12-20 Knots, much stronger near the mainland according to AROME and UKMO weather models. Expected to increase this afternoon, 20-25 knots Westerly through the Solent. Decide to motor sail along the coast, punching against the tide but at least it'll be wind with tide until 16:00.

- Leave Newtown with a leading line 130°.

- At West Cardinal turn towards Hamstead Ledge Buoy 298°, sails up?

- Hamstead ledge buoy to the red buoy outside Yarmouth. 238° close reach.

- Enter Yarmouth, avoid ferries 188° transit, harbour master is on channel 68.

Approx 4NM, 1 hour.

Passage log

12:30 Changed course to hug the coastline, too much tide to sail as we're going right into the wind. Course is approximately 260°. Just passing Alietex Buoy, now making 3.5 knots with engine full ahead.

Pip Hare's Medallia tacking back and forth across our course multiple times. Amazing to be overtaken by the single-handed ocean racer. Her boat sure can point to windward, it is much bigger than Ruby thought it would be.

Mayday heard, man overboard at Gilicker Point, we're too far away and too slow to be of use.

13:17 arrived at Yarmouth.

Passage reality

We did try to sail as you can see from the sharp tack on our GPS track above, but these Westerly winds are beating our ass, long keeled boats unlike ocean racers can only point up to 55° upwind which means we would've spent a long time doing lots of short tacks to get to Yarmouth. On went the engine and we hugged the coastline up to Yarmouth. It's a part of the island that neither of us has ever seen before as most of the coastline is privately owned. There is a random swiss style castle and some modern-looking houses overlooking the sea here.

The passage went nearly as planned, apart from a short test sail to see whether we could manage without the engine. The tide seemed much stronger than predicted on our charts, maybe it's the moon's time of the month.

We thought we'd cover approx 4NM and it would take us around 1 hour. We weren't far wrong apart from the extra knot of tide against us.

Distance: 5.5NM

Time: 1 hour 41 minutes

Average Speed: 3.3 Knots

Max Speed: 6.7 Knots

Arrived in Yarmouth and berthed up in the harbour to wash and await the weather window for the big hop, to Poole!