Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Tide times at the moment are very awkward especially for a direct run to Hull from Hartlepool. Both Hartlepool and Hull are locked marinas which mean I can only get in or out at certain times… Hartlepool is shut 1 hour either side of LW and Hull is only open 3 hrs either side of HW. Couple with that the fact that it is a long journey at over 100 miles and there is little scope for me slowing down if I hit bad weather. Taking everything into account it is going to be better to break the journey at Scarborough as originally planned.

So I plan to leave Hartlepool tomorrow as soon as the lock opens after LW at about 1315hrs. I will then have a 40 mile run to Scarborough where I can access the harbour 3 hrs either side of HW which is at about 1830hrs so I can enter after 1530hrs or there abouts.

Hull is a further 80 miles on from Scarborough and so I am expecting to leave Scarborough early on Monday morning to give me plenty of time to get to Hull before the lock closes at midday’ish. More on that leg tomorrow but for now I will update you tomorrow morning after the forecasts are out and I have had a chance to walk over to the harbour wall to look at the state of the sea.

Given the grotty weather I have had on the trip so far I have decided that now is the time to change plan slightly to try to ensure I get back home in a sensible time period.

As of today I have decided to reduce the number of nights I intend to stay in each port from 3 down to just one. If the weather requires me to stay longer then so be it but if the weather allows me to continue on the next day then I will move on.

I will continue with this plan until I get further round and if the weather miraculously picks up and I find that I have more guaranteed  travel days ahead then I may reassess where I stand. But for now assume that I am moving on next day if the weather is suitable.

Having gone over half way round Britain to arrive in NE Scotland it would be a shame not to stop at Arbroath and sample the famous "Arbroath Smokies" - haddock smoked over wood chips. Besides, the leg from here to Eyemouth is over 100nm and Arbroath would break it up making for two much shorter legs.

I will fuel up here in Peterhead to get me to Eyemouth so I don’t have to refuel in Arbroath.

I am really looking forward to Arbroath and with westerlies forecast for Wednesday at the moment I would be happier making for Arbroath than for Eyemouth with a F4-5 forecast. I will decide if I go Wednesday or Thursdayuon Wednesday morning as usual.

If anyone knows of a good place for me to try the smokies then please post on the blog or email me… ta.

Looking at the route after talking to various people that know the area I have decided to change the next stopping port from Port Ellen to Port Askaig.

Port Askaig is more sheltered and has a Lifeboat station. I have found it a huge help to be able to talk to the crews… they have an encyclopedic knowledge of their patch and I want to tap into some of that expertise especially as the following leg is going to need careful planning.

Also, my route is now more along the coast rather than directly across open water. My experiences to date are making me less inclined to take the open water route unless it makes sense to do so. I will change future leg routes to take that into account.

I haven’t yet updated the Itinerary page on the web site but I hope to do that prior to departure.

Having spoken to Tony, the full-time mechanic at the Douglas Lifeboat Station, I can now modify my passage plan to take a more inside route up the coast of the island and around the northern tip. This should cut off quite a few miles from my original route and make the journey a little quicker too, not to mention more picturesque.

I have had a chance to speak to the RNLI crew and to fishermen here in Newlyn and by all accounts they say that I needn’t be at all concerned about overfalls or tide issues around Land’s End over the next couple of days. Winds are light and it is neaps and any case they are generally easterly and in these conditions it isn’t going to be an issue.

I have replanned the route to round Land’s End closer in and it is saving about 8 miles on the route. I shall still have my careful head on though… I always do when rounding headlands and Land’s End certainly is in that category

It is always the same isn’t it… things work until you need them! I have been using this laptop for weeks now in preparation for the trip and I go away to Fowey to check that everything works, not expecting to have any issues with the laptop, and there you go… laptop not working

I thought it might be power supply but that is now fixed but it looks like there might be a loose wire in the connection of the screen to the body. Well, both Sally and I are both computer consultants and so we should have it under control soon but if it need parts then I may have to try to scrounge a laptop from somewhere for at least part of the trip.

Still, I won’t panic until I need to so more when it is all sorted (he says hopefully)…

The rest of the shakedown went well. A few issues came to light but nothing serious but that is precisely what the shakedown was meant to do!

One issue that did arise that you night be interested in was that with all the extra weight on board the fuel consumption was down about 25%… from 1 ltr/nm to 1.25 ltr/nm. This is a significant amount but I have already replanned the legs with the new figures and I already had so much more fuel than I needed that even with the new figures I am still well within the recommendation of having an extra 25%. Never the less, worth remembering for the future that it makes so much difference.

Well, it is just over 5 weeks to go and I am starting to get excited!

The planning is mostly now complete with just a few bits and pieces to do but I have now pretty much settled on stop off ports, passage planning and risk assessment and unless something else comes to light they will not now change.

I am starting to get the boat prepared now. Liferaft, EPIRB, Fire Extinquishers, Scramble ladder, throwline etc are all here and some bits need fitting. I also have a Sea-Me radar Target Enhancer to fit too. In the next week or two the RNLI MOB Guardian will be fitted.

A week or two before the off I will get the main and aux engines serviced along with the putting together of a spares and tools pack for the trip.

Finally, with a week to go I will start loading and packing ready for the off, weather permitting, on 24th May.

I am still some way short of the funding so if you or anyone you know wants to be involved and could sponsor a leg please get in touch. See the Sponsorship page for more details.

Plans continue to take shape. I have now completed all of the details passage planning and as a result of that planning I have made some changes to the plan.

Leg 16 Hartlepool to Hull

I have split this leg into two:

- 16a Hartlepool to Scarborough
- 16b Scarborough to Hull

I have also added an additional 3 night stop off at Scarborough… it has a active fishing fleet and has one of the oldest RNLI stations in the country with over 200 years as a lifeboat station… I simply had to stop here.

Leg 17 Hull to Lowestoft

Again, I have split this into two legs:

- 17a Hull to Wells-next-the-Sea
- 17b Wells-next-the-Sea to Lowestoft

It seemed such a shame to whiz past this beautiful part of the country and so I have chosen to stop off at Wells but just for one night.

Humber Area

This is a huge area. In fact, the Hull Marina is over 20 miles up the Humber! I felt that by just staying in Hull I was neglecting Grimsby and so I have decided to sop at both for two nights. This will give both Hull and Grimsby fishing fleet to see the MOB Guardian system and I get to visit both of these interesting places.

I haven’t yet amended the Itinerary but it will get done over the next week or so.

I have changed the stop off port for leg 1 from Penzance to Newlyn.

Firstly Newlyn has H24 access making my arrival/departure times much easier and I am hoping that I will get to meet many people to demo MOB Guardian.

Newlyn and Penzance are so close it has made almost no difference to the passage plan/fuel requirements.