Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Well, after several days waiting for the weather to improve I finally get away and what a day it has been. I started out from Plymouth at 9am with a F3 and a flat sea inside the breakwater but that was soon to change. Not that there was anything too dramtic but as expected, the wind over tide that existed for the first 3 hours made for a lumpy sea. The wind picking up to a F4ish didn’t help and very soon I was now to 6kts. I was chugging on quite nicely but the delay had made me impatient to get on and I found that I was wanting to go faster than the sea wanted me to and a couple of times I flew off the top of a wave a little more enthusiastically than was good for me or the boat!

After 3 hours or so the predicted improvement came and I planed the rest of the way. It wasn’t easy work though… with the sea still running at about a metre I was having to work hard with the throttles and steering to keep her on the plane and by the time I rounded the Lizard the sea was almost flat.
So, what a great start to the adventure. I have been given a great welcome by Neil, the Penlee Lifeboat coxswain and a very welcome cup of tea and the boat is sitting on the Lifeboat pontoon. It looks like I will be here for at least Wednesday and possible Thursday but I will decide that after looking at the weather forecast tomorrow evening.

I hope you managed to see me on the Live Tracking? \If not keep in touch with my plans by returning to the web site regularly and try to catch me on one of the future legs.

I have included some pics of today as a gallery below. I am not completely certain how I will handle pics but for now at least they are there for you to see. In time, perhaps on my return, I will annotate them.
So, off to have a shower and a bit to eat… one of my Hot Pack meals I expect… easy, tasty and on the boat!

Click here for leg photos

Not that I was keen to get rid of him of course, but the delay was frustrating. I said my farewells at home and he went off to the boat with our good friend Colin. Once underway Paul had to keep the speed down due to the swell but it promises to flatten out.

I took delivery of four internal doors and stored them in the garage, and then later the new bath arrived which is now also in the garage. All of this is being fitted on Thursday, all being well. That’ll be a busy day. Tomorrow I have the new vinyl floor going down in the bathroom. No twiddling of thumbs for me then!

I suffer badly from migraines, so you’ll probably hear a little about my state of health as the days go by. Today is a bad day  but I shall try not to bore you with too many details.

Finally the weather is looking sensible. The block is still on and the low pressure systems to the south are still close by but the high pressure is slowly building from the north and it is quietening things down somewhat.

It will probably be quite a rough crossing for my little boat but it should be safe and I might even get to do some planeing towards the afternoon… who knows.

Wednesday looks a little unpredictable too but the forecasts are looking more settled for later in the week so I might try to take advantage of that if it happens and use it to get round the corner of Land’s End and maybe on to Milford Haven before the end of the week. Watch this space