Alderney run - Weekend 16/17 June 2007

[Brian]

Originally Posted by Just Looking

I understand 1000hrs on Sat, just outside Yarmouth harbour is the push point (i.e. be there just prior). Pressing at 1000hrs, no faffing.


Steve

Now there is a man after my own heart!

[philb]

ok team, we will see you at Yarmouth 1000hrs, launching at 8ish from Chichester, top up fuel and get 2nd breakie, looks wet and windy to me so here goes, B & B booked. look forward to meeting you all. Phil

[The Jackeens]

See you all at Yarmouth for brekkie.

At the very least

Kathleen & Paul

[Spike]

Sorry all, im not one to let anyone down but my cruise partner has not shown up with his rib & as the weather is unsetteled & i do not have an aux outboard i will not be coming as it's not safe to do the trip with one rib alone as if i encounter any problems i dont want to be rowing around channel in a force 4>5 or having to radio up for a tow. If it was flat calm then i would still have a go as there would be no stress on the boat but it is rough as hell down here & dont look any better out into the channel so dont want to take the chance. Hope all of you have a great time .
Mike.

[Nauti Buoy]

This morning 4 ribs set off for Alderny

Merlin - Paul & Kathleen - Solent 6.5
Old SPice - Pete & Viv - Pac
Voodoo - Phil & Stuart - Ballitic 7.8
Just Looking - John & Steve - Ribcraft 585

They left Yarmouth at 10.10am and arrived at Braye Harbour at 4pm, weather was Force 5-6, and by all accounts they had a very heavy head sea all the way. All made it intact and drowning their achy bodies now in the local pub.

[Andre]

Originally Posted by Nauti Buoy

This morning 4 ribs set off for Alderny

Merlin - Paul & Kathleen - Solent 6.5
Old SPice - Pete & Viv - Pac
Voodoo - Phil & Stuart - Ballitic 7.8
Just Looking - John & Steve - Ribcraft 585

They left Yarmouth at 10.10am and arrived at Braye Harbour at 4pm, weather was Force 5-6, and by all accounts they had a very heavy head sea all the way. All made it intact and drowning their achy bodies now in the local pub.

well done!
I do hope you have a much better journey on the way back

[Brian]

Well, just said "Cheerio" to the fab four boats which made it to Alderney last evening. And very brave they were too! A Force 5 blew most of yesterday and that made it a 6 hour crossing. With John and Steve their first channel crossing, and Steves first outing in a rib!
Well done to all of them.

[Pete7]

All home at 6pm, after some mid channel dramas. Full details to follow, but not this evening, exhausted.

Pete and Viv

[The Jackeens]

Adventure all the way!

Top weekend in great company. Paul (& Nauti )are helping the last boat up the slip in the Camber.

Will post properly as soon as the blisters heal on the throttle hand

Kathleen

[philb]

team, all home safe and sound, great weekend, some great pics, will sort out later. Phil.

[Hightower]

I'm really pleased that you all had a wonderful adventure and that your all back safe.

Look forward to the story and photo's

[Sarah G]

Well done you lot. Kept thinking of you over the weekend, hoping the weather was OK. Love to do this one year when we are more accomplished ribbers.

Well done again.

[simmons0]

Sounds like a bit of an epic trip!
Well done everyone.

Looking forward to the pictures, and details of that mid channel drama!

Harry.

[The Jackeens]

Good to hear Phil and his Competent Crew are home safe!

And thanks for all the encouraging messages guys & Sarah ! Will stick a report up in a day or so! Some vid may be posted by the intrepid 'Just Looking' crew - Steve & John!


(Hahahaha...Just to whet the appetites Harry and Dave, it involved Pete 7 scrubbing the decks with his favourite fragrance and a bit of prop testing off St Catherine's for good measure...

Details will no doubt follow )

K & P

[Just Looking]

Well, just put the boat to bed, so checking in at 0030hrs.

Great weekend; I especially liked the fun of doing my 1st trip greater than 2 miles from the coast in weather more suited to the movie 'Perfect Storm' . I particularly liked the bits when you couldn't see the other boats between waves (crest - trough) . The return weather, however was great, allowing good footage of the team at speed .

Anyway, thanks to those who actually made it on the day, 4 out of 30 , and especially to Paul and Richard for their help after my planned slipway closed early. Also, thanks to Brian for the re-fuelling assistance in Alderney.

I've got some great video footage , which I will work on in the next few days and try and post in a decent format.

I will 'grab' some pictures from the movies and post them tommorow.

Off to get some........ .........sleep.

Steve


It is a wise man who knows what he wants, but a wiser man still who knows when he has achieved it

[Just Looking]

Here are a couple of pictures 'grabbed' from video. Picture quality isn't great but gives you an idea. I will post more later.

I am also working on getting some of the video on; had a quick look, the footage is awesome, will just take me a while to edit.

Steve

____________________________
1st picture is on the outbound leg during one of the calmer moments!
2nd picture of Just Looking on return trip
3rd Picture of Vodoo on return trip
4th Picture of the return trip, totally flat conditions, with Merlin, Voodoo and Old Spice

[Phil Chitty]

Nice pics Steve.

Looking forward to hearing the full story and seeing more pics from you all in future posts.

Knowing how lumpy it was outside Chichester on in the Solent on Saturday I take my hat off to you all for carrying on to Alderney.

[Just Looking]

A quick test of video, never published before so just trying to sort out a website etc. Hopefully this link will work

http://justlookingadventures.co.uk/d...pAlderney1.wmv

This was on the outbound leg BEFORE it got rough, hence able to connect the camera


This is merely a small snippet (hugely compressed - original at 1GB per minute).

I will now start going through the tonnes of footage I have, more to come soon

Steve


It is a wise man who knows what he wants, but a wiser man still who knows when he has achieved it

[Pete7]

So a gentle cruise to Alderney, a night camping under the stars, some duty free and a quick blast home in time for a happy hour in the Ribnet Bistro. Well that was the plan, didn’t quite turn out like that.

With the Solent siting between a high and low pressure for most of the previous week, weather forecasts seemed to change hourly. However with folks travelling long distances down to the Solent and others booking B&Bs we had to try. Meeting up in Yarmouth all boats were filled by 10 am which was just as well for what was to follow. Out past the Needles and on for a couple of miles suggested a Force 3 to 4 sea, a little uncomfortable as we were directly into the waves on a course of 210 degrees. Phil and Stuart in Voodoo a huge Balistic 7.8 gave the thumbs up and Dave and Steve in the Ribcraft 585 going well and enjoying themselves. I told Mrs 7 its 4 hours to Alderney in this. Viv said “yes we can do this”. That left Paul and Kath hanging back a bit praying for a gentle run up to Wareham with tea and cakes (which was our back up plan). So we pressed on for another few miles hoping it would calm down a bit and the 15 knots cruising speed could be raised a bit and shorten the crossing time.

An hour into the voyage and the Noodles now disappeared over the horizon the first weather front went through. Clouds gave way to bright sunshine and our hopes for better weather raised. Only it didn’t happen. With the clearer skies came stronger winds and now frequent white horses. Waves began to build and the speed slowly dropped down to 12 knots with the occasional 10 knots. Anything more and the hulls would crash into the troughs. What might be fun for a short hop in the Solent couldn’t be maintained all the way across the 60 miles to Alderney. After 30 miles and several hours although we had lost track of the time we stopped for lunch, but with the ribs drifting sideways on to the waves the rolling would quickly caused more problems so we pressed on again at 12 knots.

Dark clouds loomed from the South West and rain threatened, the sea turned a dark inky colour and still the waves came directly on the nose . A second front went though and although the wind died back to Force 4 the waves had already built. As the cloud cleared again the wind freshened this time to Force 5 to 6 and started to swing round to the West. Each rib catching waves sideways on as the drivers fought to avoid the biggest on them. The low point was probably 20 miles to go, at 10 knots we all knew how long it would still take to make land . However at 13 miles Alderney could be seen through the cloud and this was huge boost to the crews even if those last few miles would be a hard slog. We crawled into Bray Harbour at 4pm and surprised to still see white horses marching across the harbour. From Yarmouth it had taken 6 hours.

[Pete7]

P&K opened a bottle of pink champs to celebrate a few first crossings amongst the group although all thoughts of camping went out of the window as Kath and Dave set off up the hill to find B&Bs. They turned down the first hotel at £180 per night before squeezing the campers into B&Bs over the Island. She then commandeered the local carpet fitter with a large van at 5pm on a Saturday night and had him transport all our kit to each of the various B&Bs. Superb and as anyone who has visited Alderney will tell you it’s a long steep walk up the high street at the end of a long day. Dinner was held in the Bellevue Hotel and an excellent choice before weary headed for an early night

Sunday dawned with bright blue skies and an F2-4 SW forecast with a front coming through later in the day. The view from the taxi was interesting as he took us the scenic route back down the harbour but at least we saw something of the island. From the harbour office white waves could be seen out to sea but this was just the tide playing with the rocks in the Swinge.

With HW we were able to bring the ribs into the inner harbour and Brian who had been searching the island and camp site several times for us appeared just at the right moment to help with refuelling the boats . With the tide dropping fast a final coffee with Brian in the Bray Hotel followed before it was time to head off again. In retrospect we all wished we had taken an extra couple of days to chill out in Alderney.

Out of the harbour the seas however were completely different as we set off at a comfortable 23 knots, but this time choosing to go round the IOW via Sandown. Lunch was called at after a couple of hours and a much more relaxed affair with the boats gently bobbing up and down. We checked on a few yachts on route and played in the wake of the big container ships before finally seeing St Cathrines 20 miles out. The calmer seas giving us a chance for photos and videos.

Then disaster, a smell of oil had been on the air for a while but we couldn’t locate it. Until suddenly 20 litres of diesel poured across the deck of Old Spice. A Jerry can had come loose and the top opened . Diesel had now soaked the deck and into the rucksacs sleeping bags and tent. Wondering how to clean this mess up 20 miles offshore I decided to give Old Spice a Quick burst on reverse. With the low transom she can be forced down and under water and the deck flooded. First go worked well and we took 6 inches of water right up to the bow which took a lot out, therefore a second go should just about do it. Unfortunately we didn’t spot the stern painter go into the prop. The engine stopped and the rope queezed between the prop and the gearbox, bollicks Only one thing for it now and that involved taking the prop off and freeing the rope. Whilst we were at it we changed to the bigger prop, careful not to drop anything. Phil and Steve looked at little shocked but with the whole thing was completed within ten minutes we were back on our way. We waved goodbye to Voodoo and Looking Good at Ventnor before giving Ride Sands a wide berth and finally arriving back in our home port.

Distance travelled, haven’t checked yet but about 180 miles over the weekend and apart from some cleaning and tightening a few bolts, all made it safely back. The group stayed closely together throughout the weekend always stopping if one boat needed to change crew or grab a bite to eat. So apart from a few weary bodies a great success, only next time its forecasting 4/5 on the nose we are going to Wareham for tea and cakes. Oh and after one particularly heavy landing Mrs 7 came out with the infamous quote from the film jaws:
“We need a bigger boat”

Pete and Viv