Chapter 8 – The Bristol Channel

From Milford Haven to Padstow – A Night in the Bristol Channel

Excerpt with kind permission of the visitmyharbour.com website (https://www.visitmyharbour.com/harbours/bristol-channel/padstow/) :

“… Many fine sailing ships met their end on this coast (including the Maria Assumpta in 1995), and the inhabitants used to be well-known for their (alledged) wrecking activities. Nowadays with GPS position fixing equipment, timely weather forecasts, and reliable diesel engines things are somewhat different. Even so, many Mariners on passage North or South scurry past the whole Bristol Channel/North Cornwall area as quickly as they can.

Padstow, located within the Camel estuary, is guarded by the Doom Bar… the name alone is enough to make one wary. Doom is in fact derived from “dune” as in sand dune, and although it’s claimed its fair share of sailing ships most of these were a result of the vessel losing its wind and steerage way after rounding Stepper Point (see the history section).  Padstow Bay is open to the West and the North…. gales from these directions especially if prolonged enough to generate a large swell will produce spectacular results on the Doom Bar…”

Nonetheless, that was our next route, and our next destination.

We had plenty time to get ready to leave Milford Haven, and head for Padstow, 80 miles across the dreaded Bristol Channel. Padstow is also a lock type harbour, its gates opening 2 hours before high water.
In fact, its approach channel completely dries out at low tide.

As usual, we planned our trip accordingly, with a safety margin. We were to arrive in time for the flow, so we had once again a late afternoon departure and a night passage.

The Milford Haven harbour authority has several scheduled times for opening the gates, and we registered our departure time for 19h30.

Once out of the harbour, we motored 5 miles past the tankers terminals to get to the open sea, one short hour later.
But we had to keep on motoring, for the wind was absent once again.

We had decided to make it through the night in 2 hours shifts. This proved a good balance, allowing one to catch some rest while not leaving the other steering for too long.

The wind eventually decided to join the party, and we happily shut off our engine at 22h00.
We were heading south, 180° along the meridian. We stayed on a long port tack all night and all morning until noon, when we approached Pentire Point, close to our destination.
14 hours under sails, our speed ranging from 3.5 knots to 5.5 knots. The sea was calm, sailing was good…

So much for the infamous Bristol Channel!

Our safety time margin made us arrive one hour too early. So we motored along the nice shore in Padstow bay, sightseeing, evaluating a possible night there on anchor before the next departure.
We eventually got tired of it and dropped our anchor to kill time, and also for practice (giving John the privilege to have a go at pulling the anchor with the manual windlass!).

Padstow bay, Pentire Point

The tide flow was now established for a safe crossing of the Doom Bar. As we entered the buoyed channel, we had to slalom between a dozen sailing dinghies involved in a race around the buoys. But it wasn’t a problem, we were idling quietly with the tide.

Shortly before the harbour entrance (90° to our starboard), a harbour staff came ahead of us in a rib to recommend us to stay close to the outer harbour wall, in order to keep clear of the sand banks.
We had this info already from the visitmyharbour.com website, but it was a good reminder.

Once inside the harbour, we were a bit lost for we didn’t see the lock gates at once. In fact, they were still closed. Seeing we were kind of exploring the area, another harbour staff gave us the proper direction from the quay.

We were eventually moored at 15h20.

Padstow is very touristic and the nice weather had brought a lot of people.
The harbour lies in the heart of this pretty little town and is probably helping to make it a picturesque place and attract visitors.

Looking at boats coming in and manoeuvring to moor is an attraction, and we were part of the show. We added our bonus touch, by losing a fender and fishing it back again from another boat.

We had to moor alongside a harbour wall, from which a ladder led directly up on the populated quay.
It was somewhat amusing to emerge from the ladder, right in the feet of people eating their ice-creams.

The town offers a large choice of bars and restaurants. But when John and I were ready to get some food, after the mandatory tribute to the pub (which one, I don’t remember now), every place we visited was fully booked.

Travels are prone to surprises, and the saying “it’s a small world” is not popular without reason.
Our situation was getting desperate, when I saw John suddenly brighten up and lift his arms to the sky in disbelief. He had just recognized a couple of friends from his home town, members of the same scooters club than him.
That’s how we could join a table (theirs) and order our dinner, and how I had the pleasure to meet Paul and Donna, a very friendly couple who travelled in a small van in which they slept, tightly wedged among their luggage.

We had a nice evening together.

The next day, I explored the town to buy some presents to bring home, and John bought a fishing rod and some related hardware, which he had often regretted not to have on board.

Now, would we be foodwise self-sufficient?

(To be continued)

John is fishing!