New trip reports in the Library

[Jonathan Stuart]

I have just added two new articles to the Library about trips undertaken this summer.

The first is an account by Bill Rollo about 2 weeks he spent cruising the west coast of Scotland in his BayRaider 20:

http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=1368

I have also written an article about a more modest weekend's cruise along the Dorset coast:

http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=1362

I hope you enjoy these. If anyone has anything similar to add to the Library then it would be great to see more trip reports or email them to me and I'll publish them.

[PeterDT]

Two really interesting and inspiring trip reports, thank you Jonathan. I am interested to hear what safety gear you carry along on these coastal trips in potentially dangerous waters. May be my offshore survival training and offshore time (many years ago) has made me too cautious, but I am still a bit hesitant to sail in open waters in a small boat. Of course experience, good trip planning and good maintenance are essential.

Peter
BRe Anna

[Jonathan Stuart]

Peter,

Speaking for my trip and without wishing to sounds flippant or complacent, I think your last point was the most important. That is, good planning and preparation, having a boat suitable for the trip and knowing the boat. We sailed on neap tides and were prepared to cancel (or turn back) if the weather looked like it might be an issue. In terms of safety gear, from memory we carried (in no particular order):

• Life jackets (and worn!)
  
• PLB
  
• 2X handheld VHF radios, one with DSC (& external battery for charging)
  
• 2X mobile phones (& external battery for charging)
  
• Various flares (still within their expiry dates)
  
• Spare fuel (fresh!)
  
• Charts & GPS (shame the Poole harbour chart was out of date  )
  
• Throwing line & various ropes (incl. bow bridle pre-rigged for anchoring but would be used if a tow was required)
  
• Bilge pumps
  
• Drogue
  
• Very loud whistle (allegedly the world's loudest!)
  
• Waterproof torches
  
• Lots of food, water and warm clothes!
  

Those items aren't strictly all "safety gear" but I think we would have been less safe without them. My main lesson learnt was to update my charts. It wasn't a safety issue on this trip but having a chart that showed the wrong position of the East Looe Channel was far from useful and I was kicking myself for this.

[Graham W]

I've only just discovered Bill & Matthew's marvellous account of their BR20 cruise up the NW coast of Norway last summer.  It's in the blog section https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?p=2025, not the library.