BOSSINGTON OR BUST
BY CHARLES MURPHY
Last August Charles Murphy and his intrepid crew John Clark set off to sail the two way trip from Portishead on the south coast of the Bristol Channel near Avonmouth to Bossington Bay near Porlock. Charles’ account of the voyage appeared in the latest edition of Portishead Y&SC journal, “Back Eddy”, and has been modified here to make it more suitable for a national audience.
On the 8th of August 2009 we attempted to sail from Portishead to Bossington Beach in Porlock Bay in our Enterprise 9020, and return on the following flood tide. After a failed attempt earlier in the year, when the wind on the way out proved insufficient. We only managed to limp into Clevedon after a lot of paddling.
Charles Murphy and John Clark pictured on the Portishead Y&SC slipway
Since then we had monitored the developing weather and tidal situation on a daily basis, and decided that the 8th August would present a good opportunity to attempt the voyage again. High water at Avonmouth was scheduled for 09:34 and 21:48 (12.1m), and low water at Porlock Bay was scheduled for 15:05; sunset was scheduled for 21:00 followed by an almost full moon rise at 21:18. There was a good wind forecast from the Met. Office of SW force 2-3, gusting to force 4 in the Bristol Channel for the morning and early afternoon, veering WNW later in the afternoon. A couple of hours prior to launching the actual wind at Linscombe, St Athan and Lulsgate was NW F2, which seemed to confirm the forecast.
We took the final decision to go at about 07:45. After rigging and loading the boat with the equipment we required for our comfort, communication, navigation and the contingencies that might occur during the voyage, we informed Swansea Coastguard of our intensions and launched at 08:45. It was a clear sunny day with a force 1 WNW wind. We were full of optimistic enthusiasm.
By 09:00 we were off Black Nore Point close to the coast. At about 09:30 we moved out into the channel to be ready for the ebb tide and about this time the wind dropped to almost zero. We returned closer to the coast to avoid the still flooding tide. By 10:00 we were drifting close to the Redcliff Bay fuel depot. We paddled out to the main channel and continued to paddle with the ebb tide to the Clevedon mark by about 11:00. For a while we had to deviate from our planned course and navigated to remain in the patches of wind that we could see on the surface of the water. Gradually the wind recovered to SW, F2, for which we were very grateful!
Chart of the Bristol Channel showing the marks passed on voyage of E9020
At 12:00 we passed the North West Elbow mark with the GPS showing our speed to be 8 knots. At 13:00 we passed the Holm Middle mark with a speed of 7.5 knots in a F3 south westerly. It was at some stage during this leg of the voyage that we noticed the distinct transition from brown water to clearer water. At 14:00 with the wind now SW, F3-4 we passed East Culver mark at a speed of 6knots.
By 16:06 with the tide flooding, we were just off Hurlstone Point, which marks the eastern end of Bossington Beach. At this stage we faced a difficult decision; to continue on the short distance to Bossington Beach or to start back to PYSC. The wind was F2-3 and even though the tide was flooding we were still making 2.5 knots towards Bossington Beach and probably could have landed there in 30 minutes.
The incentive to continue was considerable, but there were two concerns leading to the decision to start the return leg immediately.
- We did not know the weather conditions we would have on the way back, and hence how long it would take. If the additional sailing time to Bossington Beach was 30 minutes, there would only be 4.25 hours for the return leg before sunset. This was a planned contingency situation that we felt we could just cope with.
- The main concern was that the wind might drop when we came back into the Severn Estuary. Our experience on the outbound leg with very little wind at all between PYSC and Clevedon necessitating the use of a paddle was still fresh in our minds. Paddling this phase again would be difficult enough to cope with; however to paddle in the dark, despite having the required white light, was not an acceptable risk.
We informed Swansea Coastguard via VHF radio that our outbound voyage was complete, and that we were now commencing the start of our return voyage to PYSC. The navigation for the return trip was easy; we simply steered first for Steep Holm and secondly for a large ship anchored by the English and Welsh safe water mark. It was so easy that initially we did not notice that the ship had moved off and we erroneously went south of the main shipping channel. By this time we were tired, but in high spirits, and strayed a little to the north of the main shipping channel for a while until we noticed our error by the presence of the East Middle Ground mark to starboard.
The return voyage was a fast beam / broad reach with a WNW, F2-3 giving us an average speed of 8 knots and a landing on PYSC slip at 20:30. After landing we immediately called Swansea Coastguard to inform them that our return voyage was complete. Our post voyage thoughts; at the time we decided to return home we perceived the coast to the east of Hurleston Point to be cliffs and probably not safe to land. With hindsight we are now aware that we were probably just off Selworthy Sand and could possibly have landed there. With even more hindsight, the fast return to PYSC meant that we could have landed at Bossington Beach with time to return safely. During the return voyage we did not have to tack at all, whereas on the outbound leg included many tacks until we were a few miles past the Holms. The final data from the GPS showed that we had covered 64.3 nautical miles in 11.75 hours giving us an average speed of 10.4 knots. This data tends to confirm that we were off Selworthy Sand when we turned back.
For those of a robust disposition and vivid imagination, using the jury rigged en-suite toilet was certainly the most hazardous activity of the day!
I would like to thank Rod Hoare (editor of ‘Back Eddy’) and PS&YC Sailing Secretary Steve Gill for their help in the preparation of this article, - Tim Finch.