NOVEMBER 2015 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 35HOME WATERS
around in circles taking soundings
before dropping the hook, but
with experience – more than 500
anchorages in his logbook – he has
gained confidence. ‘I’ll often have
her keel touching the mud at the
bottom of the tide, but that’s not
going to do any harm,’ he says, ‘If
you are anchoring in tight spots,
calculate where the current is going
to leave you at low water.’
A good anchor watch app on
your mobile phone is essential, he
says, if you want to go ashore. ‘We
use Anchor Watch Pro. It will text
you if your boat is doing something
odd.’ He also upgraded the anchor
cable to high-grade 8mm chain
and made a habit of regally pulling
in by hand. ‘It keeps you fit and if the
windlass fails, at least you will be strong
enough to pull her in.’
To cut down on expenses, they moved
across the Cattewater to Sutton Harbour
and with practice they became confident
at anchoring in all weather and tidal
conditions. Jeff dislikes engines, so he
discarded the tender’s outboard and
vowed to row everywhere. ‘Most people
will only land on a jetty or a pontoon,’ he
says. ‘But we go mud punting. If the tide is
out, we punt right in.’
They rented out their house, decided to
get married in Whitby on the way round,
set the date and booked a venue. They set
a budget of £10 per night and stocked up
with dog food for Lunar, their six-year-old
Parson Russell terrier. ‘We were ready to
go and gave ourselves a comfortable five
months to sail from Plymouth to Whitby
for the wedding,’ Jeff says.
Like excited tourists they stopped
almost everywhere they could along the
South Coast, including the inner harbour
at Lyme Regis. This, Jeff tells me, was
their first mistake. ‘You have to dry out
against a wall, I’d read in a pilot book
that the harbourmaster would personally
help visitors who’d never done it before.’On arrival it was a different story.
The harbour staff told them to
‘just stick a rope over there’ and
walked away. ‘When Rose went
sightseeing, I was too scared to leave
the boat,’ Jeff explains. ‘We spent
an uncomfortable night at a very
acute angle and kept sliding out of
the bunks.’
In an unexpected gale-force
southerly they had a rough ride
around Portland Bill. ‘Two hundred
metres away was a white line on the
horizon and an almighty roaring
sound,’ Jeff says. ‘If the engine
had failed, the tide would have
taken us to it. It was an exciting but
scary experience.’
The free anchoring spree came to
an end when they rounded Selsey Bill. ‘It
wasn’t possible in places such as Brighton
and Eastbourne but we did anchor in the
middle of Dover Harbour,’ Jeff says. ‘The
pilot book said you could, but we were the
only ones who did.’
‘Port Control gave us the go-ahead
for the west entrance and we began our
approach. We struggled against three
knots of tide trying to sweep us past the
entrance and big, unpredictable waves.
However, once inside the harbour walls it
was flat calm water.
‘The night at anchor was quite
bouncy, but we’ve had a lot worse so itABOVE: The wonders of mobile internet
allow Jeff and Rose to work from ‘home’
BELOW: Isabella was
their second boat, a
31ft bilge-keeled
Westerly TempestHaving truly caught the sailing bug, they sailed round the
Eddystone rocks just for fun on the way back to Plymouth