Had originally planned to leave with the turn of tide at 0500, but yours truly managed to oversleep (that NEVER happens, but apparently it did Sunday morning), so we delayed the start till 0600, leaving us less time to kick our heels in Cardiff, but still in time to catch a spectacular sunrise over Avonmouth.
The north-westerly wind was a fickle beast for the beat down, defeating the autohelm with the continual shifts in pressure and direction and keeping me on my toes tucking the first reef in and shaking it back out again. And again. And again.
We even got becalmed south of the English Welsh Grounds for about twenty minutes, but despite that, there were some lovely moments of sailing, with Calstar at one point heeled over to a steady twenty degrees and skipping along at just under 5kts.
We locked into Cardiff at 1013, the trip down covering just shy of 20nm.
Inside the barrage, the Bay was swarming with Optimists (single-handed kiddie sized dinghies) racing in some sort of event. We picked our way through them to the far end to find Mermaid Quay closed, but that didn't stop us from hooking on to the end of the pontoon and enjoying a very welcome bacon butty and mug of tea that Dad threw together on the boat's shiny new stove.
Locked back out of Cardiff Barrage at 1200, to find the skies turning grey and the winds backing and fading. What little there was left fell directly astern of us until we reached the Bristol Deep off Clevedon, so we goosed the jib and ran the whole stretch. About half way back, the grey skies started to drop a light hail that turned to sleet before clearing again.
Drama unfolded on the VHF; a boat had lost engine power somewhere in the direction of Brean Down and was drifiting into shore. We followed the Coastguard's half of the conversation as they handled the mayday and directed the Penarth and Weston Super Mare lifeboats to their assistance.
As usual, all the shipping inbound to Portbury contrived to converge on us just as we reached Battery Point. We tucked in behind them, dropped our sails, and locked back into Portishead at 1532. The entire journey back covering just over 17nm.
It was a lovely day's sailing, if a little on the chilly side. Worth it though if only for the gorgeous sunrise.
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