Green Bean on a Summer Cruise | Exploring the Severn Estuary

Monday 29th July – Gloucester-Sharpness canal to Portishead – Distance – (10 miles) + 20 miles

The chance to join the summer cruise with Lydney Yacht Club was an opportunity I wasn’t going to miss. For a couple of years I had wanted to do this but circumstances hadn’t been favourable. This year however, things fell into place and I also had a willing crew. Although the cruise was to start on Saturday 27th July, we were to launch two days later on the Monday as Phil, my crew was unavailable until then. This meant playing catch up with the fleet, which we were uncertain, as to how it would work out.

The fleet comprised mainly of yachts, about 11 in total as well as two Wayfarer dinghies, a Drascombe Lugger and Green Bean, my sailing canoe. Due to the diverse nature of the fleet it was agreed before-hand that the fleet would split into small flotillas early on, but with the intention of meeting up as one again somewhere Somerset (hopefully Ilfracombe) before returning home via Cardiff.

A few days before we were to launch the weather began to look rather threatening. There were significant south-westerly winds forecast and a rough sea. I kept an eye on the forecast until we left, but although the gust speeds dropped things still looked a bit tricky with wind over tide forecast of around 30 mph (force 6) and some lumpy conditions.

We launched from Phil’s narrow boat mooring at Castle Guest House on the Gloucester to Sharpness canal and lazily motored the 10 miles to Sharpness dock where we were to lock out into the Severn. Conditions on the canal were very calm to start with but as we got nearer to sharpness the wind came down the canal with quite some force leading us into a discussion about our options should the river be too rough to head down channel. We agreed not to make a decision until we had actually left the lock, but once past Lydney we’d be somewhat committed to carrying on.

Once in the Dock the dock staff told us that a fleet of motor cruisers that had also booked the same lock out as we had but had all phoned to cancel due to the rough conditions. Having said that they were still happy to lock us down into the outer basin, but not without some kindly words about taking care and rather you than me! The outer basin was our first taste of action, which was something we hadn’t expected. Whilst moored to the floating pontoon waiting for high tide, waves rolled in from the river, rocking the pontoon wildly around and bucking Green Bean up and down to the extent that I was feeling slightly sick and also greatly concerned about the bashing the boat was taking against the side of the pontoon. At the same time Phil managed to prepare some food and drink but I wasn’t feeling at all good about things and had to force myself to eat as I just wanted to get afloat and get started. I find that nerves always settle once the action has really begun.

The trip down river to the Bristol Channel proved to be more manageable than we had expected and with the mast and boom tied down to the outrigger poles we gently motored into the wind and waves. At first, due to the conditions, it looked as though our progress would be too slow to make the trip to Portishead in time for the last lock in on the ebb tide.
At times our trip got quite exciting. Phil, sitting up front took the tiller and guided us through the waves. Sometimes it almost became calm but most of the time it was pretty rough. Slime road always cuts up rough with wind over tide and today was not disappointing. Phil did a fine job of steering us diagonally over the steep waves and through the deep troughs and only a few times did we slam down or bury the bow. It was a real pleasure to see how Green Bean coped so well with these steep waves.

Once safely into the marina I noticed a Wayfarer from Lydney club moored to a pontoon. I made calls to a couple of members of the fleet and discovered that three club members and two boats were in Bristol the other boats (with the exception of the Wayfarer) and everyone else was at Cardiff Yacht Club. Later that evening Kirsty and Sue, the Wayfarer crew arrived to collect their boat and we agreed to sail up the Avon the following morning to meet the boats in Bristol.

Heading towards the Severn bridge

Second Severn Crossing

Portishead Marina

Tuesday 30th July – Portishead to Bristol City Docks – Distance 10 miles

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day, the early threat of showers giving away to a clearer sky and sunshine. The wind was light and unpredictable but we enjoyed sailing, drifting and paddling our way up river as trip boats from the city came down river towards us with their passengers waving and taking photographs. The tide was small and the river was moving very slowly allowing us all the time in the world to admire the impressive Avon Gorge and the suspension bridge that towered above us. As we neared the city dock I made radio contact with the dock master to announce our arrival and he proved very helpful, waiting patiently as we slowly paddled our way beneath the bridge and on towards the lock.

Arriving at the lock we were greeted by the three of our club members who’d arrived there the day before. They pointed us in the direction of their moorings where we gathered for a sociable drink in the sunshine amongst the busy goings on of the city docks. It was most agreeable! Phil and I opted for a stay in the youth hostel that night and we were able to move to a mooring right outside the front door of the hostel. It now looked like things were turning out quite well indeed.

Bristol City Docks

What it says on the sign!

Following Kirsty and Sue in ‘Nelly’

The Mathew

Moored outside the Youth Hostel

The female touch!

Wednesday 31st July, Bristol to Portishead – Distance 10 miles

We enjoyed a brisk breeze on our return sail down the Avon to Portishead. The wind was predominately head on which made for some interesting tacking from one side of the river to the other. Approaching Avonmouth, our companions on Alma, the cruiser, contacted Bristol VTS to notify them of our intention to cross the mouth of the commercial docks so that we could continue our passage to Portishead. We were given the all clear and we left the Avon and joined the Severn once more before locking in at the marina.

Later that evening after pitching our tent, Phil and I enjoyed a meal in the pub and then joined our companions for a chat about the following day and our options for attempting to join the main fleet. Although still in Cardiff the fleet were planning to leave and head towards one of the ports on the Somerset coast.
What was suggested was not at all what I was expecting! – Steve, how do you feel about sailing tonight to see if we can make up some lost time and catch up with the other boats? was the question put to me.
I had some reservations to start with but the idea had a huge amount of appeal and a real sense of adventure. However, a little voice in the back of my mind reminded me that we would actually be in the Bristol Channel in the dark, in a shipping lane and possibly 6 or 7 miles from shore. To add to that we would be not in a yacht but in a tiny little canoe with only a 14 foot mast and just a ring of battery powered LED lights to show our position.
The idea was mad – Yes I said, I’d love to!

Al, aboard the good ship Alma

Life is good!

That’s me and the Avon suspension bridge

John and Muckle Flugga

A relaxing sail down the Avon

Leaving the Avon and entering the Severn

Locking in at Portishead

Thursday 1st August, Portishead to Weston, then Watchet – Distance 41 miles

‘Be in the lock for quarter past two, we lock out at half past’. That was our instruction and we hastened to pack up the tent and get dressed in our drysuits and boots to join the others for our first night sail. We locked out on time and by about quarter to three we were paddling out into the Severn and hoisting our sail. Al contacted Bristol VTS and was told that a ship was leaving Avonmouth ten minutes after we were so we had to be on the look out and keep out of the way.

Heading towards Portishead Point and our first buoy I started to get a bit nervous of the ship that we were expecting to see. I let the others know my concerns but they assured me we would be ok and said I should stay with them. As it happened everything was fine, just as Al said it would be but hey, it was a big ship and I was in the smallest boat and glad to be well out of the way. The ship effortlessly passes us on our starboard side and we could hear and almost feel the deep slow throb of its engines. To Port were the lights of Portishead town, but between us, the town and the ship, the Severn looked inky black and it sucked us along on the ebb tide towards the many confusing lights of the buoys, blinking, flashing, guiding us through the hazards of the estuary into the Bristol Channel. I poured a cup of tea from my flask and passed it to Phil, “this is fantastic” we agreed, “who ever would want to be in bed?”

When we were between Cardiff and Weston our three boats came together again and we had a chat about our options of ports to make for. It was decided that we would head for Weston before the tide turned against us, have a rest and then think about our next move. By now Phil had become quite sea sick because the wind had dropped, the temperature had risen and we were wallowing around in a gentle but uncomfortable manner. At one point Phil was in such a state that he dozed off and fell backwards over the side. Luckily I managed to catch hold of him just in time to stop him plunging head first into the water. To give him a rest from this at the first opportunity I started the outboard and took off for Weston. It took a while to get there as we were still in the middle of a 10 mile wide channel. Eventually we ran aground in the mouth of the river axe where I cut the motor and Phil fell sound asleep on his knees in the bottom of the canoe. I opened the flask and enjoyed another cup of tea and then I too enjoyed a well earned sleep.

Later that day it was agreed with Kirsty and Sue that we’d punch the tide and press on to Watchet to join the rest of the fleet, whilst Al with his yacht would leave us and head towards South Wales. Phil and I were feeling somewhat refreshed after our rest and Phil had just about recovered from his seasickness. We refilled the flask, replenished our supply of snacks from the stern storage tank and paddled out of the Axe to join or friends who were anchored in the lee of Brean Down.

Phil and I set off first and paddled out to the head of Brean Down where we encountered a tidal race that threw up some large fast moving waves. Digging deep with our paddles Green Bean entered the race and we enjoyed the thrill of waves coming at us from all angles. It took some effort to get through but just as we thought we’d succeeded we realised that we hadn’t the power from our paddles to get away from it and we were in fact being draw back in in reverse. Quickly I started the outboard and relaxed as Green Bean lunged forward and clear of the exciting stuff. Once away from the tidal race our sail was hoisted and a force 3 wind blew us along nicely whilst we started to think about taking our bearings to the harbour town of Watchet.

It was at this point that it dawned on me that I had done nothing about plotting my route from Weston to Watchet. I had rather stupidly assumed I’d follow the other two boats all the way and I’d done nothing other than take a cursory glance at the charts just to look for any hazards. Now however, the Wayfarer was still behind and quite clearly on a completely different heading to ourselves and almost a mile away from us. Phil and I tried to take bearings of fixed objects ashore in order to fix our position but we found that the standard map reading compass I had brought along was quite unreliable to it not coping with the rocking motion of the boat. It needed to stay flat to work properly! We weren’t worried at this stage because we’d also been told how to spot Watchet from the sea, so we assumed that if we sailed parallel to the coast for a while we’d pick sight of things marked on the charts or on the OS maps I also had on board.

As the miles passed by the wind died completely so we used the outboard to speed up and to head to our companion boat to chat about progress and plans for finding Watchet. We needed to catch them as we had no response from the on the VHF (mine was the problem). Phil was dozing in the boat at this stage, letting the outboard take care of our worries when I heard a loud crack from the outboard bracket. I shut off the engine and saw exactly what I had feared – the torsion brace had separated from the outboard bracket rendering it too weak to use. I was too knackered at the time to see the obvious solution so I didn’t take action to repair it but returned to paddling in the uncomfortable heat.

When we finally closed in on the others I was feeling quite hot and seasick. To add to our little adventure what we had been able to see of land had disappeared into a dense mist. We discovered that Kirsty and Sue also were struggling to decide in which direction we should be heading and this made me all the more cross with myself for not properly preparing my navigation. Here we were, 5 miles out to sea in an open sailing canoe, becalmed, too hot, me seasick and on top of that not knowing where we actually were or where we needed to go – Just Great!

Setting off on what we thought and hoped was the right bearing we paddled along whilst the slight hint of a breeze just about pushed the Wayfarer along a little too fast for us to keep up. Both of us were so tired from the long day and the seasickness that our thoughts returned to the outboard. Suddenly it struck me how easy it was to make a temporary repair using the stern painter so I sprang into action and lashed the shaft of the outboard to the stern of the canoe. With our problem solved we lowered the mast and enjoyed a cup of tea and some snacks as we followed the Wayfarer.

Only minutes later a strong breeze raced towards us, we could see it coming across the water from almost dead ahead. Immediately it reached us the temperature dropped significantly and the Wayfarer came alive and raced away from us rapidly. It was a shame but feeling so tired we opted to stick with the outboard and just get into port as soon as we could. For the next hour and a half the seas rose and the wayfarer gradually got smaller and smaller in the distance whilst our little 2.5 hp motor gently pushed us on through the increasing waves. Later we came across some target buoys that enabled us to pinpoint where we were and from then on we knew where to head for. At this point we realised it would be a race against time to make it into port before the tide got too low for us to enter the harbour.

Finally after what seemed like hours later we spotted the harbour wall and motored into shelter. It was just before we arrived we discovered that our friendly yacht crew had in fact got news of our outboard bracket problem and had changed course to follow us until they were sure we were safely home. What fantastic spirit and kindness from our fellow sailors!

Sailing at night

At first light

Early morning on the way to Weston

Phil sleeps off his seasickness

Making our way out towards the end of Brean Down

Our boats in Watchet Harbour

Green Bean in the mud at Watchet

Watchet Harbour entrance

Friday 2nd August, Watchet to Cardiff – Somerset to South Wales, across the Bristol Channel; Distance – 20 miles

The trip to Cardiff would be about 20 miles as the crow flies and it seemed that we would have a fair wind all the way. I wanted to allow plenty of time for the trip to keep things relaxed and to allow for any change in the weather or wind, and decided we needed to launch until around 11 am. That seemed like bliss after the previous day’s trip.

Realising that I had left Green Bean too far from the harbour entrance the day before and that the water would not reach her until nearly midday I considered the fact that she was sat there on the deep mud, well out of reach from the harbour wall. There was only one thing for it, a wade through the mud to retrieve our faithful steed and that meant I’d be filthy and wet through before we’d even set off. How I now wished I’d tied a trip line to the anchor and tied off the end somewhere within reach. I managed to make the distance through the thigh-deep mud and bring Green Bean back to the harbour steps where we were able to load our belongings and prepare to set sail. I had a quick dunk in the sea in my clothes to wash off the awful mud and thanked myself for wearing fast drying cycling clothing. Once I’d climbed aboard we paddled out through the waves that rolled into the harbour entrance and once safely clear from the harbour wall unreefed our sail and headed out to sea.

Navigation was easy and our visual target was the island of Steep Holm, which could be seen poking out of the sea some 14 miles away in the distance. Our plan was then to sail between Steep Holm and Flat Holm and then to head to the welsh shore and into Cardiff Bay where we would lock in through Cardiff Barrage.

The trip to Cardiff was largely uneventful, though shortly after setting sail the wind direction changed considerable and the almost the whole trip was spent close-hauled. The sea wasn’t flat by any means but the waves were small and the journey comfortable, certainly by the comparison to the previous afternoon. The sky looked very threatening on several occasions and some significant storms could be seen but thankfully none of them effected us that day. However, in case of visibility being hampered by the passing storms we regularly took bearings of our target island – a lesson well learned from the day before. Even in these conditions I was struggling to take accurate bearings with my compass due to the sticking needle and it was really obvious that a proper hand-bearing compass needed to be purchased.

It was a real thrill to sail our small canoe between the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm and it made us feel rather insignificant as we passed near Steep Holm’s vertical cliff on our starboard side and watched the swells break against the rock. High up on this island, on the cliff we spotted what looked like an small concrete building built into the rock. We couldn’t imagine how anyone manage to build in such a precarious position and we could only conclude that it must have been one of the gun batteries built to defend the Bristol Channel from a possible French invasion in the days of the old sailing ships. Flat Holm was also really interesting from the sea, as it hosts a magnificent lighthouse that we had been able to use as a heading on our journey Watchet. A few weeks previously I had landed Green Bean on a very small pebble beach on Flat Holm and taken a walk onto the top of the island. We would like to have landed on this trip but the current state of tide left us no where suitable to go ashore.

Arriving at the entrance Cardiff Barrage at exactly the same time as us was Annabel and James in Annabel’s Wayfarer. They had left Watchet about half an hour behind us and had taken a different route, sailing straight across the channel and then back up the welsh shoreline. Both our boats then shared the same lock (after I had managed to upset the lock operator by paddling in instead of motoring!) and once through the massive locks of the barrage we paddled across Cardiff Bay to the yacht club. Here, our entire fleet gathered together through the course of the afternoon and evening in preparation for a night of beer and celebration.

Leaving Watchet behind

Steep Holm in the distance

Close to Steep Holm

Flat Holm island

Eyes peeled for ships

Approaching Cardiff Barrage

Camping at Cardiff Yacht Club

Cardiff to Sharpness (and back up the canal) – Homeward Bound, Distance – 36 miles (+10 miles)

The final day of our trip turned out to be fantastic. We locked out late morning with a full lock of yachts and we only just managed to squeeze in at the back of the queue, only just clear of the sill beneath the huge lock gates. Once clear of the lock we followed the other yachts out to the cardinal mark, un-reefed the sail and set off at a fair rate of knots in the general direction of Portishead and Avonmouth. Very faintly, in the distance we could make out the wind turbines at Avonmouth on the English side of the estuary and this proved to be a useful heading that kept us pointing in the right direction.

The wind had really picked up quite a bit and at times we felt we were carrying a bit to much sail. The wind was from behind and as we left land behind and made our way further out into estuary I wondered if I should have already reefed. Each time a gust caught us from behind it made us lunge forwards quite alarmingly. The waves also started to build up and were coming at us from behind at a rate I’d not had to deal with before. The waves started to steepen as well as get bigger and from time to time Green Bean would wallow and feel less sure footed as a wave passed underneath us and then left us behind.

I remembered reading about Captain John Voss who sailed across the world’s major oceans in a converted Indian war canoe at the end of the eighteenth century and how he kept his little vessel under control when following seas threatened to overpower her. He used to trail a sea anchor behind to slow her down and sometimes he’d add on any other items available that would add resistance when towed through the water. I knew that our trip and our waves were no comparison the Captain Voss’s but I did feel the need to see if following his advice would make our ride more comfortable. I tied one end of our throw line to the rear thwart and threw the bag end overboard. Fifty foot of rope shot out behind us and as it pulled tight we slowed down to about two thirds our initial speed and with that Green Bean became so much more stable and felt all the more safer for it. I was really pleased it worked so well and we smiled at the thought of what we’d learned from a book written well over a hundred years ago.

The journey back to Avonmouth flew by and we enjoyed great weather with it. I got into good practice with the throw line, throwing it overboard when things got lively and pulling it back aboard when the wave died down again. By the time we passed Avonmouth the water conditions flattened out and the sail back to Sharpness was superb. Only one other boat was heading up river with us and that was a yacht that motored up behind and then passed us as we sailed up river of the second Severn crossing.

The yacht that passed us was already in the outer basin at Sharpness Docks when we arrived and was waiting for a ship to be positioned in the lock in first place for locking in. We joined the yacht on the floating pontoon and were soon offered a mug of tea from the friendly crew. They commented on the fact that they’d seen us at the Severn crossing and they had been curious as to where we’d been in such a tiny craft. When Phil said we’d sailed up from Cardiff we were treated to a torrent of jovial obscenities and a repeat of the question as to where we’d set out from. They soon realised Phil was being quite serious and we enjoyed spending the next hour or so on the pontoon chatting about sailing adventures whilst waiting for the lock to fill so we could access the canal.

Ten miles later and shattered after a day out afloat we arrived back where we started at Phil’s narrow boat at Castle Guest House. We had set out from here six days ago and visited Sharpness, Portishead, Bristol, Weston, Watchet and Cardiff. We had covered almost 160 miles, 117 of which were on the exposed Severn estuary and Bristol Channel and we’d arrived home safely. As far as both Phil and I were concerned, we had a great trip and it had been a huge success. Much of the fun was also due to us being able to sail with other more experienced sailors and to be able to learn from them and from building on our own experience. We both felt extremely grateful to the members of Lydney Yacht Club for accepting Green Bean into the fleet and for the encouragement and advice given to us over the six days afloat.

In the lock at Cardiff Barrage