Single Handed Sailing Dartmouth to Falmouth, to the West Country Part 3

[@AndyPidsleyAPi]

Hi Dave I am enjoying your south coast videos, reminiscing on my own travels in the area and looking forward to getting back out there soon. Thank you for your efforts.

[@davesailing]

Hi Andy, so lovely to hear from you and glad to hear you're enjoying the videos. I watched one the other day and it took me away from a cold rainy day in Derbyshire to a much more enjoyable summer day at sea. Another couple of months and Zephyr IV comes out of the water and then another lovely few months of sailing to look forward to. Thanks again for watching and making time to comment.

[@jesusbeiro6113]

lovely sail.... Falmouth is always a great place to sail to ... lived there for over 30 years !!!! Cheers from Muros

[@davesailing]

Hi, glad you enjoyed, I should think that brought back some memories :-) It was very busy in July, maybe I'll visit earlier in the year next time. Take Care .. Dave

[@StemtoSternSailing]

That was som good sailing. Well done and a pleasure to watch. Best regards from Jarle

[@davesailing]

Thank You Jarle, glad you enjoyed it. Part 4 will be uploaded soon :-)

[@ratusbagus]

I noticed your main sheet sitting on the spray hood. I've always thought travellers better for boat and rig stresses (especially bigger winds), the further from the boom....but the sprayhood had never occurred to me. Yours isn't quite far enough? Idle thoughts on the matter Dave?

[@SmallSailboatCruising]

Very interesting to see that coastline that is so different to ours.

[@davesailing]

Hi Chris, not all of the UK coast is rocky like that, if you go up the East Coast there's a lot more low lying country and sandy beaches, but most of the rest is rocky :-) Thanks for watching, good to hear from you.

[@SmallSailboatCruising]

@@davesailing I encourage you to keep going with the videos. Your channel merits many more subscribers.

[@davesailing]

@@SmallSailboatCruising That's very kind of you Chris. When I made the first video about Zephyr IV last year I really only expected my friends and family to be interested. I was amazed when the views got to 10,000 and then kept on going. I enjoy doing them, but it is very time consuming getting it about right. The number of subscribers is going up so I suppose it takes a while to get to more people and there is a lot of competition out there.

[@SmallSailboatCruising]

@@davesailing it is slow to build subscribers at first. With that number of views you know you are going places. There is a strong appetite for your style but I take your point the post production work is tedious. All you need do is ask people to subscribe at the end and you will see the subs go up dramatically. Won’t be long you will get to 1000 subs and 4000 viewing hours. Then you can register to monetise the channel. You will get a reasonable return on your time after a while.

[@ed_richards47]

Another great video, Dave. I thoroughly enjoyed the passage with you, reminiscing all the way. My boat partner and I bought our third and last boat in Falmouth, (Mylor) and we loved sailing around that part of the west country. Many thanks for sharing, once again.

[@davesailing]

Thanks Edward, so glad you enjoyed it. I'm still learning some of the tricks of editing. I was hoping to go on to the Scillies but I ran out of time and energy. When I got back I heard that it was very crowded over there and they were asking people not to come, The Scillies Is Closed !!

[@ed_richards47]

@@davesailing Just as well, Dave. The Scillies is very, very popular with sailors in the summer. We never went there but wanted to. Looking forward to your next video.

[@KernowSailing]

Great videos Dave, rather enjoyable! Very nice to see from Dartmouth to the Yealm, an area I've not explored. I'm fairly local to Fowey. If you ever need an extra pair of hands let me know.

[@davesailing]

So glad you enjoyed them. I'd not been further west than Dartmouth in the past. Usually ended up going down to the channel islands so it was nice to get a bit further this time. Well I'll keep you in mind if I'm down there again. I liked Fowey, didn't seem quite so busy as some of the harbours. Take care .. Dave

[@landprojects]

Nice work Dave. Look forward to the next one. All the best 😉

[@davesailing]

Hi Mike, thanks for watching :-) I must have a go at that Turkish bread one day, it looks delicious - I'd really welcome a subscribe ... Dave

[@seadog30ketch33]

Wow ham on your boat . I did my basic ham test during lockdown. M6RAY. Can you show your set up. I have an M710 and a wire up the mast .

[@davesailing]

I used an FT847 and an inverted V dipole fed with coax and a 1:1 balun. The centre of the dipole was hoisted with a halliard up to the cross trees and one wire taken forward and the other aft. I had to double them back a bit as they were a bit longer than the boat. Zephyr IV is 35ft ish. I used an antenna analyser to get the resonant frequency where I wanted it on the 40 meter band (7.150Mhz) and found that just hoisting the antenna up an inch or two would adjust it quite nicely. I used a simple antenna tuner to improve the match. From memory the dipole came out at about 80 ohms at the resonant frequency. The little Antenna Tuner brought it to exactly to 50 ohms. One of the problems with the boat is that it is transparent to RF and as a result if things aren't matched well, you get rf burns etc. As it is my posh LED lights in the boat flash on and off as I talk sometimes. I didn't have much success with a vertical tuned against my Keel too much rg flying around. Best dx New zealand but only 43. I had thought about a video showing all this but I'm not sure there will be much interest. Best Wishes Dave

[@neddythened2698]

Thanks for these vlogs Dave, It is interesting to see Fowey from the sea, I was there last week but ashore. I hope that one day I will sail along that coast too :-)

[@davesailing]

Hi Neddy - It's a nice place Fowey, the entrance needs a bit of respect. While I was there another yacht hit one of the rocks and nearly sunk. It was in the slings at the boatyard with water dripping out when I went past. Where are you based ?, I'm always looking for odd bods to come sailing for a day.

[@neddythened2698]

@@davesailing oh no! Unfortunately I am in Nottingham 😞 working on Day Skipper and would love to help out some time though!

[@davesailing]

@@neddythened2698 Oh well, that's a coincidence. Home for me is just outside Belper, just across the border in Derbyshire. If you look on the About Tab on the Home Page of Daves Trad Music you'll find my email address. Drop me an email and we can discuss a visit to come sailing... Dave

[@sallyniemann8360]

❤️ what a wonderful trip Dave! Are you/did you video the return journey?

[@davesailing]

Hi Sally, yes that's part 4, which is being edited, should be uploaded this week. Glad you're enjoying it.

[@sallyniemann8360]

@@davesailing I’m looking forward to it. It looked like a relatively calm trip compared to the ferry trips I’ve taken over the years, admittedly further from the coast. In 2014 when I took the ferry over to the Isle of Wight, it was like crossing a pond *grin*.

[@stuartwineberg3653]

Well done Dave. We never got past Fowey. The camera always flattens the view of the waves so I can see it was pretty unpleasant at times

[@davesailing]

Thanks for watching Stuart. Ok on the camera flattening the waves. I watched it and thought I was being a bit of a whimp :-) but I seem to remember it being quite hard work and having to hang on quite a lot. The boat was great though, seldom got any water on the deck. Pleeease subscribe if you haven't already.. ta

[@harbourdogNL]

Your video just popped up in my feed, quite enjoying it! I am curious though, why at 12:40 is that sheet led back aft? What's on t'other end? Happy to subscribe.

[@davesailing]

Hi, glad you're enjoying the video :-) That's the Genoa sheet and it goes back to a turning block on the deck aft, then forward, low to the deck before going through the sheet traveller on a track on the side deck. It has two purposes, 1) it gives a much fairer lead to the winch and 2) it's easier to make adjustments to the position of the sheet traveller when the aftermost part of the sheet is parallel to the deck and not leading upwards to the winch. It's actually a double turning block back there so I've got a spare sheave for the Asymmetric spinnaker. I hope that makes sense. Good to have you aboard and I'd be really happy if you subscribed, maybe even ecstatic :-)

[@harbourdogNL]

@@davesailing Ah, that's a thorough explanation, thanks. I pretty much understand it...just finishing up my Day Skipper course, so of course I still have an immense amount to learn. Videos and channels like yours are of great help, so thanks! And I see you have a few videos of yourself playing accordion, will most certainly watch them...there's no shortage of trad music and talented players where I live (Newfoundland), check out these lads, kzbin.info/www/bejne/oX6aXoWlhp2Kmtk as well as one of my favourite tunes, The Portugese Waltzes kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpDSgGypi8pqpJI

[@ratusbagus]

You say " 's not so bad," .... my griselled old mate says "it couldn't get better, could it?". Pilotage, or the art of getting lost in plain sight inshore....I would have said just get out your navy onyx but that of course multiplies the scale issue by, well an infinity of different scales. As I zoom in, I often confuse marks around me because I thought they were much further away. So if you're happy and good with paper, getting it wrong once isn't do bad.....mind you, sometimes it only takes once (Heheh). .....and then there's your peg.....looked a bit precarious🤥 You were impressive on the gazoo in the first bit. Lovely vid. Closest to the sailing most of us actually do as opposed to dream about.

[@davesailing]

Eyup me duck !, back in Derbyshire at the moment. I usually say, "not so bad" after I've been moaning about something, like too much wind, not enough, or being rolled around. It's the result of a collective gathering of information about my situation and concluding that it's, "not so bad", could be a lot worse. I suppose it reassures me and a lot of friends, who are convinced I'm a bit mad, going sailing at my age, let alone, by myself ! Becoming temporarily unsure of my position in Falmouth was interesting. I was exactly where I thought I was plus or minus a bit, it was the depth that flummoxed me, it goes from deep to shallow very quickly, not at all gradually. it was aggravated by being by myself and surrounded by several fleets of racing dinghies. If I'd had someone else there I could have spent more time gazing at the chart or popping below to check on the chart plotter but as it was I was full on trying not to destroy someone else's pride and joy :-) and basically backed out of a perceived danger and tried again. All's well that ends well. I have a chart plotter and I use that but being a bit old school I like having my chart as well. The peg is great, it works very well, it really grips hard and modern charts are much stronger than the old paper Admiralty charts. I resorted to that after doing a trip where I had to weigh the chart down with the end of the mainsheet to stop it being blown out of the cockpit. The mainsheet lying against the spray hood is a minor problem. It's what I inherited when I bought the boat. It only happens on a reach or run and it looks worse than it is, maybe one day I'll get a new canopy and make that edge a bit smaller. I was planning to drive down to the boat today but I'm still getting over a cold so I'm leaving it for a few more days, but I do need to get down and check on the boat and run the engine and that sort of stuff. Would you be around ?

[@ratusbagus]

@@davesailing No sorry, I couldn't go down to Pompey just for a look. My mate and I do sail the Solent but we currently live in different parts of London. Currently, because I'm mid divorce living in the property I should be letting so a p1ssp00rpensioner until I eventually sell up and get near an edge bit. We sail fractional boats (from Hamble), don't own our own (though keep coming close) and we also sail other people's boats (especially helping newbies). We also sail all year round (cos it's paid for). So I'd need a bit of not notice if you wanted crew. Let me know. The other way around isn't straight fwd either as we have a short notice allocation basically additional days usable if the boat's available and these vary the start of end of planned trips just before they happen. Keeps me on my toes. Oh and we lose days if we cancel them within 2 days of slipping. So iffy weather and bang, the plan changes. Gotta cut the "grass".

[@davesailing]

Ah ok, I understand, I sort of thought you were local to the Hamble :-)

[@ratusbagus]

@@davesailing one day not too far off. But I'll probably be looking for something near more affordable mooring than the Solent. But for now the protected waters work well stretching more sailable days out of the weather for a finite slice of boat.....and you have to admit the Solent does have plentiful daysail destinations even if we've seen them a few too many times. I feel a boat coming next year. Inflation allowing.

[@davesailing]

A boat coming on - then your troubles will really start :-) Good luck with it.