First Leg

Alarms set for 0630 this morning but, as is usual before a trip down the estuary I woke up at 0530 and listened to the Shipping Forecast. All set fair for our journey so we got everything ready for setting off. We had booked our locking out, this requires a bridge swing to enable us to enter the docks and sea lock. The bridge was swung bang on time at 0830 and we made our way into the lock.

 I heard on the radio that there was a narrow boat locking out with us. They had a pilot on board with us and he came to tell us he was departing 40 mins before high tide, we would usually leave 20 mins or so before high tide but decided to leave  at the same time. 

The boat punched its way through the incoming tide. We made good progress and it wasn't long before we hit high tide. With the tide now in our favour we soon picked up speed.

The sea was flat as predicted and even as we passed through the shoots towards the new severn crossing we were lucky to enjoy a smooth passage.

Once below the bridges we made our way down towards the main shipping channel. A call to Bristol VTS (a bit like air traffic control) confirmed that there was no traffic in the area so we were able to set course for the Monkstone light just off Cardiff.

                  Passing Portishead

We maintained a passage to the north and west of the Shipping channel. The large ships in these parts have to follow the main channel but we were able to set a straight course that crosses a large dogleg in the channel.

East Mid Grounds lateral with Steepholm island

Once past Monkstone and Cardiff Spit buoy we turned hard to port to make our way up the approach channel and into the Cardiff Barrage locks.

              Entering the Cardiff channel

Once through the locks we made our way across the bay into our moorings on the Cardiff Bay Yacht Club visitor pontoon.