Good Afternoon from Whitehaven.
Overnight I have made the passage from Liverpool to Whitehaven.
I departed Liverpool just after high water at 3pm and made my way along the Mersey, I had been listening to the forecast and they said that the winds were a 3-4 with a possible 5 with some small fog patches.
As I made my way along the river the tops of the high rise buildings were in the clouds and I could see that the visibility wasn’t so great. I had spoken to Mersey VTS so they were aware of my movements and they also informed me that the fog was just in small patches so I was happy with this as I knew I had to manoeuvre around a lot of wind farms on the passage.
As I left the shipping channel and made my turn north the fog started to descend but just before I heard the fog horn of a very large ferry and its silhouette appear from the fog I was sure glad I was going north, well that’s what I thought then but little did I know what was to come.
As I made my way up the coast the fog came in and then lifted again a couple of times in the first hour but there was no wind to keep it moving. The fog then descended and this time it wasn’t moving and it came down and down until all I could see was 25 yards around the boat and the thoughts prayed heavy on my mind that I had the wind farms closing in on me.
I could see on the chart plotter and the chart that I need to move closer in land to avoid the wind farm but then I was heading straight for one in front me and new I only had a gap of a couple of miles to slip through them and all of this in the thickest fog I have had the pleasure sailing in; as I rounded the last cardinal mark on the chart the fog on the land started to dissipate and I could see the lights of the land which I was most relived about as it had been almost 8 hours in thick fog and manoeuvering around these huge obstacles.
As I turned to see if the fog had cleared behind me I was shocked to see the lights of the turbines only 1-2km of my port side I am sure they looked closer than they were but what a fright it gave to know how close I had come to the turbines.
I had a clear passage for the rest of the way up to Whitehaven and entering the harbour along with the returning fishing vessels as the sun rose was absolutely magical. After a long and stressful night I was greeted by the very happy and friendly harbour master and shown where my berth was to be for my stay and then it was time to hit the showers.
Until next time
Alex