Sat 14th June 2003 saw Roger L. & I sailing Gem to Watchet for the weekend.

In preparation, I had visited their website & downloaded the lock opening & closing times. As it was not stated whether the times were GMT or BST, I emailed them to seek clarification. The following day I had the answer, BST - which surprised me as most tide tables are stated as GMT.

Fellow sailors reminded me of the strong crossflow in the lock at Watchet which tends to sweep boats from starboard towards the port wall whilst entering.

There was little wind and we had to use the engine for most of the journey in order to make the necessary speed. When 2 miles off Watchet, confirmed by the new Yeoman plotter, I called up the marina on CH 80. No answer was the same result a further 3 times before arriving in the outer harbour.

Three hours out from Cardiff, we circled in the outer harbour whilst folding up one of the floats etc. in preparation for entering the marina. Called again on CH 80 & again no answer. As there was only 20 minutes before the lock was scheduled to close, I said to Roger that we would have to go in on the next green light due to radio silence from the Marina.

The lights changed to green and we proceeded to line up the entrance. Before we arrived at the lock the lights changed to red. We estimated that this was 1 minute after changing to green. The lights are supposed to be on a 4 minute cycle.

We aborted the entrance and again tried to call up the Marina - to no avail. During our visit last year, the lights had not been operational and there was a free for all situation. Was this a repeat? So we turned for the lock and noted the tide gauge height of water over cill 3 meters, checking carefully that there were no boats coming the opposite direction In the lock there was a crunch! We had grounded the centreboard on the lockgate. Unbeknown to us, the gate of 2.5 meters draught had closed, leaving an effective 0.5 meters of water over the gate! The water being brown offers no visual assistance.

I promptly engaged astern, moved a little but became stuck. Three sailors from the Marina came aboard and helped, but we could not free Gem even by moving weight astern. The tide was dropping rapidly .....

The Marina's berthing officer offered to lift the bow with the small electric hoist above us. This helped but didn't solve the problem. The tide continued to drop ....

At some time during the melee, the stern line (which had been made off in preparation to enter the Marina) got kicked overboard, wrapped around the prop and stalled the engine. So we were now disabled as well!

The berthing officer went astern on the outer mole and, with the aid of a long rope tied to Gem's stern, he and a handful of others pulled us off. The direction of pull was upwards as well as astern. We made the inside of the north outer harbour wall and tied up the first ladder, before drying out.

Note: if you miss the lock you can tie up here. There are 2 ladders; the piles adjacent to the first is steel, the 2nd are wooden piles and probably kinder on the boat. In either case, you need a plank to bridge the piles. As the mud is so soft, even fin keelers would lie happily here. There is, however, a somewhat unpleasant smell once the mud is exposed. The climb up the ladder is probably 40 feet and there is no breathalyser at the top to check you out before descending.

On inspecting Gem, no water ingress was evident. We were advised that if going over the side to clear the prop, to be roped to the boat due to the glutinous mud! When enquiring how deep one would sink in the mud, we were told up to one's neck! So we were relieved when I rotated the prop shaft in the engine bay whilst Roger pulled lightly on the line. Hey presto! Luck at last! Note, if the line had not been made off onto the cleat, the whole line would have gone around the prop, which would have prevented us from recovering the line without (further) discomfort.

On the advice of the berthing officer, we entered 30 mins following the next lock opening. We were advised that for the first 30 mins the tide flow is dangerous!

We subsequently determined that the gate opening and closing is controlled automatically by means of a sensor. The published times are a guide only and may vary by 30 mins due to air pressure etc. variation. Additionally, the PLC that controls the gate should hold a 6 min delay following sensor activation before the gate closes. Clearly, this is not happening.

Additionally, the berthing officer told us that a light should flash on the end of the quay when the gate is up. We did not see this (faulty?) and if we had, we would have not known it's significance as the was no labelling!

He also told us that he had heard our VHF call, but "he was busy tying up 15 berthing officerats that had come in before us". A yachtsman from Penarth told us that he entered 30 mins before us and there were no boats until we arrived.

Another yachtsman commented that it would be easy to rig a gate open/close indicator - a length of line, block & weight!

RETURN JOURNEY:

Sunday 06.00 forecast was force 3-4 SW. Wrong, SW yes but white horses all the way. It was interesting to see the variety of sail and motor combinations to return up Channel.

We unfurled the headsail and immediately we were close reaching at 8-10 knots. Soon we noticed a couple of fenders dragging out on the starboard float bow. I didn't fancy getting wet (there were splashed over the floats onto the nets). We rolled up the headsail and Gem lay like a large raft on a millpond!

I quickly recovered the fenders and we were soon underway again with the headsail reefed - about 3/4 out. The wind speed exceeded 30kts apparent on many occasions, 22 kts was about the minimum. Not even short term weather forecasts are always accurate!

The wind continued to blow hard, often up to 30+ kts and one huge downdraught off Penarth we recorded at 42 kts apparent ... I had the tiller in one hand and the uncleated jib sheet in the other as we sailed rapidly past a Farr 720 (who really was sailing very well).

The return passage took 2 1/2 hours, mostly with reefed headsail only.

On retrieval at NUSC with the Wise, the forwqard leading lower corner of the centreboard was damaged & some scuffs on the forward section of the hull. Fixed this with epoxy resin. The Wise was a wise investment!