Dominick D

Original plan was to sail up to Oxwich anchor the night, catch the morning tide out pass on the Wales side. And sail on to Ireland or NI or IoM. Crew had no experience and lied about everything he knew. Half way through the journey, he said he was shortsighted and can't see... Where glasses?? Awesome. Being an amateur sailor myself, I tried to recall all the anchorages and information I had gathered from all other local sailors in the marinas and yacht club. I knew things could turn ugly really fast. At this point, I knew I had to find an alternative. Porlock anchorage is the only one that was in reach before it got too dark. Battling the swells, nothing worse could happen now, behold IPhone died couldn't get map out, couldn't go down below to get ipad or look at charts. Asked him to get his phone out to double check our current position, current and tides. His phone was not charged, even bigger surprise at the end of this journey ( see last paragraph). Swansea bay/Marina was now out of the question as I had a clueless partially blind crew to look after whom manage to rip the mic cord out of the VHF radio. One more next morning...... Made the call to blitz through the high waves 2 to 3meters (high enough for 26ft) and head to Porlock Anchorage. At least this was a "safe" place. Saw the cliffs close to Bossington beach, let's do another tack to pass the cliffs. Night settling in, winds picking up and now pushing south westly. Not good. Gust up to 30knots pushing us back into the rocky bay. Made another tack and head up along the beach. Made some distance, started up the motor. Exhausted, I made a call to anchor for the night, used AP to steer up wind while I strapped and went up to the anchor locker. Will decide what to do come morning. I knew we would drag so anchored far out enough, it held anchor for the most part. Very little sleep on my part, 20mins here and there if even, getting up to check transits and figure how far we anchor dragged. Crew just slept the whole night, didn't seem to click the situation we were in so I could not relay on him to do anything. Next morning winds were strong 30 to 40 knots gust. It calmed down for a bit and pondered the idea of anchoring up and trying to blitz across the channel either back to Cardiff or up to Swansea. With exhaustion settling in, I made the call to the coast guard for rescue. RNLI Minehead (Awesome bunch) were running an exercise close by. Talk about luck. Rescued and towed back to Minehead. Lesson learned, Bristol Channel isn't kind. Trust no one not even yourself. The kick in the teeth. Now in the warmth of the RNLI Minehead offices, he whips out a second fully charged iPhone and says always be prepared to the RNLI staff..... I lost it and went full stupid. Alas I only have myself to blame. Too trusting, too confident. Bristol Channel humbles you. Mad respect to RNLI Minehead team, to the locals, to the Habour Master all whom were very friendly and helpful.