Colin Heath

Colin is a recently retired RAF navigator who has been sailing since he was a teenager.

As well as navigating maritime patrol aircraft for many years he has instructed navigation both at the RAF's navigation school and at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. While at Dartmouth his duties included running the college's offshore sailing fleet and organising sail training.

Over the years he has been involved in many sailing events for both young and older people.

His sailing has taken him to all the ports on the south coast of England, around France and the coasts of Spain and Portugal and into the Mediterranean. He has also sailed in the Baltic visiting Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

His time at Dartmouth has proved invaluable as he's now in charge of all the training for the Project. He's thrilled to be involved with The Raymarine Lively Lady Project as it gives him a chance not only to indulge his own love for the sea and his passion for wooden boats, but also to pass that enthusiasm on to a whole new generation.

Colin's Story: I blame my wife…..

I first found out about the Lively Lady project on an annual pilgrimage to the London Boat Show.  Being irrationally fond of old wooden sailing boats I find the seemingly unstoppable march of plastic power boats somewhat depressing so I braved the cold and went out to look at the boats afloat in the dock.  There was Lively Lady, so I had a good look round and talked to Alan about his idea for the Project.  I must say that my first impression was what a remarkably sturdy vessel she was.

Anyway back at home, discussing my day, I said to my wife Denise that the only really interesting thing at the show was Sir Alec Rose's old boat that was going to go around the world again adding the throw away line that it would be an interesting thing to do if one had the time.  "What do you mean the time?" she said "You will be retired from the RAF by then so why don't you contact Alan and tell him you have done a fair bit of this stuff before and does he need you?".  So you see my involvement was really her fault but as things turned out it was a bit more of a challenge than either of us thought.

As planning progressed a sensible decision was made to operate the boat in accordance with the MCA's Code of Practice but this along with other things enforced a years delay in the start date.  History was repeating itself really as a close encounter with a freighter and damage in a boatyard delayed Sir Alec by a year.  By the time to set off had arrived Alan's commitments had changed and the scheme was hatched that I would share the skippering duties with him but with both of us onboard for the longest legs.  At least that would give us both some time at home during the voyage.

So on 28 Jul 2006 it was time for the off and the first hurdle, the Atlantic.  At this stage it was really a leap into the unknown.  After a memorable send off from Gunwharf, we headed down the Solent with 5 on board; Alan, Darrell, Matt, Jay and myself, Jay having been parachuted in as a replacement at two days notice.  The first shock was hitting as rough a sea as we have seen on the rest of the voyage crossing the Bridge by the Needles but at least it didn't last long.  The beat down the Channel was fairly typical but by then we were wet.  It was wet on deck and probably even wetter below.  After a hot summer the decks leaked like a sieve.  By the time we were approaching the Lizard, probably quite sensibly, Darrell had decided that an Atlantic crossing in a wet old boat like Lively Lady was not for him so we had and unexpected stop in Falmouth for him to get off.  Understandably Matt wobbled a bit at this stage but to his credit decided to stay on board.  The next bit was not much better.  A Force 6 from the west drove us south so that at one stage the Azores seemed a more likely destination than St Johns.  Gradually the wind came round and our course went more and more towards the west until for a while we were actually running downwind with the genoa poled out.  Everything was fine until about two thirds of the way across when we were hit by a southerly gale and spent three days hove to waiting for it to pass.  This left us with an interesting problem.  Somehow the rudder had twisted during the gale so that the tiller was hard to port to keep the boat straight.  We could turn anyway we wished so long as it was to port!  Anyway we made it to a fantastically hospitable reception in St Johns.

Alan then moved the boat on from St Johns to Halifax and then to New York where Pete, Claire, Sophie and I took over to go to Miami.  The overwhelming impression of this leg was that it was cold but as we started in the second week in November I suppose that’s not surprising.  There was torrential rain in New York but the departure day dawned clear and bright giving us the traditional view of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty as we sailed away from North Cove Marina.  The run down the coast and across the entrance to Chesapeake Bay was uneventful but as we moved further south towards Cape Hatteras a large squall suddenly shifted the wind to the west at gale force.  It stayed that way for some time but the wind was off the land so the sea did not build up fully.  This time we took a tip from Sir Alec's book and just dropped all the sails and waited because we did not want to get too far south and beyond the shelter of Cape Hatteras.  When that had blown through it was on towards Southport in North Carolina for a comfort break.  To get there we had to go round the south of Cape Fear a well named area of shallow water and breaking seas.  The forecast as we were leaving Southport predicted strong cold northerly winds sweeping down from Canada so the best bet seemed to get south as quickly as possible.  To do this we went in a straight line for Miami rather than following the coast as we had planned.  Even approaching the latitude of Miami it still felt cold and when we arrived all the locals were complaining about the record low temperatures.  By the next day, however, it was warm and sunny again and everyone felt better.  Again we were really well looked after in Miami.

It was time for a crew change with Andy, Michael and Jack joining and then it was off to Jamaica.  My main concern for the first part of the journey was crossing the Florida Current, which a bit further north becomes the Gulf Stream, as it can run north at up to three and a half knots.  Trying to go south against this strength of current in a boat that is only doing a similar speed could have taken a long time.  Luckily the current has on and off days and by luck we picked an off day so we had a couple of lovely days sailing down towards Cuba even catching fish on a rod we had been given in Miami.  But that should have been a warning - it was all going too well!  As we turned into the Old Bahamas Channel, with shallow water to the north and Cuba to the south, the wind veered to just north of east and there it stuck so we had six days of beating into Force 5 to 6 winds with everyone on board doing remarkably well to retain their sense of humour.  I now know why the channel between Cuba and Haiti is called the Windward Passage - it’s a real struggle to windward to get there.  We were also starting to have some problems with the boat.  On the Atlantic crossing some of the mast track rivets had popped and been replaced but now they began to pop in earnest so that we ended up with the mainsail held to the mast by ratchet straps and sail ties.  Getting the main up or down would have been a slow process.  Then the alternator seemed to give up so that we could not charge the batteries.  An alternator change made no difference and eventually we discovered the engine control panel was full of salt water shorting everything out.  By then we were hand steering down a Caribbean swell to conserve the batteries and Andy said that my smile, when he said he had fixed the problem, was one of the biggest he has ever seen - too true!  Anyway we were very pleased to see the welcoming committee at the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club in Kingston.  The RJYC must be the most friendly and helpfully club I have ever visited and they immediately swung behind us to get the mast out for repairs.  There was just a rough bank into the water under the rather elderly looking crane that lifted the mast so the boat had to be held off this by the kedge anchor and ropes to various points making the whole thing a bit of a nerve wracking experience.

Time for another crew change.  Andy stayed on board but now with Kayleigh and Tasha.  The two girls had been in Jamaica for some time working on their tans due to our slightly late arrival and the time taken to sort out the mast.  Unfortunately Kayleigh had managed to brew up a chest infection in this time so I was very uncertain whether she should come with us.  In the end we all set off, complete with a patient on regular doses of antibiotics.  It was a lovely sail to Panama allowing us to catch up on the schedule.  We were met in Colon by Alan who had arranged an agent for our passage through the Canal.  Colon is not a spot I would recommend for a holiday so it was good to be on the move.  For the trip through the canal we had a pilot and three line handlers on board.  The Panama Canal is a large lake for much of its length with only the Pacific end being more like a canal.  Going up to the lake at the Colon end was an interesting experience.  There is a ladder of three locks which are designed to take several ships at a time.  We followed a seemingly huge ship in feeling very small and were held in the middle of the lock by four lines to the shore hence the need for three line handlers and Andy.  When the water was let in the turbulence was quite something with the boat trying to slew from side to side.  By then it was getting dark so the pilot went home and the rest of us spent the night moored to a large buoy.  Morning brought a new pilot and then it was onwards towards the Pacific.  Going down was not as exacting as going up but it was great to be through and in a new ocean.  A final sting in the tail was a large squall which completely obliterated our view of the marina so that we had to wait for it to pass.  But eventually there we were alongside in the Flamingo Marina close to Panama City and for the off going crew it was time to go home for Christmas.

After Christmas Alan moved on through Guatemala and Mexico to San Diego ready for my next leg which was to Honolulu and then onwards towards Fiji and Sydney.  I was joined for this by Chris, Ben and Ella.  We made a bit of a slow start in a south westerly direction trying to get underneath a large high pressure area.  As we plodded south west we could not help noticing the light pollution from the San Diego area which was still just visible when we were 120 miles away.  Don't let an American tell you that they are not heavy users of energy!  Once we were south of the low we made great progress notching up one of the fastest passages of the whole voyage.  With the wind behind us we were "trade wind" sailing with both headsails boomed out and no mainsail.  That does not mean that life on board was all fun.  When she is running more or less straight downwind Lively Lady rolls viciously and staying in the bunks, cooking and eating were all difficult.  Still we made amazing progress averaging 121 miles a day.  This was followed by a longish break in Honolulu with time for some rest and sightseeing before setting off for Fiji.

Alan was back on board for this leg along with Sam and Claire.  Yet again the beginning of the passage was slow with light winds.  The ever present schedule driven by things like airline tickets meant that we had to motor more than we would have liked and burnt more fuel than was healthy at that stage in the trip.  We were moving south now and approaching the Equator so the air and sea temperature rose relentlessly.  With the sun beating on a wooden deck life below deck becomes difficult as Lively Lady is not blessed with great ventilation.  Life closely resembles living in a sauna.  After the first week or so the wind finally filled in and we started to make better progress.  The change in the weather also brought the first of the heavy tropical downpours.  Early on the 21st March we crossed the Equator and were finally in the Southern Hemisphere with the prospect of reaching Fiji in about 10 days.  A day later we passed McKean Island but could not land because of the heavy surf.  This was the first significant sighting in over 1500 miles and fits in with an overall impression that the Pacific is a vast empty place with little sea and bird life and even fewer ships.  Our next target was Gardner Island where we did manage to stop and anchor.  Sam and I swam ashore to this uninhabited island with pink coral sand beaches and a lagoon whose animal residents seemed completely unconcerned about human presence.  It would have been great to have stayed longer but the anchorage was a bit uncomfortable and the demon deadline in Fiji called.  Now we were starting to run into the Doldrums.  They were not in the traditional area but the weather on the whole trip had been unusual so I suppose this was not surprising.  They brought areas of no wind, heavy rain showers and occasionally flurries of wind from unpredictable directions and more use of the engine.  The next event was crossing the International Dateline.  First a new hemisphere from north to south then another from west to east.  It soon became apparent that things were going to be tight, to put it mildly, on the fuel front by the time we reached Fiji.  The prospect of navigating through the reefs around the main Fijian islands without the option of the engine did not appeal too much.  Alan decided that we would divert to Futuna Island to buy some more fuel.  This was a triumph of optimism.  We did not know who ran the island, if there was diesel for sale or if we could get any of whatever currency they used to pay for it but in the end it all worked well.  We arrived off the main settlement to find that it had a jetty for supply ships but that the swell was too much for us to come alongside so we anchored a little further into the small bay.  The thought of digging out the inflatable dingy from the depths of the lazarette did not appeal so we tied the 12 fuel cans into a long string and swam them ashore.  The local garage was a corrugated iron roof with a pump under it but had diesel.  By then Alan had found somewhere that could produce money against a credit card.  The full cans were then moved the short distance to the jetty.  By now a small crowd had formed to watch these mad people.  The cans were tied together into 2 strings of 6 and the first sting  was balanced on the big rubber fenders part way down the front of the jetty.  Sam and I swam back to the boat and weighed anchor and then motored slowly close past the jetty so that Claire and the first string of drums could be pulled across to the boat.  Claire, not being a strong swimmer, wasn't all that keen on the arrangement but was grabbed by Alan as he jumped in taking her with him.  With the first set of drums and Claire back on board Alan swam back to the jetty and we motored round in a circle to come back for him and the rest of the fuel.  It all caused a lot of amusement but it worked.  So with plenty of fuel we set off through the islands to the south of Vanua Levu and then through the Bligh Passage close past some nasty looking reefs to Lautoka and on to Vuda Marina.

Vuda Marina was a great spot and I could easily have spent much more time there.  Some of the other boats were doing just that with their crews taking a much more relaxed approach to cruising the Pacific.  But for us it was ever onwards with the new crew of Nick, Lauren and Hannah arriving to join me for the leg to Sydney.  It turned out that food for this part of the journey was going to be a bit of the problem as tinned meat is an unknown commodity in Fiji.  We set off with the strangest collection of tinned fish etc but had a good selection of fresh vegetables which lasted for most of the relatively short leg.  After a short spell of wind from the wrong direction we made reasonable good progress for the first half of the way but after that the wind came round on to the nose forcing us more to the west than we would have liked.  From then on it was frustrating going.  We had good patches, some bad patches, and some bits with no wind and lots of engine noise.  For a while I even considered going to Brisbane rather that Sydney as a way of getting to Australia in time for the next crew change.  However, things improved and that idea went away but all the use of the engine once again raised the spectre of fuel shortage.  As we closed the coast things got better and it gradually became apparent that we would make it with enough fuel and, surprise surprise, we would be roughly on time.  With the coast just about to come into sight there was a finally sting in the tail when the wind suddenly increased to gale force.  Luckily this only lasted a few hours and we finally made it into Sydney Harbour late on a busy Saturday night.

Arriving at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia marked the end of a long voyage for me, from San Diego to Sydney, with just over three months spent on the boat.  It took me a couple of weeks back home to fully wind down.

So it was Alan's turn again to get the boat to Melbourne where it was due to be laid up for seven months before crossing the Great Australian Bight to Fremantle.  This is  where I rejoined her to sail with Steve, Nathan and Lucy to Singapore.  A small flotilla of yachts escorted out of Fremantle Harbour and we turned north almost paralleling the Australian coast.  After a short quiet spell the wind settled in from the south and we ran in front of it in great style.  Lively Lady's propensity to roll in these conditions was once again in evidence but unlike the San Diego to Honolulu leg this time even when we had both headsails poled out we left the main up but sheeted it in hard which seemed to damp the roll a bit.  Overall progress up the coast and on to Christmas Island was good, with spectacular night skies and visions of arriving early in Singapore.  Passing Christmas Island everything changed.  The wind had been a bit changeable the day before we arrived and by the time we were going up the eastern side of the island the engine was on.  There were two ships loitering close inshore and  we should have smelt a rat because as we came out of the lee of land to the north we hit a strong westerly wind accompanied by a big swell.  The wind gradually got more and more gusty and for the two days to the Sunda Straits between Java and Sumatra we were being regularly hit by 40+ knot squalls.  It was not so bad in the daylight as there was some warning but in the dark the squalls just arrived unannounced.  Shortening sail to deal with the squalls meant the boat was not going anywhere in the quiet periods but having enough sail to make progress meant that the boat could suddenly be over canvassed in the squall.  It was a trying but eventually we clawed round the corner of Java into the Sunda Straits and had a great run through past Krakatau.  This was marred only by rather poor visibility which did not give us a very good view of the volcano.  Up to the straits we had been in open ocean with deep blue seas but now the nature of the passage changed and we were in shallow coastal waters.  Progress through firstly an extensive oilfield and then the islands towards Singapore was slow.  At one point we had a strong foul tide which lasted for 18 hours each day.  Then we were in the Straits of Singapore.  Do not let anyone tell you the Dover Straits are busy, they simply do not compare with those off Singapore.  It was difficult to see how to get across and we ended up having to tack around ships every few minutes before a slightly quieter run past Singapore's harbours and oil storage facilities to Raffles Marina at the western end of the island.

Denise had flow out to meet me in Singapore for a holiday and as this was where we first met it was a real trip down memory lane.  Singapore has grown up in the intervening years into a major city.  Although all the road names are the same most places looked totally different with only a few small patches such as Little India are untouched by progress.  Still we found it a great place to be with a strong sense of civic responsibility and national pride.

Lively Lady went on to Phuket and Galle before arriving in Cochin and after what seemed a very short time back in the UK I was on my way to join her again along with Jay and Vicky.  As far as the Horn of Africa, the boat flew along with some really good daily runs in calm seas.  Once again the sky was the star of the show.  During the days which started and ended with spectacular sunrises and sunsets there was not a cloud in the sky.  At night the stars were there in their millions and the Milky Way glowed brightly.  We had decided to pass 70 or 80 miles north of Socotra to try and avoid the worst of the pirate activity around Somalia but needless to say this is just where the going became slow.  We did not seem to make much ground over the next few days and had a bit of a scare when an unlit ketch passed us about 40 metres away in the middle of the night.  There was no reaction from the other boat even when Alan shone a light in her sails; they must have been asleep.  Progress improved and before long Aden came into sight.  The first land we had seen since Cochin.  Then it was round the corner and into the Red Sea with southerly winds pushing us along well even if the roll was back making life difficult.  Now we were clear of the main pirate areas so could start putting our position on the web site again.  The wind in the northern Red Sea always blows from the north and it is "Russian Roulette" how far up you get before these winds set in.  We were lucky and managed about 600 miles but then everything changed.  The next 300 miles were a struggle.  At first we had a close look at the Sudan and then across the other side at Saudi Arabia before coming back to Egypt as we tacked northwards.  The wind filled in at night giving around Force 6 with short, steep and difficult seas.  Even the last few miles into Port Ghalib was extremely trying.  But there we were in Egypt.  Alan got off to drive north to Abu Tig Marina to meet up with Liz so the remaining three of us set sail a day later to take the boat there.  Boats are not allowed to arrive in Abu Tig after dark and having seen the entrance through the coral reef I can understand why.  The passage from Port Ghalib was just a bit too far to do in one day so we had to wait for daylight behind some islands just to the south.  At about 0300 the wind went from light southerly to northwest at 30 knots leaving us to struggle northwards to our destination.  As with many other legs the weather always seems to have another trick up its sleeve when you think you have made it.

As I write this, Lively Lady has gone through the Suez Canal and is in the Mediterranean heading for Malta.  This just leaves me the final bit to do from Gibraltar back to Portsmouth.

So instead of a single leg somewhere in the Middle East I have ended up crossing the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Oceans not to mention sailing down much of the east coast of the USA, across the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal.  Yes; it has been much more than I originally envisaged but it has been a tremendous and unique experience, sailing in places I would never have thought possible.

As for Denise, whose fault it all was in the first place, she has encouraged me all the way and put up with my long absences without complaint.  Without her comprehensive back up I simply could not have done it.


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