Earlier this month, regular Press travel writer Bob Adams wrote about joining the crew of a yacht sailing from Hartlepool to Plymouth. Bob had to leave the voyage at Ramsgate. But here, York man Mark Johnson, owner and skipper of the yacht Gem, resumes the story...

On Saturday April 2, we left Ramsgate at 6am. We had good tide to sweep us around the ‘Kent corner’. It was so cold. We passed the entrance to Dover Harbour and were surprised to see a P&O Ferry running. Every hour the coastguard put out a message requesting ‘any vessels that see anything unusual (to) report it immediately’. They were referring to migrants trying to make the channel crossing.

After rounding Dungeness we decided to overnight at Eastbourne where, after a pub meal, my shipmate Stephen and I stumbled across a wonderfully cheesy Karaoke Bar.

On Sunday April 3 we slipped our lines at 8.50am at Eastbourne Marina to prepare to go outbound through the lock - which was packed with local racing yachts. Our passage was around Beachy Head. We then sailed past Newhaven and Brighton, and started lining up for the Solent, passing by the Napoleonic Solent Forts.

At Portsmouth we bid Kevin farewell, and were joined for a couple of days ashore by a friend. The new Mary Rose part of the Historic Dockyard Museum is ‘amazing’.

York Press: Yacht Gem in Eastbourne Marina

By Wednesday April 6 Stephen and I were getting alarmed by the 45 knot winds predicted for that night, as we needed to get to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. Looking at a wind app on Stephen's iPad, we noticed a small window in the weather between about 7am and 9.30am. We managed to get back out into the Solent. Approaching Cowes the wind increased to approximately force 8. By then we were motoring directly into the waves. Now and again a ‘growler’ (a rogue wave) would come rushing up the yacht as the bow plunged into the next wave. But we pushed on to Yarmouth, tying up at 11.30 hours.

York Press: Aboard the Gem between Portsmouth and Plymouth

We knew the next day would be long as we needed to cover 85 miles from Yarmouth to Dartmouth. We had the yacht ready to slip lines at 4am.

We rounded Portland Bill on the ‘outside passage’ and passed Bournemouth, Poole, and Swanage on our starboard beam. Rain eased off by midday and then we had the long hop over to Lyme Bay.

York Press: Beachy Head Lighthouse

We arrived just off Dartmouth at 4pm to be hit by a terrific squall, then motored up the River Dart and tied up on the town quay behind a beautiful French Schooner.

The next morning, we slipped our lines, hoisted the sails and headed out into Start Bay. Passing Salcombe we picked up a pod of dolphins who played in our bow wave. Rounding Bolt Tail we were nearing the end of our 600 mile passage.

Gem was flying. Before we knew it, we had entered Plymouth Sound and ‘dropped sail’ close to Sutton Harbour Marina Plymouth.