2024 April 24th Days 26 - ?, To Newlyn Gwavas Lake and Harbour

 A 07:30 start to round the Lizard at slack tide and for favourable tide from there on. It started off quite warm with little wind but it clouded over as I reached to Manacles under engine. The wind stayed very light until 20 minutes short of Newlyn so I motored all the way, naturally the wind headwind went from 4 knots to about 7 as I went through the Lizard over-falls, with 6 knots of boat speed and 2 knots of tide, rather more than I expected even on a spring tide, there was 15 knots of cold wind over the deck and I went from shirt sleeves when I left to a fleece and a down gilets.

I had hoped to spend a night at Mullion Cove but the wind was blowing straight in and could go to Force 5 so decided against it, a shame as, along with Chapman's Pool (St Alban's Head), its one of the few recognised anchorages along this coast that I have not been too. So in the end I anchored in Gwavas Lake, close by Newlyn harbour in a gap between loads of pot buoys and at low water the clear water allowed me to plant the anchor in clean sand, missing the patches of weed..

My plan to go into the harbour on Friday remains intact although I really could do with a shower so I might change my mind in the morning.

pics later

33 nautical miles in 7.5 hours.

2024 April 22nd Days 24 & 25, Fowey and St Mawes

A very satisfactory short visit to Fowey, as planned I arrived at 08:45 and once secure to the short stay (free) walk ashore pontoon, did a quick shop, including a couple of reasonable frozen pasties to cook onboard, then went to the fuel berth to top up with diesel and was away to St Mawes in less than an hour.

I came away very pleased with myself having executing a perfect “ferry glide” to and from the short stay pontoon through numerous moorings and following that up getting onto the fuel berth with 1.5 knots flowing past it, fortunately almost directly along it, and just stepping off at exactly the right place with a couple of lines that did not strain until made off, springing off was straightforward using the tide and I was well clear of the rocks just downstream of the pontoon. Having done that I will have to be very careful at Newlyn as the odds say I will mess that up big time.

I particularly wanted to fill up in Fowey, it is the last chance for a long way to fill up from a pump and my back has still not fully recovered from lifting a 20 litre can of diesel out of the locker when at Portland the second time. Secondly filling to the top gave me a chance to validate my fuel consumption figures, in the event my planned consumption at 1.5 litres per hour compares with actual consumption since I got the boat in 2017 of 1.54 litres per hour; and over the 200 hours since the last refill the consumption calculated from the fuel gauge was only 6.3 litres out and on the safe, conservative, side.

The wind was light and almost on the nose but with more forecast and likely to be adverse later from Dodman point, I motored for an hour to Dodman then sailed close hauled in a nice 10 knots of wind until just short of  St Anthony Head when the wind dropped, by the time I had the engine on and the sails stowed if came in quite fresh from the north but I carried on under engine for the short distance into St Mawes.

The season in this part of the world doesn't get started until May
so very few boats on the water off St Mawes.

Mooring maintenance at St Mawes

Polkerris to Fowey and St Mawes.

I plan to have a rest day here before making my way slowly to Newlyn hopefully going onto a pontoon on Friday morning so that I can get laundry done before visiting on Saturday when yet another gale is forecast, then head out some time between Sunday (preferable for the best tide) and Tuesday depending on the weather, probably heading for St Ives to shorten the trip to South Wales or Ireland.

To Fowey, 4 miles in an hour. To St Mawes, 24 miles in five and a half hours.

Click here for Newlyn.

2024 April 21st Day 23, to Polkerris

  WIP - a place holder to be fleshed out when I have time and energy after a dash west.

I left at 08:00 for a pleasant sail to Polkerris with hardly a cloud in the sky during the morning and a light to moderate following wind, it was even quite warm for an hour or so until the cold wind increased and the cruising chute had to come down.. 

An interesting concept, an old boat about 24 feet long re-rigged
as a Junk and with davits on the back for the tender.

With a variable wind I sailed on to just short of  Gribben Head when the wind finally died and I motored the last 3 or 4 miles into Polkerris for a quite night.

Par Sands at sunset

34 miles in eight and a quarter hours.

Click here for Fowey and St Mawes.

2024 April 20th Day 22, to Hope Cove

With the "gate" around the Bill of Portland not "opening" until 09:27 there was no need for the normal early start and I weighed anchor at 07:50, and after motoring out of the harbour it was a leisurely sail much of the way down the east side of Portland until the wind shifted and dropped and I was going slowly on a dead run so on went the engine to get to the Bill at the optimum time to get the best push from the west going tide.

As usual there was a flotilla going round, 1 way ahead, 3 of use
pretty much to the schedule and a few well behind.

Passing close to the Bill and even closer to the off
lying rocks and pot buoys. Note the scale.

The obelisk on the left marks submerged rocks just offshore. 

I miss judged it very slightly and went round 5 minutes early in benign conditions with the wind filling in from the ENE at 11 knots, up went the cruising chute and I headed off better than 4 knots, over the next 3 hours I made good progress until the wind died to 6 knots or less so on went the engine.

The first filmed dolphin of the trip, apparently a singleton.

Unfortunately the engine had to stay on for the rest of the day but on the bright side it did allow me to get all the way to Hope Cove in daylight.

Turning into Hope Cove.

68 nautical miles in twelve and a half hours.

Click here for Polkerris.

2024 April 19th Day 21, to Portland.

The inshore forecast on Friday morning dropped the strong wind warning, although the weather gods had a different idea, so with a bit of a scramble to get off the mooring before the tide turned, I was off at 09:00 in a light wind that increased to F5 as I got into the Solent. I could not quite weather Sconce Buoy (south of Yarmouth) so on went the engine to go through Hurt Narrows and the mile or so though the North channel.

Approaching Hurst Point, note the water breaking over the
norther end of the Shingles bank (centre).

It was a quick but bumpy ride in a strong F5 wind, sailing for comfort (a relative term) under a double reefed genoa and no mainsail. The boat is very well balanced under this rig giving the autopilot very little to do.

Then, at just the wrong time and place, the wind increased to F6 as I was approaching Anvil Point and the expected bumpy ride turned into very bumpy until I was past St Alban's having gone outside of St Alban's ledge.

Hamble to Portland 55 miles in 12 hours, 5 minutes slower than
the east bound trip going back to Hamble for repairs.

Click here for the trip to Hope Cove.

2024 April 17th Days 19 & 20,back to Hamble to fix the anchor windlass.

WIP - a place holder to be fleshed out when I have time and energy after a dash west.

A bumpy but quick ride back under headsail only in a stronger than forecast F5-6 wind. With a F5 northerly wind forecast that would have made getting onto the mooring difficult I booked a couple of nights on the RAFYC walk ashore pontoon which would also be more convenient and save getting the dinghy and outboard into and out of the water.

I will write up the windlass problem in my normal post on defects for the cruise, but for now there turned out to other issues than a burnt out motor and I had to replace the whole windlass.

The offending windlass came out easily
then the problems started.

With brisk winds forecast overnight on the 18th and through the 19th I moved to the mooring earlier than planned to avoid struggling with the wind.

56 nautical miles in 12 hours.

Click here for my return to Portland.