WIP DRAFT , text to follow
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| The Runnel Stone East Cardinal buoy. The Long ships just to the right of it Gwennap Head eaxtreem right. |
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| Lands End |
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| Short range monitoring by Radar on the iPad replicated from the plotter, longer range by AIS on the lap top. |
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| 120 miles in 22 hours and 10 minutes berth to berth/ |
DRAFT
I left after a breakfast coffee to get off the pontoon at fairly slack water and then to carry the ebb down Carrick roads with sufficient water to be able to safety go direct, once round Turnaware Bar (following the channel) I was able to sail to the Lugo Rock south cardinal buoy and it was then half a mile to the St Mawes anchorage. With light winds I rowed ashore for a small shop and a lunch time pasty from the Bakery - much better than the one I had at Cawsand, you could see proper chunks of meat rather than a few bits of mince and it was properly seasoned.
It was quite warm in the afternoon and I had an overall wash and washed me hair in the cockpit, getting a few odd looks from passing passengers on tripper boats.
A very varied trip to St Mawes, I left at 06:45 to hopefully reach The Lizard at slack water, or as slack as it gets a day before the spring tide. a gentle breeze set in as I passed St Anthony Head and the engine went off as I sailed under headsail only as it was close to a run and the mainsail would get in the way. The wind increased close to the Manacles and I put in a reef to reduce the roll and it increased further as I passed and headed up to a reach for some quick sailing..
Then things changed big time, my Facebook post on the rounding says it all:
"Well, the Lizard gave me a right kicking, a pleasant sail down the east side of the peninsula in 15 - 20 knots of northerly wind, by the time I was east of the point the wind was down to 12 knots so rather than stay 3-4 miles out as planned I cut in to a bit over 2 miles on the eastern edge of the charted over falls - with the tide just turned to the west the over falls normally move somewhat west.
BIG MISTAKE, the wind almost immediately increased to 25 knots and with the Atlantic swell against a near spring tide and I was in an extremely rough, short sea; with the double reefed headsail and no main I was making up to 9 knots over the ground straight into the waves.
A 55 foot yacht [almost certainly in rougher water] half a mile inside me gave up and turned round, that had not occurred to me as turning in a small boat was not something I was going to do in that sea and at 8 - 9 knots it should not take too long to get out of the rough water so I bore off 10 or 15 degrees to reduce the impact of waves head on and to avoid the possibility of an accidental tack. Not long after I was out of the dangerous water."
A couple of short videos before it became to rough to do more:
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| 35 miles in seven and a quarter hours. |
I happened to be on deck and saw a boat coming down stream making quite a lot of smoke, as they passed the end of the pontoon the engine cut out, was restarted but cut out again not far from the end of the pontoon and apparently dead up tide (see 2nd pic). I quickly changed the flip flops for proper shoes and prepared to fend off, which would not be easy as I was close to the end of the pontoon and have vulnerable self steering on the stern.
The skipper who was using a borrowed boat got the anchor out as the tide took her a couple of boat lengths from me, but there was not much chain, only a couple times the depth of water (more chain may have been in the locker but would not come out and there was no quick access) so we didn't know if it would hold (4 times the depth is “standard”, and much more in extreme conditions) against the strong tide at its peak on a spring tide. Neither did we know how long it would take to get a tow.
They did not think there was long enough lines on board so I grabbed my 100 metre "long rope" intended for the kedge, taking a line ashore in a tight anchorage or emergencies like this one, slung it in the dinghy and ran the line from their stern to the pontoon, up to a second cleat on the pontoon then out to her stem.
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| As the tide eased she swung in closer. |
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| The orange buoy is about 5m from the end of the pontoon. Off back to Mylor, this is about where the engine failed the second time. When I was watching as she passed there was definitely water coming out of the exhaust, when they tried to start it later there wasn't any so almost certainly the impeller Or water pump belt failed and the engine stopped shortly after. |
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| 100 metres of 12mm nylon (breaking strain over 3 tonnes) drying out before I repack it. I also have 80 metres of 14mm platted line for the drogue or other uses. |
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| Anchorages and Marinas covered as at July 2024 |
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| Sancerre in the anchorage at The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, 2021, the Farne Islands and Bamburgh Castle in the distance. A trip line is required in this anchorage, to see why click here. |
I now include:
Be sure to check out Reeds and / or the appropriate pilots for more detailed information and alternates, this is just an overview of likely candidates, but I have been to all of them over the last few years. Some notes on passage making using some of these can be found here: "Planning a round GB trip" , a list of charts and Pilots I have used round GB can be found here: "Charts and Guides for a round GB trip"
Further updated during a boring winter 2023/4 to include some information on access to and from marinas. Done from notes but largely from memory but fortunately that is good for this sort of thing, I just wish that I always knew why I went into a room or opened a browser page 😕. See my page Marina & mooring notes (opens in a new window) for some general tips, definitions and the context (handling of my boat) in which I comment.
From 2024 I am adding videos of anchorages when weather, daylight and time permit.
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| Village Bay Anchorage, St Kilda |
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| Hunda Sound anchorage looking towards Scapa Flow, Orkney at 03:30. |
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| The anchorage at Canna, the Small Isles, on route from Tobermory to S. Uist, 2022. The Isle of Rum in the distance. |
The forecasts are still all over the place with forecasts not agreeing, hardly surprising with part of a system going overhead.
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| UK Met Office model on Tuesday morning. |
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| Again met Roeland in his A24 "Hotfoot", this time not racing with his wife aboard. |
Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly - Strong wind warning
24 hour forecast: Cyclonic 2 to 4, increasing 4 to 6, becoming northwest 4 or 5 later. Slight or moderate, occasionally smooth in sheltered north and rough in far west. Occasional rain or showers. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.
Outlook for the following 24 hours: Northwest 3 to 5. Smooth or slight, but moderate west of the Lizard. Showers. Good.
At first this did not overly concern me but I checked out the domestic forecast, often a good idea, it's a "post code" automated forecast but the UKMO model is updated more frequently than any other, this showed
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| The domestic forecast for St Mawes @ 09:00, at 07:00 the wind was easterly 6 knots. |
There was a minor drama as I left, a fishing boat reporting a yacht probably aground in Bream Cove just north of the Helford river. The fishing boat could not get close enough to see what was going on or if there was any one aboard, and although I probably draw more water than his boat and am single handed, I had the dinghy in tow so could anchor and go in to investigate, as it was only 20 minutes away I started off in that direction but the coastguard, having checked their records (it took a while, probably because the name of the boat was unknown; one reason to have the boats name on the dodgers), came back on to say that the owner was aware and arranging recovery so we both went about our business.
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| UK Met Office forecast for mid day Friday. |
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| And the ECMWF for mid day Friday. |
Update: Typical, 21:00 and the wind has not gone above 8 knots and hidden here it is mainly calm, now the mist has cleared it is warm and humid, what wind there is from here to Scilly is already NW so I could probably have stayed where I was. Hopefully strong winds will not be delayed too long or they could cause problems tomorrow. I have another paid for nigh here if I need it but I’ll probably go back to St Mawes tomorrow. And now the jet stream is making the forecast for the weekend, not so good and difficult to predict. 🤬🤬
I have given up on the C.I. (again), due to a combination of strong winds, very light / adverse winds and general uncertainty with contradictory forecasts. I can’t risk not getting back to Milford in time to be lifted out.
I have returned to St Mawes with a view to visiting the Scillies on the way back to Milford, at the moment I don't know when I will move further west, again due to uncertainty about the weather, particular the timing for the forecast easterly winds changing to the west and what strength the winds will be early next week, the forecast is changing twice a day. I will probably go to Newlyn at some point to get the laundry done and resupply although I am OK with fresh foods for a week after going ashore at St Mawes.
Being awake early I left Cawsand at 06:00 as the tide turned to the west and enjoyed some good sailing for an hour or two but the wind then died to 4 knots or less and on went the engine for a quick trip to St Mawes in otherwise lovely weather.
At 08:30 I down loaded the latest ECMWF model (I also downloaded it the previous evening but did not save it):
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| The NW wind on the previous download (on my last post) is now southerly rather than north-westerly and still with fairly strong. |
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| Caribbean Princess off the Fal as she had been last time I arrived. Cost $500m 20 years ago. 290 metres long, 17 decks, 3,142 passengers plus 1,200 crew. A different type of cruising and defo not for me. |
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| Entering the Fal, on a lovely day, left to right: St Mawes, Carricknath Point, St Anthony Head. |
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| This could be interesting, the large yacht in the centre is anchored on the sailing club's start line and there will probably be racing over the weekend. |
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| A Falmouth working boat dried out in St Mawes Harbour for a scrub at 10:00 on Sunday, they must have got up early. |
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| I think this was her racing on Saturday. |
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| Traditional Piper one designs and Rustler 24's a modern version racing from St Mawes. |
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| 37 miles in seven and a quarter hours, |
Instead I will stay in St Mawes tonight and probably Sunday night before, once again, going to the Truro River where I have a night left on my bulk buy last week. After that we shall see but a brisk northerly may see me back at St Mawes before an onshore wind MIGHT see me on my way.
