SV Sancerre: 2023 June 18th, Days 66 & 67 Milford Haven to Portquin Bay, Padstow.

Monday, June 19, 2023

2023 June 18th, Days 66 & 67 Milford Haven to Portquin Bay, Padstow.

The various weather models and forecasts were equivocal as to wind strength and direction although none suggested particularly strong winds so there was nothing to do but head out and see what happened deciding on a destination when things became clearer.

It turned into quite a torturous trip with tides and winds conspiring against me. Light variable winds to start then some hours of good sailing, albeit beating, and a couple of hours of quite rough stuff west of Hartland Point with force 5 winds on the nose requiring lots of sail handling.

Light winds & strong tides early on took me a long way to the west.
I was unable to "Lee Bow" the tide so this was the only way to
make at least some progress.

A fairly close encounter well offshore.

By the time I was half way across it was clear that Lundy was not a good option, the anchorage might not be tenable and I would loose a lot of distance to leeward, St Ives was a long way to windward and Land's End even further.

Padstow is tidal but there are anchorages east and west of there so I continued south then south east as the wind backed then dropped. At 02:40 the wind was southerly and light so on went the engine and I motored to Portquin Bay.

Off of Tintagel I had another encounter with a pot buoy, the most serious since getting tangled off of St Ives last year. Again I was looking directly ahead, and had been for some time, when out of the gloom appeared a pair of buoys a few boat lengths ahead. I had the power off immediately but hit one of them, fortunately this time the buoys were tied close together and I was almost going down tide so there were no lines across my path and I did not get one round the keel, skeg or propeller.

I anchored in Portquin Bay east of Padstow below The Rumps Iron Age Promontory Fort, 61 Acres across two headlands with some impressive ditch and bank defences.