WIP
The trip down on Wednesday was not an auspicious start to the trip as someone hi-jacked my taxi, fortunately I fagged it down just as they realised they were in the wrong car, on our street of about 12 households two of us had booked a car from the same company, at the same time and both to the station although I was going to Bicester Town, now known as Bicester Village 😡, whilst they were going to Bicester North. With that sorted I had a reasonable trip down arriving 20 minutes late.
Preparing to leave took rather longer than hoped with a couple of minor things to sort out, after a trip to the supermarket I found that I did not have any plastic food boxes I use for food storage so I had to go back and buy some more. I have had a feeling I was missing something for the previous couple of days and had gone through my check lists twice but they were not on it as they normally live on the boat, this time I had taken them home for a good clean, hopefully subconsciously these what I was worried about.
All this meant I didn't get to bed until gone eleven and for some reason I did not get to sleep until past midnight, not good with a long trip ahead, hopefully past The Lizard.
I was up at 03:15 to calm dry conditions, the forecast was for heavy thundery showers for some hours, rain is a pain but I can deal with that, lightening at sea is a different matter - potentially dangerous and always stressful, but the weather radar showed I should be clear of it by nine or ten o'clock and there were no lightening strikes showing, so off I went leaving the berth at 04:15 as it started to spot with rain. by the time I was through the lock the rain was quite heavy and at times it was very heavy as I went down the Haven out to sea.
Unfortunately by the time I was past Turbot Bank I only had the midnight inshore forecast and the previous evenings downloads and with no phone signal could only wait for the Coastguard's safety broadcast which did not come for some time. What I had was not encouraging and, even past the often difficult water at the entrance to The Haven, known locally as "The Washing Machine", there were some very big sets coming through, certainly at the top end of the "Rough" category (2.5 - 4 metres) rather than "moderate" and I suspect it was occasionally "Very Rough"
I was not feeling well at this stage with incipient sea sickness. Complex pilotage at night in poor conditions frequently needing to check the plotter, radar etc., is one thing that can set me off and I had forgotten the pill I take when this is likely at the start of a cruise and with the rain hammering down I decided, probably incorrectly, not to try and get below to find one. I was conscious that sea sickness can lead to poor decision making, so with all of the above, I regretfully decided against land's end and took the safe option and headed towards Padstow.
The rain stopped at 08:30 as the wind quickly went from 4 knots to 15 from the NW so off went the engine and I was sailing under reefed headsail making better speed considerably more comfortable as the sail stopped the exaggerated roll to windward although it was lunch time before I was feeling fit again.
The wind backed a little but was reasonably stable from about 277 degrees +/- 10 at F4 but mainly F5 until I was about 10 miles north of Padstow when it increased on occasion to and not forecast F6.
As expected I missed the tide to get into Padstow although only by an hour but with a F5-6, even with the sea coming from only a tad north of west, I would not have attempted to cross the bar. So I anchored in Portquin Bay where it was safe but very uncomfortable with the boat lying accross the chop coming through the gap betwen Rumps Point and The Mouls.
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| Wind some times against tide made for an uncomfortable ride but with good holding and miles (literally) of sea room down wind it was perfectly safe and as predicted I slept through a lot of it. |
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