2024 August 31st Days 18 - ?, weather bound again this time at St Mawes and Turnaware

The forecasts are still all over the place with  forecasts not agreeing, hardly surprising with part of a system going overhead.

UK Met Office model on Tuesday morning.

Again met Roeland in his  A24 "Hotfoot", this time not racing
with his wife aboard.

Sunday was quite a nice day and I got a small bit of topside varnishing done, it looked as though I would be OK to stay in St Mawes which is sheltered from the forecast NW wind, however on Tuesday morning I woke and checked the just issued inshore forecast:

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

The domestic forecast for St Mawes @ 09:00, at 07:00
the wind was easterly 6 knots.

The wind strength was much lower but that is not unusual as the system allows for the wind to slow over land but it shows the wind veering from the East to the North-west rather than backing. That would make the anchorage exposed to the south-westerly, during the day a F6 should not be dangerous in St Mawes but it would certainly be uncomfortable so, although it was raining a little and misty I decided to head north for some shelter and I was away 10 minutes later.

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.

Turnaware from the pontoon.

Fortunately there was space on the Turnaware pontoon and the tide, a couple of hours after HW on a near spring tide was not at full strength so I stopped there rather than go up to the Truro river with the tide getting stronger. If the wind does reach F6 from the SW it will be a bit exposed but not excessively so and I should have a quite night with a north-westerly and I will go back to St Mawes on Tuesday and hopefully head west on Wednesday or Thursday but its not worth thinking about where to go at the moment as the forecasts are rather different:

UK Met Office forecast for mid day Friday.

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. 🤬🤬

Excitement at Turnaware and I get to use my long line.

2022 Celtic Circuit, Day 31 - 34 Stuck in the Truro River

 The weather and the forecast remain pretty awful.

Rainstorm on Monday the 5th, just after the thunder and lightning had passed.
Wind was forecast to be gusting in excess of 40 knots but it was not quite that
strong in the sheltered Truro River. Its much the same as I write.

At the time of writing (Tuesday morning, day 31) strong winds and rain are forecast to persist until at least Friday with thunderstorms today and tomorrow - it is tipping down at the moment in a thunder storm and I would need a light on to read. Not as bad as the last few days but bad enough with the ECMWF & UKMO models showing gusts of 30 knots or more every day and the American GFS slightly less (unusual over the last couple of weeks) but still over 25 knots. Winds on Saturday looks OK but seas, forecast to be rough or very rough over the next coupe of days, will take some time to moderate. Then to rub salt in the wounds there may be easterly head winds.

So, I am here for a while, the pontoon is costing £18 per day, is secure and in deep water (the pontoon is attached to two large buoys that in days gone by were used for large mothballed ships) but the only facility provided is rubbish disposal which I could still use if at anchor close by. So I thought to move to the anchorage.

The anchorage below maggoty Bank, the harbour masters launch
right coming down for money. Annoyingly I now find a 10 day ticket
is available for the price of 8 individual days. 

 The shallow areas were last
surveyed 25 years ago so may
not be accurate,

Whilst restowing the bunk to be used for seating I got out one of my 10 Kg kedge anchors that was in the locker under and set it up ready to back up the bower anchor (I run it down the chain on a carabiner to help keep the pull on the anchor near horizontal and to provide additional weight, there is a long piece on anchoring I wrote for the Achilles site here).

Then did what I should have done first, checking the tide tables.

It turns out that this weekend has particularly big spring tides, with low water down to only 10cm above the Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT), that restricts the area available to anchor a boat drawing 1.7 metres. Check the section of chart to the right, the actual depths at low water will be close to those shown before allowing for waves and wash which means I would have to be in the section with depths shown as 3.4m and 3.6m, as are the boats in the picture above.

To anchor there in a strong wind and tide I would need to let out a lot of chain. At least four times the maximum depth which equals 4 x (5.5m [rise in tide] + 3.4 [depth at LW] + freeboard) = c 40 metres.

That introduces another problem, with all my 42 metres of chain out (the next 40 metres of the rode is nylon), at low water the boat could swing at least 35 metres in any direction with the keel about 5 metres beyond that; that could take me onto a drying bank. 

The obvious answer would be to anchor fore and aft using my back up bower / #1 Kedge, a 24 Lb CQR with 10 metres of chain and 80 metres of 14mm nylon and I should be secure enough and although I had the dinghy out it could be done from the boat by dropping back the full length of my 90 metres of chain and nylon on the Bower before dropping the stern anchor and then hauling forward; but getting the kedge up later would be a pain in the back and if one anchor did drag at low water I could quickly be aground so I decided against that.

There is more room to anchor further upriver but there were some boats there a couple of days ago and similar issues may well apply, and I could loose my place on the pontoon so I'll pay up with gritted teeth and stay here.

The pontoon just about filled, "Maybe" the large Gaff Cutter was anchored in
the anchorage discussed above the day before yesterday but overnight dragged
her anchor and ended up on Maggoty Bank floating off yesterday morning.
I boat like that is not going to come to any harm there, the same may not apply
to a fin keeled yacht stranded on the bank would be on it is side, and if on an
adverse slope might flood when the tide came in.

I imagine the crew are even less happy with the weather than me - they have paid
£1.5k for a seven day cruise to the Isles of Scilly and are stuck here for most of it
with no refund as the itinerary is weather dependant.

On to St Mawes.

2022 Celtic Circuit, Days 28 - 29 St Mary's to The Truro River

All of the available forecasts and models showed strong winds on Saturday from the south and perhaps stronger on Monday, Newlyn would likely be uncomfortable and possibly the pontoon would be full even arriving early, so it would be necessary to raft onto a fishing boat in the commercial part of the harbour which might move out at any time and be even more uncomfortable, so I decided to head directly to the Fal. I wanted to be well upriver before the gales arrived, but St Mawes was a possibility for a night before moving upriver and might give a chance for some resupply. 

So, I had an early night and set the alarm for 03:30 for an early start with good tides probably to well east of Lands End and an outside chance of a good tide past the Lizard. As often happens I woke before the alarm, in this case not long after 02:00 but the wind was favourable and likely to run out at lunch time, so I got up and weighed at 02:45.

A clear sky but a very dark night with no moon but I made it out safely and was soon sailing in a F4 from the NNE and making 4 - 5.5 knots and I was almost at the Wolf Rock before the wind died at 0730 rather earlier than forecast the previous evening. On went the engine and apart from an hour or so north of the Manacles it stayed on. 

Dolphins at 5.5 knots east of Wolf Rock. 

I was well ahead of a mass exodus from the Islands, from a couple
of snap shots at least 40 boats (with AIS) left ahead of the weather
or perhaps to get back to work on Monday. I am just off The Lizard
(the purple boat with a blue one to the north) when I captured this.

I managed to get past the Lizard before the tide turned and only had 1 - 1.5 knots adverse going up the east side of the peninsular. 

Passing the Lizard, quite close in as the tide was almost slack
but favourable and the wind light or non-existent.

It was late in the afternoon when I got into the Fal and with rain threatening I decided not to divert into St Mawes for shopping and headed up river.

A small super yacht (by some standards!) on a buoy off St Just in
Roseland.

And a nice gaff cutter nearby, much prettier to my eyes.

The Fal river goes east just south
of the red position marker.

Rain set in just after the above pictures were taken and I got rather wet - I first thought it would be a light shower and being rather busy I just put on my jacket, then the rain came down hard so I put my fisherman's trousers over the top - not a good idea in normal circumstances as the rain runs down and inside of them.

I could not make up my mind if I should anchor or go to one of the pontoons that I would have to pay for. It was low tide so I explored the swinging room at several places, my initial target above Turnaware Point had much less space than expected with additional moorings eating into the anchorage. 

I went further up, there looked to be a suitable place just below "Magotty Bank" on the Truro River. The rain had stopped for a while but more threatened and I was concerned about strong southerly winds opposing a strong ebb tide creating waves or the flood and tide acting together creating problems. So to be on the safe side I went to the visitor's pontoon just down from there and above the confluence of the rivers Fal and Truro.

That was probably the best bet, the 24 metre Gaff Ketch "Maybe" dragged and went aground backwards onto Magotty Bank one night but floated off without trouble on the tide next morning (there is a picture of her on the pontoon in a later post), being fin keeled Sancerre might not have been as fortunate.  Also, there was a small social scene on the pontoon or on other people's boats when it was raining.

Safe on the pontoon. The Fal river goes east behind the headland
right of Sancerre's mast. Before the wind returned the silence
was complete and rather eery.

The direct route (blue) and track (red)

66 miles in 15 hours.

A shopping trip up river.

2022 St Kilda Day 79 Newlyn to the Fal

After a day fuelling the boat, getting washing done and restocking fresh food, I spent a day visiting Ron, a sailing friend, and helping with some heavy work on his boat that injury and illness was a bit beyond him. I had intended to leave the next day but although the forecast wind was reasonable the maps looked as if that might change, also it was due to be raining most of the afternoon and seas could be rather rough, so I delayed a day and started getting the blog up to date - I had little time since leaving Tobermory.

Leaving Newlyn, The Lizard in the distance.

It was the right decision as F6 winds returned to the forecast at midnight and it was indeed damp and cool in the afternoon. On Friday I left in a F3 under all plain sail with calm seas in the shelter of the land, and a decent amount of sun. 

The wind and sea increased to a solid F4 / F5 and I had a reef in the main and variable amounts in for the headsail. Approaching the Lizard there was a big Atlantic swell and 4 metre waves - which never looks as high in photographs - but reaching it was not a problem, although somewhat lively.

I reached the Lizard a little early with wind still against tide so I stayed well out and then made good speed up the Lizard peninsular with a following tide.

Its amazing how often a single anchored ship is right on the 
track I want to follow.

The sea calmed as I moved north but it was less comfortable at times because until I reached The Manacles and was able to head up, I was on a dead run.

I anchored in St Mawes at 14:40. The wind was now over 20 knots having increased to F6 as I passed downwind of the Helford estuary and it was rather uncomfortable. On Ron's recommendation I moved up the Fal to an anchorage just south of Mylor marina and Penarrow point.

The obelisk by the anchorage marks the boundary between the
Truro and Falmouth port authorities and as I later found out
one end of the start line for local racing.

This was a lot more comfortable although in the morning with less wind, the boat was broadside to some slight waves and as I had experienced in Sorrento Bay, Dublin the previous week she developed an uncomfortable roll, but I had a decent nights sleep and was ready to press on.

36 miles to St Mawes in eight hours then another hour changing anchorages, all under sail from clearing Newlyn harbour until passing St Anthony Head.

Click here for the short hop to Fowey