2025 Sept 7th, Day 4 - Portquin Bay

I am back in Portquin Bay for a flying start early on Monday, forecast SW F3-5. I was rather worried earlier, they were not sure the gate would open after earlier problems but I was in luck.

The gate decided to open for me but it was a rush to get back
to the boat and out after paying the very reasonable berthing fee as
the staff thought they might have to close it in c 45 minutes, I
didn't hang around to find out why!

Pentire Point and The Rumps from the western side.

It was another uncomfortable night and this time I was not tired and slept badly so was away at 03:00 before the alarm. In retrospect I should have anchored further to the south east in the next little bay which would at least have been free of waves reflected from the cliff. Another boat arrived overnight and when I left she looked completely stable although some of that would be down to her being substantially bigger.

Sailed from The Doom Bar to north of The Rumps.
5.7 NM in 2 hours including faffing about at each end.

Click for The leg back to Milford.

2025 Sept 4th, Day 1. Portquin Bay

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 the forecast "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 comfortably 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 a 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 probably not have attempted to cross the bar. So I anchored in Portquin Bay where it was safe but very uncomfortable with the boat lying across the chop coming through the gap betwen Rumps Point and The Mouls.

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 I suspected I slept through a
lot of it.

Click here for Padstow.

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.

The Mouls from the anchorage.

86 miles over the ground but a lot more through the water thanks to the tides, in 24 hours.

Click here for Carbis Bay