2024 August 26th Days 12 & 13, To St Mawes and Fowey.

Draft WIP, poor internet in Fowey with all the tourists using up band width!

Finally after 8 days hiding from strong winds I was able to move on.

An unsatisfactory shower early at Malpas as I had left the shampoo there on a previous visit and someone had walked off with it so it was just a wet down. I left the pontoon a little after 9, not ideal as I would be against the tide most of the way to St Mawes but the Ocean Cruising Club were holding a rally (I had been there for last years as well) and there was little room between me and large yachts fore and aft so I needed the flood tied to go out under control heading into it. 

I motored down river to Loe Beach then sailed to St Mawes under headsail only in a W to SW F3-4. The wind was supposed to back to the south later in the day but did not do so until 07:00 next morning, fortunately the wind was generally strong enough to keep the boat head to wind and waves, when it didn't and the tide turned the boat broadside to the waves things became a little uncomfortable but less so than I anticipated.

6 miles in 1.5 hours.

Tuesday 27th.

I am actually back on to my original schedule for moving on to Fowey despite the early start. I left at 08:15 to catch the east going tide off St Anthony Head starting at 09:00 this was planned to get me to Fowey just after the ebb started, ideal conditions to get onto the short term pontoon and the fuel berth. For once things went to plan even though I was sailing from St Anthony Head to Gribbin Head just short of Fowey, and I went in at 13:15 about an hour after high water.

Dodman Head (AKA The Deadman, iirc for a coffin shaped bit
of hill) Sailing in a F4 southerly under headsail alone, the chute
would have been OK much of the time but marginal so I didn't
bother and in any case I didn't want to arrive before the ebb tide.

And miracle of miracles there was space on the short term berth, the seconded in successive visits and only the third time in many visits. Getting on was tricky, the tide was quite weak and there was a brisk wind from astern and I have ferry glided with the engine in reverse for most of the time, not normally recommended due to the "prop walk" trying to push the stern to port, but once I had the angle right the tide and wind kept me straight against the prop walk and I went very slowly backwards and sideways onto the berth.

It was then a quick visit to the small convenience store for shampoo, down to the Royal Fowey YC for a proper shower, some shopping on the way back - not satisfactory, I had wanted some long dated meat but couldn't find any, decent cheese was at exorbitant prices and the queue for pasties was so long I couldn't be bothered, it was getting rather close to dinner and I would easily of overstayed my welcome on the short term pontoon. I got back in time to replenish the water then went up to the fuel berth, it would have been cheaper to get fuel in the Channel Isles but I particularly wanted to completely fill from a pump so I could check fuel consumption and I last did that at Fowey so a good check point.

I normally take a buoy at Fowey but there was one spot vacant on one of the upstream pontoons and I already had the fenders and mooring lines rigged on the correct side to I went there for the free night they owed me for the 6 previous nights.

22 miles in five and a half hours.

Click here for Looe, Cawsand and an approaching decision point.

2024 August 19th Days 5 - 11, Stuck in the Truro River. Again

Being updated as and when

It looks like I could be here for a week, a good job I left early!

The pontoon on Tuesday, wind gusting c 30 knots.
The two nearest boats appear to be here long term.

Noisy neighbour, it came back down two or three minutes later..

The forecast on Tuesday evening, I had thought of a short sail tomorrow, I think I’ll stay put.☹️

Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: Westerly 5 or 6 backing southwesterly 4 or 5, occasionally 6 later in west. Slight or moderate in east, moderate or rough in west. Mainly fair. Good.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Southwest 5 to 7, occasionally 4 at first and again later. Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough in west. Occasional rain or drizzle. Good, falling moderate or poor for a time.

Heading to Malpas for a shower on Wednesday morning. The
calm did not last long! Sancerre on the pontoon in the centre
of the picture. I have invested in a discounted 10 day ticket so
will hopefully have a few days left for the return trip or for
next year.

ECMWF @ Wednesday morning
With this much wind on Friday the sea is likely to be pretty ugly
on Saturday so I will probably not go further than St Mawes,
if that. More likely I will hang around here till Sunday or Monday
before heading for Fowey hoping it will not be too busy on the
holiday weekend.

It doesn’t get any better, from “Weather School” (Weatherweb) Wednesday afternoon.

Be prepared for gusting winds over the coming days. Regular 50mph+ over western and southern areas (red on charts below is above 50mph).

Particularly be aware of a spell of extremely strong winds for a few hours from the early hours of Friday morning, mostly affecting Wales and southern England. During this spell gusts could breach 60mph and damage to trees, fences and tents could occur.

And the inshore forecast Wednesday evening:

Lyme Regis to Lands End including the Isles of Scilly - Strong wind warning

24 hour forecast: Southwesterly, 3 to 5, increasing 6 to gale 8, veering west 4 or 5 later. Slight or moderate at first in east, otherwise moderate or rough, occasionally very rough later near Isles of Scilly. Rain or drizzle for a time. Good, occasionally poor for a time.

Outlook for the following 24 hours: Southwest 4 or 5, increasing 6 to gale 8, veering west or northwest 4 or 5, backing southwest 3 or 4 later. Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough near Isles of Scilly, becoming slight or moderate later in east. Rain or drizzle at times. Moderate or good, occasionally poor.

I had hoped to go to Tesco's in Truro but work on flood defences may make that impossible till Saturday or Sunday, I have fresh food to last me to St Mawes or Fowey but the choice at both is rather limited and at the latter expensive.

Saturday 24th, 11:00:

Still here with strong wind warnings for today and tomorrow and one heavy shower already this morning. The plan, such as it is, is to go up to the Tesco's in Truro tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to get through; work on flood defences has closed the river for navigation for the last 4 days and it was due to open this afternoon at 3 o'clock but talking to the river patrol man they found heavy silting and are arranging dredging so a new notice to mariners is being prepared keeping the river  closed to navigation but I should be OK in the dinghy providing (as always) I go and return on the tide. I have run out of all fresh food apart from one pie for dinner this evening so I hope so!

The Ocean Cruising Club will be here for a rally over the weekend, coincidentally I was also here for last years, there may be some interesting boats to ogle.

The tide on Monday and Tuesday is not that good for going to Fowey in one hop from here as I would be against the tide to St Mawes and it would be an early start, so I will probably go to St Mawes on Monday afternoon, or Sunday if the conditions look OK, then to Fowey the next day leaving between 8 and 9 for a favourable tide all the way and the ebb in Fowey for easy access to the fuel berth. 

Fortunately the fee here for a berth on the mid-water pontoon is less than a third of the price I was paying at Portland marina earlier in the year, the shower is a 10-15 minute boat ride away but I can live with that!

The weather looks reasonable for the rest of the week to amble down to Plymouth and the Salcombe area but the models differ widely a week out (not unusual) with the European ECMWF showing little or no wind to get to Guernsey and the American GFS showing fairly brisk easterlies which can be a problem at St Peter Port, but both are likely to change before then so I will have to wait and see.

Approaching Truro close to HW.

Tesco's have a direction sigh just for mariners.

On to St Mawes and Fowey
 

2024 August 18th, Day 4 , Parn Voose Cove to the Truro River.

I needed sleep so I did not set the alarm so when I left at 07:00 I theoretically had a maximum of an hour of north going tide, which I hoped would get me past Black Head where I know from experience the tide turns quickly, unfortunately I didn't make it and was heading into almost 2 knots of tide and narrowly missed a pot buoy that was towed under and did not have a flag. I was very lucky that a wave trough briefly exposed it dead ahead and I was able to cut the power and put the helm hard over and miss it by a few yards. I didn't see it again. 

I got the sails up at the Manacles as the wind set in from the SW and was preparing the cruising chute but as soon as I was ready to hoist the wind started to veer so I stayed with the genoa and before long was close hauled and a little over powered but I was approaching a big cruise ship anchored off Pendennis Point and unlikely to weather it so I slipped into her lea and dropped the sails to motor up to the Truro River.

I was in a bit of a hurry as I wanted to get onto one of the relatively cheap pontoons up the Truro river rather than go to an expensive marina and I did not want to risk anchoring as the strong wind was due to set in from the south, OK in St Mawes but then veer to the West which would be bad news in a Force 7. However as I passed "Cross Roads" heading for St Just Pool (it was low tide so I was following the channel) I spotted a bright yellow small boat heading towards the local clubs racing start line and went back towards Penarrow Point.

Facebook Post to the Achilles Group:

Going up past Mylor, I spied with my little eye something beginning with H (Hot Foot, an Achilles 24). Went over for a quick chat, as Roeland, having cleaned up at Falmouth week, prepared to do the same at the club. Only a short video clip as this is high res on the SLR and longer ones often gets rejected. Pics to follow.

It was a very brief chat as he had to get ready for the start.

A couple of videos and some stills of A24 Hot Foot.

On I went up the river and was surprised to find a couple of spaces on the pontoon at Turnaware, but that is rather exposed and as there were no boats following me I carried on to the more sheltered areas up river, avoiding collisions with two self drive motor boats, one of which had not seen me despite me being alongside having been slowly overtaking for at least three-quarter of a mile - people do forget to "check 6" and this "helm" did not bother to check things were clear to port before turning. The other was told by someone in the boat which way to go but pushed the tiller the wrong way.

Waiting for the King Harry Ferry to cross.

I was extremely surprised to find only half a dozen boats on the first and largest pontoon and 2 of them were short stay so I made fast there and looking at the forecast I will probably be here for the rest of the week.

21 miles in 5 hours

Sheltering in the Truro river.

2024 August 16th Days 2 & 3, Dale to Parn Voose Cove (The Lizard)

I had woke up at about 04:45 and had the anchor up by 05:15 on a clear day with little wind. I motored out via the east channel as a light wind set in from the N and before reaching Turbot bank, about 5 miles from the Haven entrance, the engine went off. Then the Cruising chute went up at about 08:00. The sea, as it often is around there, was fairly choppy in the strong tide, putting the chute onto the pole helped but progress was quite slow with the sea stopping the boat and knocking the wind out of the sails. 

The wind that had been 7 - 9 knots dropped at mid day and on went the engine for almost 3 hours before the wind returned at 9 knots from the NW and I was sailing again under "all plain sail".

It was sunny all day but not warm - I kept the fleece on all day. There were even more sightings of dolphins than usual despite being under sail - they seem to play more when you are motoring at 5 or 6 knots then when you are sailing at any speed.

Part of a large pod that came alongside when

I was sailing slowly, abiding by the code of

 practice I had to delay putting on the engine

until they moved off.

By early evening I was getting worried about making the tidal gate that opened between 04:00 - 04:30 and later than 07:00 would be seriously bad news but at 21:00 the wind picked up and I had to reef for a while making 5 to 6 knots. The wind dropped to almost nothing at 02:00 and I was making less than a knot so the engine on, cruising easily at 5.5 knots. This was a bit of a surprise, confirming what I suspected going to dale against a strong headwind and sea, much of the speed lost through a dirty hull towards the end of the last cruise had returned, in fact I could now make 6.5 knots into wind with a calm sea, not far off the maximum with a clean hull.

I have no real idea why, presumably some weed, perhaps a big bit on the keel which I can't see had come off, perhaps helped by the brackish water or Mullet in Milford. It will be interesting to see what the state of the hull is when she is lifted on October 4th.

With the high speed sailing and a couple of hours under engine I was off Cape Cornwall when the tide was still pushing north at a knot and a half but with a light wind the sea was no problem and I made good progress and made it all the way round Land's end with a favourable tide. With several hours of fair tide left I decided to go for the Lizard as to go from Newlyn would require a very early start on Sunday and with the forecast weather I could have got stuck there for days.

The tide turned adverse before I got to the lizard, I initially stayed fairly well off as there was a fairly big residual sea running, south of the point I could see the state of the over-falls and how boats coming the other way were coping and I cut in closer surfing straight down the waves and making good head way despite a fairly strong tide. Not wanting to battle the tide much of the way to the Fal and being tired I decided to anchor overnight then head to the Fal in the morning, hopefully getting a pontoon berth in the Truro river before others arrived to shelter for the force 7 winds due on Monday.

There is a strong tide off Black Head south of Coverack so I went into the large bay just north of The Lizard and anchored off Parn Voose Cove at 10:15, adjacent to the Lizard lifeboat station.

Passing east of Lizard Point

The Lizard RNLI station from the anchorage

The lifeboat returning from the Coverack "Lifeboat Day"

Short but high res best full screen.

And recovering up the slip

Church Cove adjoining Parn Voose Cove.

A pic from MarineTrafic.com, the second time this user has
photographed Sancerre, the other time I was underway on the other
side of the Lizard in April 2024. Credit as per the annotation.

128 nautical miles in 29 hours.

Click here fore the trip up to the Truro River

2024 August 15th Day 1. Milford Marina to Dale.

The UK Met Office forecast for Monday on
Thursday morning, from Predictwind.

Off again, and as usual a change of plan. The forecast for next week is not good with strong winds likely on Monday and Tuesday and south westerlies thereafter making the trip to Land's End difficult and probably delaying me by at least several days. However, on Tuesday morning it seemed likely that there would be a window of very good weather for the trip from Friday through Sunday.

With approval from management (she is mobile again) I packed in record time and was at Milford by late afternoon and loaded the boat getting very wet in the processes. On Wednesday morning I went shopping and got some diesel, fitted new gaskets around the fore hatch, and did the return trip in about four and a half hours. 

Thursday it was six and a half hours back to the boat by train, and some time to ready the boat. 

I locked out at 18:00 two hours earlier than planned and am now at anchor on Dale Shelf, cooking a Beef bourguignon for dinner with another portion to eat on route Friday. I'll leave at or a bit before first light, depending on when I wake up, I'll not be setting the alarm too early and I'd like some sleep in the bank before leaving on a long trip.

Head to Dale Shelf into a brisk headwind.

The question is where am I going? The forecast for early next week of a W or SW wind followed by NW precludes a stop off on the north Cornish coast. If the forecast improves it might be Scilly but, especially in high season, shelter from a SW backing NW wind will be in very short supply, or more likely I will end up in Mounts Bay for Saturday night, or if the forecast it to be believed an extra 15 miles or so to get around the Lizard to Coverack leaving a short sail on Sunday to shelter in the Fal.

Click here for the trip around Land's End.

Sailing again? To Jersey & Scilly?

Average wind for Newlyn
 in August (Predictwind)

Hopefully I'll be able to resume sailing later in the month, I’m planning on leaving Milford Marina around the 21st to anchor at Dale or Sandy Haven Bay and then heading out of the Haven early the following morning. 

However if, as is likely, the bottom of the boat is really bad with weed I may try and book the piles at Rudders yard to scrub or perhaps dry her out at Newlyn, Hugh Town or elsewhere. The loss of 0.5 - 1  knot of speed is bad enough, more would be seriously bad news on a 600 mile trip.

The route and stop off points will of course depend on the weather, and writing this probably dooms the expedition, but the plan is to head for the Channel Isles, first to Guernsey to meet up with Jester sailor John W, something I have tried and failed to do the last two years, then on to Jersey where my sister will be on vacation.

September

The tricky bit out-bound is likely to be getting too and around Lands End, against the prevailing west to south westerly wind. The good news is that once round I should be able to make a quick passage to Salcombe, or more likely the free anchorage at Hallsands behind Start Point, then to Guernsey.  

Getting back is likely to be tense, a north westerly or gales could cause problems all the way and a westerly would slow down the passage to Land's End.  

I need to be at Milford by the end of September for the boat to be lifted out on October 4th, the next suitable tides start two weeks later and lifts may already be booked.

There will be at least 2 long passages each way but hopefully there is sufficient slack in the return plan, I'll be watching the forecasts very closely! 

Preliminary plan (click to enlarge) and key planning data @ 7/8/24.
Includes "slack days" and ignores some likely intermediate stops.
Stopping points are indicative, so for example "Newlyn" could be
Mousehole, Newlyn Harbour, Newlyn Anchorage, St Michaels
Mount, Mullion or a combination. HWD = HW Dover.

Click here for (another) change of plan and setting off.