Catch up post

There was no internet connection at Newlyn and Falmouth, but here are the accounts of our days sailing to those places....

Wednesday 17 August 2016 - Padstow to Newlyn

We got up at 0500. It was still dark. High water was 0520 so we needed to be out of the harbour shortly thereafter as we would exiting down the river Camel on a falling tide – any touching the bottom would result in us being stuck until the next tide at least! The wind was still blowing strong, and even in the harbour boats were being jostled around! Was it safe to go, or stupid? The forecast was for a force 6 and a moderate sea. Hmmm! Moderate enough to be comfortable or enough to make us all ill? Another yacht, Tiger Moth, was also leaving, so it must be alright mustn’t it? I checked with Roger that he was happy. ‘I think it’ll be OK’ he said. Hmmm! Soon after and we were away, following Tiger Moth down the river. We raised the mainsail in the river, like Tiger Moth, and put two reefs in. The headsail was also reefed. Away we went, down the river and out to sea. Too late to turn back now. The sea was very lumpy and the wind tended to round the boat up making it difficult to keep control. We were heeled over considerably too. After a while we took in the mainsail completely and proceeded under reefed headsail only, which was more comfortable. We headed out across the bay away from the land which slowly disappeared from view in a mist and fog that came down. Eventually the sea state improved, the wind decreased and veered and we had to use the engine to make reasonable progress. We navigated with electronics, seeing nothing of the coast, or of Land’s End, and only a fleeting glimpse of the Longships lighthouse and surrounding rocks. Eventually we neared the coast off Newlyn and could only just see our way into the harbour. There were few places and we had to raft up against another yacht that planned to depart at 0500 for Falmouth. We would have to let them out, so we decided to set off early ourselves too.

Joke:

Q. What goes 'croak croak' in mist?

A. A froghorn.

Our view of Land's End!

Thursday 18 August – Newlyn to Falmouth

At 0500 we were ready to depart Newlyn (despite the fact that our neighbour wasn’t!). We left. The fog of the previous day still prevailed and we set out into the murk to round ‘The Lizard’ on our way to Falmouth. It was a day for electronic navigation, navigation lights and radar again. We had to stand well of Lizard Point as there were large waves close in. Even two miles out we had to contend with large rollers that caused us to wallow uncomfortably. After a while we altered course to head towards Falmouth, east of The Lizard and we were able to surf down the rollers instead of wallow in them. Slowly the fog lifted and we could see the coast. There was an appearance of sun even! We checked the forecast for the following day – gales! It was clear that Falmouth would be our stopping point for this week. Everyone else obviously thought the same as all of the marinas in Falmouth were very full; we could only get a place where we had to raft up against another yacht. Never mind, at least we were in. 

Joke:

Parallel lines have so much in common. Its a shame they'll never meet. 

We could just about make out Lizard Point