Fowey, and on to Plymouth

We left the marina at Penmarlam at 0900 and motored the short distance to the life-boat pontoon in Fowey. After radioing the harbour master we received permission to stay a while and we walked into town and found a coffee (and croissants) shop that looked out over the river. The plan was to sail out to the Eddystone lighthouse on our way to Plymouth, but a damp heavy mist hung over Fowey so we resolved to stay a while longer, postpone the trip to Eddystone and hoped the weather might improve. A local shop selling Cornish pasties beckoned which we felt we should respond to prior to leaving Cornwall. We wondered whether we would come across border guards off the Cornwall-Devon coast? More gloom arrived in the form of a phone call about the cost of a new hot-water tank. Gulp!

After lunch we decided that things might be less grim at sea, as the sky out at sea looked brighter. Once at sea we did find a brighter sky, but the sea state was less than comfortable with a 1.5m swell rolling in on us and causing an uncomfortable motion of Blue Star. We motor-sailed for a while, then the wind dropped to near zero so we took down the sail to stop it slamming from side to side with the motion of the boat. We passed Polperro, and Looe, and eventually the sea state improved. We continued mopping the engine bilge every hour when we made a log entry and plotted our position. We spotted warships far in the distance and speculated which faint silhouette that we saw might be the Eddystone lighthouse. Eventually the murk came down again as we motored past Plymouth break-water. We passed through a lock into Sutton Harbour where we rated the facilities as 9.5/10!

Joke:

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

The marina at Penmarlam near Fowey

Pollux (quite!) was moored opposite the marina

Coffee and croissants in Fowey

Looking out at the murk whilst we had coffee

Blue Star on the pontoon in Fowey

Plymouth breakwater appears out of the mist

Blue Star in Sutton Marina, Plymouth