Along with all the other Swanage boat owners, we have been monitoring the weather. The general consensus of opinion was that Thursday going into Friday were days not to be in Swanage bay.

This was the forecast on tuesday.

For the business users of the bay this is bad news as not only do they have the nuisance of moving to a safe anchorage, they also lose custom. and revenue. For the pleasure boaters it’s extra time out of our busy retirements.

I chose to move on Wednesday evening. A pleasant hours motoring up past “Old Harry” to Poole

harbour entrance and then sharp left down to Redhorn Point. A narrow unmarked channel with shallow water all around.

I’m not familiar with this area of Poole Harbour, and this is my first time anchoring here. I ended up just on the edge of the channel but was worried I didn’t have enough depth to stay afloat. at low tide. Well it’s all soft mud here so although I wasn’t worried about grounding. It was more the thought that if the boat ended up half on the bank, and half in the channel, I could end up being rolled out of bed. It wasn’t likely, but having thought it, I couldn’t unthink it.

So didn’t sleep too well, but the views and sunset before bed were beautiful.

We’ve been studying the weather ardently for the last few days and it appears we are in for a lot of strong wind over the weekend both here in Guernsey and in Swanage. However there is a bit of a window Thursday.

The downside of this is we lose 3 days of our holiday, also, after careful analysis of the tides the leave time will have to be 0330 at the latest. Just thinking about it makes me feels tired.

An early night Wednesday and up with the L… well actually, nothing and no one, we are the only ones about. We slip out of the marina in complete darkness and head out into the Little Russell. As we move off NE we are well aware of the fact one of the major obstacles along the way is currently unmarked and unlit. “Roustel” beacon has broken and the light is not functioning. As we near it around 0400hrs there is a faint glimmer of dawn in the sky and we can just make the collapsed form of the beacon as we pass by.

Theres a light following wind and the engines helping to keep us at the minimum 6kts we need to maintain if we are to get past Alderney before the tide turns.

Around 0700 the wind drops to 7 kts so we get the screecher sail up, This is the maximum sail area that we can fly, with a maximum limit of 15kts. Within 10 mins there’s 20 kts of wind and were struggling to furl the screecher, by the time it’s in it’s up to 24kts and we put a reef in the main, and genoa, another five mins and we are “hove to”, reefing the main a second time whilst trying to keep an eye on the massive cargo ship that’s fast disappearing into a bank of fog/rain.

Back on course we both jump as the Captain of the cargo ship blasts his horn, presumably to let us know where he is, CLOSE by the sound of it, but thankfully also past our position.

Then “blow me down” The clouds disappear, the sun comes out, we can see about 10miles and the wind is back to a very acceptable 15- 18 kts. Of course I have to go back up on deck and shake all the reefs out, but at least we can see the horizon, the boats moving well, and we are on schedule.

The rest of the journey is good and we arrive at durlston bay in about 25kts of wind, and turn into Swanage bay to moor up at around 1700 hrs.

As I come ashore with the first batch of bags, the only question I’m being asked by the Thursday night racers is “Whats the wind like out there?”

We have found out that this week Guernsey are hosts for the Island Games which are held every two years in which 24 International Island communities take part in 18 different sports. Today there is Mountain bike racing, golf, sailing, archery, basketball, athletics and swimming. The sports complex was about 20mins walk from the marina, which also housed the swimming pool where competition was in full swing.

Menorca were playing the Isle of Man at basketball so we watched that. Menorca were the better team by far, and in fact they went on to win gold in the competition.

Another bonus, for the duration of the games, was free travel on all buses, When we had finished watching the basketball, we hopped on a number ninety one which takes you on a round trip of the island. Off the rugged north west coast, the sea was raging and we were glad to be on dry land.

An evening meal at “Sorrento” Italian restaurant completed our day.

Day 2 Sark

We had booked a ferry for a days visit to Sark

Sark has high cliffs all round and when you arrive the only way is up, fortunately there are carriages drawn by tractors waiting to take you up the 100m climb. (At a small price).

As we only had a few hours we elected to take a horse drawn carriage tour of the island which saved our legs somewhat. There being no transport on the island other than tractors, horses and bikes, even electric bikes were banned for a while but have now entered the way of life here. There is a 10MPH limit all over the island.

The Sark chocolate shop much like our own Chococo but on a smaller scale. They also served Guernsey Ice cream, super creamy and now currently No1 in our best ice cream list.

Once back on Guernsey we had an early dinner before going to bed at 8:30pm. The weather forecast had changed, and Thursday is really the only option left for this week. It is going to be a very early start of 3:30am.

Yesterday the weather forecast had shown there were only two days during this coming week when we would want to sail. Today is one of them. Not the best wind as it will come from directly behind the boat, and not quite strong enough at F3 to move us very fast. However better that than lumpy seas and heavy winds for a long journey.

So another early start at 6.00am. A bright clear sky and sun hot enough to causing a false horizon and mirages of floating islands of rock

During an uneventful journey we change from French to English time gaining an hour on our day. Its a seven hour passage and as we enter St Peter Port we stop at the fuel berth to top up on fuel before going into the marina.

We’re here for a couple of days at least, then there’s a bit of a lull in the winds on Thursday, no wind Friday, and very strong again on Saturday and Sunday. So if there’s no change in the forecast we shall come home on Thursday or Friday.

I’m a bit behind on the blogs but the story continues.

Sunday was an early start. Leaving St Cast at 6 o clock with the sun rising over Gernio and its associated rocks, we headed North East toward the Ilse de Brehat.

A 5 hour passage navigating through rocks, catching most of the favourable tides, and arriving at Lezardrieux at 11.00 in the morning.

We needed supplies so as soon as we were docked it was up into the town to shop at the supermarket and get bread and cakes from the boulangerie before everything closed at 1pm.

This was also the last chance to get my favourite French lunch, Galette with ham egg and cheese, delicious.

This is just a single night stopover, as we go to Guernsey tomorrow. The long range weather forecast is showing some strong winds over the next week so there will be some decisions to make over the best time to return home . Time now to fill in my customs and immigration form! then get some kip.

From St Cast we moved on to St Quay Portrieux, another large and somewhat impersonal sort of marina. Here they have good facilities, if a little dated and a large quayside eateries complex with about 7 different restuarants with varying prices. Staff are very friendly and efficient Unfortunately, it feels a bit like a motorway service station , and marina is overpriced for the quality of place.

Also the French have a habit of charging multihulls at 1.5 times the normal rate regardless of their actual size. This in Watanga’s case is a little unfair as she is substantial narrower than most. Meaning I only take up the same space as a number of similar length monohulls chiefly the motorboats. hey ho!

Now those of you who followed the blog during our journey round Britain may remember we said we found no midges during our time in Scotland. Now we know why, they have emigrated to Brittany. Rather bizarrely these and many others suddenly covered the boat way out to sea. An hour later they were all gone again

Today we moved on to Lezardrieux from where we will return to British Waters going to Guernsey. I hope I’ve filled all the forms in correctly!

As we said it was a shallow water passage into Paimpol, the picture below is of the way in viewed when the tide is out.

Since our last post we’ve had one good day and one with rain on and off, also, another market to go to, and a long passage to St Cast. It was forecast to be a following F5 gusting F6 and to be fair that did occur, but only for about 15mins of a 7 hour journey. So we spent most of the time motoring with big swell and no wind.

We like St Cast, although the marina is expensive, it is well run, well maintained, great showers. A great beach and town with a multitude of eateries. Plus shops and restuarants right by the marina.

And the sun’s come out. Went for a swim today,

Today we made a short hop from Lezardrieux to Paimpol. By land it’s about 2 miles, by sea it’s about 12 miles and as you can see there are lots of shallow bits and lots of rocks.

Now Paimpol Harbour has a lock that operates between 2 hrs 30 before HW and 2 hrs 20mins after HW. HW today at Paimpol is 19.09 so the earliest we can arrive is 1639. There may be a queue!

One little trick I use to ensure we have enough depth to navigate is to write a list of tide heights for each hour of the passage, as it will only take 2 hours to get there, today its a short list. As we come across shallow areas a quick mental calculation is all that’s needed to ensure we have enough water below us.

We left Lezardrieux at 12.30, partly because we were bored but also as it was also low tide, you get to see all the normally submerged rocks along the way. It did mean we had to anchor off la Pointe de Trinity

for a while, whilst the tide rose high enough to get into Paimpol.

Having spent 3 hours sailing on our own we were surprised to find no less than 6 other boats arrive at the harbour lock during the final 10 minutes of the journey. No problem though, we all got in.

We need to top up the water tanks, but this wasn’t what I had in mind.

After a wet and windy night, and a slow start to the day, we say goodbye to Trequier and make the 20 mile jaunt to Lazardrieux. We sailed as far as we could, but the wind was coming straight down the Trieux river as we headed up toward Lezardrieux and so we motored for the last hour. The harbourmaster met us as we arrived and led us to our berth, then caught our lines. Lezardrieux is notoriously difficult to berth at, because of the flow of the river through the pontoons. and the brisk cross wind didn’t help either.

There is the most fantastic artisan boulanger patissier in the town. Their range of pastries is delicious, well worth a visit, or two in our case.

We took a tourist-ferry up the river to Pontrieux, a bit expensive but well worth it. We found another Gemini moored up there. It seemed odd to find so many boats so far up the river, when the last 5 miles is only navigable for about 2 hours around High Water.

I think we have explored everything this place has to offer and we’re off to Paimpol tomorrow.

I think this is the third or forth time we have visited Treguier, but we,ve never got much further than the market square.

Situated 5 miles inland from the rocky “Ile de Brehat” coastline, Treguier has been a port town for many centuries but originally grew up around a monastery, founded in the sixth century. .

Today we explored the town a little more and found a lovely riverside walk and some quiet back streets.

This evening we treated ourselves to a meal out at the “Auberge de Treguier”. An excellent meal in a very french restuarant, where the waitress speaks no English, and the manager only a “petite peux” An opportunity to try out 6 months learning French with Duolingo. Not a great success but we managed to have a great meal.

Tomorrow we are off to Lezardrieux.

St Peter Port Guernsey.

We woke Sunday morning to the Sound of a market setting up. The busy seafront road is closed to traffic, the Victoria quay is lined with food vans, tables are set up between them. A stage is set up and by 12 ° Clock there’s almost a party atmosphere with bands playing on stage, The whole market is buzzing with people and the stalls do a fine trade. 5:30pm and there a frantic rush to remove all the marker stalls and bang on 6pm the road is open again to normal traffic.. We’re still tired from Saturdays efforts so retire early after dinner.

Having applied for permission to arrive in France and had my form stamped, all via the Internet, we have effectively cleared French immigration even before leaving Guernsey.

Monday, we leave the marina at 11 am as the sill uncovers and move to nearby Soldiers Bay, where we anchor for the rest of the day and overnight.

Tuesday we make our passage to Treguier in Northern Brittany, about a 10 hour trip. There’s a whole lot of isolated rocks to avoid along this journey, but other than missing those it is a pretty straightforward crossing.

Our only incident was crossing close behind this german flagged yacht which was making way with no-one in the cockpit. He did pop up from below a bit later on.

Even though we didn’t arrive until 7:00 pm, the harbourmaster was there to catch our lines and greet us with a hearty welcome.

Wednesday morning and what do you know, it’s market day in Treguier. Now the French certainly know how to market. This one covered about 4 streets, the market square and two separate car parks. We spent the morning there and in the afternoon a visit to the Cathedral and later doing some window shopping.

An hour of rain spoilt the fun a little, but on the plus side it saved us the job of washing the boat down.

We’ll stay another day in Treguier, but more of that later.

We had set our alarm for 5am and on waking there was a heavy mist outside. Not a good start to the holidays after weeks of sunshine. But by the time we reached Buckshore, the day was clear and the sun was rising. We soon were on the boat and quickly prepared to go. 0620am we slipped the mooring. With Main and genoa set, we sailed into the gentle SW wind. Our holidays had begun.

After a couple of hours we hit a fog bank, not too bad at first, but slowly the visibility degraded down to about 20 meters. I had switched the radar on but there was very little in the way of traffic. We were nearing halfway across the channel when we popped out from the fog to find two large ships passing within 2miles of us. I rechecked the radar, nothing. Not good. No phoning the IT department here, so switched everything off and on again, and even I was surprised to find everything started working again.
It was just as well, because shortly before crossing the traffic separation lanes the fog returned. Picking our way through several ships by radar navigation we got to the midpoint of the lanes. Then the engine faltered and died. The wind had long since died and we were fast approaching a call to the coastguard for help.

Fortunately a quick fuel filter change and the engine sprang back into life. I had thought about returning home but it was just as hazadous to go back as to continue on, so we carried on. Finally things started to look up. The fog cleared, the wind filled in and as we reached the Alderney race it picked us up and dragged us toward Guernsey at a respectable 12 knots. On arrival we were placed on the waiting pontoon and were first to go into the marina once the tide had risen.

Tired and slightly traumatised, it was a quick shower, dinner, then off to bed.
What we learned from this experience:
Always be prepared for fog, even if the weather forecast is clear.
Have a backup plan in case your radar fails.
Don’t be afraid to call for help if you need it.
It was an passage that I’ll not forget in a hurry. I’m glad that everything worked out in the end and we were able to make it to Guernsey safely.

If you’re planning a sailing trip, I recommend being prepared for anything. The weather can change quickly and you never know what you might encounter. But if you’re prepared, you’ll be able to handle anything that comes your way.

After the minor success of yeaterday We took our boat from Poole Harbour down to Portland Harbour for a weekend of sailing. The weather forecast was for light easterly winds on Saturday, veering round to the west on Sunday.

Friday night hadn’t been very quiet as there is little shelter from the east and neither of us slept very well. The morning was bright if a little overcast at first and we made an early start in order to catch the tide at least as far as Durlston Point.

We dipped into Swanage Bay just to check our mooring was OK to come back to. The pick up was there although it looked a little tangled up.

There were surprisingly few boats out and it took several hours to get to Portland. We arrived at around 2:30pm and anchored near to Castle Cove Sailing Club.

The boat seemed to be in good shape. On the way we had got all the sails up and tried them out, not that there was enough wind to sail, but happily all the ropes were in the right place and everything checked out. On our arrival, the engine had stalled as we slowed down from the cruise speed to idle, which was a bit of a worry. Once anchored, I checked the water separator and checked oil levels on the engine. There was some water in the fuel, but that’s not all that unusual.

Soon after we arrived we noticed a harbour seal playing around with some divers about 50 yards away from the boat and it stayed around, on and off, until it got dark. Each boat that anchored got a bit of a welcome from it. Maybe the anchors disturbed food, who knows.

Saturday night, we slept much better. We got underway by 9:00am, . Not far from the harbour, there was enough wind to sail. As sailing dead downwind is not our best point of sail, we broadened the run a little, even if it meant sailing off course. It’s just more fun when you go faster.

In fact, we had enough wind to sail almost all the way home, the wind eventually giving up at Peveril Ledge. So, just a few hundred yards motoring to the mooring buoy.

The mooring buoy itself was a nightmare. Several ropes had been attached and everything was tangled. The knife had to come into play. Eventually, we sorted it out, got the bridle on, and got off to shore. By this timehowever, I was covered in slimy seaweed and smelt of fish.

Overall, it was a great weekend. The weather was good, the sailing was fun, and we saw some amazing wildlife. We’re already planning our next trip!

On Friday, we set off on Watanga, for a short shakedown trip into Poole Harbour. We wanted to check everything was working properly before our next holiday.

We motored down the river and around to Arne, a distance of about 5 miles. The weather was hot and sunny, with very little wind. We anchored off Shipstal Point in the Wych Channel.

It was a perfect evening. The sun was setting, the water was calm, and there was a gentle breeze. We enjoyed a glass of wine and watched the sun sink below the horizon.

We will spend the night on Watanga, and in the morning we set sail for Portland Harbour.

Last year, we embarked on an epic voyage around Great Britain. The boat ran well for the most part, but a bearing in the transom was starting to make noise. We decided to have the bearing replaced over the winter.

We took the boat to a local boatyard, and the job started off well. However, the engine mounts were also found to be faulty, so they had to be replaced as well. The engine had to be realigned anyway after the transom bearing job, so the boatyard decided to do it all at once.

The engineer asked to see the engine running after the work was completed, so he could check for vibration and misalignment. The engine started up first try, which was great after a six-month layup. It started again when the engineer came back to check it. Everything seemed to be in order.

We launched the boat the following week, and I tried to start the engine. It wouldn’t start! The engineer came back and took a look, but he couldn’t get it to go either. The boatyard said it would be three to four weeks before the engineer was free to have a look at it again.

In the meantime, I called a friend of a friend named Neil. Neil is an expert on diesel engines. He came over and took a look at the boat. He couldn’t get the engine to start either, so he did a compression test. The manual states that the operating pressure should be 23 atmospheres, or about 350 psi. Cylinder 1 had 350 psi, cylinder 2 had 230 psi, and cylinder 3 had only 120 psi. This meant that only one cylinder was working properly.

I took the cylinder head off and had the valve seats recut and reground. I also replaced the injectors and glow plugs. Once everything was back together, the engine started up without any problems.

We were lucky to have found Neil when we did. If we had had to wait three to four weeks for the engineer to come back, we might have been stuck on the shore for the summer.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

Watanga has been round the UK, some 2500 miles, that’s almost 5 times as far as we would normally travel in a season. Understandably she’s a bit tired now, and there’s a long list of things that need attention. The broken autopilot, the blocked pipes in the loo, the engine that badly needs a service, an exhaust leak, and a noisy bearing on the propeller shaft. a pulley block up the mast needs replacing, the deck light has gone kaput and the galley sink is leaking. That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Then there’s the normal winterising stuff to get done, cleaning and polishing, minor gelcoat repairs, the list seems endless, and in fact is endless, there’s always things wearing out, breaking or just in need of improvement.

As we have run out of holiday for this year, we have decided to get Watanga out of the water early, to give us a head start on the jobs in the off season. Hopefully this will give us better weather to do the external jobs before winter sets in.

Last Saturday we made our final journey of the year. We were meeting the Wessex KPA Chairman Richard Lee and his wife Louise and a photographer, another Richard, in Poole Quay Marina for lunch as part of the trip. After our arrival at Poole Quay, and a visit to the boat, we posed for some some photo’s, before dining at the Deli on the Quay to celebrate our successful trip and, thanks to you readers, the raising of some £1600. (at the time of counting)

The season ended as it began, a bright, calm day, with us gently motoring up the river Frome.

Yesterday, (Thursday) Watanga was lifted out and had her bottom cleaned.

And so the work begins.

This is it, the last passage of the voyage, we started off sailing into an easterly wind, now we end the journey doing the same. It’s overcast and threatening to rain, but we’re hoping for sunshine when we arrive in Swanage. The sails went up as soon as we were out of the harbour entrance and we were able to sail in the right direction for once, our ETA in Swanage 2:30pm. After a brief shower of rain, the sun came out, as we passed all the familiar sights along the way. Durdle Door, Lulworth, Worbarrow Bay, Chapmans pool.

With the tide speeding us along we found ourselves way ahead of time and at St Aldheims head, we let our friends know we were going to be early. Passing dancing ledge we spotted Tom out in his Fishing boat, and as we reached Durlston lighthouse, a high speed rib came round the corner from Swanage and headed straight for our position. It was friend Phil in the Pierhead Watersports rib with a few friends coming to welcome us home. Such a nice thing to do. They circled us a few times before heading back to Swanage. Just one more castle (Durlston), then then into Swanage bay. The same friends and a couple more were waving from the end of the pier as we sailed past and onto the mooring.

With the help from the various wellwishers we got two loads of luggage off the boat and into our car before heading home. Later, after tea, we returned to the sailing club for a drink and a bit of a welcome home party.

So what now? Well Watanga will need to go to dry dock. She’s served us well but needs some TLC over the winter. I will need some time to collate the data to give a resume of our adventure. The blog will continue but not on a daily basis.

Thank you all for following, and for the most generous donations.

Martin and Louise

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

Tomorrow is our final day of the challenge. Just a little over 4 months since we were last in Swanage. It seems we have been away for ages, yet it’s gone in a flash. Although we will miss our adventures, we’re ready for home and it’s comforts. Watanga has looked after us, but there’s lots to repair.

Our plan plan is to leave Weymouth at around 9:30 am. If weather and tides are correct, it should take around 4-5 hours to reach Swanage. We hope that the easterly wind and waves will have calmed sufficiently to pick up our mooring and for us to get ashore without any drama.

Thanks to all for your support and hope you have enjoyed the blog.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

Our walks to the Estuary mouth each day to view the sea had revealed some moderate conditions with many boats out sailing. Are we being too cautious?

The forecast weather although unchanged isn’t any worse than the previous few days. We are seasoned sailors, and we’ve been out in worse than this, so enough of the easy life, Wednesday we will push on and tough it out!

To explain to non sailors who may read this, the situation is as follows. When a sailing boat needs to go upwind she must do so at an angle to the wind, which by simple trigonometry adds extra distance to the journey, typically 1.5 times the straight line distance. Dartmouth to Weymouth is about 60 miles, which at average 5 knots would take 12 hrs. Over that period the tidal stream will be against you for half of that time, slowing you down further. If winds are strong the waves build up, and these will also slow the boat down as the boat crashes through them. Then there’s dangerous places, like Portland Bill which should be rounded only at certain, safe times/states of the tide.

You may begin to understand why sailors hate sailing “upwind”.

All that and we’ve still decided to go.

Well, we left at 5am, in the dark and watched the sun rise spectacularly as we passed Start Point. We had six hours of strong wind to put up with and then the wind would calm down as we got to Portland, which we would round at slack water then north to Weymouth. As the morning progressed the wind grew, and was Force 7 when it was forecast F5 and to make progress we had to sail/motor SE and were pushed half way to Cherbourg before we could tack North, by now over two hours late on our schedule. This forced a change in passage plan as we would now have to take Portland at the wrong state of the tide.

The wind now died completely, and we motored against steadily increasing tides west of Portland. We caught the “back eddy” down to the point and rounded the Bill by about 100 metres. As we did so the wind kicked back in aiding the final part of the journey north to Weymouth the sun now setting as we came into the harbour. A bit of excitement as we are “buzzed” by a chinook helicopter on our way past Portland Harbour.

15 hrs, 75 miles and very tired and hungrey.

Only one more leg and we’re home.

We’ve been in Dartmouth for a few days now. The weather has been sunny and we’ve found all sorts of things to do, from long walks and visiting Agatha Christies summer house, to jobs around the boat. Just a few pictures to give you an idea of what we’ve done.

The Easterlies persist continuing to postpone our final steps home.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

To start the day we moved from the pontoon to a mooring bouy. The pontoon is right next to the main channel and the disturbance from the continual boat wash was a little irritating.

We took the dinghy into the town, did the shops, went for a walk down Batson Creek. Bought some sandwiches then took the tender to the beach and had lunch. In the evening we took a water taxi to town, going to the Salcombe Yacht Club for a drink and a meal.

Back to the boat for the night.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

We spent the day at Pendennis Castle where they had a knights tournament event. It was a hot and sometimes sunny day. The ” Knights ” worked hard and were in character all day. With displays of archery, fighting with various weapons, falconry, medieval music and some fire eating.

All in all, an enjoyable day out.

Fish and chips for supper, and ready for bed.

Fowey tomorrow.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin

Time to move on again, Newlyn despite it’s friendly harbourmaster and reasonable facilities is still a large commercial fishing port.

It’s raining this morning as we move off and are soon sailing across Penzance Bay and Mounts Bay toward Lizard Point. There is still a bit of a swell with the wind coming from the south. The rain clears and the sun begins to shine. After rounding Lizard point the wind begins to die and by the time we reach Black Rock it’s time to resort to motor once again. An hour or so later we’re heading in through the moorings of the Helford river. It has clouded over again and is again threatening rain. Surprisingly for August there are several visitors mooring bouys free but upstream of the moorings is where we’re headed, away from the comings and goings of tenders and ferries. The anchorage up near an area called the groyne is peaceful and quiet. The holding is excellent and there is very little flow on the river to cause you to drag so anchoring is stress free.

Tomorrow we will make the short hop to Falmouth.

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin