#Padstow

Decision time 8am, looking at the weather forecast for the day it showed the wind at a steady F4 from WNW all day. We could be on our way by 9.00 am with a following tide for most of the journey, the downside was the sea state which showed large waves of 2.2 metres. The plus side was that most of this would be swell with only small wind waves. It wouldn’t be nice but it wouldn’t be terrible. Not going could delay us for another 4 to 7 days until another weather window opened.

So we decided to go. The gate on the harbour was late going down so 40 minutes were lost straight away, 3 other boats were preparing to leave, all going different directions, but we stole the march on them all, and were out of the harbour first. A bright sunny morning, it was good to be on our way.

As we made our way down the channel, along comes Andy Barker in his Osprey to say goodbye and wish us well.

And so it began, we got the main sail up and made our way to Trevose Head where we could start heading SW, but as we turned at the head so did the wind. Unbelievable, straight on the nose yet again! We briefly considered turning back but with tide against us we wouldn’t make the harbour and I didn’t fancy sitting at anchor for 6 hours waiting to get back in.

So we settled into our now familiar 1 hour on, 1 hour off routine, all the way to Cape Cornwall where we could finally use the sails. The speed went up giving us a boost towards Longships lighthouse. Rounding longships the wind died and we were back to motoring, the tide bringing us uncomfortably towards the rocks.

We were now heading East and as darkness closed in we could see a performance at the Minack Open air theatre up on the cliffs. Pot bouys, in the darkness now became Pot Luck. It’s a long time since we had night passaged, and it was a challenge remembering the different lights and what they were!

As we approached Newlyn harbour we picked out a number of dolphins around the boat, leaving trails of bioluminescence as they led us to the harbour entrance, and at 10.30 pm we tied up at our berth.

It was a quick supper then bed. Exhausted, but relieved to have arrived safely

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Sunday was a bit of a slow day, having done all our jobs, we only had to move out of the marina and go back to the anchorage at Castlebeach Bay ready for our passage to Padstow the following day. By moving we achieve two things, we avoid having to get out of the marina at some ridiculous time in the morning and we knock almost 2 hours off an already long passage of 14 hours. There was actually a third thing although we couldn’t have anticipated it, we missed the smoke and ash from a grassfire near the Neyland marina. (See photo)

Monday we woke at 0515, and not having been awake this early for a while it came as a surprise that it was still dark. Not that it was a problem, just that I hadn’t anticipated navigating the harbour entrance in the dark. As it happened, by the time we weighed anchor at 0600 there was some pre – dawn light. We were also delayed a little waiting to cross the shipping lane 🚢 , as a very large tanker, 4 tug boats and a pilot boat went past. Once clear of the harbour it was pretty much a straight line course to follow for the next ten hours. After a brief spell of sailing, the motor went on as the sea breeze died and we settled down to our hour on, hour off, routine of helming.

But today was a day of Dolphins with sightings once or twice per hour more or less all the way. Many were pairs, but we also saw some pods of up to twenty, one of which came to play around the boat.

As we neared the Cornish coast the sea breeze kicked in again and we got to sail for a bit as we fought an increasingly strong cross tide to enter Padstow Bay and cross the infamous Doom Bar. Doom Bar is a sandbank that can in some weather conditions be very treacherous and is the site of some 200 known shipwrecks. It’s also a well known brand of beer!

By 20.00h, after some 14 hours passage we were safely rafted up in Padstow Harbour.

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4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg

Sailing around Britain

Day 111 Aug 19th Padstow to Newlyn.

Days 106-107 Neyland to Padstow.