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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