A Practice Cruise!

Nicky had to take some leave before the end of the financial year or lose the days off so we have just come back from 2 weeks sailing down to the South West of England.  A great cruising ground and we were blessed with some unseasonably good weather.

Trimming the Lowers

It was not all sailing though; we started the 2 weeks with some work replacing the lower stays.  Good for ticking off another job but we picked the worst weather of the whole 2 weeks to take down and replace the lowers.  It all worked well though; trimming the length and fitting went without a hitch.  Another session with the Loos Gauge helped set up the tension and we were able to correct a slight imbalance in the intermediate shrouds to straighten a bend that was being induced in the mast.   The shiny new rigging-screws look great but we had to get the stainless steel cleaner out to clean the chain plates, which is fine except that it now makes the stainless steel stanchions look like they need a clean.  Yacht ownership and full time cruising is starting to look like it could be a never ending polishing and cleaning session as we won't have the excuse of work getting in the way of having a gleaming yacht!

Enough of the maintenance - what about the sailing?  We aimed for Falmouth near Lands End and sailed down as fast as we could so that we could enjoy a variation on our usual cruising ground of the Solent.  We'd also arranged to meet up with my son, his girlfriend and my daughter for a few days so we had to make Falmouth as that was the arranged rendezvous.

Polperro mooring

Nicky and I sailed to Yarmouth IOW and then, after the tide had changed to be favourable again, on another 89 miles to Salcombe.  We made good progress and worked the tidal gate past Portland Bill to our advantage.  At the crack of sparrows we slipped and headed for Polperro; a beautiful little Cornish harbour which is normally too busy to fit a yacht of our size during the summer.  We had the mooring to ourselves which was a delight with the settled weather.  The entrance where the mooring buoys are is very narrow so we moored bow and stern to a buoy to avoid blocking the path of the fishing craft.
Inside the harbour is beautiful but it dries at low tide so is not ideal for a yacht with a 2 metre draft.

Polperro Inner Harbour

After enjoying walking around Polperro we sailed on to Mevagissey; a 'huge' passage of 12 miles.  However, the short sail meant we could enjoy a night at another small Cornish harbour full of character.  We  managed to buy a crab from the fish stall on the quay and thoroughly enjoyed pulling that apart for dinner.

Continuing in the theme of small Cornish ports, we anchored for lunch off Polkerris in glorious sunshine.  Just a pub and a restaurant there, so no thriving metropolis but very picturesque non-the-less.  Over a glass of wine at lunch we hatched a plan to head for the Isles of Scilly for a couple of days.  Indeed we did actually head off  after lunch in that direction but by early evening we had heard the updated weather forecast and the weather no longer appeared to be as settled as we would have liked for the Scilly Isles with much stronger winds forecast.  We turned around as dusk fell and headed for St Mawes.  It's always difficult to abort a plan but better to be on the safe side.  We crept into St Mawes well after dark and picked up a mooring buoy with the aid of a large torch and enjoyed a nice meal and some wine onboard before bed.

Polkerris

The 15 kt easterly wind and a relatively smooth sea created great sailing conditions as we tacked east to visit Fowey. We joke that it always rains or it is foggy when we visit Fowey and we were not disappointed this time with some rain en-route and a morning of fog after we had arrived.  However, after a slow start we put on our walking shoes and followed the coastal path around to Polkerris which we had anchored off two days before.  Once the mist had lifted it was stunning weather (picture left) and definitely not what you would expect in March.  After the day's 'route march' we treated ourselves to some fizz at sundowners and dinner ashore at a great restaurant in Fowey called "Sam's".  Much seafood was munched!

Saturday 24 Mar saw us move from Fowey to Falmouth to meet up with the kids and having got them onboard we enjoyed 3 days pottering around Falmouth harbour and across to Helford River.  Then, having said goodbye to the kids, we commenced a long predominantly motoring journey back towards Portsmouth because there was too little wind to sail in the dominate high pressure.  Typically, having got back to the Solent with a day in hand (we always seem to do that with work on Monday!) the gradient filled in and there was wind.  Ho hum.... in a few months we'll be free of the ties of work and can sail when the wind is good: happy thoughts of the sailing adventure ahead.