Isle of Wight (Cowes) - Portland Harbour - Salcombe - Falmouth

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12th June Thursday



Cowes (Isle of Wight) - Portland Harbour/Castle Cove
Departure 7.50am
Cloudly and misty this morning at 5.30am when I was awake. I had hoped that it would be clear when we left Cowes but it started raining instead. We had to let the Ferry “ Red Funnel” from Southamton through first then we could leave. Sails up at 8.25am. We had all the sails up, it seems ages since we had all the sails up. We are doing 9-11 kts which isn’t bad. Still cloudy but the sun is trying. The sun came out at 9am. Winds have died down as we approach the main land.
11.25am approx, a boat came zooming towards us and asked us to change course to 240 degrees as we were going through a Naval Exercise Range. We changed course for 4 nmiles and then went back to our heading of 260 degrees towards Portland.



Arrival at Portland Harbour, Castle Cove, Northside 13.30pm.

We’ve put down our Anchor for the first time since we left Sweden. We are moored on the North side of Castle Cove/Portland Harbour. Very peaceful and smooth throughout the night. We stayed onboard and didn’t try to go ashore.




13th June, Friday
Departure Castle Cove 10.15am

No winds at all so we motored out of Castle Cove. The anchor wasn’t very dirty but we had the hose ready just in case. Coming out of the harbour we had 2 knot current with us. Further down near Old Low Lighthouse/Sheerlegs, the current was up to 3 knots. The sea is unruly and all over the place.

We’re going to try to moor up one of the rivers in Cornwall. There isn’t many that are deep enough for us but Lars has found one that might be OK for us.





Arrival up the river to Salcombe 17.35pm.

Wouldn’t like to try to get up the river in the dark. We have to follow the markings as in the charts otherwise we would of ended up on the sandbanks.
It’s lovely motoring though the river, high ragged rocks from the shore up to some really beautiful gardens to some wonderful looking houses. The Village Salcombe looks old and very well looked after. The Harbour Master’s boat came out to us and helped us with a Buoy mooring for the night.

It’s another first for us on this trip , mooring on a buoy. We have to have one that will take Dawnbreaker’s weight. We take the dinghy to “Normandie Dock”. It was called that for all the American’s that left Salcombe on D.Day in 1944.
We tried some pub food in “The Victoria Inn”. For just pub food it was very posh and really great. It is a very oldy worldly pub. The streets througout the village are very narrow and the atmosphere is very nice. It’s somewhere where I think my Mum would live, by the sea, friendly and very nice cottages and gardens.




14th June Saturday
Departure Salcombe 6.20 am

I find that if I don’t write the date and day straight away every morning I loose a day or two. I suppose it happens to anyone who’s on holiday.
Anyway, today is cold and very grey. Feels like rain is in the air. Had to watch that we didn’t leave at low tide, otherwise we wouldn’t of got out of the river. Get’s very shallow at low tide. The wind is in our nose so it’s motoring again.
I called Port Pendennis Marina to try and arrange a mooring for 5 days. ETA Falmouth should be 13.00pm. We may have to wait for another boat to leave before we are able to moor. We will have to see on our arrival.
We will be waiting for new crew members Uno and Peter Ö to arrive. They will be sailing over The Bay of Biscay with us.











Arrival Falmouth 13.10

Perfect timing. We were directed to a mooring just behind a wooden sailing boat. Looks like we are just behind the “National Maritime Museum, Cornwall”. There is a Festival in progress at the moment in the town. It’s called “A Sea Shanty Festival”. We can hear the music all around us from different places. There are some in the square near us, some in the pubs along the shore line. It’s really lovely to hear everyone singing and some are even dressed up as Pirates and seafaring folk.
Lars said that the last time he was here, the area where we are was just rubble. Now it’s a beautiful area with a square that has fancy appartments, shops and many different restaraunts and café’s.



15th - 16th June Monday

Today we are going to Land’s End. We have hired a car which we will have the whole time we are here. We’ve been to John á Groates in Scotland with Peter and Karl years ago and now we are going to visit the other end in Cornwall.
It’s a beautiful day. The wind is blowing a bit but it’s nice at Land’s End. Lars managed to take a lovely photo of us together. I visited a Dr Who Exhabition which gave me some idea of all the episodes I’ve missed over the years. I used to watch it all the time in England and scare myself to bits.

17th June Tuesday

We got up early today because it’s going to take us about 1 hour to get to “The Eden Project”. It was a clay mine which was not in service any more and this man had this idea of building paradise with Domes that would take care of themselves weather wise. There are Forests of tree’s flowers, bushes from different Conitents and then domes of European flowers and trees. Outside are pathways to follow with vegetables which are used in the restaurants. It’s amazing what a Hole in the ground which wasn’t in use and not very nice for the area and now it’s beautiful with tree’s, flowers that have a lovely smell, a place you could visit and go round for a couple of days.










18th June Wednesday

Today Uno and Peter will be arriving later today. Lars is going to the Airport in NewQuay to pick them up. They are coming from Stansted.
I have sorted out the boat and caught up with my washing. Lars left around 20.00pm as he got an SMS that their flight has been delayed a bit.
Uno and Peter have arrived, tired and hungrey. I’ve made soup which is easy and quick to make.





19th June Thursday

We decided to wait a day as the weather forecast showed Gales around The Bay of Biscay all the way up to The Irish Sea. The the evening yesterday and today it’s been blowing very hard here in Falmouth. Because of the weather situation last night alot of boats left that are going over to Ireland, the weather’s changed for the better up there.
Lars, Uno and Peter went for a walk while I was resting and ended up in The Maritime Museum. Later on we had an evening meal in the village where I had seen “A Seafood Platter”. Very nice I must say.

We are leaving tomorrow. The Harbour Master has told us that tomorrow afternoon alot of boats will be arriving for some races over the week-end and he will be needing our space. We were only going to stay until today anyway. The weather looks like it’s going to be cleared up by tomorrow so it’s going to be the start of our crossing from Falmouth to Ensenade de Muros in Northern Spain. Should take us 3 days maybe less we will just have to see how the winds are tomorrow.

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Comments

[viola]

Trevligt att läsa om resan, och alla bilder. Jag har idag börjat min semester, 4 veckor att göra vad vi vill. Här är det åter sommar, så idag har jag köpt cykel, sen var vi ute på en holme och badade. Huset har fått nya plankor så nu skall det klara sig under vår tid. Johan är på semester i Kalefonien (verkar felstavat) och Maria har fullt upp med sina gossar. Hoppas ni inte förgås i värmen. Hälsningar Viola