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Published: June 20th 2014
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Monday 9th June 2014 We left St Ives after our extended stay. It's 0840 and we need to arrive in Penzance two hours before & up to one hour after high tide so we can get into the inner wet basin, rather than drying out in the outer harbour, which we can't do as we are a fin keeler. High tide is 1434. It should be a pretty easy sail with winds forecast as S-SW force 4, gusting to 5-6. I know Seth & Mike are itching for a sail after being confined to St Ives since 4th June. Seth has taken not making it to Isles of Scilly well - so we are dropping him off in Penzance so he can catch his sleeper train to London this evening.
Mike has managed to speak to the company we bought the engine off back in Bristol and they have managed to work out a way to hot wire the engine, so get it to start without the broken solenoid. We can't risk sailing into a small harbour like Penzance without the engine working. In order to start the engine mike has to crawl into the main cockpit locker &
touch to wires together - but at least we can get going now!
We set off in blue & a little cloudy skies! If anything the wind is slightly lighter than forecast. (We are starting to realise the limitations of weather forecasts - BIG TIME). We are flying along at a consistent 6 knots for the first few hours. Both sails up and two happy boys! Just before lunchtime Seth puts the bread in to cook and we crack open a beer. We still have some Cornish Yarg & Cornish Blue cheeses we bought in St Ives to finish off and a cheeky bottle of red. The warm bread and cheese goes down well - lunch at sea! We have a fairly iconic sail - around lLands End & a few nasty rocks jutting out of the water!
After lunch the wind really starts dying down and we're down to about 3.5-4 knots, so we put the engine on and motor sail for the last hour & a half. Don't want to miss getting into the harbour. Eventually see what we think is Penzance @ 1430, sails down and motor over only to find we are in the
working harbour of Newlyn, whoops! Do a u-turn (That you can see on the tracker!!) and head on to Penzance. Get there with ten minutes to spare..
We are told to raft up against some other yachts in the harbour - 5 to be exact! Getting off the boat is going to be interesting with a broken foot - climbing over 5 sets of railings then up a chain ladder. ..but are is lovely warm showers and electricity hook-up!!!! Despite the assault course to get on and off, it's lovely to not have to jump in the dinghy & arrive bone dry (barring any accidents!?!) Everyone has a rest for a few hours before looking around Penance. Seth packs up his bags ready for the 2125 Riviera sleeper to Paddington.
Seth sets off in search of his last cornish pasty, but alas everything is closed. So the Cornish cider hunt happen instead - We spot a sign in the window of the Seven Stars pub proudly advertising 'Shane's Cider'. The first thing we notice upon entry is the lap dancing pole permanently affixed in the centre of the main bar room with chairs all around the edge. Next
the silence as the three punters at the bartur around to stare! I loved this description on wikipedia - Home of the infamous Shane's Cider. Known to be a bit rowdy at times. That says it all really! Second comedy moment was when the barmaid says to mike as she's pouring the cider - "Oooh it's a nice colour today - orange". We drank our quite nice, warm, still, cloudy cider before heading off for a more salubrious establishment. (Via the outside toilets ;-)
We have Seth's farewell dinner at The Turks Head pub, reputed to date from 1233 (http://www.turksheadpenzance.co.uk/history.html). Lovely food had by all, though Seth's seafood broth was definitely the winner. With Newlyn & Penzance both being fishing ports we knew seafood was the only option. Great value fishmongers are on every street! Mike tries the lime chilli ice cream too - It's pretty spicy!!! We drop Seth off at the station to get his sleeper train home and off to bed for us - albeit via our special boat obstacle course.
Crew Morale = 7.5
Distance travelled = 37nms / 6.5hr sail
Tuesday 10th June 2014 Wake up and check the shipping
forecast and both wind direction & wind strength not looking at all good. We decide to stay in Penzance for another night as with a slightly dodgy engine & potential 8hr motor ahead of us, we take the sensible option. Already our brains are thinking differently as we relax into the cruising life. I spend the day getting the boat cleaned up - have the lovely task of washing everything that has come into contact with salt water down. It's a sticky job, but already our tinned food is starting to rust where is got salty. Mike's doing odd jobs on board and drying out the outside lockers. It's great being in a working harbour. A huge freight boat maneuvers into the tiny harbour with some panache, to drop off some rusty old cars from Scilly. A lot of yachts in the harbour having just come, or waiting to go to the Isles of Scilly. A fair few foreign boats too including Canada & Norway. In the evening we go for a walk along the seafront, past Penzance's lovely 'Jubilee' outdoor pool (Which sadly is threatened with closure after suffering severe damage in the winter storms - http://www.jubileepool.co.uk/). We get
yummy chips from The Pirates Rest & eat them on the front. There is a little seal frolicking in the surf! Back to the boat to enjoy the first TV in 10 days!
Wednesday 11th June 2014 The tide times are kind at the moment - we can't set off until 1430, so long lie in before our first ever just husband and wife sail. It's a little bit tricky with the broken foot as normally Mike steers and I cast off, but as I am not very mobile and have to be careful not to jarr the foot, I have to be brave and skipper us out of the tiny harbour while Mike jumps on and off the quay & other boats untangling the lines. I do it with an audience of fishermen types watching me from the dock -one gives me the thumbs up as I steer us into the channel - girl did good! The wind is forecast to be force 3, lowering to force 0-3, and for once it's spot on so we only have sails up for the first few hours, but we get a nice little sail out past St Michael's Mount,
where a pod of dolphins (including tiny babies) swims past chasing fish. We follow our progress on the charts & do some more research on going around the Lizards - which can be a bit rough, with lots of hidden rocks! Mike puts the autopilot on, it's first test under sail. It's shorts and t-shirt weather the whole way, really nice not to be freezing in sailing gear the whole time.
We arrive in Falmouth about 2030 and then have to navigate quite a busy & tricky harbour. We find the Volvo Dealers pontoon quite easily though, although we only have about 2.5m of water under us as it is near to low tide. Falmouth looks beautiful already - hundreds of yachts moored up - feels like a nice place to spend some time. Feeling tired from our sail, were off for an early night.
Crew Morale = 9
Distance travelled = 32nms / 6hr sail
Thursday 12th June 2014 Lots to do today - starting with a Dinghy ride to the Volvo dealer to pick up the engine part. Luckily we are very close to the place where we need to pick up our
hire car to drive back to Bristol to get the verdict on my foot! Most amusing Dinghy ride over to the hire car depot with all our belongs precariously balanced in it. Guy in the hire car place takes pity on both my broken foot & all the luggage we have (including the outboard) and upgrades us from a Fiat 500 to Hyundai i30 for free!!! Gonna miss my disability erks when this boot comes off! About 1530 we head off to Bristol, great run - dreaming of limitless hot showers, baths & dry beds... And final goodbyes to friends and family.
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