This morning it was a case of showers breakfast and enjoying the time having a good look around Falmouth, visiting the Chandlers and re provisioning the boat. I have been in Falmouth before on both Swagman and Csardas, but have to say that it has either changed quite a bit or my memory is getting a bit confuddled. Probably the latter!! I was also pleased that we kept going to reach Falmouth as the barometer is dropping like a house brick, so bad weather is approaching.

We must be getting a wee bit soft, because it is really nice to be on an alongside berth again, where we have the luxury of both electricity and filling the tank with fresh water. There are however signs up in the marina stating that no boat washing can take done due to the fact they are on a water meter. A five pound deposit gives an access card to the shower block, with the showers being free to use, and an access code for the marina gate.

We had a bit of a palaver trying to get a bus time table. The bus stance didn’t have any and suggested the Travel Agents – they didn’t have any and suggested the Tourist Information Centre…….it was closed!

We decided to leave the search for a bus time table till later and went to visit the Maritime Museum which was fascinating. The added bonus at the museum was they had an area set up on the history of Polar Expeditions, part of which contained many interesting artefacts from expeditions lead by my boyhood (and adulthood) hero Ernest Shackleton.

Sara fell in love with a restored steam river boat ‘Waterlily’ which had been beautifully restored, and was dinky in a Victorian kind of way – but once again like a fool I had left the camera back on the boat.

Funny thing is that we managed to get bus time table at the museum……………….

Managed to get reasonable connection and updated the blog on our visit to the Scilly Isles and trip to here. It’s sometimes tricky getting a connection that allows us to update photos etc patience is the name of the game.

The weather is due to deteriorate further with F7/8 being forecast within the next 24 hours, so we were looking to make a move. The winds are still from the east, and still forecast to go round to the south, making any leg over to Brittany not really a viable option. Instead we have decided to head up the English Channel with my thoughts being that we could visit either Newlyn or Penzance, as we have never been to either of them – or continue up to Falmouth. The wind must move from the east soon as it’s been from this direction for some time – fingers crossed. The Isles of Scilly are somewhat exposed and we really don’t fancy getting stuck here in gale conditions.

Decision made we headed out at 0630 and into some pretty big lumpy water, heading out to the east it was a wind against tide situation. One yacht was going out under bare poles (no sails up) and their mast was swinging about like a metronome! As for us, well let’s just say that I don’t think there will be any weeds left on the underside of Sun Dog! Quite a number of boats were heading back to the south coast as they have also been stuck here by the weather, and are looking to take advantage of the weather window before it slams shut with the gales that are forecast.

Once clear of the Isles of Scilly the wave height calmed down a bit (thank goodness) and the wind settled to around a steady F4/5 but it was pretty much on the nose as the wind was still from the east, and it stayed that way all day. So it was a day of motor sailing with the added joy of poor visibility. The visibilty was so poor that the AIS and Radar were swiched on all day, and we were glad to have both onboard in this busy stretch of water. Because we were motorsailing battery use wasn’t an issue, in that running the engine kept the batteries fully charged, as running all this kit does consume a fair amount of battery power.

The traffic separation scheme off the east coast of the Scillies was quite clear when we were crossing the bottom of it with only one ship heading south and none heading north. I have been impressed by the AIS system we had fitted, as it gives the big commercial boats course, heading, speed, and their destination on the chartplotter, thus the decision making process is a whole lot easier. You can “see them” on the chartplotter before MK1 eyeball can pick them up. This is because AIS is a system based on satelitte information and not line of sight like radar, and from the ships destination one can assess which direction they will be heading, once they exit the traffic seperation scheme.

I have to say that whilst it was a pretty slow slog up the channel plugging into the wind and waves, we decided to keep going for Falmouth as this would give good shelter should the weather turn as grim as the forecast. The only “land” we saw on the way over to the mainland was Wolf Rock Lighthouse, and from there on in towards Falmouth the commercial traffic increased quite considerably.

We gave the Lizard a good clearance to avoid tidal rips and then headed down and into Falmouth with the tide giving us a good push, and this gave us our best speed over the ground all day. We arrived pretty much 12 hours after leaving the Isles of Scilly and tied up alongside at the Visitors Marina. We will give ourselves a bit of time here to explore, and perhaps visit Newlyn and Penzance by public transport given we missed them out by coming directly to Falmouth.

Getting safely here in the weather window we had was a blessed relief, and we are happy to be safely sheltered, and tied alongside a pontoon with fresh water and electricity on tap…….luxury.

With the weather being what it is we are kind of stuck here at St Marys Pool, and we are not alone in being frustrated with the weather. A number of boats that came out for the holiday weekend are having to leave their boats on the moorings and either fly or get the ferry back to the mainland – real shame.

The chap who was moored behind us left to sail back to Falmouth, and after two hours changed his mind and sailed back to the Isles of Scilly because the conditions were grim.

The only wee bit of excitement we had (that ended well) was a call from a boat who had dragged her anchor in Porth Cressa and was bumping her keel on the rocks and requested the lifeboat. From his request to the full lifeboat crew getting to the lifeboat station, kitted up, out on the rib to the lifeboat on her mooring, and leaving was all done within fifteen minutes. Pretty impressive and testimony to the RNLI crews professionalism and committment.

They returned towing the boat into St Marys Pool, and then passed the tow onto the Harbour Authorities big rib who then took her alongside a mooring where she sits and appears none to worse for the experience. No doubt they will get her dried out alongside the harbour wall on the next tide and check out the underside.

Don’t know how long we will need to sit it out here, but we have no real options other than to be patient, and enjoy swinging about on the mooring in 25 – 30 kts of wind and having “interesting” trips in the dinghy when going back and forward to the shore.

Prior to leaving Scotland we made a decision that we would not allow ourselves to have any actual destination in our minds, and by that thought process we could simply enjoy the journey and meander at our leisure. That way, when we found places we really liked, we would simply stay, relax and savour for as long as we wanted. Well the Isles of Scilly fall squarely into this category, as we have simply fallen in love with these delightful islands.

Our first few days were spent at anchor in Porth Cressa taking the dinghy ashore, and enjoying walking the coastal paths around St Marys. This shot is of the anchorage in Porth Cressa, and you can see a Cruise Ship over in St Marys Pool.

Here is a clearer shot of the Cruise Ship

It is so peaceful on this island, and every corner one turns there is a different vista to enjoy. For a bit of a giggle we even hired a golf buggy for a day to go around St Marys. This was a lot of fun, and also pretty safe as there is very little traffic on the roads.

We visited most of the places of interest, including the spot where Admiral Cloudsley Shovell was washed ashore after his fleet was wrecked on the rocks off the Scilly Isles, causing some 2000 men to lose their lives. Those who remember their school history lessons, will recall that this tragedy led to the Government of the day putting up a sum of £30k for anyone who could come up with a timepiece that would work accurately at sea. If this could be done, longitude could be then calculated and an accurate position obtained, thus avoiding such terrible loss of life ever happening again.

This is why John Harrison spent his adult life coming up with various models until he invented the timepiece ( ultimately he had to fight the Government for his reward) which resolved the whole issue of longitude. Those who remember the TV series “Only Fools and Horses” will recall that Del Boy came across one of these watches and it finally made him and Rodney millionaires……….

We then moved the boat around into St Marys Pool/Hugh Town Harbour for two main reasons. One being that the wind direction was changing (and increasing in strength) and also because the whole place was filling up with people coming over for the World Championship Pilot Gig Rowing Championships. Neither of us had seen these kind of boats before, and only knew about the event from an entry in the Channel Pilot Book. We could never have imagined just how popular this event was, nor indeed the sheer number of people this brings to the islands. Hugh Town and the rest of St Marys cannot accommodate everyone, so the other islands hotels and B&B’s are also full, with the campsites across the islands also being busy. We were chatting about this to the Harbour Master who said that this event alone brings in around £10 million pounds annually to the local economy of the islands. Quite incredible!

We took a spectator boat out to watch the men’s longline heat where, believe it or not, there were 125 of these 22ft gigs lined up for the start. Each gig has six rowers and a cox. The support boats were full of family and friends all encouraging their respective teams, and this created quite an atmosphere, and it was great for us being part of the fun and excitement.

In this photo you can see the “Mathew” anchored out in the bay.

With all the visitors mooring buoys being full we were reluctant to move off and visit the other islands on Sun Dog, as in doing so we would have either lost the mooring, or to keep it we would have had to leave our dinghy attached to it, which in turn would have meant we couldn’t get ashore on the islands. This kind of defeated the object therefore we decided to leave the boat on the mooring and book a trip on a local boat called Calypso. This skipper offered a trip to three island on one day and gave us a bit of local history en route. We were dropped off, and had sufficient time on St Agnes, Tresco and Bryer to explore and get a feel for each of the islands, which in our opinion all have a different atmosphere. Our favourite island out of those we visited was St Agnes. However lots of people say that St Martins in delightful.

On Tresco it looks like someone has either lost their anchor – or are they simply making sure it is well bedded in?

The gardens at Tresco are well worth a visit, as is the old ships figureheads etc located at the Valhalla Collection situated in a corner of these beautiful gardens.

With us spending all this time enjoying the Isles of Scilly we missed our ideal weather window to head over to Brittany. Now we have the forecast indicating strong winds increasing from the east and veering to the south. This would not be good for the Brittany coast and it would also make it a bumpy ride to the south coast of England. So here we wait until we get the right “weather window” to allow us to move on – ideally to L’Aber Wrach in France.

A big happy thirteenth birthday wish to a smashing Grandson who is now a Teenager.

Lots of love Reyce, from Papa n’ Sara – hope you have a great day.

As it will take us around 24 hours to reach the Isles of Scilly, we left Kinsale at midday. The forecast is predicting westerly winds to begin with, then veering to the North West (ideal for our route) with a predicted wind strength of F3/4, and then reducing by night time to F3 or less, with the sea state smooth to slight.

On our way out we passed Charles Fort

Then the landmark Head of Kinsale

The first few hours were pretty much as predicted and we had all the sails up making about 4.5 kts of speed over the ground and really enjoying the sail under a sunny sky – it doesn’t really get much better when out on a yacht when conditions are like this and we were happy bunnies. As the forecast predicted the wind subsequently dropped and so did our boat speed to around 2 knots, so to maintain enough speed to arrive at the Isles of Scilly in daylight we rolled away the genny, left up the mainsail, and started the engine to motorsail.

The wind however did not stay light, both it and the seas started to increase and built to a F5 gusting F6, but thankfully on our quarter, and as long as the wind stayed behind us I was happy enough. We reefed the mainsail, pulled out a bit of genny and were belting along with the log sometimes showing 7.5 to 8+ kts. This was not as fast as a more modern boat would have achieved, but fast enough for little ol’ Sun Dogs’ hull design. I have to say that Sun Dog sat wonderfully throughout the night, as the swell and waves increased until they were a more than reasonable size (sic). Notice I am refraining from mentioning forecast v reality 😉

We had decided that when I went for a bit of shut eye that Sara would wake me whenever she saw any lights or was concerned in any way. It seemed to me throughout the night that every time I just got to the point of drifting off into a deep sleep that I would hear the words………….”sorry Gerry but there are boats ahead/to the side”………..and lo and behold fishing boats that had all the sea area to trawl were across our route. I kid you not at one point I was surrounded by them, and wish I had taken a photo of the chart plotter, as the AIS would have shown us with the fishing boats circling their wagons around us……bloody unbelievable, but it does have the positive effect of ensuring that one is really wide awake and alert.

All through the night the seas and wind stayed fairly constant………………..so much for the F3 or less forecast! – but importantly both boat and crew were comfortable. Before going (finally) to sleep I had asked Sara to wake me as we approached the traffic separation scheme (used to ensure a one way system for big commercial vessels) where yachts must not impede their progress and must cross these lanes with their heading at ninety degrees to the big ships, so that they can be seen more easily by the big boats.

When Sara woke me as requested I duly checked the AIS on the chart plotter (ships can be seen on the screen before being picked up with MK1 eyeball) and there was only one large commercial vessel showing as heading our way, with the AIS giving her course and speed. Therefore a quick bit of mental arithmetic told me that I could pass ahead of her with a safety margin of around one mile. I factored in that she would need a slight change of course to line up for the separation scheme and our forward progress (speed over the ground) all was calculated correctly. In these seas I really did not want to be slopping around waiting on it to pass across in front of us, as this would have been more than a little uncomfortable in these conditions! AIS is without doubt a really good aid to navigation, and I’m glad we had this fitted just before the start of our trip as it does provide additional comfort.

The Isles of Scilly duly hove into view and we were so pleased to see them, albeit we had to keep focussed to ensure we were tracking on the correct course through the North West passage as there are a serious amount of rocks awaiting the unwary.

No matter how carefully the planning beforehand, when you are heading towards your marker with jaggy rocks all around, and in reasonable seas it means that when you are in the trough of the waves you lose sight of land, and on the peaks have a good view – it’s a case of check, check and double check. Sara was our eyes with the binoculars to ensure we picked up and identified the correct cardinal markers. We were mightily relived to get into the approach to St Mary’s pool as we were planning on picking up one of their heavy visitors’ mooring buoys. However with the wind from this direction these moorings were very exposed and we would have been hellishly uncomfortable.

Therefore our contingency plan B came into force, and we simply went around the isthmus and into the anchorage at Porth Cressa, where it was a bit busy with boats sheltering, but we found a suitable spot and dropped anchor. Once secure we felt tired yet elated at safely completing our first “crossing” on Sun Dog. Kettle was quickly on, something hot made to eat, (as making anything hot last night was a big no no) and then some well earned zzzzzzzzzzzzzzd’s with no fishing boats to spoil my beauty sleep – and I have to say, we both slept like contented logs.

Around midday today with the sun beating down, and the Owenboy River like a millpond we decided to have a lazy day going down to Kinsale.

Here is photograph of us leaving Royal Cork Yacht Club and heading down the Owenboy River – it kind of reminded me a bit of Dartmouth/Fowey.

However, as has happened already this trip, as soon as we exited the estuary we had winds of up to 25-30kts. When I went to put a reef in the mainsail, the reefing line came right out in my hands! I’ve never really liked the rope the sailmakers used when they set the sails up, so it’s now consigned to the bin and a new one that can be trusted will be fitted. The rope they used is – and this is the real technical bit – made of a kind of slippy material!

Once I had the main sorted out we were out far enough to have the wind at our back again, and we had a lovely trip down the coast and into Kinsale. We were hoping to get a berth at Kinsale Yacht Club where I had been before with Marcus on Csardas, but I don’t know whats happening this week, because it was chock a block with boats rafted out three deep on the visitors berths. That being the case we went over to Castlepark Marina where there was plenty of space, albeit it is across the water from Kinsale and looks like a 1/2hr walk around by road or I will need to blow up the dingy…………..seems like a 1/2hr walk to me 🙂

We are both really pleased to have reached our jumping off point for the Scilly Isles and have been lucky in that the whilst the weather has been varied, it has allowed us to keep going and as such we have arrived here a lot sooner than expected. We will probably spend a bit of time in and around Kinsale, and wait for an appropriate weather window. Current weather forecast precludes us heading off for at least the next few days.

For those that don’t know where Kinsale is we are here…………….

Well this morning was lovely as you can see from the photo of the sunrise we took from our anchorage.

The effect of the tide/river was running strongly as we went to raise the anchor. All was going well until the chain jammed in the locker and stacked up at the navel pipe, (pipe which goes through the deck and guides the chain into the chain locker) which meant going down inside the boat to the underside of the bow and kicking the chain out of the way to allow more to drop into the locker. By this time we had done this the current had ran us over the chain and the chain scratched the port side of the boat…….bugger bugger bugger.

Once cleared however the remaining chain came up fine, and the good news is the new Rocna Anchor came up and settled reasonably well onto the bow roller – so that was good – in time we should consider having another bow roller manufactured to suit the Rocna, but it’s fine for the time being. Our plan today was to go down the coast and stop for lunch at Ballycotton which had been suggested by friends Ange and Marcus.

The exit we were taking would take us over the west bar, which with our draft wouldn’t be a problem, but when we exited past the lighthouse the whole scene changed as the seas were more than a little lumpy and were on our beam creating a real rolly polly situation for a time, as I couldn’t change course until over the bar and clear of the real shallow bits. Once clear I headed across the waves to settle the motion and kept going away from our course until I had enough clearance off the headlands to enable me to turn to starboard and thus have the waves behind us all the way to Cork Harbour. Ballycotton would need to be visited another time.

This leg was pretty much a straightforward trip down the coast dodging lobster pots etc until we cleared the headland and sailed into Cork Harbour, and then into the Owenboy River. We took a berth at Royal Cork Yacht Club, and enjoyed a lovely hot shower with plenty of hot running water. Looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight

Following on from yesterdays blog Sara and I searched the internet to identify the shark we saw yesterday, and just about fell out our seats when we saw the exact match was a Great White shark. My immediate reaction was that we must be wrong, so checked further on the internet and found that Great Whites are not uncommon off the Irish Coast – now THAT was news to me!!

The one we saw must have been a juvenile, and perhaps the “big splash” we saw might have been mummy or daddy taking a seal? In some ways I’m glad they were off chasing seals leaving their offspring to have a wee nosey at Sun Dog.

Makes yesterday all the more special…………………