Day 15. Sat 13 Jun. Falmouth to Newlyn. 52 miles.
After a most enjoyable evening listening to the sea shanty festival, washed down with a pint or two of Betty Stog, we got up early to take advantage of the 9.20 high tide to explore some of the Fal Estuary. This is the third largest natural harbour in the world, with only relatively little commercial traffic, so is a wonderful expanse of relatively sheltered sailing water. The wind was very light from the South, so we drifted across to St Just in Roseland under just the jib, and went up this creek until the water depth got down to 1.2 metres (Chelena draws 1.4 metres - 1.0 on the echo sounder). Then back to the Fal itself, where we sailed up to Restronguet, before returning to Falmouth to refill with diesel .
We then paid a fleeting visit to the Helford River, the undoubted beauty of which has been spoilt by far too many moorings. We would probably have had a better impression had we had time to anchor and explore ashore.
By 1200, the tide was now fair for the Lizard, so we hoisted the sails and tacked down past the Manacles in a Force 2-3 South West wind. Progress was slower than we needed, so we started the engine and motor-sailed all the way to Newlyn, with both Robin and Tim taking naps on the way. We tied up at 1830, and went shopping at the local Co-op, where David bought most of the ingredients for his famous marinated salmon recipe - but he couldn't find root ginger - the assistant asked if ginger ale would do instead. Then we retired to the Talcombe Arms for fish and chips, before returning to the boat, where David got out his sketch pad.
Day 16. Sun 14 Jun. Newlyn to Tresco. 35 miles
With a weather forecast of winds variable to South West force 3 to 4, there was no reason to delay getting to Scilly - but the addition of fog patches was less attractive, so we made sure the AIS was switched on so we could identify and avoid commercial shipping as we crossed the traffic separation zone.
We left the berth in Newlyn at 0945, and in fact the wind was light South Westerly, about Force three as we tacked down to Tuter Du, but then dropped, so we had to start the engine again until we reached the Runnel Stone bouy off Lands End at 1240. We then bore away towards Scilly, and turned off the engine, maintaining a speed of 4.5 to 5 knots.
There was very little commercial traffic about - we saw three ships northbound, and two southbound, but one of these was right in our path, so we tacked to get out of its way. We had to start the engine again, and when the tide turned pushing us North, we approached the islands from the North East, skirting the north shore of St Martins, then going through St Helens Gap (about 100 yards wide between two vicious looking rocks, into St Helens Pool, and round into Old Grimsby Sound off the East shore of Tresco. Thank goodness for a chart plotter.
Here we picked up a visitors mooring, two boats ahead of Blue Jay, which had overtaken us off Lands End, and David started cooking. Robin went ashore with Jane Best, and I launched the dinghy to test the new outboard. This goes well once you remember to turn on the petrol, and I followed the others ashore, and up into a ruined tower overlooking the harbour, where we had a good view of the dinghy drifting away. I had not hauled it far enough up the beach, in an effort not to scratch the paint on the propeller. Never mind, Jane was quick to the rescue, and various embarrassing photographs were taken.
Back to the boat for a very tasty meal of marinated salmon with all of the trimmings (root ginger supplied by Blue Jay), only to discover we had run out of water - in spite of apparently filling up in Falmouth. David and Robin were lulled into a false sense of achievement by an airlock in the filler pipe. So honours were even, and we were reduced to cleaning our teeth with bottled fizzy water.
Day 17. Mon 15 Jun. Tresco to St Agnes via Hugh Town. 5 miles.
The Isles of Scilly are magic. No cars on the out-lying islands, deserted white sandy beaches, bright sunshine, colourful wild flowers and remarkably tame bird life. We spent the morning walking round the south of the island, where we walked within a few feet of oyster catchers without them flying off. We got back to the dinghy just as Peter and Jane were coming ashore for a drink at the pub in New Grimsby. Strangely, we didn't need much arm-twisting to join them.
Regretfully, we needed to get some water, so motored across to Hugh Town, the main town in Scilly, on St Mary's, to go alongside the quay once the "Scillonian" left at 1630. When we got there, the harbourmaster told us we would have to wait for a couple of hours for the tide to come in far enough to get to the hose, so we picked up a visitors mooring and had a long cup of tea with the last of the bottled water. Eventually, we got alongside, but the water only came out of the standpipe at a dribble, so it took almost an hour to fill the tank - time spent cooking supper. At last, the tank was full, so we cast off, and motored round to The Cove, between St Agnes and Gugh, to anchor for the night.
Day 18. Tues 16 Jun. St Agnes to St Martins. 5 Miles
After a leisurely breakfast, we just managed to get ashore in time to walk across the bar from St Agnes to Gugh without getting our feet wet - just to say we had done it. We preferred St Agnes to Tresco - much quieter, with far less tourist exploitation, but no Abbey Gardens to visit (not that we did!), and no bird-watching hides. We bought a punnet of strawberries and some new potatoes from a roadside stall, but the strawberries were all eaten before we got back to the boat.
We wanted to move the boat to the North of the Islands, for a quick getaway in the morning, so we tried sailing to St Martins. Two things conspired to prevent this. Firstly, the main halyard got up to its regular trick of getting caught round the radar reflector, just above the cross-trees on the front of the mast. This requires sending someone up the mast to free it. Secondly, there wasn't any wind anyway, so we motored across, which allowed us to run the fridge, and picked up to a visitors mooring in Tean Sound (next door to Blue Jay). We saw Peter and Jane on the beach, getting out their folding bicycles, and once they were safely out of sight, we sent Robin up the mast to free the main halyard.
Then ashore to explore. We walked up the main road ( a cemented cart-track) to the island shop to top up on bread , milk and ice creams, and back along the beach. Back on the boat, a French couple on one of the other moorings wanted to move because they were too close to a yacht which was longer than the moorings were designed for. They rafted up to us, and gave us some Pollock they had just caught, which we cooked for supper.
Day 19. Wed 17 Jun Stormbound in St Martins.
One of the other moorings became available, so the French couple moved off soon after they had given us the fish - which was just as well, because the forecast change in weather came through overnight. We awoke to rain and Force 6 winds, with the promise of more to come, so abandoned any remaining thought of sailing to Ireland, and spent the morning on various domestic chores, like cleaning the cooker, and crossword puzzles. The Ship's Artist complained that the boat was too lively for colouring in his sketches, and the mooring buoy was doing its best to thump a hole in the side of the boat.
After lunch, the weather suddenly improved. It stopped raining and the wind went down. So we went ashore to top up with ice creams again. Meanwhile, we had exchanged with Blue Jay photographs of each other's boats off Lands End. The chicken we intended to have for supper had gone bad, so we had supper in the Seven Stones pub in St Martin's - a very friendly pub with magnificent views across to St Mary's.
Days 20/21, Thurs/Fri 18/19 Jun. St Martin's to Waterford. 145 miles.
Overnight, we got as many different forecasts as we could get our hands on, including two calls to the Met Office Marinecall service, and the Bill Smith bespoke service. All convinced us that the weather was improving, and the only difference of opinion was how fast. We decided to put our noses outside to see for ourselves, and for the first twenty miles or so, we were very comfortable with one reef, sailing at six knots plus on a close reach towards Ireland.
Three or four hours later, and twenty miles out, we clearly needed the second reef. The wind had increased to WNW Force 6-7, with waves at least 5 metres high, and we had a difficult decision. To turn back was possible, but the entrances to Scilly are all tricky, with offshore rocks, and we had made good progress, and the boat was coping well. So we put in the second reef and carried on.
The only real problem was coping with crew fatigue. Sitting up in the cockpit was perfectly all right. Trying to lie down and get some sleep was another matter all together. The bunk kept leaping five metres and then dropping! I was actually seasick, in spite of taking the tablets, and both David and Robin felt queasy below. So it was with considerable relief that after a long night, we eventually got under the lee of the coast. We had covered 131 miles in 24 hours - and in the planned direction.
The only minor incident we suffered on the trip is that the skipper managed to pull the inflation cord on his lifejacket when trying to remove it.
We sailed and motored a further ten miles up the River Suir to Waterford, where we moored at the city marina, and put our heads down to catch up on sleep. This turned out to be a mistake. The Marina is run by the city council, whose staff all go home for the weekend promptly at 5pm on a Friday, so we were unable to find anyone to take our money for the berth, or more importantly, to give us the access code to get back to the boat. (I rang the council's emergency telephone number, only to be told that "emergency" only meant housing emergencies such as water leaks, etc., and did not cover the public health issues of three British crew, unwashed for four days, roaming Waterford looking for pints of foaming Guinness.) So we went in shifts to the Tower Hotel leisure centre for showers, and ate on board, before retiring for an early night.
Day 22. Sat 20 Jun. Waterford to Kilmore Quay. 25 miles.
We slept well that night, finally getting up at about 8.00. However, the marina gate problems could not be cured, so we reluctantly decided to move on without exploring the city. The boat was moored head-to-wind, and the tide was sluicing down river, so we decided to give the locals an impressive but easy manoeuvre, and sailed off the pontoon, drifting down river at about 3 knots, two of which were tide. The River Suir is very attractive, and mostly very deep, so easily navigable, well worth the effort of sailing up to Waterford, so it was a great pity that the facilities were not up to scratch.
Down river, the wind was quite squally, so we decided to put in a reef in the lee of Creadan Head, in the river mouth, to give ourselves a nice gentle sail across the bay to Kilmore Quay. In the event, the reef was not necessary, but the sail, a nice gentle potter, was very enjoyable after the challenges of the day before.
We arrived at the harbour mouth in mid afternoon, and after failing to raise the harbourmaster on the VHF, attempted to moor on the marina hammerhead to be assigned a berth. However, David managed to get the bow-line round his legs, and went for a swim instead. This was not as traumatic as it could have been, for two reasons. Firstly, he was only ten feet away from the lifeboat, moored the other side of the hammerhead, and secondly, he was using the other manual lifejacket, which did not inflate, so we still need only one re-arming kit. The Ship's Doctor then prescribed a cold shower as a cure, which was duly self-administered under the fresh water standpipe.
After moving to the last available berth, and changing wet clothes where necessary, we went ashore to top up on provisions, and to survey the options for eating ashore. The harbourmaster told us that he understood the French restaurant was very good, but he could not afford to try it for himself, so we followed his example and went to the local chippie, which was excellent, but had an even longer queue than the one on the sea front at Aldeburgh.
Day 23. Sun 21 Jun. Kilmore Quay to Arklow. 50 miles.
The marina was quite busy overnight, with several boats coming and going, including our neighbour, who arrived at around 3.00 am, with much shouting, fending off with boathooks, and leaving the engine running for rather longer than necessary.
We had been warned that the showers at �'�1.00 each were very short and probably required �'�2.00. However the left hand one of the two gave better value, and we all managed to make do with the �'�1.00 version, after the luxury of the Tower Hotel yesterday.
The weather first thing was overcast, with very little wind. Although the sun eventually broke through from time to time, the wind remained too little to fill the sails, so we motored the whole way, with the Autohelm doing most of the steering, taking the "inside route" through St Patrick's Bridge, and inshore of Tuskar Rock. However, we seemed to have got the tides completely wrong, and fought the tide for the first six hours, eventually arriving in Arklow at 1930 after ten hours motoring.
Highlights from the Ship's log include:- "1600 - Tea and ginger cake. Midsummer's Day and a Sunday, with not another sail in sight."
Day 24. Mon 22 Jun Arklow to Howth 39 miles.
With another windless day, we took advantage of the close proximity of the marins to an Aldi supermarket (about 100 yards) to top up on heavy essential supplies like beer and wine, both of which wer getting a bit low. However, we fell foul of both the Irish licensing laws which forbid the sale of alcohol before 10.30, and Aldi's policy of only accepting plastic money from some company no-one has ever heard of. So we left our trolley and went to the cashpoint in a nearby shopping mall, returning at precisely 10.30. However, Aldi's electronic clocks were at least ten minutes slow, which was rather frustrating.
With food stocks suitably replenished, we then went to find various bits and pieces for the boat. We could not find a chandlery nearby, so asked at a gentlemen's outfitter. He promptly locked up his shop and went across the road to consult with a greengrocer. Between them, they sent us to a the hardware shop whose proprietor was a diver. He had most of what we wanted, so we went back to the boat to do some basic DIY, and succeeded in breaking two drill bits as well as the drill itself.
By this time, the tide was virtually right, so the voyage re-commenced, with lunch under way, before we could break anything else. There wasn't enough wind to fill the sails, so the Autohelm was engaged, and out came the scrapers and sandpaper to attack the cockpit varnish.