Took a bit of a risk and headed to Fowey on thursday last week. Wind was forecast to be strong from the east for a few days, so would be difficult to return, but a window on Saturday looked possible. Turned out very well in fact. We had a bit of a slow sail over, taking over 5 hours, but got there without incident thanks to Rose helming all the way. Spent a nice day and couple of evenings in Fowey in the sunshine. Had the place to ourselves!
Bit of excitement was had when we were about to cast off in the dinghy to go back to Isabella, after a beer or two and a pub tea. It was dark, so almost realised too late that someone had swiped our oars!! More than a little annoying. It was late, and freezing cold. We borrowed some local oars, rowed across to Isabella, then motored over in the dark to return the borrowed oars. Gave us a change to try out the newly installed searchlight - which worked rather well.
Next morning required a pre-dawn start to catch the tide and wind back to Plymouth. This worked very smoothly and we got an absolutely amazing sunrise combined with perfect beam winds - which put us back off Plymouth in about 3 hours. As it was so lovely, we carried on and went up the Yealm instead of going back into Plymouth.
Next morning saw very high winds and some sizable swell as we motor sailed back to Plymouth around the Mewstone.
Am now sat aboard in Sutton Harbour again - still waiting on the return of our battery charger, and posting up on Marina Skip to see if someone has some spare oars we can blag off them. Marina Skip is a Yahoo group dedicated to offloading any excess sailing stuff you might have. Worth a look:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Marinaskip
Here's some pictures.
Rose helms all the way from Plymouth to Fowey
Safely moored up in Fowey, arrived just before dark
Lunar catches some rays in Fowey next morning
So does Rose
Isabella's back end
Rose looking rather fetching
Dog walk ends in Boddinick and the Old Ferry Inn
Cheers!
Fowey & Polruan looking rather fetching
Isabella - the only visiting yacht in Fowey
Warm when not in the wind
Sunrise on the way back to Plymouth
Sunrise on the way back to Plymouth
Strong winds up the Yealm make the boat heel. And waves!
