25th Jult 2011 - In Falmouth

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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25th Jult 2011 - In Falmouth

Post by Jeff »

The end is almost in sight! Plymouth is just one trip away now!! But there's lots to do here in Falmouth first - loads of boats to look at, some work to get on with and some ice-creams and pasties to eat!

I was sad to leave Padstow, really liked it there once I got used to being overlooked by the multitude of tourists. And the best pasties ever were found in The Chough Bakery, which we could smell firing up every morning, and which is to blame for my growing abdomen. I think I'm beating Rose's baby lump!

The sail from Padstow to Falmouth...

Set off as soon as the tide gate opened at 07:45, with about 6 other yachts, and motored against the incoming tide.

As soon as we cleared the infamous "doom bar" we turned to port and started sailing, pulling away from all but two of the other yachts. The race was on!!! From what we could gather, everyone, like us, was bound for Penzance - the next nearest nice harbour to have an overnight stay.

About 7 hours later, all but two of the other yachts had (I think) motor sailed passed us. We hung on in there sailing slower and slower, but as we got to Lands End the wind died on us completely, so we motored too.

Rounding Lands End was awesome. Some amazing scenery and weird currents, swell and waves.

Then the wind switched back on, somewhat stronger and increasing. Motor off, back to reefed sails.

We continued with increasing speed and started turning North East to make for Penzance, but as we followed the curve of the land more and more Northwards, we were coming tighter and tighter onto the wind. All the while, St Michael's mount was growing larger and larger as we approached. Then I remembered reading that in the right conditions, it's possible to anchor off St Michael's Mount - so we did that instead.

Swell off the Atlantic remained absent so we stayed for two nights, feeling very privileged. Lunar was very happy when the tide went out enough and we could make the stroll along the causeway to Marazion. Lovely little Cornish village. Good pasties (Philip's) but not as good as Chough's in Padstow.

--

Tide for the next leg of the voyage started flowing favourably around The Lizard at around 8am which meant we needed to up anchor and get going at about 4am. Rose and Lunar stayed in bed while I got us underway. I was pleased to do this single-handed, without starting the engine. So were they!

The going was slow but I'd factored in some extra time and instead of motoring I poled out the jib and we slowly drifted south towards The Lizard (a notorious tidal race) while I fished off the back.

By the time Rose and Lunar joined me I'd caught 1 large pollock and 5 mackerel!! I filleted the pollock and we had him for breakfast - the mackerel went back as they were all too small.

Again we had to curve around the land, more and more northwards, until when Falmouth was in sight the wind was coming almost directly from it, so we had to tack our way in to the estuary. No way was I going to motor!! Tacking was a bit of a nightmare as there were literally 100's of other yachts. Our "rules of the road" knowledge was seriously put to the test while we sailed into a spectacle of sail.

All was fine and we dropped anchor right off Falmouth town having used the engine for a total of 10 minutes, right at the end, just to pootle about finding a good spot to drop the hook.

I'll not post up the stats so far, but we've definitely now sailed more than motored since leaving Whitby, which I'm very pleased about.

Some pictures...

Losers! Yachts behind us, failing to keep the pace!!
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Some people take it oh so seriously!! They should chill out and enjoy it more! See how they've overtaken us! Some people hey!
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Lunar, rounding Landsend. The Longships light in the background.
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Our view, anchored off St Michael's Mount for two nights
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Pollocks!
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Just _some_ of the yachts in the Fal estuary!
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Anchored off Falmouth town
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Heard tell of this boat before - it has the best name of any boat, ever!
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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Getting your money's worth out of your Rocna then!!! Felt sorry for 'Jackson' (the Pollack!!), wrong place, wrong line!!!

Rob
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

I would have hated to have tried this journey without the Rocna (a type of anchor)! Dragging anchor, twice, off Falmouth town a couple of years ago was the motivation to buy it in the first place. It has paid for itself many times over as a result of not having to go into marinas etc when the wind picked up.

Pollock was daft enough to take a mackerel lure on the surface - deserved all it got!! ;)
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hibernopithecus
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loving the tales of the adventure

Post by hibernopithecus »

Hi guys!

I've been an avid reader since I discovered your blog a few months back. Sounds like you are getting back home as old seasoned campaigners. Do you feel changed by the journey?

I feel inspired enough to find a local cruising club - its time I find out if I enjoy sailing as much on the water as I do in my head!

Oh, and congrats on the bump.
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Post by Jeff »

Hello :)

Thank you!!

Changed... not fundamentally I don't think, but certainly I'm a lot more chilled out about most things boat related - perhaps things in general. I am a lot blonder than I was, and more tanned (though only on my extremities).

Had never really got all that excited about "sailing" in itself. I think it's the whole experience of planning, departing, making progress, arriving and then exploring that combine to make every trip, however small, a great mini-adventure. Maybe it's adventure that I crave really.

I really like the feeling of self-reliance and independence from other people - and the self-containedness of our lives. Especially felt when we're at anchor.

If civilisation as we knew it fell apart right now, I'm in the best position I've ever been in to survive - and prosper... not that I expect it to :) But I like post apocalyptic movies :) Maybe on some deep instinctive level that's a good place to be for a general feeling of security and well-being.

What hasn't changed is my desire to remain living on a boat. I thought that might have waned after the novelty wore off - but it didn't. Quite the opposite!
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Post by methodman »

well done jeff and rose, just been reading about Doom bar, in a mag i bought while dreaming about my future boat.
whats the next plan then?
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Post by Jeff »

Hi Aggie!

What did it say about Doom Bar? In the Padstow museum there was a lot of stuff about wrecks and deaths on it! And what boat are you thinking of getting??!! Something with sails??

We've still got to complete the trip by making it to Plymouth. A good 7 hour sail - which we'll do in a week or two.

Meantime we're now checking out potential bigger boats and places to moor for early summer 2012. Winter 2011 will be spent in the Whitby area while Rose sprogs, so get some extra steak on order in your pie shop (http://www.humblepienmash.co.uk)!!

After that we've nothing planned really. Just mooching around down here on the new boat, and putting down some watery roots somewhere. I think we'll go back to land at the point sprog starts going to school, so some years of cruising left yet. France, Channel Isles, Scilly Isles and the Devon and Cornwall coasts will be our playground. Quite a playground!!
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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Must admit I still haven't really become 'one' with the whole anchoring thing. The Discus is pretty heavy and although we use a 15kg Delta, I always think 'will it hold????'. At what point did you just start to anchor and not really worry and was that feeling helped along by having a Rocna? How long are you happy to leave the boat unattended when at anchor? Do you make sure you are on board at the turn of the tide or if there is a significant wind shift? I think I may be just overcomplicating/thinking the whole thing. How is the new boat search going? Any candidates??

Rob (who is just full of questions today :? )

(Tanned extremities???? - Sounds painful!!! :o )
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Post by Jeff »

There wasn't really one particular moment. The CQR had been just so ineffective. We always motored astern to check it had set, and invariably it hadn't. If we motored HARD astern at always seemed to move a little.

As soon as we got the Rocna though it was instantly obvious things were different. It has always set first time, with no movement backwards under engine - even under FULL astern. It sets where it's dropped.

Initially I was diligent with setting up an anchor alarm and putting out loads of scope. But as time has gone on, and after a lot of nights with gale+ force winds, and still no dragging, even when we've had less than 3:1 scope (due to swinging room), I've started to get complacent.

I did dive down to the Rocna a few times when we first got it also. It looked happy.

We left the boat alone on the CQR quite often. With the Rocna we've done it loads. I'm more concerned about where we swing to than the anchor dragging - when the tide or wind change - but a little planning has made this not a problem at all apart from once off Salcombe (Portlemouth, when we had strong wind over tide with eddies in the flow).

From what I can gather, the Delta is nearly as good as the Rocna so I'd not worry if I were you.

Check out Rocna's YouTube videos. I watched those, and then placed an order. Very convincing!
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