Friday 31st August
After coming back from our last holiday aboard on the 13th August I had been busy at work and today was our first chance to go sailing again.
The forecasters were giving south-southwest F4-5 and so we left shelter of Gillan at 1315hrs on just a genoa thinking it would be a speedy sail but only logging 3kts we knew the main was needed so I hauled up with one reef but quickly shock it out as we realised we would need all the sail, with 6-8kts of wind. Not the quickest sail but enjoyable just the same.
Broad reach to Pendennis Point, goose-winged from there north of Falmouth, then broad reach north of St Just in Roseland and then goose-winged up to Turnaware point.
At St Just now low water I knew we should have sailed up the deep channel but I thought the shallow ground would be deep enough (1.02 above chart datum) and its a muddy bottom anyway! I was thinking least amount would be 0.5m under the keel. Our offset on our depth is set to allow for bilge keels going in deeper when healing, so 0.0 is really 0.3 when the boat is level. Well I knew it was going to be shallow but when the depth got to 0.3 I was getting worried, then it went to 0.1 and then 0.0 at 4.5kts! I was reading off the depth to Vicki as we went, then I said “its ok it’s getting deeper” Vicki asked “what is it now” I said “0.1” Vicki laughed! I am glad to say “Elektra” never touched the bottom but I expect she was very close! That’s when local knowledge can be a dangerous thing!
Now back into deeper water we were still goose-winged and heading for Turnaware Buoy, now the genoa was beginning to back so I rolled it away and sailing in on just the main, at the buoy we turned across the wind and I started the engine. Vicki on the helm now turned into wind and I let the main down before motoring in to anchor. We dropped anchor at 1530hrs having logged 8.5nm.
Love Sailing 