It was Good Friday, it was spring tides and as always with the first night aboard we had loads of gear, bedding and food to get aboard. The morning tide was going to be to early for us to get sorted before the tide would be gone so we decided to leave on the evening tide.
I got out in the morning to take some food and gear to “Elektra” before the tide went out. When I arrived down at St Anthony there was almost now swell left from the east wind, the tide was falling fast, I decided if she was still afloat I would move her out of Carne Creek and anchor off St Anthony to allow as to get away a little earlier. Arriving at Elektra in the punt I checked the depth which was reading 0.2m, so just enough to get out. Without stowing anything I started her engine and went to the bow to pull up her anchor. The chain came up easy but the anchor was well dug in after the weeks of east wind but in the end broke out, which I pulled up but left hanging from the bow ready to let go. Motoring out of the creek slowly the depth went to zero at one point but never stopped her, in the channel now the depth was 0.3m and then 0.5m until we got to the narrows and the depth went to 1.2m. Motoring slowly over to St Anthony I knocked her out of gear and walked up to the bow and let the anchor go, laying out the chain then making off to the cleat which brought Elektra to a stop as the anchor dug in. Once there I could stow the gear and which I had taken with me, I waited until she settled down and then headed for home.
Being Good Friday it’s normal for the locals to collect Cockles from the shores in and around the Helford River, so the area will be chocker blocked in an hour or two. We had to get everything ready for the weekend, the tide would be coming back to Elektra soon after 1500hrs but we expected parking to be an issue. When we did get back to St Anthony it was, we just stopped in the road and unloaded and I went to park where I could.
I took the punt down to the water line and we loaded the gear and waited for the tide to come up a bit more before I pushed off from the shore and loaded them on to Elektra before returning for Vicki with an empty punt. Now to stow the stores and get ready Elektra for the off. I had to motor Elektra out a bit because her rudder/skeg was bouncing on the bottom in the slight swell. We pull the anchor up and motored out of St Antony at 1615hrs hoping to sail I raised and set the mainsail but the was no wind!
The first weekend aboard is all about getting Elektra set up to go sailing and finding out what we have forgotten! It would have been nice to have a sail but motoring across Falmouth Bay it didn’t seem that bad, it was nice to be out on the sea again after the winters lay-up.
We motored in past St Mawes and up into the Precuir River and anchored at 1800hrs for the weekend, after arriving there seemed some sort of problem with the batteries/charging and also the engine cooling, something to look at tomorrow! Time for a rest!
Love Sailing 