Friday 12th July
After a busy week at work the weather still looked good for the weekend so we decided to go somewhere local and rest in the sunshine. With the tide not being high enough to leave St Anthony beach until 1100hrs it was a lazy start.
Once aboard we got ready stowing stuff and ready to sail, at 1215hrs we dropped the mooring and motored into Gillan (into wind) to pull-up the mainsail, I had thought of reefing the main but in the end decided to use all the main and reefed genoa. Exiting Gillan there seemed very little wind under the Dennis head but once out into Helford River the wind showed up! Creaming along at over 5kts it soon became clear that a reef in the main would have been a good idea but with Vicki on the helm enjoying herself I didn’t push the idea.
I always thought Sadler 29s don’t go over far enough to get the side deck under the water but this was soon to be proved wrong! I was watching this 40 footer behind us and not able to catch up (I was very pleased). Vicki started feeling tired so I took the helm just before the wind rounded Elektra up at which point I suggested reefing the genoa a bit more. Now rolled away to 3rd of the genoa Elektra was easier to handle but the 40 footer had closed up a bit but still behind, arriving over Falmouth Bay to Black Rock I now eased off a bit and headed into St Mawes at which point the GPS speed reached 6.9kts! The other yacht turned and headed to Falmouth under engine. On reaching the moorings we turned to wind and stowed the sails before motoring into the Precuil River.
We motored slowly into the river and anchored at 1325hrs having logged 6.5nm
This weekend is about R&R and catching up with my blog which I have now done, I think its time for a beer!
Love Sailing 