With the chance of another week aboard, the weather forecast apps just couldn’t make up their mind, each day on the run up to going away they kept changing their minds! It’s times like this, that you just can’t trust the forecast for more than one day at a time 😕
This all makes planning some cruising very difficult, we would of liked to sail east to Fowey then Salcombe but with no sign of the westerlies easing, it was looking like a slog back into wind for the return. So in the end we decided to stay local again. Friday and Saturday were wet with strong winds but Sunday looked good for a dash across Falmouth Bay. We hadn’t been in Restronguet Creek since back in 2018, so we planned a couple of nights in there with a evening meal at the Pandora Inn, from there we would look at the forecast again and plan the next move.
So Sunday was wet and windy to start with, the forecast said wsw force 4-5 for the afternoon, looking good for our crossing of Falmouth Bay in a north-northeastly direction and then north up the Carrick Roads. The earliest we could get aboard after low water was 1400hrs, only just enough water to drop the leg of the outboard into as we left the St Anthony beach. Out at Elektra Vicki climbed aboard and l past up the stores. While Vicki stowed the gear l lifted the engine from punt onto cockpit and dinghy onto her davits. We dropped the mooring in Gillan at 1500hrs, Vicki motored Elektra out while l set her genoa, Elektra quickly picked up speed and l stopped her engine. What followed was the fastest sailing of the season so far! Elektra’s new genoa is smaller than her old genoa but that didn’t slow her down. Elektra was logging 6-7kts SOG with no helping tide, the wind was more like force5 gusting 6, she covered the 4nm to Pendennis Point in under 40mins, Elektra lost the wind a little under the Point but picked up again crossing Falmouth Harbour entrance. At the entrance to Restronguet Creek l started her engine having logged 7nm in 1.25hrs. We motored Elektra into the creek slowly and dropped anchor at 1640hrs having logged 8nm
Went Elektra grounded in the night she was slightly bow up and listing slightly to Starboard, not too bad but a little more level would be better, in the morning when the tide was out again l surveyed a better spot, l said when the tide comes back we will move. I booked a table at the Pandora for 1700hrs. While the tide was still out the owner of the house on the Quay came over and asked were we scrubbing the bottom, l said l wasn’t planning to. Then she said that they owned the sand bank and although they allowed owners to scrub their yachts off, they didn’t allow anchoring for any other reason. I didn’t want to fall out so agreed to move over Feock side of the creek when the tide came back. So around 1400hrs we moved over the other side.
In the evening we went over for our meal and met up with our friend a fellow Sadler 29 owner for drink and chatting, before our meal. Just before dark we returned to Elektra. The next night at anchor didn’t work out well! When Elektra settled down she started to list to port and continued roll as the starboard keel was on fairly solid ground and the port keel on on soft mud which she continued to sink into. With no sign she was going to stop we spent the 0100-0300hrs sitting on the side deck until the tide started to flow back in. Once we were happy she had stopped rolling over we sat in the cockpit until 0400hrs, When she started to lift again we went to bed.
In the morning l didn’t want to go though that again and started getting Elektra ready to leave before the tide dropped to low. When ready the sounder was showing 0.5m under the keel as Vicki motored Elektra towards the entrance after l pulled her anchor up. Heading out towards the entrance the depth dropped to 0.2m under the keel before getting out into deeper water. It would have been a good day for a sail but after the night before we just motored on towards the Precuil River and eventually let Elektra ground in Place. I lowered the anchor and 15m of chain but it wasn’t set yet. The tide was still going out, in the meantime Vicki had got on with brunch. After eating, l went out and set the anchor, l did the washing up and Vicki went for a sleep. After washing up l also slept in the cockpit after the night before.
That day just slipped by as we both slept, catching up because of the night before.
On Wednesday shopping was needed, so across to St Mawes we went and a pub lunch at the Victory Inn before an ice cream and shopping. Once back aboard l went for another sleep and it was the air sea rescue helicopter which woke me as he flew in low overhead. Then we went for showers before returning to Elektra and relaxing in her cockpit. In the evening we played Scrabble and had a bottle of red.
On Thursday with the forecast of northwesterly force 3-4 and the same forecast for Friday l suggested sailing to Gorran Haven for Fish&Chips in the evening. We would have to go back to Gillan on Friday because Saturdays forecast was wet and windy from the southwest.
It was around 1100hrs before we were ready to leave, we needed to move by then or we would grounded again for another 4hrs. The tidal stream would be against us but with only 12nm to cover it didn’t seem to matter if we took a while. The wind was from the southwest, it was meant to be northwesterly. Although we were logging 3-4kts SOG we didn’t want this to be the southwest winds coming early. I checked to see if the weather forecast had changed but it hadn’t. We were about halfway to the Dodman Point when l suggested turning around having logged 6.5nm in 2hrs. I talked it though with Vicki, Gorran Haven would be exposed in southwest swells. So we decided to head back into wind now before it gets worse. So Vicki took Elektra about and l adjusted her sails. Now hard on the wind with full sail Elektra was punching forward at 5kts, tacking onto the crossing tack l could see we needed to reef, the easiest sail to reef was the genoa, so l rolled in a reef and a half. A lot better but we had slowed a lot so l let a little more sail out. And then we were off, logging between 6-7kts. We tacked again, over the radio comes the CG shipping forecast which l wanted to hear. I climbered down into the cabin with Elektra on her ear and changed the VHF to CH62. The forecast was still saying northwesterly winds, l thought just goes to show, you cant trust any forecast totally. Now with a good coarse to get in past Zone Point and keeping a 40ft sailing yacht behind us all the way back to St Anthony light house. Then the wind disappeared altogether, so we motored into St Mawes and up the Precuil River and dropped anchor at 1430hrs having logged 14.5nm. After packing away the mainsail l slept and lazed in Elektra cockpit afternoon sun 🌞
On Friday with a forecast of northwesterly force 4, l pulled up Elektra’s anchor just before low water and Vicki motored us back down the Precuil River. Out in St Mawes Harbour l just set Elektra’s genoa for the 4nm back across Falmouth Bay to Elektra’s Gillan mooring. Elektra was logging 4-7kts SOG in the stronger gusts and we arrived back in Gillan lhr after pulling up her anchor having logged 6.5nm. Now we had to wait for the tide to come in a bit before leaving. So packed some gear, had lunch and got ready to leave. We were home by 1730hrs having spent another week aboard but only logged about 35nm.
Love Sailing 