On Thursday 12th of October, I had the chance of another sail, Vicki wasn’t keen because it meant getting out of bed earlier than she would have liked, so I went solo sailing again.
I had to get out from St Anthony beach before 0900hrs and wouldn’t be able to get back to the beach before 1300hrs due to the tide. Down at St Anthony I could see our sailing friend Aden’s catamaran was anchored in Gillan Harbour, so once the dinghy was launched I went over and said hi. Aden was heading back today to the Precuil River before the blow forecasted for Friday.
Once aboard Elektra, I had things to check before thinking of going sailing. Time had past and it was 1000hrs before I dropped Elektra’s mooring, motoring out the gap between Carcrock and the Dennis Head, I then turned Elektra east and set her genoa. After the sailing on Tuesday, I decided the genoa on its own would be plenty for the forecast of west-southwest force 3-4. Elektra sailed slowly downwind to the Nare Point, after rounding we set off southeast for Manacle Buoy at between 5-6kts SOG as we were running with the tide stream, Nearing the Buoy her SOG was 6-7kts. At Manacle buoy I turned her south and continued for about 3nm until deciding to turn back at 1130hrs having logged 6nm. Going north the SOG was slower running against the end of the ebb but seemed quite fast as Elektra was surfing down the waves as far the Manacle Buoy. Shortly after passing the buoy we were very much in the sheltered waters of Falmouth Bay.
At 1300hrs we had passed the Nare Point again and were close on the wind heading into Helford River having logged 12nm. As Elektra had a good line in past Mawgan Sheer we continued into the river and tacked just east of Durgan, I had only been into Helford River once this summer. best heading after tacking was south, the next tack took us to the invasion beach at Trebah. I might had gone on tacking but it started to rain so I turned Elektra east again and headed back to Gillan Harbour, picking up Elektra’s mooring at 1400hrs having logged 15nm.
At this point, I didn’t know today was our last sail, the forecast had suggested a southwest gale for Friday and then strong east wind for 3 days. But by Friday the east wind was expected to get stronger and continue for 7 days by which time there wouldn’t be many days left in October, so we made our minds up to Empty Elektra on Saturday and take her up Carne Creek to her winter birth in the evening.
Love Sailing 