On Monday 1st of July we pulled up our anchor in Porth Cressa and were motoring out by 0800hrs (what l didn’t realise at the time was if l had worked out the tide correctly, we should have left at 0600hrs or before).
But that wasn’t in my mind at the time, the forecast was for a steady north westerly force 4, increasing near 5 by evening. We were hoping for a nice sail back to the mainland. But there didn’t seem like much wind as we motored east, l had planned to sail back on Elektra’s genoa but for the first 3hrs we were motoring or motor sailing. Only after crossing the south bound shipping lane did we start sailing. A big car carrier was on its way south, first seen at 8nm, she was doing 15kts and l didn’t want to stop motoring until l was sure she was passing behind us.
Between Wolf Rock light house and Lizard Point 4 ships passed us to port between us and the mainland.
After logging 17nm in 3.5hrs under engine against the tide, we started sailing, over the next 4hrs we logged 15nm under sail. We would have probably continued like this but l then realised my error in the tide calculation! We needed to pass the Lizard Point way point by 1630hrs (13nm in 2hrs). The only thing was to start motor sailing again, we covered the ground needed in time and only had 4-5ft standing waves at the Lizard Point (not breaking overfalls). Once around to Black Head we sailed again but although doing 5kts though the water our SOG had slowed to 2.5kts, the tide had turned and was now running south! So we motor sailed up to Manacle Buoy before just motoring from there back to Gillan.
Motoring into Gillan around low water, l dropped anchor at 1930hrs having logged 57nm. Next thing to do was change the gas bottle as it had run out as soon as Vicki put on dinner. Being late and the tide out we stayed aboard another night.
The next morning we packed up after brunch and washing up, moving Elektra back to her mooring and went home for a shower.
Love Sailing 