After getting back from Scilly l started working but the weather had other ideas and my 4 days of work took 7 days to complete.
The forecast was still changeable, and with the possibility of 12 days available, the Monday to Wednesday of the following week looked wet and windy. We decided to go local for a few days and return home for the bad weather before having a few more days aboard later. Plus after coming back from Scilly we had missed the date of the new recycling collection so it would be good to be home on Tuesday of that week.
So it was on Wednesday morning at high water that l launched the dinghy and took out diesel and gas to top tank. After that it was back to the pontoon and ashore with the empties, and then to Gear Farm for Cornish Pasties and on to St Keverne to the doctors for prescriptions and a little shopping in the village before heading home. Once home again, l had a shower and we packed up ready to leave, packed the pickup and we were back to St Anthony before the tide went out to far.
The tide was falling and we were running close to no water, with just 18″ at the end of the pontoon, we loaded the dinghy and Vicki and l climbed aboard. With really not enough water to lower the engine, l used a paddle to push us into deeper water and the wind was helping to. Lowing the engine and gently motoring out towards Gillan Harbour, once clear of the shallows off St Anthony we could speed up. At Elektra Vicki climbed aboard and l passed up the bags of stores and kit. I lifted the engine onto the pushpit and got the dinghy ready for lifting on davits before climbing aboard Elektra myself. In the meantime Vicki had started stowing the kit and stores, l helped with lifting down a few bags before lifting the dinghy on her davits. Once the stores and kit were stowed, we sat down in the cockpit to Pasties for lunch. While we were there our friend Stuart went out sailing in his Sadler 26. We watched him haul up full mainsail, he started his engine but didn’t need it, as the wind blew him seaward. The forecast was west-northwesterly force 4, we watched as Stuart turned towards Falmouth and rolled out all his genoa but after that something else must have taken our attention. It seemed quite windy in Gillan Harbour on the mooring and we discussed how much sail we might need, Elektra is tender, so she doesn’t need much! We decided just the genoa but we will have the main ready if needed.
I removed the mainsail cover and attached the main halyard to the main. Started Elektra’s engine and switched on her instruments. Vicki got ready at the helm while l went to the bow to cast off, once l was ready to let go l ask if Vicki was ready and l let go. Vicki turned Elektra and headed out around Car Crock buoy. Once we turned at the buoy for Falmouth, l unrolled all her genoa and Elektra was very quickly doing over 5kts as we crossed the entrance of Helford River. I stopped the engine and went below to do a log entry. The genoa was plenty of sail on it’s own, the wind seemed more like force 5. Elektra was romping along. It was then l saw Stuart returning to Gillan, on engine with bare poles and l wondered what happened!
Part way across Falmouth Bay Vicki let me have a go on the helm, shortly after taking over l found Elektra was starting to round up and so Vicki took over again while l pulled the first reef into the genoa, once l had winched the sheet back in again, l had another go at the helm. It was exciting sailing in lovely sunny weather which we hadn’t seen much of this season 😀 We had to leave space for a Moody 376 coming our way into Carrick Roads, she was also just sailing on her genoa as we both rounded Pendennis Point at the same time. From there she only slowly pulled away from Elektra before starting her engine and motoring from St Just in Roseland. We continued sailing and just north of St Just, we tacked west towards Mylor. Now low water there wasn’t much depth. Elektra was still romping along at over 5kts with just 0.5m showing under her keels. But l knew with it being neep tides there would be enough depth. Just off Mylor moorings we tacked again and headed north. At one point it looked like we would need to tack again but the closer we got to Turnaware Buoy the better we could point, only starting her engine and rolling away the genoa a few yards short of the Buoy. We motored into Channels Creek and dropped anchor, we had logged 9nm in 1.75hrs. It had been excellent sailing.
It was a lovely evening but Elektra was facing the wind and as the sun went down we were sitting in the shade behind the sprayhood. The wind was chilly, so we put up the cockpit enclosure and boy that made a fantastic difference warming us up.
Love Sailing 