It had been Wednesday when we last left Elektra on her gale proof mooring before the forecasted bad weather. Now on Saturday l had to move her back onto her seasonal mooring before she would become neeped, it was an early tide so l was down at St Anthony beach at first light and launched the dinghy to head out to Elektra, the tide was already turned so l wasted no time getting Elektra ready to leave. I am quite used to seeing very little showing on the sounder. So with 0.0m showing l dropped her gale proof mooring and reversed her out into the channel, once over the channel the sounder was showing 0.3m. So engaging forward she came to a full stop, before heading forward slowly down the channel and out into Gillan Harbour. Even out in Gillan Harbour the sounder was only showing 2,5m under her keel, I was still only motoring her slowly with a paddle border to port and a swimmer to starboard, I was taking care of others on or in the water. When I picked up Elektra’s seasonal mooring, it was my intention to leave her there and head ashore but Falmouth Bay looked so inviting.
So at 0845hrs I attached the dinghy to the mooring, dropped and headed out for a sail in the bay, I just unrolled her genoa. the wind was northerly about force 3, she would have been faster with the mainsail as well but I was being lazy and didn’t want to repack afterwards. We headed east-northeast at 3-4kts SOG, another yacht coming out of the Helford River followed out track but even under full sail didn’t catch up. An hour later I turned her about and headed back to Gillan, sailing in past Carcroc Buoy, I started the engine and rolled away the genoa, the boats were lying across the enterance in a rolly swell, which meant motoring in and turning north to pick-up the mooring, just before the turn I noticed a speed boat coming in far too quickly as per normal (my pet hate, they dont know what havoc they leave in their wake). I don’t know what the skipper thought when I turned Elektra to starboard across his track, cutting him off! I think he was doing about 10kts at the time (the speed limit is 6kts). Mooring Elektra alone in these conditions is a challenge, a rolling deck, a lot of up and down motion when trying to hook the buoy, getting the speed just right before I leave the helm and walk up the side deck with the boat hook to the bow, to be honest I never looked at the speed boat again! I managed to hook first time but on the rolling deck I still managed to skint my knee leaving a bloody mess on the foredeck. Back to the cabin and clean up my leg and a plaster before washing decks. We had logged 8.5nm in 2hrs, it was a quick tidy up and going ashore before the tide went out.
Love Sailing 