It was time to find out if we could remember how to sail again after 5-6 months off! It was Thursday 10th of April, we had a forecast of easterly force 3-4. With a few more bags going out to Elektra and Vicki and I in the dinghy, it certainly felt like a strong easterly wind blowing into Gillan Creek as we crossed to the narrows into Carne Creek, but once into the creek it was nice and calm. Out at Elektra, I climb aboard at the shouds, then once in the cocpit, I find it easier to unloop the stern starboard bridle which has to go though the boarding onto the starboard stern cleat. Once I had done this I can lower the ladder and Vicki can climb aboard, then I get back in the dinghy and hand up the bags and Vicki opens up the cabin turns the power and fridge on. I lift the dinghy engine onto the outboard braket on the pushpit and let the davit lines down and hook onto dinghy before climbing back aboard. I have a link line which I use to hold both fore and aft mooring together so once I pick up one buoy I have both. I need to let the stern go to get the dinghy onto her davits, but before I let go I die the joining line on, I make the line off to the port genoa winch. Then I can pull the dinghy out on her davits, making sure I lift it above Elektra’s tiller, I then check the outboard clamps and refit the padlock. By which time Vicki has restocked the fridge and stowed most of stores, but I go and help with the remainder.
I alway keep an hourly writen log and normally it’s one of the first things I do to get ready to leave, I have used the same format printed sheet since the beginning of 2011, before that I used to buy logbooks but they didn’t seem to fit my needs. Once I have jotted down the day, date, weather forcast, passage from/to, total log for this season, tide times, hight and range, engine hours and passage remarks, I start taking the covers off the instruments.
I uncovered the mainsail and clipped on the halyard, then I started her engine and switched on her instruments and VHF. Once ready with lifejackets on while I walked up onto the bow with the link line inhand having untied it from the winch, I tied it to the bow pickup buoy. Vicki was uncovering and unlashing the tiller, checking she was ready, I let go the bow buoy. Vicki took Elektra slowly down the channel and though the narrows into Gillan Harbour, while Vicki helmed Elektra, I pulled up the main with one reef, because of the sea crashing on the Dennis Head, Vicki took her east of the Carock east cardinal buoy instead of going though the gap which we normally do.
Once around the buoy Vicki turned her towards Falmouth and I set the sails and stopped her engine. With quite a lumpy easterly swell and what seemed not much wind, it was obvious we needed to shake the reef out, which I tried to do but for some reason the sail didn’t want to go up properly, so it looked really poor with a slack luff, there was a lot of tension on the halyard but it wasn’t going up! We had to tack by August Rock starboard buoy and then headed back southeast for a while before we tacked again northeast towards St Mawes, now a good line this took us all the way and I started the engine just short of the mooring and rolled away the genoa. The mainsail had slowly gone up as we sailed across the bay and was set very nicely when it was time to pack it away! Lol. While Vicki motored Elektra into the Precuil River, I packed away the mainsail and we motored in and anchored in our normal spot, there was one other yacht at anchor. Evenings this time of year are on the cold side so when we were motoring the river I put the cabin heater on, so once I had done my jobs and got into the saloon it was nice and cosy. With clear skies that night was very cold and we ran the heater moor during the evening and filled a hot water bottle for the bed.
We normally play Scrabble in the evening, but because we had a late dinner, we sat down with a glass of red and listened to music. We like the radio but sometimes the signal isn’t good or if it’s not the type of music we like, we also have a smart speeker to stream music. These days, we almost never listen to news, it’s all bad! We weren’t too late going to bed.
Love Sailing 