After being at home for 24hrs, we arrived back aboard Elektra in the evening of the day one month on from the fire. We had big plans to leave Gillan for Salcombe early the following morning. As Vicki stowed supplies, l stowed the outboard and pulled the dinghy up onto its davits and we gently got Elektra ready for passage making the next day.
By 1900hrs she was ready and we retired below to play scrabble and opened a bottle of red. We turned in about 2300hrs.
I awoke at 0530hrs and got out, put the kettle on for a coffee, it was light enough to see outside even if the cabin was still dark. Before the coffee was made Vicki had got out and l dropped the mooring at 0610hrs. Vicki motored Elektra east out past Car Croc east cardinal buoy as l set the chart plotter up for a way point off Bolt Head 50nm away. There had been a forecast of west- southwest force 4, but with only force 2-3 we would have to motor sail which l didn’t want to do for 50nm. We started a discussion on options.
We knew there was strong easterly winds forecasted from Saturday for 4 days. We could carry on motoring or motor sailing to Salcombe or sail slowly to Fowey and either stay there of motor to Plymouth area on Friday. We could motor sail all the way to Cawsands 40nm away today, then go in the Yealm River for the easterly winds. None of the options seemed very appealing to us, as no real sailor likes motoring or motorsailing. We knew the best place to be stuck in easterly winds was the Precuil River which was just north across Falmouth Bay. It wasn’t much of a choice really, with the decision made, l turned Elektra north and stopped the engine. Now sailing at 3.5kts, Vicki went back to bed and l dropped anchor in the Precuil River at 0810hrs having logged 6.5nm. It’s difficult to improve on perfection.
As l was tidying up on deck, Vicki made breakfast which we had about 0900hrs, with the washing up done by 1000hrs, l started nodding off, l seem to sleep very well aboard but not well at home! So l went to bed for a few more hours. The plan is to stay here until the strong easterly winds have blown themselves out and then go east.
Love Sailing 