Love Sailing

Friday 5th July

The plan was to leave at 0730hrs 1hr before high water, which wasn’t liked by Vicki as meant getting out early, I got first and went on deck to do some jobs. It was then I discovered a problem, our dinghy which had been left floating on a long painter was under Elektra between her bilge keels and Elektra was just starting to float, there was no way to get it out now!

This delayed our leaving by one tide as I had to wait until low water or until Elektra dried out again to get the dinghy out from under her! All was well and our dinghy was still ok after Elektra dried out again later in the day.

It was 1900hrs before Elektra floated again, not wanting to waist anymore time we were already to leave and once the sand filled water cleared again we started her engine. High water wasn’t until 2045hrs but with a passage to the Yealm River still to do we moved off quickly and headed out the River Avon into the flow. The tide was strong and coming in with it was a bunch of 15-20 swimmers, we needed to keep to the deep channel which meant not leaving much room for the swimmers between Elektra and the rocks. At the narrows the channel is only 7 meters wide, I am glad to say these swimmers got out on the rocks to give us room, now passing though the narrows at full engine power Elektra was only making 0.5kts headway with 1.5m under the keel. With the narrows behind us the depth under the keel became 2.2m and our SOG increased to 3.5kts.

Once out of the river we headed out of Bigbury Bay under engine, the bay was like a mill pond and as we neared the Yealm River a wonderful sunset for the end of the day. We anchored in Cellar Bay for a very settled night.

It was nice to of been able to visit the River Avon and with a few lessons learnt will visit again when weather and time allows.

Thursday 4th July

In holiday mood with a few boat jobs to do, the weather was great so we stayed another day, the plan was to leave on the next mornings high water and go to the Yealm River for meal in the evening at the Ship Inn.

Wednesday 3rd July

First rest day, I spent looking at the channel at low water and seeing the best places to anchor, I also booked a table at the Sloop Inn for an evening meal

The River Avon has a level sandy bottom with good holding, is fast flowing up to 4kts, the ebb runs for about 7.5hrs and the flood for about 4.5hrs

Its a good place to get away from the office, no phone signal on the river but once up in the village of Bantham you can get a signal if you want.

Tuesday 2nd July

There was no need to rush away from Salcombe so in the morning we went ashore for showers and cooked food before getting back aboard Elektra. we picked up our anchor at 1350hrs and motored out and set the genoa for the run down wind back to Bigbury Bay. Off Bolt Tail the wind died away and so we motored over to the Avon River and anchored at 1600hrs, the swell from the day before had now gone. Vicki asked “where is the river” I had been looking at maps and pilot books so I knew but the river wasn’t easy to see looking from the sea so I explained.

I set off into the Avon in our dinghy and motor around mid flood tide (I should have looked at low water) By the time I got in as far as the narrow the stream was moving at around 4kts and it was all the outboard could do to make an exit back to Elektra. Once back aboard I thought an hour before high water would be good for going in (wrong). I learned later from a local its better to go in after the tide has turned and started to ebb, only then do you have control and steerage.

Not knowing it at the time we started into the river at 1730hrs which was an hour before high water, the depth under the keel in the outer channel was 2.2m but as we were swept along with the tide and once in past the narrows had no idea where the channel was! At times the depth was only 0.3m under the keel but went deeper again before we found somewhere to anchor. Once north of Bantham moorings we dropped anchor at 1800hrs.

What a lovely River the Avon is

Monday 1st June

A place we had always liked the sound of but not visited because our last yacht had a fin keel was the River Avon in Bigbury Bay. Its a sandy drying river with fast flowing tides, we wanted to try getting in there this holiday. The pilot book suggests anchoring off at low water and going in via dinghy to look at the channel.

To get there for low water meant going against the tidal stream which would be running our way up to 0820hrs. We picked up our anchor and headed out of Cawsands at 0815hrs, the forecast was north-westerly 4. The stream didn’t seem to make any odds as we were still able to log 4kts SOG. Arriving off the River Avon entrance at 1130hrs having logged 13nm the northwest wind had seemed to have kicked up quite a swell and it didn’t seem like a good idea to anchor off the river, we decided not to stay and motored to Salcombe for the night.

We dropped anchor in Storehole Bay on the west side of the entrance but being outside the harbour speed limit meant we had speed boats speeding in and out of the bay so after Vicki had woken from her kip we moved Elektra into Salcombe and anchored in Sunny Cove.

Sunday 30th June

The tide stream wasn’t with us until 1345hrs for the 20nm passage east to Cawsands, so no need to rush away in the morning, we were trying to get into holiday mood. We might have slept in but the yacht we were rafted to left early in the morning, they were trying to be quite but made just enough sound to wake us, I got out as once awake I cant lie in bed so made coffee and went on my lap-top until Vicki got out.

Vicki cooked breakfast and we went ashore for showers and a pint at the sailing club, we might have stopped for lunch but after breakfast didn’t need it.

Back aboard Elektra we got her ready to leave, stowing the outboard on the pushpit, the dinghy we left on the foredeck and we cast off at 1415hrs. It wasn’t until we were motoring out of Fowey that I thought the harbour master hadn’t been around for any money, to late now!

This would be a downwind sail and I didn’t fancy goose winging 20nm so set just the genoa (a big sail on a Sadler 29 with a masthead rig). We were logging around 4kts on this lovely sunny day. I had been in contact with Katie and Derek on there Sadler 26 also in Fowey, they agreed to meet up with us in Cawsands but had decided to sail out to the Eddystone lighthouse and back in. We sailed on and after 3hrs had logged 12nm and were keeping 2 bigger yachts which were goose winged behind us, I think we might of continued to but both gave up sailing and started motoring. We sailed on for a while but I think its a GPS curse to be told your ETA, you start thinking about dinner time and its not long before the engine is started to get you there a little bit earlier! We motored the last 3nm to Rame Point and on into Cawsands dropping anchor at 1840hrs having logged 20nm in 4.5hrs.

About an hour later Katie and Derek arrived and dropped anchor, after we had all eaten they came over for nice evening with company aboard. They told us there hadn’t been any wind offshore, they had had to motor most of the passage and had given up before getting to the Eddystone because of the roll. Our plan was to go into the Avon River the next day but K and D were heading for Salcombe or Dartmouth.

Saturday 29th June

The forecast of west wind at the beginning of the week and east wind for later in the week we had decided to go east instead of Scilly this season.

With a forecast of north westerly 3-4 the plan was to get away as earlier as possible as the tidal stream would be with us from 1300-1900hrs.

At 1345hrs Elektra floated and we lifted the anchor and motored out of the creek to our mooring and attached our tender before dropping again and motoring out of Gillan at 1410hrs. I set full sail and we were soon logging over 6kts, we covered 6.5nm over the first hour. Our speed slowed as we sailed past the Roseland but after 2hrs we had logged  11.5nm. Just 2.5hrs after dropping our mooring we got to our waypoint off the Dodman Point having logged 15nm. Then the wind picked up to north-east 5-6 and Elektra started rounding up at which point I reefed the main and the genoa but we were still logging over 6kts across St Austell Bay, we past Cannis Buoy just 4hrs after leaving Gillan having logged 22.5nm. Sailing right into Fowey entrance before furling the sails. What a great sail.

At Fowey entrance we met a sailing friend Colin in his Sadler 26 who had sailed from Plymouth. In Fowey the mooring were full and in the end we had to raft to different yachts so never had chance to chat.

I pumped up our roll-up and we went ashore for an evening meal.

Friday 28th June

We had a few jobs to do before we could get away but high water was at around 1400hrs and once Elektra was floating we would only have a hour to get her out of Carne Creek but Gillan would be no place to stay in the end of a easterly gale. We had decided we would sail across Falmouth Bay to the Precuil River. Knowing the sea would be big I decided to take the high road from home to St Anthony which overlooked the Helford River and Falmouth Bay so we could look at the sea first.

Vicki and I were glad we did as Falmouth Bay was full of white horses and August Rock was white from rock to shore, we did fancy going out there! We decided to load Elektra as planned and stay aboard overnight and until Saturday’s high water when we expected her to float at 1430hrs, we would then motor out to our mooring in Gillan and attach our punt before sailing to Fowey.

After staying put on Sunday because we didn’t want to punch back to windward in the forecasted southwest force 6 gusting 7. Our planned time to leave was 1400hrs just 1.25hrs after low water, as it happened we were grounded at low water. motoring out from Restronguet Creek was very shallow with only 0.5m under the keel, once out to the channel I set reefed main and reefed genoa for the forecasted south-southwest 5. it was slow going against the wind and the incoming tide.

The tack at St Anthony light was the 9th and only by pinching a bit a wind did we manage to just sail south of Pendennis point into Falmouth Bay, the next tack was just off Falmouth Beach. As we headed southeast into Falmouth Bay I knew we didn’t want to sail across the entrance to Carrick Roads again with the in coming tide so waiting for the bunkering tanker to drop anchor we quickly tacked again which took us over to Maenporth Beach. The next tack was better once past Rosemullion Head the incoming tide into Helford River helped our line, we got into Gillan and picked up our mooring 1730hrs having logged 15nm.

Next we needed to take Elektra in onto St Anthony Beach for the tem-plating of the cockpit encloser on Tuesday, with another yacht already there this made it more difficult with the wind pushing Elektra towards her. We needed to use the same stern mooring and run a line ashore, having run a aft line things were not looking to good as I went ashore with the fore line, Elektra was getting very close, Vicki had gone on deck to fend off as I jumped off the punt into 3ft of water with line in hand. From dry land I was able to pull Elektra clear and make line off to a tree. Both Vicki were fit to drop by the time we got home that evening.

Tuesday evening I motored Elektra up into Carne Creek onto a mooring because of a forecast for east wind next weekend along with the need to get on with outstanding work.

Saturday 15th June

After a busy week at work the weather looked good for a weekend away but they were giving strong southwest wind for Sunday. We decided to go Saturday and come back Monday.

The tide would be out until 1300hrs so we had a lazy morning getting ready to go and when we arrived down at St Anthony the tide hadn’t yet come in enough to get out so we readied the punt, had an ice-cream, while we sat waiting for the tide. Once in far enough to launch the punt we headed out to Elektra.

Stowing the gear and getting ready to leave took another hour and it was 1415hrs when we dropped the mooring after setting a reefed main, on exiting Gillan I unrolled all the genoa and we were soon logging over 5kts. Vicki was on the helm to start with but the angle of sail was stopping the genoa filling so I suggested goose winging, Vicki hates this so I took over the helm at this point and headed for St Anthony Lighthouse, now logging between 5-6kts. I kept this up for a while until Elektra jibed herself back onto a port tack, we then turned and headed for Pendennis Point and Vicki took over the helm again while I adjusted the sails. On entering the Carrick Roads past Pendennis Point the log was reading between 6-7kts SOG. Now heading for Turnaware she seemed to have slowed down but still she was logging 5kts, gusty now in the Carrick Roads her speed varied but we reached Turnaware Point in good time at 1545hrs having logged 8nm.

From there I rolled and stowing the sails and we motored up to Smugglers Cottage on the Fal River to anchor. After anchoring we decided the shelter didn’t seem that good so we picked up the anchor again and motored back down the Fal River out into Carrick Roads, this time motoring to charge batteries with fridge on we made our way southwest to Restronguet Creek entrance (we had used this anchorage in the past with our other yacht) where we found a much more sheltered anchorage. Finally dropping anchor at 1715hrs having logged 13nm. Elektra having bilge keels we could have gone into the creek and dried her out but I didn’t know where would be good for that.

On Sunday I pumped up the roll-up to take a look at Restronguet Creek at low water to find a good place to anchor another time. That done back aboard to do the washing up and then in with Vicki to the Pandora Inn for a late lunch at 1500hrs. Back aboard in the late afternoon I had some boat jobs to do before sitting and enjoying the view from the cockpit.