Dear All
The Admiral has been keeping you informed and hopefully entertained with daily reports on our progress so far. We now have a day off sailing so I thought that I should offer a contribution.
Progress up to now has been pretty good and we are ahead of where we expected to be after two weeks. The first few days were blighted by a lack of wind and a lot of motoring – when you have a fifty mile passage and are sailing at three knots there is always the temptation to fire up the engine in order to get there for closing time.
Favourite stops have been the River Yealm at Newton Ferrers – a narrow, rocky and picturesque little river where the river taxi escorted us to the sunny Swan and back. And Padstow: the notorious Doom Bar (the sand bank not the beer) was straightforward arriving a couple of hours before high water. Yachts tie up to the wall in the centre of the town, so it gives the passers by something to gawp at. Dave was carrying out some maintenance to his outboard, and had plenty of ‘useful’ advice from a couple of ladies on a nearby bench.
Least favourite passage for me was Newlyn to Padstow via Lands End. Going round the point we had strongish head winds, 2.5 knots of tide against us and a confused sea. Progress was therefore slow. Once round we hoped to wizz along the north Cornwall coast on a broad reach but the wind went northerly and stayed on the nose. It was doubtful at one stage if we would get to Padstow in time to get over the bar – there are few ‘Plan B’ options along that coast, but once the tide turned in our favour we picked up good speed.
Yesterday we left Fishguard Lower Harbour (a surprisingly quaint little anchorage) and once the wind picked up we had a good if slightly rolly run to Pwllheli. The approach was beautiful with the rolling hills of the Llynn Peninsular to port and Snowdonia to starboard.
We have been keeping an eye out for wildlife, and letting each other know on channel 72 when we spot something of interest. Dave has commented on the various dolphin encounters, which must be one of nature’s best freebies. Along the south coast we regularly saw guillemots bobbing on the surface, gannets soaring about, and shearwaters skimming the surface. Coming round St David’s Head we saw razorbills and puffins – puffins must be camera shy as they always dipped below the surface as soon as we got close enough to click…
We are now on a rainy lay-day in the marina at Pwellhi. The forecast for the coming days is pretty poor – strong north westerly winds. We will have a chat later about our options. We should expect to get stuck somewere sometime for a few days and this might be one of those.
Thanks for your interest and comments on the GB24 page, I hope its all a good read.
Michael, out!