The final day of the voyage

We had a gentle end to our cruise - a 35 mile mile passage from Fowey back to Dartmouth that began at a reasonably sociable hour, for once. There wasn't a lot of wind so we motored for some of it but this gave us the chance to complete some on-deck maintenance jobs. Graham scrubbed the teak capping on the toe-rail with some magic chemical and Di took a toothbrush to the crevices around the hatches.




It's great that the boat is looking better at the end of the cruise than at the beginning; ongoing maintenance is so much less of a chore in the sunshine, with the scenery moving!

The log for the trip tells us that we've done 726 nautical miles and we've enjoyed it all. This trip has confirmed to use that Maunie is just a brilliant cruising yacht and we can't wait to take her even further.

Photos from Scilly to Fowey

It was a real wrench to leave Scilly, particularly in the fantastic weather. We rigged the hammock under the spinnaker pole on Wednesday afternoon to take full advantage of the setting.


The beat to Cornwall on Friday kept us both busy on the helm, with plenty of winching exercise as we tacked to make the best of the wind and tide.




Our Friday night anchorage just off St Micheal's Mount was very special. It's only in winds from the East or North-East that this spot is tenable and so we felt very lucky to have this view from the boat:


Once into Fowey on Saturday, we picked up a mooring and watched the evening race of just 4 boats ghosting out in a gentle breeze:

Scilly to St Michael's Mount to Fowey

We had glorious sailing conditions on Thursday - bright sunshine and Force 5. Only one tiny snag: it was blowing from the east which meant a long beat across to Cornwall. I got my tidal calculations a bit wrong, to add additional adversity, so it took a long time to get past Lands' End.

Still, we had beef pasties baked that morning at the tiny shop on Bryher (possibly the best ever tasted) and enjoyed the sailing, with lots of reefing and unreefing to keep us active. We got into Mounts Bay just as the light was failing and decided to anchor in the shelter of St Michael's Mount - supper was at 10.30pm and we slept well.

Today, by contrast, saw little wind so we motored the 8 hours to Fowey but again in brilliant sunshine. Suddenly there are yachts everywhere and Fowey is heaving with holiday makers. We're eating aboard tonight.

Photos to be added when we get to a better area for signal.

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A few photos from the passage from Ireland

The (only)benefit of a 5.00am start - sunrise at Crookhaven lighthouse.


Mist around the coast of Clear Island as we leave Ireland


The spinnaker set, before the wind got up!


We really go in there?! No wind but the large sea-swell churns the water at the entrance to New Grimbsby Sound, Scilly, into a foam


The view of the New Grimsby Sound visitors' moorings from Bryher, looking towards Tresco

We'd love to stay, particulalrly in this weather, but we'll probably head on for Falmouth tomorrow (another early start to catch the tide, of course!)

Crookhaven to Scilly

Well the wind turned up as forecast - a Force 4-5 from the NE so we had a belting spinnaker run out into the Irish Sea. After about 6 hours it all began to get a little too exciting, with big surfs down 2.5 metre waves (top speed 8.8 knots), so we packed the spinni away and poled out the yankee (foresail).

Unfortunately, also as forecast, the wind dropped in the night, leaving us rolling in the swell, so we had to motor from about 9.30pm until we arrived in New Grimsby Sound at 8.00 this morning.  We both managed some sleep in our 4-hour off watches so don't feel too bad this morning. We've had showers aboard, inflated the dinghy and are ready to hit Tresco in the sunshine!

Graham Keating

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