Cruising again at last!

With the partial easing of COVID restrictions in early July, we were at last able to stay aboard Maunie overnight and do a much-needed shakedown sail to Plymouth and back. It's frightening how rusty we felt after all this time of being landlubbers but we had a great few days aboard.

We've made a short film of the trip - you can click HERE to find it.

Of course, time aboard also allowed us to do more boat jobs - a mix of minor improvements and important maintenance:

A new splash guard for the engine panel, made with help from our Kilve neighbour Trevor and his fantastic bandsaw, from a spare piece of perspex we'd saved for just such a job

Sign of the times on a sailing yacht - a new charging station for phones

A seriously big (and expensive) screwdriver had to be purchased to persuade 23-year old bolts to move, allowing us to replace seized and worn sheaves in the deck organisers which lead control lines back to the cockpit winches

Ready for a new one!

We were rather overwhelmed by how busy the Dart and other south west harbours were during the school holidays, so have waited until the beginning of September to take a couple of weeks to go cruising. So, here are a few photos from the past few days as we sailed west from Dartmouth.

Waiting for the fog to clear in the Barn Pool, Plymouth

A better morning in Fowey

Alongside the short-stay pontoon in Fowey for a great view of a bulk clay ship being towed, stern first, up the river to the loading wharf

The old method was for the ship to drop its anchor on a short scope to drag along the riverbed, keeping her straight,  while the stern tug pulled her upstream. The forward tug now does this job, presumably reducing ecological damage to the river. 

On a visitors' mooring in Mevagissey - a harbour dominated by the sizeable fishing fleet and where visiting yachts are given limited space but are still welcomed.

Unsettled weather delivered some great sky-scapes

The inner harbour dries at low tide and is full of fishing boats....

... plus a retired lifeboat

looking down on the harbour. Maunie is the middle boat of the three in the foreground

Fishermen's dinghies, used to access the boats on the moorings

We sailed on to Falmouth in perfect conditions and will be exploring the Fal and Helford rivers for a couple of days as the forecast is for pretty light winds this week. It's lucky that we could access a reasonably large pharmacy as Di suddenly had a crown fall off (of the tooth, rather than headgear type, I should point out); thankfully she didn't swallow it and we hope that an application of what looks very like Araldite will hold it in place until she can visit our dentist.