The end of a brilliant trip

We sailed into Dartmouth yesterday, slightly overwhelmed by the number of boats out sailing and motoring! After two and a half months away and over 1820 nm sailed, it is good to be home, though we absolutely loved our time in Scottish waters so there's a tinge of sadness, too.

A little celebration on our return to our home mooring

The experience of crowed south-coast harbours did come as a shock; seeing yachts rafted three-abreast in Fowey and Dartmouth is a sign of how many people are cruising here rather than going to France, the Channel Islands and Ireland. These ports are, of course, fully geared-up to managing lots of yachts and will be enjoying the sudden financial bonus that all these visitors bring.

One harbour on our final few days stood out as being rather different, however. Newlyn, close to Penzance, is the only port offering access at all stages of tide on that stretch of the Cornish coast so it makes an obvious stop-off for boats heading between Falmouth and the Isles of Scilly. It could be a seriously popular sailing destination, an ideal place for a new marina to cater for the needs of those sailors who only feel comfortable when berthed somewhere that offers pontoons, electricity hook-ups, smart showers and a nice bistro. However, Newlyn's unashamedly a serious fishing port, home to fishing boats of all sizes and a very large wholesale fish market to manage their catches. Visiting yachts are tolerated rather than welcomed (and some yachties find this hard to deal with) but we managed to squeeze into a space and enjoyed the place.

Room only for a dozen or so yachts, surrounded by hundreds of fishing boats

Dartmouth, by contrast, is dominated by leisure craft; its fleet of perhaps twenty fishing boats, mostly small, is housed on a single pontoon, surrounded by yachts.

We've returned, of course, just as the hot, settled weather arrived so we've rarely seen the river so busy with visiting yachts.

Someone didn't get the memo about boat colour!

We'll be sad to be leaving Maunie after such a brilliant trip but we're looking forward to returning home to catch up with friends and neighbours and to enjoy the garden in full bloom. We'll get some shorted sailing trips in over the rest of the summer but, for the moment, this is Maunie signing off. Hope you've enjoyed the voyage.

Three types of fatigue - back in the West Country

 As we feared, the trip south was notable for the lack of wind so the drone of the Yanmar diesel was a major part of our lives for nearly three days. Or it was until it slowed and stuttered on day two - a partially blocked fuel filter was diagnosed and the offending item was replaced, a job that's not much fun in a rolling sea.

As ever, it was a fatiguing trip for the crew and for the boat.

Fatigued crew - Fergus falling asleep as he sat in the pilothouse

 

Fatigued shackle - this was holding the mainsail clew (bottom rear corner) to the boom until it suddenly parted. To be fair it's probably a 1997 original.

Fatigued Walrus in St Mary's Harbour, Isles of Scilly

We'll come back to the walrus.

Overall the 350nm passage was dull but easy and we were glad to arrive in Scilly as the next wave of rain crossed us. After a day's recovery and a walk on Bryher we moved over to St Mary's (the biggest island) as the sunshine arrived.

St Mary's Pool moorings

It was here that we (almost literally) bumped into Wally the Walrus, a geographically-challenged mammal who has decided that this is the next port of call on his tour which has included Spain, France and Cornwall. We we silently motoring the dinghy (thanks to the electric outboard) back to Maunie and came past Wally's latest favourite boat - he's already sunk a couple of fishing boats!

The novelty of Wally is definitely wearing off for the locals who are increasingly worried about the damage to boats that his one-tonne bulk is wreaking, but there's a bit of humour to be had.

Our day of warm sunshine was to be followed by a change of wind direction and the arrival of yet another weather front. More rain to come but we had some great skies last night.

We left the islands this morning , with a 05.30 alarm call to take full advantage of the favourable tides. At last we had a superb sailing breeze though it rained pretty hard as we headed towards Newlyn, meeting the RMV Scillonian, which transports passengers and cargo each day to St Mary's.

The soggy day has very slowly dried out and tonight's excitement is, of course, the England Vs. Italy match. All the pubs are fully booked so we'll be streaming it onto the iPad as a safer (Covid-wise) alternative. C'mon England!

Avoiding The Clach, The Leug and The Spoig - but looking for wind

More crew changes on Maunie - Dianne returned safely from her Lancashire trip, Geoff returned home and Ana and Colin (ex-Ithaca) joined us for a night and a very pleasant daysail. Finally, Fergus (Atlantic Crossing crew member) has just joined us for the passage south back to Devon. All in all, it's been lovely to catch up with everyone.

The Clach, The Leug and the Spoig (in case you're wondering) are three splendidly-named but potentially dangerous rocks in in Millport Bay, Great Cumbrae, where we picked up a visitors' buoy for a night.

Great Cumbrae is only a short ferry crossing from Largs and the houses on the seafront testify to the fact that it's been a holiday destination for well to-do Glaswegians for a century or more.

Looking south from the beach.

By contrast, the neighbouring Little Cumbrae is a privately-owned island with a ruined castle and a rather splendid (but unkempt) house. It was for some time a yoga retreat but looks as though it needs a bit of investment now.

Firth of Clyde sightseeing completed, we returned to Ardrossan Harbour to re-fuel, re-water and to stock up on food ready for the passage south. Unfortunately the weather gods aren't really playing ball so we have the option of a lot of motoring in little or no wind or else to wait for at least a week in the hope of a more favourable forecast. Time isn't on our side and so we've taken the decision to head for the Isles of Scilly in one passage (about a 55-hour trip) with the hope of a sailing breeze at least for the last day.

Glassy conditions off Loch Ryan and Stranraer

All being well, we'll get to St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, on Thursday afternoon. In the meantime having Fergus aboard makes the night watches very civilised 3hours on, 6 hours off so we should have some time to catch up on some reading!