26 May 2009 - Around Lands End
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24 May 2009 Plymouth to Mylor to Newlyn in 36 hours
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29 May 2009 - Waiting to get into Bude
26 May 2009 - Around Lands End
Having arrived at Newlyn at 1 AM, almost catching the ground crew on the hop, we woke up to find that Newlyn harbour had changed hugely in the year we've been away. We were very privileged to see "Gunslinger", one of the boats that survived the 1979 Fastnet race. She has been restored to her original colours and trim by her new owner, who races her regularly. There seem to be a lot more active fishing boats and yachts in the harbour now. It was also a treat for me to meet "Mitte", a Breton lady who married a Cornishman and has lived here for 30 years. I rarely get the chance to practice my incredibly bad French, so thank you for your patience! Thanks also to Newlyn RNLI who allowed us to use their lovely warm facilities.
We spent two nights at Tower Hill Caravan Site as there was absolutely no wind, waiting for the chance to sail around Lands End. It's almost our longest sail so we really need a decent amount of wind although we're not so fussy about the direction! A friend from college managed to drop in overnight, & it was lovely that he could see us off the following morning. We said goodbye to Paul, the cameraman who has been following us around and has become an honorary crew member very easily. It was extremely difficult to get this picture, so I thought I'd better publish it on the web! We have been joined by George for the rest of the trip, so we have had to rename the autopilot (traditionally called George after the "Airplane" films) "Ray" to avoid confusion...
We left Newlyn at the unusually civilised time of 9 AM on Monday for the mammoth sail around Lands End to Padstow (62 nautical miles). It's the longest but one sail of the trip. In contrast to last year our stay in Newlyn had been dry and brief. The Padstow Lions, led by Adrian and Peter, came up to visit us on the campsite with a gift of 3 beer mugs, which will certainly be well use once we get home! They are far too precious to risk damaging them in the motorhome.
With the wind coming from the North I was in the unusual position of being able to sail downwind. Even with the tide against us we were making between 5 and 7 knots over the ground. By the time we reached Longships Cardinal, at which point we ideally wanted to turn North and come inside the rocks, the wind had swung round to the North. This meant a long sail out and back again. As time went by the wind moved towards the North West so that we were once again pointing the boat into the wind. As the wind dropped off, so did my average speed, and even Arty can't make way against 3 kn of tide when there is no wind. I was relieved to get just past Newquay when it was obvious that we were beginning to drift backwards. We picked up the tow and arrived in Padstow just after midnight. The tide was definitely on the way out and we scraped the ground twice with "Sub", our RIB, which only draws 1 m as opposed to 1.6 m that Artemis needs. Fortunately her bulb keel didn't touch the ground. We eventually found the right buoy and moored until we could move her into the safety of the lock the following afternoon. She and „Sub" are sitting there now whilst we wait for an Easterly wind and calmer sea state so that we can tow me back to Newquay and sail to Bude, the only other viable port for us on the north coast of Cornwall. It may be some time before the sea state drops as a big storm is due to blow through. In the meantime the people at Harlyn Sands Holiday Park have put us up in their accessible static "caravan", so some of us are sleeping in proper beds and it's great to have a full size cooker for everyone as it means not having to dodge between motorhome and caravan at mealtimes. There's a rumour going round that Rick Stein might even take some time out of his schedule to come and meet the crew and even feed us at his pub, which is just down the road.
Page last updated on 31 May 2009 at 23:18