James Hutchings

The conditions started off dead calm, no wind. So we motor sailed up to the bridge in the sound. The Mod/police asked to make room for an incoming warship, so we gave it a wide berth and carried on our way. Then at the break water there was a large swell. My crew didnt feel too good, so we decided to keep the trip local inside plymouth sound. The wind was Northerly so it was coming straight down the Hamoaze, so I had to tack all the way back up to the Lyhner being closely monitored by the police. we spent half an hour practicing lasooing mooring bouys while waiting for the tide to come in enough to get back to the mooring in forder.

Awoke to flat calm in the bay but a wind line just half a kilometre away. Got under way just before 10am and again had to take a long tack out to sea to gain sea room. After tacking the wind veered as expected and we made better progress along the coast and just squeezed in past Rame Head without needing another pair of tacks. We were again buzzed by dolphins - every day this trip 🙂. Getting Destiny tied up in her berth was tricky with the strong easterly wind - I need to think how to get over that. James helped get Destiny's sails off her ready for new standing rigging next week - thanks for that👍. All-in-all a very enjoyable weekend trip.

We had a slow start as it was beautifully calm in the river in the morning - time for eggs & bacon for breakfast 😁. As the wind got up around 10am, it had swung around to NE so we ended up close hauled again all the way back to St Austell Bay, after close hauling down the coast yesterday! We had to start with a port tack out to sea past the Manacles to get a good angle to get up the coast. As we approached St Austell Bay I was initially going to anchor off of Charlestown but there was quite a swell built up so we tucked into the bay in front of Polkerris, which was nicely sheltered. We dinghied ashore and met up with Rachel for an evening meal. Unfortunately Sam's was full inside so we ended up on the terrace of the Rashleigh - my fish & chips was average but Rachel's burger was underwhelming.

After watching the forecast for the past week, I was expecting light winds and up to half motoring but we had a good trip from Sutton Harbour to Helford in better wind than expected. Close hauled all the way, we were buzzed by dolphins a couple of times but they didn't hang around. On arrival at Helford we had carbonara on board as the pubs were full.