Turning round Land’s End and moving up North

River Fal

Before leaving Falmouth, we went up river Fal which offers a beautiful scenery.

We anchored in a quiet place and spent time watching birds. When the tide was low, a gray heron was walking the shore in search of food. On the hill just behind us, deer were grazing. During our first night at anchor, we kept a close watch to make sure that we were not dragging. The boat was changing directions completely due to the currents created by tide in the little creek. While lying in our front berth, we could hear the forces applied to our chain during the process. Fortunately, this is entirely normal, and everything was fine.

Another aluminium boat (Ovni 435) was moored not far from us. Of course, we had to go check it out. We were welcomed by Claire and Austin for tea and biscuits, and had a lovely chat.

As much as we loved the area, it was time for us to move on with our journey. Our boat had been lifted to complete the repair of the transmission and propeller after the events of the Isles of Scilly. Cockwells/Mylor Creek Boatyard did an excellent job in helping us analyse the situation and making sure that everything was fully functional again.

Passage round Land’s End

Now, to get to our next destination, we needed to round Land’s End at the Southwest corner of the UK and then move up North. Unfortunately, the series of beautiful sunny days we had experienced lately had a price: the anticyclonic system meant that there was very little wind. We chose a weather window with the appropriate wind direction, however we knew that the winds were on the light side.

The passage from Falmouth (Cornwall) to Milford Haven (Wales) is around 150 nautical miles and would take us more than 24 hours. The first part of the journey went well. We were happy to fly the spinnaker in these light winds.

After we passed Lizard point, the wind died completely. We had to start the engine to turn round Land’s End. It was important to complete this stretch before the current turned against us.

While making our way north, we had the visit of little birds who wanted to ride along. We watched the sunset and prepared to start night watches. With very light wind and rain, we slowly progressed toward our destination. As we were close to shipping lanes, we had to keep an attentive eye on the huge ships that crossed our way.

When we finally approached Milford Haven in a misty atmosphere, it was mid day. We anchored in Dale, where we wanted to meet Sara and Phil, owners of Vagrant to deliver the new mattress for their sailboat. Even though it had been slow motion, we were happy about this successful passage and drank a shot of well deserved Rum.