Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Thursday 13 August 2015

'Her Indoors' joins us for a summer day sail

Arwen and I were graced with royalty today. 'Her indoors' joined us for a sail around Plymouth Sound. With a steady breeze of 10 - 14 kts and lots of sun, it was a lovely day; marred only by the fickle nature of the wind. It continually shifted from N to SSE without warning all through the day. There were times when we tacked only to suddenly discover the wind shifting at the same time so that we immediately went head to wind. Very frustrating.

From Mountbatten breakwater end we headed straight up the eastern side of the sound under the lovely grassy cliff sides of Jennycliffe bay. Ghosting past the eastern end of the breakwater, we headed for the Tinker buoys before gybing around to the west and heading for OSR buoys.

The ferry came past; several dive boats with divers down in the depths; 'Ocean Majestic' rode her anchor taking on passengers; yachts came and went. None of the barrel jellyfish I saw a few weeks ago.

The sea was slate grey with rolling waves from the east. Arwen surfed down the wave faces. At times, waves appeared almost level with her decks. Rather fun......in a scary kind of way!!!

An error! I sailed into Cawsand Bay. The incoming tide and easterly winds trapped us there and after 40 minutes of fruitless tacking to and fro it became clear motor-sailing out of the bay would be required.

A final brisk tack back up to Plymouth Hoe and another tack into the Mountbatten area and the trip was over. Top speed 4.8nm; distance covered 7 nm.



A grand day out with excellent company!!

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