Summer plans

Are coming together. My original plan was to explore Falmouth and sail back to Plymouth and possibly around to Torquay but I am having problems working out how to get a trailer and car back from Falmouth and around to Torquay as 'her indoors', rightly, doesn't feel confident enough to drive a trailer those distances.
Thus I will sail firstly to Fowey where I will probably stay at Penmarlem. A day exploring the Fowey and then it is on to Mevagissy, possibly via Charlestown. From Mevagissy, it is a long sail of around 20nm to Falmouth. Here I would like to try and find an anchorage somewhere up the river alongside St Mawes, so if anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.
A day sailing around the Fal. Perhaps a trip up to the smugglers inn?
Then after another night somewhere, again if anyone has nice overnight anchorages in the Fal area, please let me know, a crossing to the Helford river. A day spent sailing around the Helford and then the following day, a long sail back to Mevagissy. Overnight there and then the last day back to Plymouth.
It will be a round trip of some 150nm
I hope Arwen is up to it.....of course she is.

Cockpit tent 2

having posted about cockpit tents before, I discovered this site with an excellent discussion

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?143649-Designing-a-Cockpit-Tent&highlight=Dinghy+tent

boat ramp ettiquette

So I turn into my normal little canal bit between moored boats - and as I get closer, to my dismay, I notice a large 30' + aluminium hulled yacht dried out on the ramp. AArgh!

There is room behind her at the pontoon but how do I actually get Arwen around this monster and onto her trailer as there is barely any slip left and low water on a spring tide is fast approaching?

One of the yard team dashes down and shouts for me to turn Arwen around and head back around to the north slip instead. Easier said than done. The turning pool is small and the water is receding fast but with some fast outboard on and turning both outboard and rudder sharply, I manage to turn Arwen in the small pool and head back up the 'canal'. Another embarrassing disaster averted. Whew!

As I come alongside the pontoon on the north slip, I hang back and moor Arwen up some 8 boat lengths back from the ramp. In behind me comes two small trailer fishing boats who moor up behind. We all understand the rules........I walk up to find the yard team to check that it is still ok to run my car and trailer down their working slipway.

Imagine my surprise when I find a large 6m dive rib - a bright yellow banana - has pushed in front of us all. Imagine even more surprise when a guy in a white van then reverses his monstrous speedboat straight down the ramp and launches it in front of us all and then demands we all move so he can tie it up alongside the pontoon. He then drives off to park the car and trailer, leaving his poor girlfriend to hold a 17' long speedboat on a piece of string measuring 6'!  6' and cleated to the far bow , I lie not! It barely reached across the bow deck! The poor lady was sat on the pontoon with arms outstretched desperately trying to hold the boat on a tiny piece of 5mm string. We all of course gallantly rescued her and it was nice to see her 'let vent' when her boyfriend returned.....not that he showed any repentance whatsoever!

Chaos reigns until the yard team take control and bring order to the scene. I patiently wait with my car on the other ramp, ready to go when invited to. I also made sure that I parked well over the ramp allowing the yard crew to get their trailer down between me and the pontoon to tow out the rest waiting behind me.

It is about patience, etiquette and basic good manners really - isn't it? QAB yard team are awesome and work really hard. Always cheerful and accommodating, the least we can all do is make their job a little easier.

Suffice to say, van man then drove off leaving all the security gates open....so that other lesser minions could shut them behind him!

and one more.......

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QIpJoAZg7c

a short taster......

https://youtu.be/eD6sALmW7S4

 

A short clip of today. More to follow

 

Spontaneity.......

Spontaneity is getting up at six o'clock on a sunny Sunday morning and making the rapid decision that time and tide wait for no man so it's 'make all haste' to get the boat down to the ramp and launched!!!

What should have been happening was a) gardening and b) marking, lesson preparation and reading.

Sometimes though, that call of the sea, is just too powerful to ignore. 

Guilt is beginning to take hold of me now as I type this post. I'm feeling slightly irresponsible!

Hello! That's a rare sight! Something definitely out of place in the sound!

 

Yup! Definitely not what I was expecting.......Plymouth, 'the Miami 'of the west country! Well who would have thought it!

 I saw her coming in. I am amazed at how they manage to turn her in such a small space!

All quiet in the car park - no fishermen or stray 'leads' zooming overhead. Phew!!

 

It was a wonderful morning sail. A falling tide from 5.0 m. Everything went like clockwork until hoisting the sail out in the sound when a series of small events took place which sort of sum up my worsening absent mindedness. First attempt? I'd forgotten to unclear the downhaul. Second attempt and I'd forgotten to remove the very last sail tie. Third attempt and one of the slab reefing lines came undone and disappeared. Fourth attempt, and I must say, most infuriatingly, I'd got the lazy jacks crossed over somehow. Now I did attempt to climb the mast to try and reach it given it was flat calm with no breeze. But that mast was a slippery sucker.......and two metres up I was suffering vertigo holding on for grim death with knees locked around that mast. Consequently I just unthreaded the lazy jack entirely, hanked it all up and made a mental note to try and avoid being an incompetent idiot in future.

 

On the plus side, I gave 800 people eating their breakfast on the east side cabin balconies of a moored cruise liner, much to laugh about. That's just the way, never a cruiser liner around when it's going o so well, the tiniest mistake, and a whopping big one is there to witness your shame and humiliation.

A small navy ship is escorted out across the sound, taking the full way, across to Jennycliffe Bay and then diagonally back across the sound to exit at the western entrance.

 

the early risers; it is 09.30 and some are getting onto one of our tourist boats to be dropped off at the Barbican landing stage

 A few people were breakfasting out on their starboard balconies, soaking  up the early morning sunshine

Do you think it may be people from the Bahamas coming here for a holiday?

Probably not!!

 

Tenders plied backwards and forwards from the cruiser liner to Millbay docks, disgorging tourists to our fair city and one or two of our tourist boats managed to go alongside as well. I had this terrible urge to go alongside and offer up bags of Devon fudge, pineapples and jars of clotted cream whilst dressed as a Devon pirate! 

 

The RFA Black Rover was moored up near the breakwater and I have to say I felt much better about my own disasters but very sorry for the owner of the speedboat that had somehow 'parked' itself on top of the breakwater. No seriously, it was on top of it, well above the tide height.  Now that truly is a disaster to befall some poor soul.

How?  I mean how......there are rocks right in front of the breakwater......so how did it happen?

I criss crossed the sound, inside and outside the breakwater. Huge Box jellyfish the size of household black dustbins drifted alongside Arwen, their huge creamy brown domes about 2m below the surface. I've been told there are thousands to be seen and many have washed up on local beaches. They are huge!!

No idea who she was...by the time I had turned, she had set her sails and was out pacing me fast.......within fifteen minutes she was over in the lee of Penlee Point...........and I wasn't!!

 

In the afternoon, the sea breezes picked up and the broad reach back across the sound to Jennycliffe Bay was exhilarating. Arwen was making 5.9 knots, racing over wavelets and beating several larger vessels at one point. It is the fastest I have been in her and clearly has something to do with the sail alterations I made. Her upper yard was more forward of the mast; the sprit boom cleared my head. My friend, who suggested the alterations will be well pleased. 

So now it's time for marking and lesson preparation.......ugh! Back to earth with a bump!

Summer plans

are beginning to emerge. I think I will head east. The rough itinerary is as follows
Day one: Plymouth to Salcombe
Day two: sailing around Salcombe
Day three: sailing Salcombe to Dartmouth
Day four: sailing up to Totnes on the Dart
Day five: sailing from Totnes to Brixham or Torquay

Then I will need to sail back again as I can't work out how to get the trailer up to Torquay. The missus, rightly so, doesn't want to tow a trailer up there, having never towed anything before.  I think the sail back could be done in two days depending on the weather with a stop off overnight in Salcombe.

My other thought is to go west and drive down to falmouth. Camping at Falmouth, I could then do sails over to and up the Helford. A sail up to Truro or one of the other creeks sounds nice as does a sail around to Mevagissy or Fowey and back. I could easily soak up a week down there as well.

Decisions, decisions. 

A lovely little video

its a tad old but I came across this lovely report of a dinghy camp cruise. The video shows a lovely navigator under sail about 1 min 34 seconds in
Enjoy


http://www.eyeinhand.com/Marginalia/2013/06/29/to-sotterley-creek/

Yesterday's sailing

I was very lucky to get an invitation to sail on a friend's post boat yesterday.

It is a very nice boat. Precisely the same length and beam as Arwen and with a bowsprit as well.....the difference? Well this is a gaff rigged boat and there is no centreboard. The side decks are vastly reduced and in short it makes the boat far bigger inside with a long central walkway area where you could easily stretch out fully and lie on the bilge boards......which would make it a rather good dinghy camping boat!

waiting for high tide and entry into the River Plym

 

Under the helmanship of my very skilful and experienced friend, the boat sailed comfortably in winds around force three to four. She has a huge amount of lead in a small keel and so weighs much more than Arwen, consequently punching through waves and chop that would have had poor Arwen gyrating.

A Hawk 20 from out playing in the sunshine

On the other hand, with no centreboard, she did make some leeway. Still a very respectable average of around 3.5 knots was kept up throughout the day. I like the fact that the outboard is in a hole inside the boat! In addition, the sheer amount of locker space is amazing and it is so easily accessible.  The build quality was good...a very nice craft and so easy to sail with just the tiniest hint of weather helm on the tiller. 

out she peeks from behind Drakes island......

getting bigger........

....there she is......HMS Ocean after her refit......

taking the turn through the shipping lane into Jennycliffe Bay

she went off to anchor at anchorage 14 in Cawsand Bay

 

It was a grand day out, a welcome relief from the stress of new car buying. We had the sound to ourselves in lovely sunshine. The wind wasn't cold and the bonus was that HMS Ocean came out to play as well. Throw in some very excitable marines whizzing around in six large rigid inflatable craft at high speed, some tugs, three Police boats, a departing small ship impatient to get the pilot off Ocean and onto his boat so he could depart on the high tide, a good sailing friend and all in all it was rather an entertaining day. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

returning back to HM Drake/Devonport after a busy day

 

Checking my dimensions!

So I hauled out the plans and went all over them again.
The mast isn't short....it's the correct height.
The top boom and sprit boom are precisely the right dimensions.
The sail has been cut correctly although lacing eyes have been added by the sail mast even though they were not needed.
It has a Gunter yawl sail shape though and I can't find anywhere on the plans a sort of standing lug sail plan type affair!
Anyway, I reset where I had the reefing points on the sprit boom and moved them back a little so that when I pull down on them, the clew also moved back slightly....a sort of ouhaul affair.
Then I moved the sail up on the top boom. For some reason I had it tied lower down , don't ask me why. That should raise the sail a good 30cm further up above my head. I also replaced  the sail lacing. It has been on there for eight years!!

Eight years! Poor Arwen. She needs a new paint job definitely, a spruce up on the mast and booms, some screw holes filling on the sprit boom. Lots of little odd jobs.
Hopefully, when she rigs next time, the mainsail should go higher.
Oh! I also raised the jib attachment up another 30 cm as well so that should really tension the jib.

We will soon find out!