Day 8 - On passage again

After two great days in St Mary's and a farewell trip to the fuel berth, we're back to sea, heading north. The weather continues to be fair, the sea flat and the winds light - so there is lost of motoring.  

We were quickly rejoined by the dolphins, who seem to come with us everywhere !

Day 6 - Isles of Scilly

Even on a school day, moorings are in short supply at St Marys, and we probably got the last one free when we arrived just after 060 BST - even if it was for "a larger" boat. About half an hour later, a "larger" boat did turn up, on passage from France. They did a loop rather dejectedly and then we invited them to raft on to our mooring, Very competant sailors but rather less talkative than most of French yachtsmen that we have encountered previously.

More morrings.

The only really bad thnig that went wrong was not bringing an outboard for the tender, so having to rely largely on the launch service to and from the quayside was a bit of a constraint.
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Ashore, St Mary's is lovely, the weather is always fantastic, the locals friendly and all gods and services easily affordable.
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There is fuel on the quayside, a small supermarket and laundret withn walking distance and a good chandley not far away - although sadly short of rib tickling anecdotes about Port Elizabeth yacht club,
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Rat Island sail loft  is hidden round the back of the quayside. Like all properly run sail lofts it is a temple to sailing and the sailmakers are the high priests. I can't say enough in praise of their helpfulness. No really, proper.

Rat Island sail loft - a temple to sail making

An offshot from the sail loft - as though they needed one -  is Ratty's canvas shop, just off the main street in St Mary's. We bought a sailing / duffle bag of the shelf in blue and yellow but coudl have had more of less any size, configuration and colour if we had time to wait for a few hours. Great value for handmade goods made in the UK, and definately to be recommended.

Ratty's - go there and buy cnavas work!

Day 4 - Milford Haven up to North Scillies

We turned more or less dead south, heading across the Bristol Channel.

Although the weather remained fair and the winds light, the view of the sky remained hazy, depriving us of one of the great pleasures of passage making  - the great arc of the night sky.

Day 3 - St David's to Milford Haven

Day 3 St David's Head to Milford Haven 

Having passed St David's head in the night passage, we still had a long way to go to the Scillies and we were concerned about the amount of fuel we had left. What could be more natural than to steam up Milford Haven to get some more ?
On paper it looked very tricky, but in practice was much more straight forward than it looked. We were lucky to find the lock open and an easy berth awaiting us.
Equally, Windjammer Marina is the kind of old fashioned yacht chandlers that should by rights no longer exist, by which I mean nice people who know what they're talking about being helpful and selling useful stuff for reasonable prices. To say nothing of the  hilarious anecdote concerning over indulgence at Port Elizabeth Yacht Club !

Full of water, diesel, gas and fish and chips, we passed through the locks again - old hands by this time, and back out, down river to sea - leaving behind us an island of helpful cheery people in an ocean of otherness.

The skipper - still laughing about Port Elizabeth  yacht club.

The lock gates start to open

...and through we go

(02 July)- Day 1 - On passage and off passage

That's us ready to go and flying our new blue ensign from the Cruising Association!

The weather was perfect to set off, with a westerly  F3 and little sea state. Unfortunately, by the afternoon the wind had grown and backed to a F4 right from the south. By early evening found our selves reaching too and fro but struggling to make any headway south, as the wind built towards the top of F5. It looked like being a bumpy night at sea, but luckily we were about 3 hours from the shelter of the north side of the Llyen. By last light, which was 2200 ish,  we had picked up a buoy in Porthdinllaen, had hot dinner on, a bottle open and were relaxing in the welcome shelter of the little harbour. Many thanks to the harbour master for answering the phone mid-evening and offering us free use of any vacant mooring. It would have been nice to row ashore to the excelletn Ty Coch, but we were all too tired.

Progress Day One - HH to a welcome vistors mooring in Porthdinllaen

New year, new season, new plan

With the turn of the year its also time to start planning for the new season.

This season we're hoping our long cruise will be to meet up with one of the first mate's friends who lives in the Scillies. Time to start planning the trip now!