I ended deciding on the long and winding road out rather than the route through St Helen's Gap (see previous post), the main reason for this was that the sea was very calm so that some rocks on the right hand side of the channel that were just under water were not visible (even very small waves would have showed them) so I would have been relying on the GPS and eyeballing the more distant rocks to find the channel. A very calm sea also gives more clearance over submerged rocks on the route through the islands.
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| My track (rounded somewhat) coming out, in theory I could have gone almost direct to "Hats" but at 06:30 there would not be much water so I kept to the deeper water and had at least 1.5 -2 metres under the keel all the way through. The slight movement north of track before heading east was when I was hoisting sail. |
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| The large screen iPad close to eye level showing Admiralty charts and the GPS position was easier to use than the smaller plotter which I was using as back up and to display the planned track. There I was in 3.8 metres of water so about 2m under the keel and I was going at what in practical terms is my minimum speed of 2.4 knots through the water when against the light wind. |
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| Looking back to St Helens on the left and Tean on the right, just visible left of centre is the lighthouse on Round Island. |
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| Old Grimsby. |
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| St Helens Left, round Island and Old Man. |
Leaving Crow sound I had a decent wind from the ENE although progress was slow with rather broken seas caused by the strong tide against the wind. Clearing the tide race I speeded up and was making reasonable progress hard on the wind until I switched on the engine to cross the Traffic Separation scheme (this one has to be crossed with the boat pointed east and I could not make that under sail). Unfortunately the wind died as I crossed so the engine stayed on until I was almost south of Longships, thereafter the wind went right round the clock ending back at Northerly as I came into Mounts Bay. With wind forecast to be E or NE for several days and Newlyn was likely to be full so I went back to St Michael's Mount for the night.
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| The N bound TSS lane was quite busy and I had to take action to avoid two joining from the east. |
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| South of the Runnel Stone under the cruising chute, but slow progress in light winds. |
Slide show of the RNLI lifeguard at Marazion, aided by some paddle boarders rescuing a family being blown out to sea in an inflatable. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:
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| Marizion RNLI |
For once one of my cunning plans worked, there is limited capacity at Newlyn and access to Penzance is limited to close to HW, with tides as they were anyone leaving Newlyn east or west would leave as early as possible, so I arrived outside at 07:00 and there was a choice of berths. It was just as well I did that because by early evening boats were double parked with 3 boats in most bays which is a bit of a squeeze. I had an 11 metre boat rafted up on me (Sancerre is 9 metres) and the smallish boat on the other side of the pontoon finger had an even bigger one.
Now (Wednesday) on my second day here and having done my visiting I may be able to move out tomorrow back to St Michael's Mount for the night to save a days berthing charges, then go round the Lizard to St Mawes on Friday and onto Fowey on Saturday before becoming weather bound again, this time with winds from the south or south west.
The Cheese shop and Chinese takeaway in Newlyn are both to be recommended, Camping Gaz at the Chandlery however was rather expensive.
38 miles over the ground to St Michael's Mount in 9.5 hours.
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