We have continued westward along the south coast of England over the past week. The wind has consistently been blowing from the direction that we want to go which means that we need to tack or sail on a zig zag course. We stayed in the Mayflower Marina in Plymouth as we thought it appropriate as Americans. One of our missions while in Plymouth was to get our dinghy’s outboard engine repaired. The internet lead us to a gentleman named Tony who repairs outboards up to 40 horsepower out of his garage. Our 2.5 horsepower Yamaha just needed a few tweaks and it is running a perfectly again. Tony not only repaired it in under an hour, but also walked us through the parts, sprayed additional lubricants in it and advised us how to properly maintain it. The Uber rides to and from his shop cost more than the actual repair, but at least we didn’t have to drop the outboard off and wait two weeks for the fix which is what all other shops had quoted us.
We spent a day touring the sights in Plymouth which included the Barbican which is the oldest part of the city and was spared bombing during WWII. It hosts the Mayflower Steps purported to be approximately where the Pilgrims departed to board the ship that transported them to the New World. The area was very touristy and we headed to a food festival in the city center.
We left Plymouth for Fowey (rhymes with joy) and again the wind was “on the nose.” The sea state was also rather lumpy and confused, and I had my first bout of mal de mar since setting out on Flight. It was relatively mild and was over quickly. Sailing into Fowey was lovely and sunny, with the hillsides lined by buildings of all shapes and sizes.
We picked up a mooring ball and figured that we would dinghy ashore in the morning to do some exploring. During the night, the weather became very unsettled due to a low pressure area over Northern Scotland bringing strong winds and rain. We spent the next day hunkered down on Flight in the harbor being gently rocked by wind and rain.
After the weather improved, we set out for Falmouth. The winds were still relatively brisk so we rigged our stay sail which is a smaller, more durable sail on the front of Flight. I had pregamed with meclizine to prevent seasickness, and although the waves were moderate, they were regular and Flight took great care of us. The highlight of the sail was a visit from a large pod of dolphins that enjoyed playing in our bow wave. They stayed with us for about half an hour and put on a great show.
The beauty of sailing coastal England is that we have had 5G cell phone service the whole time. I called ahead to Port Pendennis Marina in Falmouth to make a reservation and they put us along the quay with the super yachts where we were totally dwarfed and outclassed. One of the super yachts was named Rock and Roll and is owned by Roger Taylor of the super group Queen. He did not appear to be on the vessel, but the crew was constantly busy with boat tasks on the 50 meter sailing yacht (more than 4x the length of Flight).
I struck up a conversation with the owners of Chimera which was on the opposite side of the quay from Rock and Roll – Mike and Graham along with Graham’s son Elliot. They had just arrived back in their home port from Cork in Ireland. Because it’s always great to pick the brains of fellow sailors, we arranged to meet at a local pub called the Chain Locker for beers that evening. We had such a great time that we got together again at the Chain Locker the following night and their sail maker, Gareth, joined us as well. We learned a lot about sails and strategy as Mike and Graham are planning to participate in the ARC – Atlantic Rally for Cruisers – from Las Palmas in the Canaries to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean in late 2027. Alas, we had a great time with them but they had to return to work and their real lives in London. We will keep in touch.
There are currently gale warnings in the western waters, so we left Falmouth and headed up the Truro River and have been on anchor for the the past day. It is very windy but Flight is keeping us safe and comfortable. I have the Anchor Pro app on my phone which tracks our location on GPS and will sound an alert if our anchor drags. We have remained well anchored, but wind and current are moving us around on our 40 meter radius of chain. Our anchor is set at the icon, our path is recorded by the black squiggle, and we are currently at the blue dot. The app will sound an alarm if we venture outside of our prescribed circle.
We are just downriver from the town of Truro, the site of the books written by Winston Graham and made popular by the recent Masterpiece Theater series. Both are excellent and I highly recommend if you have not read or watched. The wind and weather are supposed to moderate over the next 24 hours and we hope to hop in the dinghy and go visit Truro in the morning.
Nautical Nomads 