We have spent the last 8 days in the Falmouth area waiting for a favorable weather window to sail to the Isles of Scilly (pronounced silly). The winds have been blowing out of the west quite strongly which would have made our trip west to the Scillys long and uncomfortable. Since we are not on a time schedule, we decided to wait for a favorable time when the wind would blow us in the direction that we want to go, or in other words, a weather window.
We spent several days on the dock in Falmouth, then decided to head up the River Fal toward Truro. We anchored in the river just south of Malpas, a small community with a marina and a pub named the Heron Inn. The weather was stormy and the winds were blowing hard out of the west, but our anchor held well in the muddy river bottom in an area named Maggoty Banks and we were safe and warm. The harbormaster visited to collect our anchoring fee ($10 per night) and give us some information about the area. He let us know that since the Truro River is tidal, we can only access the dock in Truro +/- 2 hours from high tide and that it would take us about 40 minutes in our dinghy to reach the harbor master’s dock. We were running low on fresh fruit and veggies, so we headed for town.
We stopped in at the Harbormaster’s Office to let them know that our dinghy was tied to their quay (aka dock and pronounced key) and to let them know that there was a shopping trolley (aka cart) in the water — a frequent occurrence. We did a self-guided tour of Truro Cathedral and wandered the cobbled streets to do some shopping.
On the way back to Flight, we stopped in Malpas for a hot shower and a visit to the Heron Inn Pub – I had a beer, Roman a cider. Both were very tasty!
We knew we wanted to head further west, but the weather was still not cooperating. We decided to head south of Falmouth and into the Helford River to wait for our weather window. We spent a little over three days there on anchor and the weather was a little too rough to even launch the dinghy. We spent our time reading books, cooking good food and relaxing. Finally, our weather window arrived! Given factors such as wind, distance, currents and daylight, we determined that a 6 pm departure time was optimal to leave for the Isles of Scilly. The day was sunny and beautiful, and we enjoyed listening to the band playing at a wedding under a large tent on the hillside near where we were anchored. After an early dinner and all of our pre-sailing preparations, we pulled up the hook ⚓ and were off. We ended up motoring for the first five hours, but then the wind filled in and we raised the sails. Sailing at night is incredibly serene and the stars were beautiful. We took turns sleeping in shifts and arrived at Hugh Town on St. Mary’s Island in the Isles of Scilly at 9:30 in the morning.
Nautical Nomads 