Voyage – Molia

27 August 20216 May 2024

Plymouth to Fowey

This is a classic sail for our day 3, and again light wind meant we were able to use the spinnaker. This time on a reach.

So we rigged the pole downhaul further aft using one of the mooring lines (not an ideal rope) as a strop between the base of the mast and a mooring cleat.

This worked much better for pole control – so I will create a more permanent arrangement using some dynema (that won’t stretch) when we get back to base.

As we left Plymouth Sound and entered Cornwall – so we showed St Piran’s flag at the crosstrees once again.

Fowey

It is always a great pleasure to go into Fowey; and today the weather made the harbour look as though it was in the Mediterranean! We tied up to one of the visitor’s pontoons on the Polruan side, opposite the town.

We inflated the tender to motor over to town for a little shopping. (Tim’s photos)

Seeing as we are in Cornwall, this is our dinner on the boat.

26 August 20216 May 2024

Torquay to Plymouth

Having diverted to Torquay our day 2 was a bit longer that had we gone into Dartmouth or Salcombe. Light airs gave us the opportunity to hoist Molia’s spinnaker.

Today we rigged the pole downhaul forward onto a block attached to a strop between the two forward mooring cleats. The downhaul is then lead to the cockpit in place of the first reefing line. This arrangement was not ideal as the downhaul then has to be adjusted whenever the pole is moved forwards or backwards.

See: Plymouth to Fowey for a better pole downhaul arrangement.

We had an excellent meal at The Bridge restaurant located in the Yacht Haven.

12 June 20216 May 2024

Penarth Weekend

A cracking sail down towards Cardiff on a very fast tide. We had time to tack round Steep Holm and then do a complete circuit of Flat Holm before lining up with the Cardiff Barrage channel.

Due to the spring tide, and hence the lack of water outside Cardiff, we waited until after low tide (1515) to make our approach. We entered the lock 1.5 hours after low water at 1645.

Jo arrived by train in Cardiff and met us at the marina.

We had a great meal at The Deck in the evening.

Sunday

Local guest for coffee – Zheng.

No water outside, so we motored up and down the bay until after low tide.

Very smooth trip back. The fast tide gave us great speed over the ground even though there was not much wind for sailing.

30 May 20216 May 2024

Weekend Onboard

We had not planned to go anywhere at the bank holiday weekend. So we were very pleased to welcome David and Sheila onboard, at our berth in Portishead Marina, for drinks on Sunday evening.

The fish and chip shop had a long queue – so we ate some of the ship’s supplies with veg from the co-op. On Monday morning our neighbouring boat went sailing, so I was able to take the photo of Molia from the side.

You can just see our cleaned wind instrument behind the coffee – I need to go up the mast again soon to put it back!

22 May 20216 May 2024

Checking the Reefs

The weekend 22-23 May featured some reasonably strong winds. In the end we chose Saturday for an afternoon shakedown sail to check that the reefing points work.

I can report that they both worked fine – and we needed them!