Travels and boat care
We decided to have a go at the next leg to Dartmouth as the weather forecast was showing a gradual lowering of the wind speed (from the East) over the day.
All quiet going out of Plymouth. We had 26 knots across the deck at Bolt Head (near Salcombe) and the wind and sea state dropped as promised for the last leg in Start Bay. We had the second reef in all day!
Clare and Mike and Angus are onboard for a few days based in the Mayflower Marina in Plymouth. We are doing a couple of day sails.
Out to Wembury Bay and back.
Up the river to the bridges, past Devonport.
On the ferry (not Molia) across to Mount Edgcumbe house and country park.
Another short leg from Fowey to the Mayflower Marina in Plymouth.
The east wind (no good to man nor beast) continues to blow. So we are staying here for a week!
Jo uses her anchor bottle opener!
Newlyn to Mylor.
Going well (video) – Lizard to Falmouth.
Tied up in Mylor – not quite where we intended. Due to a strong wind we had two goes at it – and this is where we ended up!
Dinner at the excellent Castaways Wine Bar.
Jo has done 54 miles from Padstow to Newlyn around Lands End 🙂
We left Oxwich Bay early (0500) so as to be in time for high water at Padstow.
A day off in Padstow. We met with Tracy and Darren who live in Boscastle nearby. Tim had to leave us after lunch – many thanks Tim for all your help getting us this far – particularly your anchoring expertise in Oxwich Bay.
In the evening we walked to Stepper Point and looked round the NCI lookout.
The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) was created as a charity after the coastguard was ‘reorganised’ in 1994. It uses volunteers to do the vital work of being the eyes on sea users of all persuasions. We saw the log entry for Molia going into Padstow – as the person on watch was able to identify us using AIS.
Still in Padstow today waiting for the wind to settle further south.
We walked up the Camel Trail towards Wadebridge.
Got halfway and found this coffee shop in an old railway truck.
Padstow fishing boats in the harbour.
As Swansea do not open their lock 24 hours, we needed to anchor so that we had time to get to Padstow in the day, before they open their lock approximately 2 hours before high water. So we chose Oxwich Bay on the Gower. This has a good write-up on Navily for the wind direction forecast (NE).
This is the big one for the year! Started today Thursday 18 May – we are aiming for Jersey in June, then back to Portishead at the end of July. Looking forward to welcoming all our crew guests on Molia, and to seeing all the people we are planning to meet along the way.
We have Tim P on board for the first few days. We hope to get him as far as Padstow.
Jo and Tim in the lock.
And we are off…
We had a great meal at the newly redecorated The Deck restaurant at Penarth – although Mark is still unable to understand BoatFolk’s latest reward points scheme 🙂
With Lou, Tim, Wendy and Jo on board. A perfect introduction to Molia for Tim.
