The strong SW
wind 'earned' us a rest day in Plymouth - so we had a look around
bits of Devonport (ugh!) and went for a swim. Had to make up for
it, though, by making the best of fair weather to get to Newlyn (which is very
near Penzance - though we didn't see any singing pirates!).
Our journey today took us past the famous Eddystone Lighthouse - (the original one has been re-built on Plymouth Hoe), and The Lizard - the most southerly headland in England - so in a way we had already started to press North, having dipped below the 50th parallel for a short time on this trip.
The picture shows Tidewinder alongside a fishing boat, with a Moody Eclipse 33 on its way to Kinsale in Ireland, outside of us - Penzance is in the background. Newlyn doesn't really cater for yachts - but they are tolerated in this, England's largest-earning fishing port. The journey ashore meant scrambling over 3 fishing boats laid up for repair. This was great, but on return, the tide had gone out - and Ann was unable to make the required leap through space - so had to be rescued, at the lifeboat steps, by dinghy.
Newlyn is, however, a better passage port than Penzance - which has a tidal dock only accessible through lock gates around High Water. HW is far from an ideal time to leave for the Lands End journey - and in any case, our plans for an early departure would not have fit in with the usual office hours of the harbourmaster!
The 'Big One'!
We left Newlyn at 4:30am, again, for Lands End - and the prospect
of our longest non-stop passage ever. 7:00am found us passing
Land's End - with the unusual benefit of the headland providing
us with shelter from a stiffish South Easterly wind and lumpy
swell - and the common Atlantic Swell expected in these parts,
totally absent.
The photo shows Ann and Stephen, with Longship's lighthouse, and Lands End headland in the background. A special play of 'Ellan Vannin' to mark this significant milepost on the way home - and the start of about 170 miles journey almost due North. Lands End peninsula itself is quite uninspiring from seaward - it doesn't even have a lighthouse itself - Cape Cornwall a few miles north was our first 'Cape' - there are only 2 in Britain.
With shelter from the Cornish peninsula, the weather settled for the 50 miles or so with too little wind - so we made good speed by motor-sailing. Towards the middle of the afternoon, the wind increased to E/SE force 4/5 - and the boat really got in her groove - tramping along at 7-7.5 knots - 100 miles on one tack - a beautiful broad reach. We saw no sign of land a couple of hours after Lands End until about 9pm when we were off The Smalls lighthouse in a rather grey of dusk - in fact we only saw about 6 other vessels.
A thrilling treat at 8:30pm - we were joined by a small group of common dolphins who stayed with us for about an hour and a half on and off - playing with the boat's bow wave - leaping and crossing from side to side under the boat - a wonderful sight that brightened what can be a gloomy part of the day on a long passage - and took the sting out of the Irish sea areas forecast of winds possibly rising to force 6.
The fair winds continued right through the night - and really only got as high as F5 - which over the Starboard quarter, could hardly be bettered. We passed the big-ship traffic separation schemes off Smalls and later off Tuskar Rock (SE Ireland) towards dawn. Big ships and little ships don 't mix well so we had the ideal chance to use the new Raytheon 'Pathfinder' Radar to good effect in the poor visibility.
Distant flashes of lightning during the night turned into a torrential downpour and thunderstorm at dawn. With the wind dropping - and this coupled with correcting our course towards the Irish coast bringing the wind too much over our stern for good progress - we cranked up the iron spinnaker (engine) again to keep us going - a rather rolly journey of about 50 miles. Ann braved the deck watch - getting totally soaked - whilst the instruments kept us well on course from the comfort of the inside navigation station.
Since we'd had
strongish SE winds for most the day, we thought it wise to skip
Rosslare (our planned destination), and Arklow (the next port
up), and make for Wicklow. The first land we saw was just off
Wicklow Head - a major tidal gate - and the tidal stream which
had helped lift us up the Irish coast from Tuskar rock, turned
foul as we arrived there - so we had to push against a 3 knot
adverse stream for half an hour to get past and into Wicklow.
Tied up to the East Pier at 11:15am - there was still quite a
surge against the wall, caused by the SE swell creeping round the
headland - but we were here - phew.
A few statistics - we were at sea for just 30 hours, and covered 206 miles by the log - double our previous longest passage of 100 miles from Conwy, North Wales to Bangor, Northern Ireland. Our average log-speed was 6.6 knots, maximum log speed 8.1 Kn. Maximum wind speed 28Kn - though mostly 10-20 Kn in the morning and 16 - 24 Kn during the afternoon and night. Apart from 10 miles between Newlyn and Lands End, the whole journey was on one tack. Boat performed beautifully - she stood up to her sail extremely well - and we all gained great confidence in her through these very varied conditions.
A trip to the chippy and bakers in Wicklow - then some sleep :-)
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