Wednesday 11th June 2025
The plan was to try to make the Scillies but the wind was not cooperative. 5pm start to catch the tide around Portland Bill. A very beautiful sunset but almost no wind overnight. The 3 hour watch worked well. Floated past several group of moon and blue jelly fish. After a very hot day there was fog precipitating on everything during the night, but this didn’t spoil the view of the stars and Milky Way and a moon rise that was worth being woken up for.
The following day we continued, aiming directly for the Eddystone Light House. The history and stories of the light houses are always entertaining and the engineering behind them is impressive. We had a brief encounter with dolphins who I think were disgusted with the slow speeds to play for long. I will never get bored of seeing then swimming along side the boat but we see so many that I have stopped making photos now.
Determined not to motor so 31 hours later we abort the destination of the Scillies and anchor in St Mawes at midnight. The harbour was very dark and the space seems much smaller when you can’t see much. We were very happy with the alternative destination, visiting the castle, Lamorran Gardens and the village with a great lunch at the Watch House.
In the evening, after a swim, we walked around the Roseland Peninsula, passing wild ponies, Emma’s Wood and on the the beaches and coastline with seals and cormorants, the Battery and Fraggle Rock (St Anthony’s Lighthouse).
St Mawes is highly recommended as a destination whether you come by sea or land. It turns out the painting in the salon is of St Just – just a short trip further up the Fal so we have many reasons to return.
Time was running short to the next morning we headed back, anchoring first over night in Cawsand bay outside Plymouth. Finally, some wind arrived – although the coastguard had a busy morning with the helicopter rescuing a MOB and searching for a canoeist who eventually managed to make it back to shore unaided. Final night was anchored in Anstey’s cove with a great breakfast from the cafe whilst watching dolphins jumping out of the water further out to sea. No time to explore ashore on this trip though. We had to untangle the anchor from a rock before setting off to return to Portland. We could have easily spent twice as long everywhere on this trip but sadly needed to be back in work on the Tuesday morning, but are looking forward to the next trip now.
