50:10N 04:14W

Monday June 22nd 2009.

Good morning to you all, we slipped our lines on a bright sunny morning in Falmouth and motored down from Penryn on perfectly still morning with not a breath of wind. With the engine beating a regular rhythm from the depths of the boat we passed Pendenis Castle on our starboard hand and leave St Anthony Head to port. Falmouth Coast Guard soon give us a less than encouraging forecast of light and variable winds veering easterly 4/5 later. The sea is oily calm so we set a course of 090 degrees to the east under engine alone ,giving us a respectable 6.8 kts and an eta at Dartmouth of 17:00 this evening.

We spend the first hour spotting bobblers (pot buoys) but once in to deeper water they soon thin out, they are a menace to small, craft being very poorly marked, to become entangled in their floating lines can anchor you to the seabed and stop your engine, we have rope cutters fitted to our shaft that I hope will keep us free of these hazards.

We have been playing dodgems with Her Majesties war ships who have come out from Devonport to play, at the moment there are three steaming up and down, I wonder if the Captains are on their respective bridges saying " I will cover my eyes and count to one hundred and then I am coming to get you" !

We have just passed the Eddystone light on our port side, the evidence of Mr Smeetons previous efforts still visible. I believe the first attempt was built of wood, which after only a few years service burned to the base, the second attempt was washed away in a violent storm with the architect in residence, he apparently wanted to see how his structure would withstand a bad storm, it didn't! It was washed away with him and the keepers, they were never found. The next structure lasted for many years being built of stone blocks that had jointed keys cut into them to tie them together. It was eventually replaced by the current Eddystone light when the rock upon which it had been built started to crumble. The Devonians not being wasteful took the structure down and rebuilt it on Plymouth Hoe, where it stands today as a memorial to its builders.

With a rising barometer and light winds we press on eastward to Bolt Head and Prawl Point before the tide turns foul and where we hope  the night life of Dartmouth awaits, I mustl attend to my duties ( the crew want some lunch)

Best wishes Paul.