Falmouth

Inshala
Colin Laidlaw
Sat 21 Jul 2012 12:37

50:09.168N 005:03.769W

Yes we had arrived in Falmouth some 18 hours after leaving Cameret.

The first 30 miles was very pleasant sailing especially through the Chenel de Four, with flat seas and good SW winds we were achieving 8.5kn over the ground - very impressive. Although we did encounter the Brittney ferry close hand, which was on its way to Santander in Spain. On leaving the Chenel de Four the seas became very lumpy and the wind increased to over  20mph with 25mph gusts. Shipping was light and we only saw some 6 ships leaving or entering the Ouessant traffic separation zone. One of those container ships was Maersk which was 0.216nm long, 188feet wide and 14.5m draft. The closest it got to us was 1.5nm, but because of the misty rain it just looked like a huge dark shadow. Anyway our AIS had them all mapped out and we didn’t have to alter course or speed.  As we entered Falmouth the rain got thicker and the mist fell and we had to reduce speed. At one stage we had about 100m visibility. Tying up in Port Pendennis Marina at about 0900 hrs, we celebrated yet another successful landing, and indeed trip, with sausages, eggs and baked beans and the obligatory beer.