Falmouth to Plymouth
The Voyages of Richard and Amanda
Sun 11 Jul 2010 21:22
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POS 50:21.90N 004:07.91W
Its funny the way anchors work. We had been happily
laying to our anchor all day through gusty winds and the tide going out and then
back in again, so we felt quite happy going to bed. I needed a bit of sleep
having been up all night sailing to Falmouth, and having just 4 hours sleep
since we arrived. It was a relief to settle down for a quiet night. All was
fine till about 1am when we were woken by a load bang and we realised that the
anchor had dragged and we had bumped into the boat behind
us.
As usual in these situations it chose that moment
for the heavens to open, so not only were we rushing to get some clothes on, we
also had to find foul weather gear as well. Anyway it wasn't too bad we were
alongside the next door boat but not banging into it or tangled up in her
anchor. I went up to the bows to wind in the anchor chain, Amanda waited by the
steering wheel to motor us off once the anchor was up.
Eventually after several attempts we managed to
move and drop the anchor with some degree of certainty that it wasn't going to
drag. This involves motoring to where you want the anchor to go and dropping it
to the bottom then as the boat drifts away, letting more anchor chain out to the
amount you need, depending on the depth. Usually we use 4 times the depth as the
amount of chain, so anchored in 5m we let out 20m of chain. Out anchor chain is
marked so we know how much has gone. The problem is that the bottom in Falmouth
is very soft mud and rather than digging in the anchor was just pulling through
the mud when any load was put on it.
So back to bed about 1.45 and we did in the end
have an unevential sleep for the rest of the night.
It has been pretty windy all Saturday so we were a
bit concerned that Sunday would be too windy to sail on to Plymouth as planned,
however we checked the weather forecast at the harbour office and it seemed OK
and the wind had definately dropped overnight, so we decided to go for it. In
fact we had pretty light winds all day Sunday and apart from a couple of spells
where it dropped completely were able to sail all the way to Plymouth, getting
here about 7pm. We tied up in Queen Annes Battery marina firstly because its the
marina I set out from on the Jester Challenge in 2008, secondly because they do
great burgers and thirdly because its free to me as an MDL Marinas
berthholder.
It is strange coming back to this marina. Despite
the time gap since last here and all that has gone on since, the memories of
being here in 2008 are as fresh as ever, it seems just like yesterday we were
walking down to the restaurant and it all seems very familiar. Even the night
duty manager is the same man, although he doesn't remenber me!
We will spend two nights here to sort out some
shopping and catch up on sleep, then go on to either Salcombe or Dartmouth
before setting off across Lyme Bay to Poole. We have arranged to met our good
friend Bill in Studland Bay when we get over there, so that is something to look
forward to. Also we heard that another friend Dennis has just arrived
in Newport, USA as the 6th finisher in this years Jester Challenge.
This great news as we were quite worried about him after he had to stop in the
Azores for repairs after being knocked down twice on the way. We first met Bill
and Dennis when I did the Jester Challenge to the Azores in 2008 and we got
close while over there.
Well done Dennis!!!
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