050:07.039 N

005:31.808 W

Penzance

It was worth waiting a day in Falmouth yesterday because we had a cracking sail around The Lizard. We are certainly enjoying this run of fine weather with some beautiful dawns, and headed out of the harbour past another stunning yacht, 66m long at anchor, called AQUARIUS.

The sail turned into quite a sleigh ride with a bit more wind than we had anticipated, but running before it was exhilarating in the bright spring sunshine. Saw our first Swallow darting about above the waves, always a red letter day in the Laird/Minchin household.  Shipping was steady in both directions and the iconic headland came and went swiftly. Before we knew it, we were heading into Penzance Bay with St Michael’s Mount ahead of us.

We called Penzance Harbour Master on the VHF and whilst very friendly, said we needed to wait 1 ½ hours to enter the harbour due to the busy traffic coming and going through the lock gates. Wind and swell were increasing at this moment so we tried tying up to their waiting buoy outside but it was proving most tricky. Thankfully the VHF came to life “THURSDAY’S CHILD YOU CAN COME THROUGH THE LOCK GATES NOW THERE IS A SMALL PAUSE IN SHIPPING”. Such a relief.

The lock gates are not very wide, from where we were watching, the ship in front of us seemed to be very tight. It was brought in slowly and skilfully, clearly this manoeuvre is done frequently.  

We were soon waved in and found a tiny ‘wet harbour’ where a row of three yachts, 3-4 deep were tied up alongside the fishing quay. Whilst we were getting ropes ready, another large ship was coming in behind us, she hooted to let us know there no time to faff!

Fortunately in the lee of the harbour buildings everything was calmer so we are now tied up for a few nights. The MET Office warns of gales, the harbour master said it’ll be 48 knots which brings it home Penzance really is at the edge of the Atlantic. The harbour staff have since been busy bringing in more yachts from the exposed harbour next door.

It is exciting to be at the edge of the channel finally. No fancy marina here which, in fact, we’re both quite happy about.