Mevigassy Anchorage

We’d been at Plymouth long enough so following a quite round of opinions we all decided to head further west along the coast towards Falmouth - and the Pendannis Cup. This is an international cup for the old wonderful “J” Class sailboats (Thanks to Stewart another Discovery owner who us aware of it!).

We are becoming ‘one’ with the currents in the English Channel by now. You sail “with them” or “woe betide you”. We left slightly later than we might have originally wished so that we would sail with the currents. This, and going through a few routines about the boat meant that it was more probable that we might want to stop off along the way (the boat is called Timeless remember).
We hadn’t planned on the archetypal mast furling catastrophe though!

Catastrophe!

This is where the slab reefing guys can take a few moments to say things like, “Told you so”, and “You’ll learn” and “always happens”, “could never happen with slab” and ..
The top of the mainsail got stuck three quarters of the way out. It wouldn’t go back IN, nor would it come further OUT!

There!
All done now?

Three hours out from Plymouth. The boat had been sailing like a dream but to take off a little weather helm and keep the boat sailing balanced with some gusts that were appearing we’d chosen to reef the mainsail slightly again. It’s so easy with mast furling – much easier than slab! But as I was furling the sail in I managed to catch a little of the leech of the sail in the slot before it should have. We tried and tried our practiced procedure to dislodge it without success. Nothing for it. We had to turn around and head back to Plymouth. It was a large port. We knew the layout of the marina and they had space for us still.
Using the guide we had been given by the Yacht Haven Marina we’d stayed at, we called “Hemisphere Rigging Services” located on the same marina and explained our plight. As it was Friday afternoon we asked if they could hang on an hour and at least to take a look and clear the blockage so the boat could sit safely over the weekend before a more thorough look on Monday. Unfortunately it turned out they couldn’t wait for us as it was the start of their weekend and all the staff wanted to go home, they couldn’t offer any help, nor did they know of any other companies that do rigging in Plymouth. No, there wasn’t any engineers available to offer advice on how to safely get sorted. They did suggest there ‘might’ be a company in Falmouth but didn’t know any names and she suggested that they also would probably want to go home by 5pm too.
Well, thank you for your help “Hemisphere Rigging Services”, I’ll be sure to keep your name right by me if I need any other help.

A call to Claire and John at Discovery resulted in “allspars” of Plymouth calling us! “allspars” are another Plymouth based rigging company. They are amazing! They took the time to call ‘us’. They offered us advice and were available to wait for our arrival and make us safe for the weekend in the unlikely event that they could not fix it there and then for us. We committed to keep them updated on our arrival, keep trying to dislodge the sail and call them if we were successful.

Claire and John had inspired us to be firm with the mast! So, offering a short pray and offering to be good for ever more if this ‘just one little favour” could be granted to free my sail – I really pulled down on the mainsheet.

POP!

I think “YES!” could heard in France. My sail popped out and was free!
The three other crew gasped for air! ..and started to breath again.
The sun came out, birds chirped and I’m sure I heard joyous music playing in the wind!
Smiles everywhere!
A few more IN/OUTs confirmed all was well!

Nothing for it but to turn around! Again!

We called Discovery and XXXXXX to let them know all was well and offer another few beers in thanks! Phew!
Lessons learned –
Be gentle but firm with the sails!
Business is all about ‘service’.

Geesh! This sailing lark is so stressful!

This must have cost us several hours overall and so we looked for a nearby anchorage for the evening rather than arrive at an unknown port to us in the dark – even if it was the iconic Falmouth. Gorran Haven, near Mevagissey fit the bill. Nice high cliffs, firm sandy bottom, an easy route to the open sea and room to lay a long chain. In the forecast the wind was expected reach 20 kts overnight but the early morning was expected to be over 25kts and cyclonic – oh, and heavy rain. These winds are not meant to be particularly strenuous for our boat and anchor combination but as this would a new experience for us and the “cyclonic part” we decided to forgo popping to the village pub and we also set an anchor watch through to the morning. Ah well, the wind never did change direction on us but it did indeed howl. As expected, the anchor proved to be as solid as a very large rock (or, as stubborn as many people I have come across!). This all gives confidence for the future, huh.

We left early in the morning and finished the sail to Falmouth.