Our passage plan, based on a 5 knot average speed over the ground, was to leave late morning and sail through the night to catch the most favourable tide around Lands End on Thursday morning. We left as planned after a short conversation on the VHF with one of the firing range guard boats that seemed concerned we might enter the restricted area. We satisfied them and as it was still very windy we set off with two reefs in the mainsail and once passed the shipping lanes and the shipping coming into Milford Haven we unrolled a little bit of genoa and set off on a close reach on roughly 200 degrees. It was windy with 27 knots over the deck and huge waves but with the Hydrovane steering we were making over 7 knots through the water with spray everywhere.
It wasn’t very comfortable and neither of us felt great, but alright. As we made such good progress we caught too much of east going tide so by the evening we had to harden up a little to make sure we could reach Lands End on one tack. By late evening the wind had dropped so this was helpful in terms of keeping Harvard steady but the wind didn’t veer to the north as promised as that would have made it even more comfortable. We passed some commercial shipping safely and as darkness fell we started to pick up the west going stream off the north Cornish coast. The wind dropped more and more and through the night we shook out all the reefs but by the time we were just north of the Longships lighthouse we had virtually stopped so it was on with the engine.
We had arrived a little early so we had to buck a foul tide for a couple of hours before rounding the Runnel Stone buoy and heading for Newlyn and Penzance as the stream became more favourable. The only excitement was seeing the lifeboat trying to recover a sinking fishing boat. It did sink but happily there was nobody onboard! It turned into a beautiful morning so we dropped anchor at 08:00 BST just off Newlyn harbour, in the recognised anchorage, that promises to be well sheltered in the forecast northerly winds. We had covered 126 miles in 21 hours and 15 mins taking one hour on and one hour off watches. It was all a bit hardcore, not helped by discovering that our navigation lights were not working. Happily it was a short night with not much traffic. We felt a sense of achievement and had enjoyed watching the dolphins swimming around us on several occasions. Harvard went well and looked after us. After tidying up and a big breakfast we retired to our bunks for some well earned shuteye. Spent the rest of the day relaxing.
That was exciting Richard and Anne!!