Although it was a windy night, it was never really stormy and with the snubbers in the lines we slept well. The forecast was for a moderate breeze from the south west so we decided to head off for Plymouth. Put a reef in the mainsail in Fowey harbour as we could see it was rough outside. Motor sailed into a big sea and then bore away and followed a bigger yacht out to sea on starboard tack with a heavily reefed headsail. With the engine off and the self-steering working well we were going really fast with the occasional big wave coming into the cockpit so we quickly donned all our waterproof gear. A good move as it started to rain and then we were hit by a rain squall of biblical proportions. The wind went up to 26 knots or so and the visibility went down to zero. We were worried we might run into the other yacht but when the rain cleared we were fine and we continued on towards Rame Head and as the wind dropped we shook out all the reefs. The sea state was still rough so it was hard to find a good angle to sail and stop the mainsail crashing about but we managed to make the east end of the breakwater outside Plymouth, gybe and enjoy the calm waters behind the breakwater.
Then we headed up the river Tamar and anchored in St John’s Lake opposite the Devonport dockyards. It was very calm and serene after a rather wild ride but we were pleased in a 36 foot yacht to have overtaken a 40 foot yacht (Bowman 40 we think) from Fowey to Plymouth; although we weren’t racing of course!!!