Off to Falmouth

Having got Eureka to Ireland we spent the rest of the season day sailing and had a voyage as far as Castletownbere in West Cork where Maeve's brother in law was giving a talk on sailors from West Cork who took part in the battle of Jutland. It was as good a reason as any to head west.

We had always planned to have heating onboard as the temperatures in the North Atlantic are much cooler than those in the Mediterranean.
I had got a good quote at last years Southampton Boat Show but I had to bring the boat to them and not the other way around.
So we were starting 2017 by heading to the south coast of England to get the heating fitted to Eureka.

We put a plan together and basically it was to get to Lymington quickly, get the heating fitted and then cruise back slowly calling to the Helford River & Isles of Scilly before crossing the Celtic Sea for home.

My brother Declan was joining me for the outward journey and Maeve, Chris and her husband Eddie would join me for part of the return journey.

Maeve brought Declan and I to East ferry early but it was 09.30 before we were ready to leave. Then we remembered the spare bottle of gas.
We had so send Maeve home again to get it and at 10.15 we were ready at last.
We waved goodbye and motored down the ferry and set a course for Roches Point at the mouth of Cork Harbour.
By the time we passed Roches Point at 11.20 we were under full sail and the engine was off.
Outside the forecasted NE wind was in fact East and stronger than expected so we soon put a reef in the main and a few rolls in the genny and we raced SE towards Land End at 7 knots on a close reach.

Unfortunally it wasn’t to last and in the afternoon it began to rain and the wind died but came back up later so we had plenty of practice taking out and putting back in, the reefs in the sails.

We turned on the engine for an hour but that was only to charge the batteries. The rain eased and we had a pleasant night and calm seas.Read more