A cosy boat

I woke to a lovely bright morning but I could see the flags on Nothe Fort on the hill opposite, straining in the wind. It was no day to be even thinking about sticking my bow outside the harbour.

As I was having my breakfast in the cockpit a fleet of yachts who looked that they were heading for a race heading out in single file. Some of the crews look dressed for the north Atlantic and had reefs in while others looked ready for the med and full sail.
I saw the first two yachts heel over sharply once they got out of the shelter of the harbour. I'm sure the 'Mediterranean fleet' soon had second thoughts about the amount of their sail and It only made the smile on my face bigger having decided to stay put.

I decided to visit Nothe Fort on the other side of the harbour. Luckily there was a ferry just a 100 meters away.
The ferries were two lovely varnished clinker rowing boats operated by two gentlemen in their 60's. One would stay on each side of the river and if one had passengers then the other would come across to replace it so that there was always one on each side.

I told my ferryman that I didn't mind waiting until he had a few more passengers before crossing as I was in no hurry but he insisted on taking me across immediately. The cost was only a GB£1.

As I walked up the hill towards the fort I passed through a public garden with a small coffee hut and of course I stopped and continued on with an ice cream.

The fort is a restored coastal artillery fort built in Victorian times to protect Portland Harbour which was a large artificial harbour built to keep an eye on the French on the other side of the channel.
As I walked around I was imagining what Camden could have looked like it if they had preserved it.

Inside the fort was an exhibition 'The Matchstick Fleet', hundreds of models of ships built by one man from matchsticks and matchboxes.
Fascinating but no Irish ships.

I walked back into Weymouth and bought a small radio and later when I was back at the boat I listened to the Cork v. Tipp match, Cork won by a point.
It's strange what you do when you're abroad. I probably wouldn't have listened to it if I was at home.

After dinner I wander off to 'The Red Lion', a pub that had been recommended to me.
A lovely old pub where I found a quite corner, took out my book and read as I sipped away at my pints not bothered by anyone until I was ready to head back to Eureka and put my head down.Read more

After a long breakfast in the morning sun we got ready to leave Helford to pick up Maeve in Falmouth.
We hoisted sail outside and had a broad reach north towards Falmouth.
Unfortunally the winds were so light that we had give up after an hour and turn on the engine to motor the rest of the way.

We tied up again at the visitors yacht haven where they only charged me GB£3 instead of the GB£11 that it should have been.
When I explained that we were only staying long enough to collect someone they asked what was the length of our tender and charged us for that and not for Eureka's length.

When Maeve arrived we went to have something to eat while Chris & Eddie went to get provisions and we met back at the boat at 16.00 and set sail for Helford with stronger winds on the way back and we again sailed up into the river.
Most of the visitor moorings were full but strangely the one we had left this morning was still free, we took it!

Later once Maeve had settled in, we went ashore to the Helford Sailing Club where we had showers and followed it with dinner upstairs in the dining room with a lovely view of the river.

We had to make two trips out to Eureka and because it was pitch dark I found I wasn't far enough enough away from the shore until the outboard hit a bottom and that was the end of motoring out to Eureka.

Eddie and I rowed out to Eureka and but with the tide against us it took so long that Chris and Maeve thought we had gone to the pub instead.

After an explanation of the cause our delay and a cuppa, we headed to bed.Read more