The Magical Mystery Tour
Our magical mystery tour is beginning to take shape. Much gazing at the tea leaves ( of the internet variety ) suggests we might have NE winds from Thursday ish , which once more makes visiting our friends on the West coast of Ireland a possibility. Yesterdays SW winds might have been bad for going down Channel , but they were perfect for exploring the many creeks , rivers and anchorages of the Plymouth Estuary. They were also good mannered enough to bugger off and be replaced at 0900 precisely by a lovely NW which whisked us across to the Lizard peninsula in flat seas and no time at all. Mr Grib reckoned they would back westerly and reach force 6 , so we have anchored off Coverack in the expectation of a better slant and less boisterous conditions tomorrow. The only problem about this otherwise charming bay is that it has zero mobile coverage – aka no daily weather fix , so its back to the old fashioned method of weather forecasting which is essentially , “let’s see what its like in the morning”!.
Our Irish friends are very experienced sailing folk who have written a book about the art of anchoring, and very good it is too : we learned a lot. I was reminded to day however that it completely omits the “how to pee to leeward problem ” when at anchor. In any sort of breeze the boat swings from side to side and you would think that you just need to time your pee so that she is just about to swing to the same side on which you are perched , desperate to get going. Not a bit of it. No matter how regular the oscillations have previously been , the moment you cling to the shrouds and look hopefull , a spitefull gust comes from a completely unforeseen direction and suddenly you are exposed on a lee shore which causes at best extreme frustration , and if you already started …… well lets not go there.
We would however like to go to Ireland , if Mr Grib would be so kind. So greetings from the Festinas , at anchor just inside the Lizard. We are the ones with our fingers crossed!