More Cornish chilling –and then the storm…..

The shipping forecast just keeps having force 7 in it and not very pleasant weather for Scotland either. At least that means we can do a little boat cleaning and maintenance, pottering around the Falmouth area and generally living the cruising life. (Cruising is often defined as boat maintenance in lots of different locations).

Our plague of liners continued.  I’m not sure what the collective noun is for cruise ships, but a plague seems to fit. Yet another early alarm call when a very elderly (same age as the Captain) ship arrived on Sunday morning. In a quiet moment I read about the history of this one, the newly tarted up Serenissima (an ex Hurtigruten ship) and how she would roll on damp grass let alone a bumpy sea. Apparently she likes a 42 degree roll in either direction which would make most passengers pretty ill.   No wonder she left very very late, allowing the “very rough” seas to abate a little and the passengers to eat before they were out to sea.  Hope they had digested their food quickly too!

Tuesday was very wet and blowy. Took the train to St Austell to meet Norm and Julie again who then kindly ferried us around – lunch in Padstow, afternoon coffee in Wadebridge and wine chez them. Returning that evening by train, the Captain foolishly stood on St Austell station and said “the wind seems to have dropped a bit”. We got off the train at Falmouth and were rain lashed all the way to the marina. At the top of the pontoon there was a coastguard truck with flashing lights. The yachts moored east – west were being smashed against the pontoons by big waves and force 10 gusts (they recorded one of 78 knots). Luckily we were moored north – south and so just had the fun of the waves bashing under the bathing platform at the stern. Both Falmouth lifeboats were out – rescuing a yacht in the harbour area! It was so bad that the yacht was dragging across towards the moorings and couldn’t anchor or motor against the wind and waves.  The rain stopped good photography but this will give you a flavour of the evening:

We added some spare fenders, checked the mooring lines (we’d already trussed her to the pontoon pretty well preparing for the earlier gales so no stress there) and retired to make tea and to watch the carnage. Again, a heavy boat that doesn’t bob about so much really helped…. Luckily it calmed down a bit overnight.

Global warming / jet stream position / KGB activity / Islamic terrorists? No matter what the cause, it was pretty wild.