Fog, flexibility and Falmouth to Skomer

Well, having set the alarm for an early(ish) departure to St Marys (Scilly Islands) the Captain had a disappointing moment. The weather forecast had changed and fog was expected from Wednesday evening to Friday morning out there. Hum, would mean arriving Tuesday late, enjoying the place for a day and then potentially being holed up until it cleared. After a crew conference, the plan got changed - a passage to South Wales was decided upon to give Andrew and Linda  passagemaking experience and an overnight trip on a trawler yacht. Kill or cure for their desire to own one perhaps??? (By the way, they suggested doing this trip - no arm twisting was needed. They are clearly demented.)

Boat duly prepared for the trip, we headed off on the 140 nautical miles or so run. Leaving the Fal, we passed one of the iconic Enterprise boats. they always look so tidy compared to the average ferry / trip boat operation:

Sorry Steve, we think they are better at painting than Bron, your spaniel (see Penarth post ) but probably their labour costs are a bit more than dog biscuits and vet bills.

The run down towards Lizard Point passing the Manacles had the waves on our stern quarter. We even saw a couple of dolphins who played with our bow wave briefly. This Aquastar heading in the other direction was not so lucky and was throwing up plenty of spray - the photo doesn't really show how much of a submarine he was:

The flybridge was used by Andrew and Linda during this "blowy and chillier" bit whilst the Captain and crew had retired to the pilothouse. Either we are getting very old and feeble or they needed to stay up top to avoid us. Reader - draw your own conclusions. Rounding the Lizard it all calmed down nicely:

This meant that the full ship's complement managed to migrate to the flybridge for the trip along the coast towards Lands End.  We explained to Linda that there was a centuries old tradition to be upheld when first rounding Lands End - you had to eat a Cornish cream tea and wear a bobble hat. Luckily, she managed both with great aplomb:

Andrew was less gullible but managed the cream tea of course. The background shows the Lands End visitor centre in case any of their friends are reading this and think they just took a train.

After passing the Longships lighthouse, we all had to retire inside - got a little chilly as the wind was on the nose. We also had a little pitching to contend with which frustratingly continued through to dinner time. So, instead of a freshly concocted dinner delight (do you like the way that the crew bigs up her cuisine in here?) we had a freezer surprise. Not that it was a big surprise though as the crew managed to dig out an unidentified frozen parcel that turned out to be the same recipe that she had cooked two nights earlier. So, Captain and crew consumed that. Then, result. A lamb tagine was unearthed which was fine for Linda but not for lamb averse Andrew. Such is life afloat - must mark the little freezer bags in future.

Andrew, who had helmed nearly all the way bar a short lunch break, had a brief rest and then took over for the first night watch. The captain liked having an experienced boater on board so he could get some sleep. This could become a habit.  One little bit of maintenance was needed though - the starboard navigation light blew when it was switched on so a replacement was duly fitted whilst underway and enjoying a lovely sunset across the water.

With people dotted around the boat, sleeping in various strange locations (don't ask, nothing scandalous here), Andrew guided us towards South Wales (land of his forefathers etc etc). Not too much other traffic and so a pretty quiet time. The Captain did the next stint (the 1am to 3am oh boy I want to yawn timeslot) and guess what - the new navigation light bulb blew. So, another was duly fitted whilst everyone else slept - see, you can never have enough spares on board... The crew took over for a while then "Iron Man Andrew" was back.

An early breakfast was enjoyed by all - the sea had calmed down, the wind had dropped (crew and Linda had reported 35 knot gusts early evening) and the sun was out again. So were the dolphins:

This picture is just to show how much they seem to enjoy the bow wave created by the Nordhavn. Several visits by various pods /  pairs were enjoyed by all the crew.  Andrew was prised from the helm seat to take this video, the soundtrack of squeals is of course, not dolphin speak - more crew and Linda speak. Yes, conversing with them is hard:

The final 20 miles or so to Skomer seemed to fly by - or as much as they can at just over 6 knots. More dolphins came to play, then we started to spot some puffins too. Linda decided to practice her best Titanic pose:

The southern anchorage at Skomer was not too busy. a yacht had tucked itself well into the bay and so we simply held off a little. We have lots of chain so that was not a problem! The view across the small bay was just lovely:

and the puffins, razorbills, guillemots etc were all around us. Died and gone to heaven stuff really.

The engine was switched off after a 25 hour run. Andrew helmed for about 21 of those 25 - total respect for how he managed that with only a few cat-naps.

Maintenance news: Well, you know about the 2 navigation bulbs. No idea why the first replacement went pop but the second one is all OK so we assume that the bulb had a manufacturing defect. As they cost about £5 a go, that is not great. Might just invest in some LED versions when the current stock is exhausted. One more job to do - the solenoid on the windscreen washers has stuck shut. Andrew couldn't get any water to wash the pilothouse screens when some salt spray got onto them. Made us realise that the last time we needed the washers was well over a year ago! Quite a nice dry boat the Nordhavn, doesn't throw up much spray normally... There is a little dismantling job for the captain on a rainy day soon.