Falmouth to Plymouth

The nice strong easterly winds finally abated, allowing a window for a trip eastwards that didn't involve pushing through 2 metre short steep head seas. So, always looking for a quieter life, we headed off nice and early in the morning. Well, that is early for us, quite late for working folks of course.

We left Falmouth in nice grey conditions with poor visibility too. As we left the harbour (with lots of yachts who all had the same idea) we even contemplated firing up the radar. No pictures as grey on grey isn't that exciting. Luckily it cleared but the typical Falmouth forest of tiny pot markers didn't. They were still scattered around the harbour entrance - lots of old milk containers and oil cans (nice black ones) that are so easy to spot. As they were so small, no pictures

Not much to do on the trip (one long leg heading for the entrance to Plymouth Sound) bar watch some TV, check the big Lugger from time to time and avoid the many fishing boats and a few yachts that had left Falmouth earlier than us. They all seemed to like one area just west of Plymouth and the crew was once more suitably stressed avoiding them all:

Such a tough life.

It all got a bit more interesting as we approached Plymouth though. The VHF radio was very busy with calls from "Longroom" (the Plymouth port control) saying that an exclusion zone had been established around some unexploded WWII ordnance just south of the breakwater. Our track would keep us the regulation 1,000 metres away from the spot but funnily, some of the local fishing boats didn't seem to hear the frequent broadcasts. Instead, they kept the patrolling Police launch busy.

As we entered Plymouth Sound, they announced a controlled explosion in 15 minutes so we were too far away to see any waterspouts or fishing boats being blown to pieces. Somehow, we bet that the milk containers on board would survive though.

Continuing the lighthouse theme, here is the little chap on the Plymouth Breakwater for your enjoyment:

We berthed in Plymouth Yacht Haven (on the Mount Batten side of Plymouth Sound) as our normal stopping off spot at Mayflower had no space for a fat, heavy thing like us. At least, that was their excuse.

Maintenance news:

Nowt. Nothing. Sorry. To avoid total tedium though, someone asked about our boat and her moment of fame in the Southampton boat show. Well, here she is on display in 2008:

Finally, to add a little "ahhhh" to proceedings, we met up with John and Irene, the folks who we bumped into whilst in Dartmouth earlier this year. Of course, Archie the Lakeland Terrier came along too. Quite a character - very chilled and mind manglingly cute to boot:

The owners aren't bad either.