Plymouth to Falmouth

Another monster sea voyage... We had contemplated heading around Land's End to South Wales but the timing of the trip would have meant arriving off the coast in the dusk / dark and we didn't fancy our chances with all the unlit fishing pot markers outside Milford Haven.  Hence a much gentler little trip down to Falmouth was planned. Kind of a first workout for the new stabiliser valve too.

Departure was nice and early, not because we wanted to go immediately after breakfast but because it was spring tides day and we wanted to have them with, not against us. The forecast easterly wind (up to a force 6) would also give a flatter sea during the west going tide.

As we left Plymouth sound, we encountered a drunken destroyer, HMS Daring:

She was ambling around, turning, then having a full power run, another tight turn and then who knows what / where next. Some interesting exercises were underway with her helicopter circling and a RIB in the water which was making her crew very very wet in some sizeable waves. We calculated that the tax we paid last year as "non working people" would have covered under one second of her annual operating costs. For that, we got to enjoy a good hour of fun watching her antics not to mention a course alteration to keep out of her way that must have cost us about 3 litres of fuel (under a pound) so we didn't mind too much.

The weather improved en route and the grey stuff cleared leaving the typical Nordhavn helmsman's view to enjoy:

En route, the crew used the electric kettle to make tea. The captain can always tell when tea is about to be delivered from the electrical distribution panel. Here is the "kettle on" sight:

and now, the "normal running" view:

You can see how the domestic alternator on the main engine works a bit harder when the inverters are making enough power for the kettle. You can also spot it on the Murphy gauge which shows the engine status. The fuel consumption at the same rpm goes up from around 8 litres / hour to about 8.5.

Not the most effective way to boil a kettle really - a diesel engine (typically only 40 - 50% of the energy in the fuel is converted to "work") turning an alternator (efficiency around 45%) that produces 24v DC which is converted to 240v AC by the inverters (efficiency around 90% when running a kettle). Perhaps we should just use the gas ring instead...

The eagle eyed readers will also see that the American / Chinese folks are not the best at spelling. We are still amazed that apparently we have two "chagre" relays on board.

As we approached Dodman Point, we were surrounded by small fishing boats and treated to a visit by some of the best fishermen going - a little pod of dolphins that came to play. Here is one poor quality mobile phone picture as proof:

The usual welcome awaited us off Falmouth. The worst marked fishing pots that we have ever encountered. All previous rants about the stupidity of letting people mark fishing pots with old 1 litre milk containers, blue oil cans, bits of cane with a little piece of black bin liner attached to it etc etc are still valid. Why do Falmouth inshore fishermen care so little about everyone else out to sea? They are the worst we have seen anywhere and seem to delight in placing poorly marked pots right in the harbour entrance too.

Arriving on a Saturday made us think that berthing on the lovely mid river pontoons might be hard. Well, it was. Not due to space constraints as they were nearly empty, but due to the strong flood tide running through the pontoon and making it interesting to get the heavily laden Nordhavn alongside. Still, once you are on the Tolverne pontoon, you just forget everything and love the place. Lots.