Falmouth to Plymouth, then being social

Not knowing how busy the Easter bank holiday would be, we'd decided to head for Plymouth and hide away in Mayflower marina for 5 nights. Why Plymouth? Well, plenty to do ashore, some nice cycle routes and the famous (to us at least) Just B bistro in Saltash for a light lunch or cake. You can see what drives us.... Why Mayflower - because we are cheapskates - we have membership of Transeurope Marinas because we berth in Penarth and that gives us 5 nights at 50% of the normal berthing rates. Almost a bargain.

Leaving Falmouth in the morning we were treated to an unusual sight - sun and blue sky, even over the dockyard:

and somehow it made everything look nicer:

even if it made the pilothouse windows look dirtier.

Our track to Plymouth is a pretty simple one:

that just needs careful avoidance of pot markers at both ends of the journey. Out to sea was fine, gentle waves, not much other traffic and sun. What more could you want. Well, the crew worked that one out:

121 amps from the engine domestic alternator means that the kettle is on.

Entering Plymouth you pass the old admiralty breakwater and the cute little lighthouses on either end:

and then Fort Pickelcombe, a mid 19th century fort that has been converted into flats:

must be an interesting place to live with some stunning views across the harbour and out to sea. 

As we neared Mayflower marina, so the wind picked up a fair bit as you can see from the "adjustment" to the crew's hairstyle when she was preparing the lines and fenders:

Luckily it had been trimmed before we left Penarth so she could still see what she was doing, sort of. We ended up being berthed on the inside of the large wavebreak there - not ideal as the pontoon has that sad beaten up look after many winters trying to calm the huge waves that can batter the marina in gales from the wrong direction. Still, the staff are always hugely friendly and helpful. One of the dockmasters came to help with our lines and turned on the water supply too which had been off due to a leak caused by the aforementioned winter storm damage. Berthing here must be quite hairy in the wrong conditions. 

We managed a walk to the nearby supermarket (Lidl by the way) and then around to the Royal William Yard for some exercise and the obligatory coffee and cake. Why didn't we get a bus over to Saltash to visit Just B? Guess what - closed for some exterior renovation work. All our favourite places seem to be either down the tube or shut so far this season.

Things looked up lots when Robert and Deborah, the posh Malo yacht owners joined us for lunch on board. A lovely sunny day so they came by BMW 2 series convertible with the lid down looking very much like Malo owners. It seemed sad to force them onto a dirty, salty, unpolished stinkboat. Still, it made a change to see them in the flesh rather than just sending cryptic or slightly abusive WhatsApp messages.

More planned social stuff got trashed by the weather forecasts:

This is from the Met Office inshore waters forecast and the  coastline is not normally shown in red. Red means a strong wind warning (Force 6 and above) in that area and as you can see, that applied to the whole of the UK. The rest of the week looked even worse with strong gales and plenty of rain coming in. So, we looked hard at some conflicting forecasts and decided to cut our stay in Plymouth short as we wanted to be in the Solent area by Sunday 16th. Why? Well, you will just have to read some later blog  posts to see for yourself.