Another change of plan - flexibility seems key this "summer"

For our planned last day in the Fal area, we decided to revisit Truro on the train (they happened to be running) for a wander around and a chance to top up the dwindling chocolate stocks by visiting Mr Aldi. It was low water when we walked to the harbour area, where we normally bring our dinghy for any heavy shopping. In the delightful mud berths was this interestingly modified old Princess. Get the chimney fitted into the roof:

And the stylish upper helm addition:

Quite a liveaboard craft. The day was rounded off nicely when we found that Aldi had replenished their chocolate stocks so the captain could stagger back up the hill to the train station with a much heavier rucksack.

Falmouth was a bit of a no-go zone as a Saga cruise ship had arrived and deposited a horde of slow walking, pavement hogging, complaining, and most annoying older people. The thought that we are of an age where we could join in the Saga fun was quite horrifying really. At least they have some newer ships now:

 

but they seem to take strange routes between port calls:

That is one long way round for a short trip. Saving port dues but burning more fuel? Not departing or docking at times that might wake the elderly passengers? Helmsman on the sweet sherry? No matter, the town cleared early on and the liner departed for Scilly taking another strange circuitous route.

We were ready to head up the Irish Sea to Bangor. Route and timings all planned, a 51/52 hour trip. Typically the wind would be on the nose as we approached Land's End and then as we headed north, pretty much on the nose until we were abeam Dublin when it would pick up and swing to be on the stern quarter. The forecast wave heights were OK rather than nice so we were ready for a nodding kind of trip for at least 30 hours.

Captain Rae, the well known (in here at least) Nordhavn owner had headed around Land's End whilst we were in Truro and reported it as bumpy. Bearing in mind his history as a naval helicopter jockey and then Lightning fighter pilot, his definition of bumpy is probably "unpleasantly rough" for the rest of us. When we awoke and looked at the latest forecast it was going to be "lovely", a good 30 hours with some chinky waves on the nose - so we opted out as it is supposed to be enjoyable. Especially as by the weekend we were in for this July weather treat:

Staying put and doing some hull polishing seemed preferable in many ways. Until we actually launched the RIB and started work that is. We did have a break to find a podiatrist in town who could take a look at the crew's hind paw. She had a lump forming in her heel and you could just about see some foreign object buried amongst the extra hard skin that was growing. A nice lady excavated the area and thinks that a grain of sand came out. Probably a little present from the hours we spent on the beach with Izzy the dog during her stay earlier in the summer. The nice lady said that sometimes dog hairs can get into the skin on a foot and have the same effect. So glad that Izzy has soft fur.

A happy, unexpected and most enjoyable visit from Tim and Laraine gave us another work break. They managed to get a picture of us in our best polishing outfits:

At least that part of the hull had been polished so the picture is less embarrassing.

The nice forecast above meant battening down, removing the bimini, recovering the RIB and preparing for a day more or less staying on the boat. Here is the Falmouth mooring area on the evening before with the clouds starting to build (spot the Nordhavn):

and the same view the following soggy morning:

You can see the superyacht Constance that we featured before is still in port. She made one more trip out, did the same set of strange manoeuvres out to sea and returned again. Then a workboat came alongside her - must be some serious repair work going on. 

Meanwhile, the (in)famous Fastnet yacht race headed off from Cowes, in our direction, with a force 7 wind and rough seas to contend with. Madness. Loads of yachts retired, one sank, several were dismasted and the lifeboats were busy. Madness. The  RNLI website link  quotes how multiple incidents were attended to by the lifeboats - we did wonder how the volunteer crews felt being called out to folks in racing yachts who set off knowing how bad the conditions were.....

A rather lovely large Swan yacht called Coco de Mer arrived in Falmouth, retiring from the race after losing all electrical power. As you can see from this borrowed image, quite a craft:

Nobody locally seemed to know how to get her Mastervolt electrical system up and running again so she will motor, with no electrics or navigation gear working, back to the Hamble to get sorted. At least the engine worked, quite an expensive little race for them. 

Being nicely sheltered in the harbour seems way nicer to us, especially when Norman, Julie and their two hounds joined us for Sunday lunch. Stan seemed rather keen when he sniffed Norman's lamb:

and got quickly restrained. Once he realised there was nothing for him he settled down to be cuddled in what looked like the most uncomfortable of positions:

Oh to be that flexible.....

We kept looking at the rubbish weather forecasts (load of fronts coming through with gale or near gale winds attached to them) and wondering what to do next.