Plymouth to Dartmouth

We have enjoyed a very social time recently. We were joined in Plymouth, first by John a friend of Bob's who lives there now, and then by Joan and Ian from back home in Brighton We explored Plymouth, both shoreside and sea, and did the coastal walk from the river Yealm to Wembury Bay.
Moving onto Dartmouth we met up with more friends, Helen and Andy who live here, and had an unexpected encounter with Matt and Elise from Brighton marina.

Start Point Lighthouse.

The weather has turned gloriously hot for the first time since April!!

Dartmouth is full of ornate old buildings. 

The view from the boat.

Took a trip up river almost to Totnes.

Nearly home now...

fowey

One last picture of Falmouth before leaving for Fowey. We left in beautiful conditions, unlike yesterday when we left in rain and fog but had to turn back due to finding a handbag that didn't belong to us on the boat. We returned it to its owner who then, full of unnecessary guilt cooked us a lovely meal on her boat.

  This time we were actually able to see the lighthouse, much better day to set off, I don't know why we bothered yesterday at all.

 Sailed all the way to Fowey, tied up on the town quay for a few hours of looking arround then out onto a mooring bouy for the night.

Sailing in Falmouth Harbour

We were joined in Falmouth By Pauline and Chris.  

Sailed up the river, passing some unexpectedly big boats at the top.

Whitehaven to Falmouth via Wales.

We left Cumbria with every intention of making a swift passage to Lands End, with only a few overnight stops. However...Having decided to stop at Bangor overnight and negotiate the Menai Straight, we found that after the Swellies it was necessary to spend a night in Carnarvon to get the tide right for the Bar.
This was just long enough for the weather to change.

We made a good passage down to Fishguard but from there it became very lumpy and we had to pull into Milford Haven to wait for suitable conditions for Landsend.
The tail end of Hurricanes  Elaine, Lee and Katia steamed across the Atlantic one after another, while we waited.
It seemed sensible to use the time to hire a car and head home to visit family, which we did for a week. Unfortunately we returned without the camera, so a bit low on pictures for this blog.
We waited a further week before setting off again in very favourable conditions (though with a two metre swell) for the trip round to Falmouth, arriving after a twentyfour hour sail.
This was the only trip during which we saw dolphins at close quarters and in significant numbers. They joined us just after midnight and stayed with the boat for several hours jumping and diving in our bow wave.  We looked out for them again next day but they didn't appear.

Lands End

Longships Lighthouse. Taken from my phone.

Whitehaven

We met up with Bob's brother and family who live near Whitehaven. They took us back to their house and we enjoyed their hospitality for five days! We were treated to a comfortable bed, many long soaks in their jacuzzi, many fine meals and best of all they own a dish washer! Angela felt very lazy but relaxed.

The children crabbing off the jetty, while the adults were trying to find the source of an annoying leak in the domestic water system.

They caught several! This one was nearly big enough for a sandwich.

The children really enjoyed the boat and want their parents to buy one now.

Last look at Scotland and on to Cumbria.

We left scotland in the early hours of the morning on the 18th of August to catch a favourable tide for the passage to Whitehaven and enjoyed near perfect conditions for the whole trip.

Portpatrick

The mull of Galloway. Our last view of Scotland.

Bob lowering the Scottish flag. 

Tehari II arrived in Whitehaven at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and met the only other Salar that we have seen on the entire trip. The lovely owners were on board, they gave us wine and showed us round, then came for a look on ours. They had owned their Salar for fifteen years, crossed the Atlantic travelled round the med and didn't have a bad word to say about the boat.
 

Oban to Port Patrick

We're finally on our way back after a fantastic three and a half months in Scotland.
We left Oban in the early hours of Tuesday morning, heading south to Gigha. A lovely sail in mostly light winds but with a bit of a sting in the tail. The clouds gathered about an hour before arriving and it blew up to thirty knots, making end of the journey fast but the anchorage a little bumpy.
We decided against going ashore as sorting out the dinghy is hard work in a blow but were entertained by the crew of a neighbouring boat playing the bagpipes in the cockpit.

Mull of Kintyre

Left early on Wednesday and had a cracking sail down to Portpatrick, a lovely old fishing village. We went past the Mull of Kintyre under sail and with three to four knots of tide behind us. We acheived a speed over the ground of over ten knots for about two hours and seven to eight knots for the rest of the trip. Instead of coming in at five in the evening as predicted, on an average speed of five knots we were tied up and buying fish and chips off the quay by two o'clock.

Port Patrick is our very last Scottish port and has proved a bit of a treat. Bright sunshine, lovely walks and beaches and a friendly atmosphere, we wish we could stay longer but have decided to continue as planned and set out for Whitehaven tomorrow.

Harbour

Lighthouse

From the Mull of Kintyre it is only twenty miles across to Ireland, another big temptation. It seemed sad to be so close and not to go and visit, but we've promised ourselves a return trip in the not to distant future to circumnavigate Ireland.