The wind and sea have died down and so we decide to make the shortish hop along the coast to Plymouth. At 9 we slip the moorings along with our French neighbours (bound for Fowey). We edge cautiously out over the bar and in to the open sea, but with a WSW F3 we have a glorious beam reach across Bigbury Bay.
We start the run into Plymouth as the rain comes and thoughts of sailing up the Tamar to the Ferry Inn (John’s Dad’s old drinking hole) disappear into thoughts of a nice comfy marina for the rest of the day. Once moored we take a taxi to the Ferry inn for lunch and John is greeted by the bar staff as the old friend he is.
In between showers we also find time to marvel at the old Brunel Rail Bridge …and the far shore of Cornwall.
Back on the boat, the wind is now blowing hard up the river and a nasty swell rocks us hard in the marina….but we have a great view of the old navy victualling centre…
We start by doubling the lines and tightening everything hard. However the motion is even more extreme as the pontoon bucks around wildly in the swell. We have alook at how the local have moored and change to much longer lines on spread out cleats and allow the boat to move independently of the pontoons. This seems to work and there is much less stress on deck fittings and warps…and on us. We settle in for a rough night.
The morning brings a much quieter and mostly dry time and consider a sail up the river for lunch at the Ferry Inn. The rain returns so we accept a lift from John’s brother Peter and his wife Wendy. For a small pub the food is great…last night was Kinder cheesecake, today it is Picnic!
There is some movement of big boats in a narrow river and we idly watch other people working…
Sunday afternoon passes as it should and then James is off to the station to meet Yee Tak returning from her ‘fix’ with daughter and granddaughters. Heydays has a full compliment of crew once more.
heydays346 