Lunar Sea around GB

 Dear Readers, it may be a relief to know that this is a short picture blog tonight. We have spent an interesting day in Falmouth, visiting the Maritime Museum and the Pendennis Castle, one of two built by Henry the VIII to protect Falmouth. It has been a lovely hot sunny day here, the first on our trip. The gorgeous Marala on the right ,a 1930's luxury superyacht of it's day,  can you spot Lunar Sea? In the afternoon we all chilled and did our own thing, which was nice. Josh revisited the Maritime Museum and will probably tell you about his amazing encounter there. Ali slept and chilled on the boat and I did two lots of laundry! I did meet an interesting young man in the laundry, he was from Sweden and had spent the last two years in the Caribbean. He had just arrived this morning having crossed the Atlantic in a 30 foot boat, just him and another crew member. He was exhausted and had taken over the laundry with all his washing of clothes and sleeping bags etc, but kindly let...

 Dear Readers, I am writing this from Falmouth where we arrived this afternoon, after a very early 4am start from Penzance to get the tide right for rounding the Lizard. It has been a long day so excuse my writing if it isn't up to my usual standard! The previous two days we have been chilling in Penzance, trying some of the pubs and meeting up with some friends who live in Lands End. I also couldn't resist another swim in the lido and the geo thermal pool. I was not looking forward to the Lizard as it has a reputation for being unpredictable, but on the other hand it is the last difficult bit we have to go around to get onto the south coast and our homeward trip. Leaving Penzance at 4.30am The alarm went off at 4am and we left the harbour at 4.30am with a friendly wave from the harbour master. The sun was just coming up and I cooked some bacon sandwiches while it was still calm,  to set us up for the trip ahead. We missed the tide around the Lizard by about an hour so we had ...

Signpost along the way.  Dear readers, a picture blog today. I booked us into a boutique hotel in Penzance for a couple of nights, so I am not spending a lot of time writing today, I will give you some pictures to look at instead.  This morning I walked from Penzance to Mousehole, (3 1/2 miles) and then took the bus back.  The walk to Newlyn was easy, along a lovely wide promenade right by the bay. I found this interesting sign stating that Penzance is the first to be awarded Plastic Free status by Surfers Against Sewage, a cause I support as a user of the sea, if not a surfer. For navigators out there, Newlyn is where chart datum is measured for all UK charts The next bit of the walk to Mousehole wasn't so good as it was mainly along a busy road with a narrow pavement that sometimes ended!  Pretty Mousehole Harbour .Mousehole is a small quant little village at the far end of the bay. Just before Mousehole is Penlee Point, where there has been a lifeboat station from...

Josh up the mast, Cornish courtesy flag flying. A shorter blog today, dear readers, you will be pleased to know. Andrew, Josh's son who has been our crew for the last few days, is driving back to Broadstairs this morning. Before he goes he has one more valuable job to do helping Josh go up the mast. Not Josh 's favourite thing to do but it must be done. Thank you Andrew for all your help this week. I have booked us into a very nice boutique hotel for two nights, so we will be down the town tonight. I chose it because it was close to the harbour, so not far to walk, and it has a huge bath for Josh, who loves his baths. He has given me permission to post this picture ! If you are interested I can let you have the name of the hotel and the lovely Indian restaurant we visited yesterday. For now I am heading for the bar and a frozen margarita!  

  Dear Readers, get a nice cup of tea or coffee and settle down to read, as this is a longer than normal blog. We all had a really good sleep after our adventures of the night before. We had planned to go back to Padstow to pick up my car, so the train we wanted to get was at 10.15 and the station was only a short walk away from the harbour. We arrived in good time to catch said train and it was in fact the GWR fast train to Paddington, so very nice as trains go and it felt quite luxurious after the boat. Our carriage was almost empty apart from three German tourists, one of whom complained about the coldness of his coke and sent it back…yes there was a trolley service, but no hot drinks. Luckily I had a real coffee at the station before boarding the train so that kept me going for the 1 ¼ hour train trip. So it took just over an hour to get to Bodmin Gateway, which we imagined would be a large station in the middle of Bodmin, and as we had an hour to wait for the bus, we tho...

 Dear Readers, this is a tale of adventure, excitement and woe. We left Padstow at 21.20 aiming to be in Newlyn or Penzance by 09.30 today morning. We had decided on an overnight sail because the weather looked good for us and if we left it till the next day, the7th, the weather was closing in. Another yacht left with us for the same destination, so that is always a comfort. It was a calm sea and a bit of drizzle but otherwise looking OK. The sunset was a pink streak on the horizon and the moon was peeking out every now then through the clouds.  We could see the lights of the other yacht a little way off, which I found comforting. When it is like that, night sailing can be magical.  Josh was staying up all night, I stayed up till just after 1am. Andrew our crew (Josh's son) had gone to his cabin for a couple of hour's rest because he had driven down to Padstow from Ramsgate that day, but he would come on deck as I went below in the early hours. I finally fell asleep but c...

Lunar Sea in her changed position next to the harbour wall. Dear Readers (as Lady Whistledown would say) we have spent the weekend in Padstow, and I have decided that I do like it but only in the early morning or late afternoon/evening when the day trippers have gone! Sunday morning we were rudely awakened at 8am by the boat next to us, which we were rafted up to, as he had decided he was off to the Scillies in ten minutes. I was still in my   pyjamas  and Josh was still fast asleep, so it was a bit of a scramble to hurriedly  pull on some clothes and move the boat. However the good thing is we are now moored next to the harbour wall which means we don't have to clamber over someone  else's boat to get to the ladder. Hawkers Cove Yesterday evening I went for a walk along the cliff , following the Camel estuary towards the sea. I found a stunning beach , with a beautiful sandy strand leading to clear cool water. The back of the beach was hard black granite which ...

 Well, we successfully navigated the Doom Bar and arrived safely in Padstow Harbour and rafted up to a large motor boat at 7pm. The harbour is tiny and so not much room if there are a lot of visitors. We couldn't get on a pontoon so we are moored up to the harbour wall, which involves climbing up a vertical ladder in the harbour wall to get off or on the boat! Not my favourite thing to do but at least it is a dry ladder, not covered in slippery seaweed like some we encountered on the East Coast leg of our trip. Lunar Sea in Padstow  To those of you who love Padstow I apologise, because I am afraid I don't.   Perhaps it is because we are here at the Jubilee long weekend bank holiday,   but I have never seen somewhere so crowded with tourists, not even   Broadstairs on a sunny August bank holiday weekend! It really is unpleasant.   As we are moored in the harbour, the town is nestled around the three sides   of  it, so there...

 Our night anchored in Clovelly Roads was magical, the dark skies gave us a wonderful view of the stars. It was a calm sea  and a clear sky with a crescent moon. There was a slight worry about the anchor holding during the night, as there always is in this situation. A bit of dragging of the anchor during the night got us up once in the early hours, but it held and all was well in the morning!  Clovelly from the sea. We left Clovelly reluctantly at 9am to head towards Padstow, our next destination where we intend to have a few rest days. The Atlantic coast of Cornwall  continued as yesterday, steep rocky cliffs (with the occasional dark cave) rising sheer from the sea, and very little sign of civilisation or wildlife.  We did pass one town, Bude, but we were quite a long way out from the coast so didn't really see much of it. In the afternoon as we were ahead of ourselves, we decided to go inshore a bit and have a look at Tintagel from the sea.  There is a ...

A strange lone cloud hung over us as we left Watchet.  It was a 9am start to catch the tide, and the weather was perfect... but not enough wind as usual...there is either too much or too little. We motor sailed along the glorious North Devon and Cornwall coast, past Minehead, then a vast expanse of unpopulated, deserted grass covered cliffs only punctuated by Linton and Lynmouth.  I realised that this is the edge of Exmoor, I had no idea it stretched to the sea. No other boats at all and no sea birds, it felt quite eerie.  We made a rather pathetic attempt at a Jubilee Tea, with Lundy Island a distant smudge on the horizon. Then past the holiday town of Ilfracombe to Clovelly, where we have anchored for the night as we are just too big to enter the harbour. What a stunning spot, so peaceful and unspoilt. I would love to come back on the land and visit the village. We hope we might see a Jubilee beacon or two later. In the meantime dinner on deck and a peaceful nights slee...

Waiting for high tide at Watchet This will be a very brief blog as we are both knackered (sailing term!) We haven't done this for nearly three years and we aren't used to it! We had a 10 hour trip in sunny weather but a very lumpy sea for most of the trip. Watchet is a very pretty unspoilt village which  tourists have yet to discover. It dries out to mud but we managed to get in at high tide and we will be leaving again on the 9am high tide tomorrow. A very friendly harbour master greeted us and helped us to get onto our mooring, and it turns out he is an American from Carolina! There was an Irish band playing on the quay which added to the festive atmosphere, as everywhere is getting ready for the four days of Jubilee Celebrations. We would like to stay longer, lovely pubs and very friendly locals, but we need to press on to reach Padstow by Friday. A few pictures and then I will have to say goodnight and take to my bed. The captain is already there sound asleep before 9.30! T...

 As usual our plans have changed slightly, we are not going to Penarth today, we have decided to leave tomorrow, 1st June,  at the 10.30am lock out . We are heading straight to Watchet from here. The weather changed today with heavy showers and stronger winds than forecast, so we decided not to go over to Penarth this evening.  This gave us the chance to have the best coffee and croissant in Mokoko cafe at the marina. Voted one of the UK's top 25 coffee businesses by the Sunday Times, it makes all its own cakes and bread from local organic produce and it's coffee is lovely.  It also gave me the opportunity for another swim in the brilliant Lido, rescued from closure in 2009 by community funding and run completely by volunteers.  I will leave you with the words on the top of my water bottle..."Let curiosity by your compass and courage your sail." See you tomorrow from Watchet! Portishead open air pool.

  Hello again from Lunar Sea in Portishead. The boat has been here for two years now and we are continuing our adventure from tomorrow, the 31st May, by locking out of Portishead Marina (near Bristol in case you wondered) and we will be heading for Penarth Marina (near Cardiff) for our first stop. Then on to Padstow via Watchet for a night's stay and then probably an anchorage for one night off Clovelly, to break up the 18 hour trip from Watchet to Padstow.  We have been so lucky to have found this charming marina which has been Lunar Sea's home for two years, we will be sad to leave, but excited to be on the homeward stretch of our marathon around the UK sailing trip. It was supposed to take 2 years, but due to bad weather in year 1 and a mutinous crew, plus the pandemic in the third and fourth year, it will have taken 5 years (assuming we get back to Ramsgate this year, watch this space!) Wish us luck, calm seas and a good wind. I will try and do a daily blog, sailing condit...

Day 48 & 49  Cardiff. We have decided to leave the boat in Penarth for a couple of weeks and head home. We will return in a few weeks time and decide whether to leave it in Penarth for the Winter or possibly take it to Portishead or Bristol. In the meantime Celia and I decided to take the ferry across Cardiff Bay to Cardiff. We were the only passengers on the first ferry at 11.00 and heard a commentary about the harbour area as we went. The Norwegian church was built by Norwegian timber men who brought their cargo's into Cardiff. It has been moved from it's original position and restored with the help of a donation from Roald Dahl. He was born here and his parents were Norwegian immigrants. The Norwegian Church on Cardiff Bay Captain Morgan, the infamous pirate, came from Cardiff but died in the Caribbean. Captain Morgan Rum is named after him! The Pierhead building, Cardiff's Big Ben Mermaid Quay Cardiff., with the Pier head building and the Welsh Asse...