Round the Lizard
All of a sudden everything seems to be about headlands! No sooner have we ticked off Lands End than we had to start planning for the Lizard and then looking further ahead the rounding of Start Point and Portland Bill begin to occupy the skippers mind!
We had already spent some time looking at tidal streams and reading up on the course to take around the Lizard and with a fair wind predicted and good sunny weather we left our berth in Newlyn at the very reasonable time of 11 am with the aim of being 3 miles off the Lizard at slack water and then carry a favourable tide around the point and on into Falmouth water and the Helford River.
The weather was fair although as had been the case over the previous few days the visibility was not that good and my attempts to photograph St Michaels Mount as we passed it resulted in a grey outline in an otherwise grey sky with a grey blue sea below! In other words nothing!! the wind started out as a lovely northerly F4 and we soon had all the sails up and were going along nicely against a diminishing foul tide however as the morning wore on the wind started swinging about - in nautical terms this is called "variable" and dropping and soon we were virtually stationary on a glassy sea with the instruments showing a breeze of 1-2 knots from the north or perhaps the south east or occasionally the east! It was lovely and peaceful but we were aware of the need to catch the tide in order to round the point so on went the motor! The problem with motoring is that the boat is not designed to motor but to sail so the motion immediately becomes less comfortable and instead of riding the waves gently under sail the motor forces her through them and we get lots of slamming and spray! On a flat calm sea this isn't an issue but as we approached Lizard point the seas built up a little and became a bit confused as expected. It wasn't any great drama just a bit bumpy but had we been able to sail it would have been lovely!
After rounding Lizard Point we turned north towards the mouth of the Helford River passing the Manacles reef and headed into the river for a quiet night tied to a bouy. We found a vacant visitors mooring, tied up to it and settled down for a quiet night - however it was then that an easterly wind picked up and so our mooring became a bit more bumpy than we would have liked! The wind was pushing a swell into the river with the tide and all of the boats were rolling a bit - never mind after a couple of glasses of wine and a good meal we understood why babies fall asleep when you rock their cot!
Now as we were heading to this part of the country I felt that I really needed to read Frenchman's Creek - one of the few Daphne Du Mauriers that I haven't read before. Part of our reason for visiting the Helford River was to have a look at this beautiful inlet and perhaps push our noses into Frenchamn's Creek or take a dinghy trip there. Sadly we awoke the next morning to a very wet misty day with quite a swell running in the river - not good conditions for a dinghy trip.
We had already spent some time looking at tidal streams and reading up on the course to take around the Lizard and with a fair wind predicted and good sunny weather we left our berth in Newlyn at the very reasonable time of 11 am with the aim of being 3 miles off the Lizard at slack water and then carry a favourable tide around the point and on into Falmouth water and the Helford River.
The weather was fair although as had been the case over the previous few days the visibility was not that good and my attempts to photograph St Michaels Mount as we passed it resulted in a grey outline in an otherwise grey sky with a grey blue sea below! In other words nothing!! the wind started out as a lovely northerly F4 and we soon had all the sails up and were going along nicely against a diminishing foul tide however as the morning wore on the wind started swinging about - in nautical terms this is called "variable" and dropping and soon we were virtually stationary on a glassy sea with the instruments showing a breeze of 1-2 knots from the north or perhaps the south east or occasionally the east! It was lovely and peaceful but we were aware of the need to catch the tide in order to round the point so on went the motor! The problem with motoring is that the boat is not designed to motor but to sail so the motion immediately becomes less comfortable and instead of riding the waves gently under sail the motor forces her through them and we get lots of slamming and spray! On a flat calm sea this isn't an issue but as we approached Lizard point the seas built up a little and became a bit confused as expected. It wasn't any great drama just a bit bumpy but had we been able to sail it would have been lovely!
After rounding Lizard Point we turned north towards the mouth of the Helford River passing the Manacles reef and headed into the river for a quiet night tied to a bouy. We found a vacant visitors mooring, tied up to it and settled down for a quiet night - however it was then that an easterly wind picked up and so our mooring became a bit more bumpy than we would have liked! The wind was pushing a swell into the river with the tide and all of the boats were rolling a bit - never mind after a couple of glasses of wine and a good meal we understood why babies fall asleep when you rock their cot!
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| Helford Village |
Now as we were heading to this part of the country I felt that I really needed to read Frenchman's Creek - one of the few Daphne Du Mauriers that I haven't read before. Part of our reason for visiting the Helford River was to have a look at this beautiful inlet and perhaps push our noses into Frenchamn's Creek or take a dinghy trip there. Sadly we awoke the next morning to a very wet misty day with quite a swell running in the river - not good conditions for a dinghy trip.
The tide was quite low but we did nudge Teteli as far up river as we could and even in rain we could see just how beautiful this river was. It was also clear that Daphne DM really knew this part of the country as her descriptions in the book pretty much captured the atmosphere of the place! It was a shame that the weather didn't really allow us to explore this little inlet but as with other places we have visited on our trip this part of Cornwall has gone onto our list of roadtrip destinations!
For the first time this year we were both togged out in full foul weather gear which we needed - quite a change from last year when every day was an oilskins day! With the rain pouring down we turned Teteli to face the mouth of the river and the short trip to Falmouth. A couple of hours later we were safely tucked up in Falmouth Yacht Haven with a couple of days planned to explore this pretty Cornish town.
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| Alongside on Falmouth |
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