Sunday 8 August 2010

Day Six & Seven : Falmouth to St. Mary's & New Grimsby Sound

After another consultation with the weather oracle over an espresso in 5 Degrees West, we decide to sail overnight towards the Isles of Scilly. This gives us more time to complete final preparations, last minute provisioning and have a final shower.

Lunch is a Nicoise style salad served in the sunshine with herb flat bread. Then it's onto preping the pork tenderloin and flageolet beans for tonight's dinner so that it's just an assembly job when we're underway.

We depart, as planned by 1800, and it's smooth sailing down to the Manacles. Once round the corner, the swell coming in from the Atlantic starts to build as we head towards the Lizard. Luckily, doing all the prep this afternoon for tonight's meal paid off but it was still a challenge to plate up without everything escaping from the bowls. By this time, the wind has backed and is firmly on the nose, so we have to motor sail towards St. Mary's.

On night watch, we discover that plain chocolate (70% cacoa) and Foxes ginger biscuits eaten together are a terrific combo, especially paired up with a steaming hot cup of coffee - guaranteed to keep you going.

The hours slip by and very soon, through the emerging daylight, we see the outline of the islands. We pick our way through the rocks and shallows to have a look in Port Cressa to see if there is anyone achored there that we know. 'Silver Tide' is anchored there but either they're still asleep or gone ashore as there are no signs of life.

Onwards then to St. Mary's and here most of the Little Ship Club yachts have spent the night. It's extremely crowded so we thread our way through the moorings and eventually find a free mooring buoy. After catching up on some sleep, we blow up the dinghy and head towards the quay.

Lunch is in the Bishop and Wolf which has enticed us in with the promise of fresh crab sandwiches as proclaimed on a blackboard outside. Alas, there is no crab today so we have to 'make do' with smoked salmon or Atlantic prawn sandwiches which turned out to be delicious.

Afterwards, I'm keen to see what can be foraged from the shoreline in Port Cressa, so walk up the road and onto the craggy beach. Here, there are limpets aplenty on the granite rocks. In Madeira, limpets are a traditional hors-d'oeuvre - the "lapas" are placed in sizzling garlic butter and become perfectly cooked in the time it takes to get from the kitchen to the table. As the ship's stores are well stocked at the moment, I don't fancy giving the limpets a try. Walking away from the shore I find a plentiful supply of wild fennel and sea chard by the embankment. This is definitely worth collecting for use over the next couple of days.

Reluctantly, it's time to stop beach combing and head back to the dinghy (there are no water taxis). While we've been ashore, the swell from the SW has really got going and we're rocking and rolling on the mooring. All agree that we're not going to put up with this all night, so after afternoon tea, we pick our way through the rocks and shallows towards New Grimsby Sound. Everyone else has had the same idea but we find a spot to anchor by 2000 and the fishing commences while dinner is being prepared.

The plan was to have a light supper of melted goats cheese on ciabatta with rocket but the arrival of a large pouting on board meant a quick change of plan. While the pouting was being gutted, celery and carrots were sliced into strips to be stir-fried with red onion. The fish was so fresh that, despite being now headless, it was still twitching and flapping about in the pan. Adding a little olive oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley and salt, the pouting was loosely wrapped in tin foil and bunged in the oven for 25 minutes. Filets were served with the stir-fried vegetables and were absolutely delicious. Followed by the goats cheese salad then plain chocolate with a dram of whisky on the side, supper turned out to be not so light after all.

Friday 6 August 2010

Day Five : Fowey to Falmouth

A relatively short hop today from Fowey to Falmouth and again there is high pressure and sunshine. We drop our mooring line at 0730 and hop the headlands to St. Anthony's Head and the approach to Falmouth. It seems very busy here, with yachts - classic and modern - streaming out of the harbour, after a few days on quiet moorings but this is an important stop as it's the last chance we have to stock up on provisions before setting sail towards the Isles of Scilly.

After the recent instrument refit, the depth sounder clearly needs calibration as we steer towards the Town Quay with the depth reading - 0.6 metres, which is somewhat disconcerting! As the larger yacht in front of us didn't go aground, we figured we were ok to keep going.

For lunch, we had a quick round of ham and cheese sandwiches before dividing up tasks and heading into town for food, a replacement gas canister and internet access to get the latest weather so we could decide if tomorrow was going to be a good window for heading towards the Isles of Scilly. Falmouth is an ideal pit-stop for provisioning: as well as a large supermarket, there are bakeries, fishmongers and one of the best hardware stores in the country - Trago Mills.

After supplies of food and boaty bits are on board, it was time to welcome a new crew member and get ready for dinner at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Here, we met up with other yachts from The Little Ship Club for a pre-dinner contest with the model yachts powered by fans in each corner of the indoor pool. Then it was up to the second floor with a stunning view of the harbour as the sun went down and a dinner of tapas, fillet of Cornish beef with dauphinoise potatoes and Mediterranean vegetables followed by fruit salad. The tapas selection included scallops wrapped in parma ham, which were absolutely devine. Next, the beef was fantastic - tender and succulent - but the fruit salad was disappointing.

On our way back to the Town Quay, we noticed that Rick Stein had opened a fish restaurant since we had last visited the museum. Here, mackerel were being sold for £8.50, so at this price we reckoned that we'd caught £85 worth so far. Better keep those fishing rods going!

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Day Four: Dartmouth to Fowey


Another hot and sunny morning. We depart the Dartmouth early and head towards Start Point with the fishing lines out, hoping for some sea bass near the rocks. Several fishing boats were bobbing along, so the area looked promising. However, we didn't catch a single tiddler going along the coast here but we did see many cormorants and a common seal on the rocks below the lighthouse. Further up the coast, we did eventually catch 5 mackerel of Hillsea Point and kept 3 for dinner.

Onwards towards the River Yealm to for lunch - our last stop in Devon. After negotiating the tricky approach, we drop the anchor in soaring temperatures and enjoy Greek Salad to complement the Mediterranean atmosphere. It's tempting to stop right here and not continue to Fowey but we resist and crack on westwards. There was lots to see on the way as a naval exercise was in progress - hopefully no live ammunition was involved this time! Warships on the horizon did not deter us from our afternoon tea of fresh scones - bought that morning in Dartmouth - clotted cream and strawberry jam.

After passing Looe and Polperro and some amazing Cornish coastline, we arrive in Fowey in the early evening and take the opportunity to fill up the water tank which has lasted well so far. Mackerel and lemon baked in foild with roasted tomatoes and new potatoes.

Monday 2 August 2010

Day Three: Portland to Dartmouth

High pressure meant a clear sky early in the morning in Portland Harbour. We dropped our mooring at 0600 to catch the tide for the inner passage around the notorious Portland Bill. Here, the Portland Race is caused by the meeting of the tides between the Bill and the Shambles sandbank about 3 miles SE. Strong currents break the sea so fiercely that from the shore a continuous disturbance can be seen and even large vessels are at risk of breaking up if sucked into the Race. Fortunately, we have timed our westward passage well and have fair tide accelerating us past the Portland Lighthouse.

Here, the water is teeming with mackerel and we quickly catch 7 in quick succession: 5 keepers and 2 small ones returned to the sea. We haven't had breakfast yet, so the fresh mackerel - with thei iridescent skins - are quickly gutted and filleted. Into a pan with a little butter and a squeeze of lemon and a twist of freshly ground black pepper, the fish are ready to serve on wholemeal toast within 15 minutes of being caught. The light, delicate flavour of fresh mackerel bears no resemblance to the stronger flavour of the same fish bought in the supermarket.

After such a lovely breakfast, lunch was simple cheese on toast.

Arriving in Dartmouth, we stocked up with fresh provisions, then joined up with friends on 'Lazy Life' for pre-dinner drinks then went en masse to "The Frying Pan" fish and chip shop for a take-away fish and chip supper to eat in the cockpit back on the Town Quay under a blue sky.

Day Two: Solent to Portland

The morning is sunny with a distinct lack of breeze. After the last shower for a few days, we cast off and head for the Needles. Underway, muesli with banana and strawberries is munched for breakfast. Muesli is the driving force on 'A Day at the Races' and no morning would be complete without a big bowlful of the stuff. We like the Dorset Cereals varieties and some of the own-brand luxury packets from most supermarkets. I'm not very keen on Alpen - in fact I don't like it all. It's like eating mouthfuls of sawdust and is overly sweet.

Still no breeze, so we continue motor-sailing towards Portland with chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and a small glass of beer. Just as we're finishing eating, a safety vessel from the firing range comes alongside and warns us that there is live firing practice today. We alter course slightly to avoid the practice area and arrive at the entrance to Portland Harbour just after 1600, picking up a mooring buoy just before 1700.

Local dinghy racers start whizzing by our mooring and we have a grandstand view from the cockpit of the local sailing clubs' evening racing. In 2012, this area will be really buzzing as the Olympic sailing events will be held here. After the racing, it's time for linguine with bolognaise sauce washed down with a glass of chianti.

We plan the next day's passage and turn in under a warm summer sky.

Sunday 1 August 2010

Day One: preparing for a long summer cruise

Preparations are underway to get ready for a long summer cruise from the Solent to the West Country, Isles of Scilly and Southern Ireland. I draw up a shopping list for the ships stores for all the heavy items that can be taken down by car as we'll be in some fairly remote places, so canned food, bottled water, beers and wine needs to be bought now.

There's time to get ahead of the game and cook two meals in advance at home: lamb and prune tagine and bolognaise sauce. Sharp knives and other culinary instruments are selected from the home arsenal and packed carefully for the voyage. Also, a selection of herbs and spices which we'll need along the way.

After a massive session at the supermarket, the car is bursting at the seams with all the provisions and it takes three trolley loads to move all the provisions down to the boat. Eventually, a home is found for everything and after changing from the racing sails to the cruising sails, we settle down to lamb and prune tagine with cous cous and a courgette & carrot salad with sesame seeds. Plus a nice drop of Rioja as a reward for all our hard work.

Now, 'A Day At The Races' is definitely in cruising mode as the waterline sinks 2 cm more than usual with all the extra gear on board. We check the weather and all looks good for an early morning departure the next day.