“With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal”- this line from the Gilbert and Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance, struck me as we sailed past a town called Mousehole into Newlyn Harbour after a very lively overnight sail from Dungarvan. Not to labour the cat and mouse imagery, west of Mousehole we could see lots of sea caves which looked like big mouse holes straight out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. East of Penzance, in the distance, we could see the iconic shape of St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall’s answer to Le Mont Saint Michel.
We were a little relieved to be into port, as the wind was strengthening and the mist and fog was increasing. We had left Dungarvan Harbour the previous morning in lovely sunshine on the rising tide, with family and friends waving flags to see us off. Initially , the winds were light and we raised sail off Ballinacourty, with no hitches other than embarrassingly forgetting to take in fenders (nobody noticed, thank God!).
Our crew was me as skipper, my Dad Tom (his first long offshore passage), Therese (also her first) and Brian, a veteran of 2 passages to and from France. We had a very exciting passage and apart from a few bouts of sea sickness, it was uneventful. As usual, our trip was enlivened by a pod of curious dolphins playing at the bow.
Initially, winds were light and we motor sailed until winds filled in from the west and we were off. The wind gradually strengthened and though our anemometer was reading 15kn winds, guiding 20kn, it felt like a lot more. During the night the wind strengthened and the sea state worsened with lots of mist and low temperatures, so we were glad of the double reefed mainsail and eventually we had also
partially furled the headsail, all the while maintaining consistent boat speeds of over 6.5kn.
This meant that were were eventually 4h ahead of schedule completing the passage and as we were approaching the busy Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the dark, we opted to
skirt along the western side awaiting dawn before crossing. After a sleepless night for me as there were lots of sail adjustments we approached Newlyn Harbour, contacting Simon, the very friendly harbourmaster initially by telephone and then over VHF channel 12. He had an alongside berth for us on the marina, though we soon had a Dutch ketch rafted outside. The harbour office was a bit of a trek through the fishing harbour, but the toilets/showers were very convenient right at the end of the marina entrance.
We all had a lovely lunch and a pint of the local ale at the Red Lion pub, before Su Yin and Tomas arrived fresh from Newquay airport. Mission accomplished, time for a siesta and then dinner later. Sipadan embarks on her tour of Cornwall
