St Mary’s towards Falmouth

Sunday 14th July
St Mary’s towards Mylor, Falmouth

We woke to thick fog. It was too dense to leave the harbour safely so we waited for it to clear. We heard some fog horns and saw on AIS that there were two ships at anchor and there was another, very big, passenger ship sailing along St Mary’s Sound. At 9.30 we’d decided that the fog had cleared sufficiently to find our way past all the boats in the harbour. Could make out the ships in St Mary’s Roads. There was still thick fog in the sound and we could sometimes make out the tops of yachts’ masts as they followed us- it was very eerie. Eventually we cleared the island and set a course for Lizard Point. The visibility improved slowly with some patchy fog occasionally. There were several yachts heading east. There was some wind but not enough to make sufficient speed so we motor sailed until off The Lizard where we had enough to travel under sail only.

Four masted ship in St Mary’s Roads

Penninis Head through the fog

A racing pigeon hitched a ride for a few hours and left us several lots of pigeon poop! At least Humphrey only left us some dog hairs!

Approaching Falmouth

Black Rock Beacon

Black Rock Beacon

Alan recording the finish

Jan recording the moment

We did it!

We had very mixed feelings as we approached Falmouth. As Black Rock came abeam, the light was fading and the beacon stood out against the red sky; this was our official start and finish point. We did it – but were sad that it had come to an end. We made our way to Mylor- and identified our buoy with the help of a strong flashlight. It was 22:28 – too late to go ashore so we stayed on board for the night.

68 miles

1,923 miles travelled since April