Sailing Aphrodite: September 2022

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Papillon: Fowey to Plymouth

Having spent three relaxing days in Fowey, wandering about the town, reading onboard, enjoying the beer and meals at The Ship Inn.

There were few boats on the pontoons and as sailors the world over we all met up, had coffee and a chat. I was delighted to see a French boat over with all the shenanigans about Brexit.

When it was time to head back we slipped our lines and poked the bow out of the river, conditions were still bouncy, and headed east under a single reef. Visibility was less than a mile.

The French boat that was on the second pontoon also departed heading for Plymouth.

As we arrived at Sutton Lock the lock keeper called out and asked if Andrew would ring then Coastguard at Falmouth as they wanted to check we were OK. It turns out that the French skipper had lost sight of us and we had disappeared from his AIS, hence he reported this to the Coastguard. They were able to confirm that they could see us on AIS doing 7 knots heading east.

All in all a cracking few days.

All times are UTC.

The Numbers:
	Underway	Distance NM	Avg SOG knots	Max SOG knots	Night Hours
Day:	4h 15m	27.75	6.5	9.00	0h 0m
Trip:	10d 23h 59m	9,999	0	0	0

Crew: Andrew Pascoe (Skipper) Morag Thomson Findlay and Sandy Garrity

Sunrise: 0542 hrs Sunset: 1931 hrs

Weather: The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 00:15 (UTC+1) on Thu 8 Sep 2022 for the period 01:00 (UTC+1) on Thu 8 Sep 2022 to 01:00 (UTC+1) on Fri 9 Sep 2022.

Portland, Plymouth

Southwest 5 to 7. Moderate or rough. Thundery showers. Good, occasionally poor.

© Met Office Synoptic Chart 08/09/2022

Monday, September 05, 2022

Papillon: Plymouth to Fowey

Monday 5^th September 2022

One of the great things about social media is the ability to contact people, share ideas and do stuff. After offering to crew in a Plymouth Group I was contacted by Andrew to see if I was interested in doing a trip.

After meeting up for a quick chat on the previous Thursday we had planned a trip to Guernsey in the Channel Islands, but over the weekend the weather turned very windy with a low pressure system sat off Ireland. Lots of ideas were pinged back and fro about possible places to sail and we settled on Salcombe or Dartmouth.

I drove down to Plymouth and abananded the car at Andrew's place and then we went down to the marina where we met Morag. We dropped our kit and supplies on Papillon and got her ready for sea then headed for the Sutton Harbour lock and waited to be let out.

Into Plymouth Sound we motored, the wind was 'a bit brisk', but warm and on raising the main I got a thorough drenching with the amount of water that had been trapped in the sail.

Heading out of the Eastern Entrance we all detected that there was far more east in the wind that the forecast had predicted and casually people started to once again look at different forecasts on their phones and wondering if going east was such a good idea.

Poking our noise out beyond the Great Mew Stone confirmed our suspicions, the forecasted F4 - F6 was at the high end of the range, we would spend a good few hours bashing into it and we knew the wind would increase.

Almost together we asked if this was a good idea and decided that Fowey was a much better option and turned Papillion west. With a reef in the main and under full genoa and settled down to enjoy the downwind sail.

A bouncy couple of hours followed as we headed west in a choppy sea, but the sun shone and the sky was clear blue.

Enjoying the ride and free of the demands of skippering I sat back and watched the world go by.

Entering Fowey for the first time was interesting as Andrew pointed out all of the landmarks, perhaps the most comical one was 'the firework' a red port light that did look like a firework.

We tied up on one of the pontoons and reflected on a fun, but challenging morning.

All times are UTC.

The Numbers:
	Underway	Distance	Avg SOG	Max SOG	Night Hours
Day:	4h 15m	27.75	6.50	9.00	0h 00m
Trip:	4h 15m	27.75	6.50	9.00	0h 00m

Crew: Andrew Pascoe (Skipper) Morag Thomson Findlay and Sandy Garrity

Sunrise: 0542 hrs Sunset: 1931 hrs

Weather: The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at 00:15 (UTC+1) on Mon 5 Sep 2022 for the period 01:00 (UTC+1) on Mon 5 Sep 2022 to 01:00 (UTC+1) on Tue 6 Sep 2022.

Plymouth, Northwest Biscay

Southwesterly 4 to 6 backing southerly 5 to 7, perhaps gale 8 later. Moderate or rough, becoming rough or very rough later in west. Thundery showers. Good, occasionally poor.