2021 Late Summer Cruise, Days 6 & 7. Cawsand - St Mawes.

A good but slow sail on the wind after Rame Head, from the anchorage to SE of Dodman  when the wind faded and, not for the first time on this cruise contrary to the forecast, backed to the west so the engine went on for the last few hours. Again not for the first time the wind returned  shortly before arrival.

The old gaffer "Marguerite" anchoring in St Mawes, rig "scandalised" to
reduce power. She was one of the 3 gaffers in Cawsand Bay when I left
and was here last year when I passed through.

A late arrival.

And leaving this morning under sail, they had to heave that 
anchor up with a manual windlass, rather them than me! This was
one of the few times I have seen the local ferry manoeuvre to give
a boat a wide berth, the bowsprit may have been the reason 😏

An old LNLI lifeboat anchored off St Mawes, I am fairly sure
its a "Watson" from the 1940s or 50s but I don't know which variant.

I spent an hour or so on Monday morning scrubbing the bottom of the boat as well as I could from the dinghy. In the afternoon I went swimming to do a bit more and to check the anodes. But then saw what might have been slowing me down as much as the muck on the hull.

Lots of weed wrapped around the prop and shaft along with this rope wrapped around the prop shaft, it took a while and a lot of effort to get off and several hours to recover from the effort. I also should have had my helmet on to protect me from the rolling hull but I forgot it and I had already clambered aboard once to get the boat hook and knife and I did not fancy the effort of doing it twice more. The wetsuit seems to have shrunk 😉 and getting it on and off was a major effort in itself, it also takes for ever to dry so a new one is on the cards.

The good news is that the lower hull and keel aren't that dirty (the rudder and the foot or so below the waterline get more sun light and therefore more weed growth), the prop with its new type antifoul is pristine and the anodes are fine, due in part to not spending that much time in marinas connected to their power supplies and in part to the "galvanic isolator" I installed over the winter.

37 miles in 8 3/4 hours.

Slide show of my pictures from Portland to St Mawes, page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Click here for the trip to The Isles of Scilly.