As it will take us around 24 hours to reach the Isles of Scilly, we left Kinsale at midday. The forecast is predicting westerly winds to begin with, then veering to the North West (ideal for our route) with a predicted wind strength of F3/4, and then reducing by night time to F3 or less, with the sea state smooth to slight.
On our way out we passed Charles Fort
Then the landmark Head of Kinsale
The first few hours were pretty much as predicted and we had all the sails up making about 4.5 kts of speed over the ground and really enjoying the sail under a sunny sky – it doesn’t really get much better when out on a yacht when conditions are like this and we were happy bunnies. As the forecast predicted the wind subsequently dropped and so did our boat speed to around 2 knots, so to maintain enough speed to arrive at the Isles of Scilly in daylight we rolled away the genny, left up the mainsail, and started the engine to motorsail.
The wind however did not stay light, both it and the seas started to increase and built to a F5 gusting F6, but thankfully on our quarter, and as long as the wind stayed behind us I was happy enough. We reefed the mainsail, pulled out a bit of genny and were belting along with the log sometimes showing 7.5 to 8+ kts. This was not as fast as a more modern boat would have achieved, but fast enough for little ol’ Sun Dogs’ hull design. I have to say that Sun Dog sat wonderfully throughout the night, as the swell and waves increased until they were a more than reasonable size (sic). Notice I am refraining from mentioning forecast v reality 😉
We had decided that when I went for a bit of shut eye that Sara would wake me whenever she saw any lights or was concerned in any way. It seemed to me throughout the night that every time I just got to the point of drifting off into a deep sleep that I would hear the words………….”sorry Gerry but there are boats ahead/to the side”………..and lo and behold fishing boats that had all the sea area to trawl were across our route. I kid you not at one point I was surrounded by them, and wish I had taken a photo of the chart plotter, as the AIS would have shown us with the fishing boats circling their wagons around us……bloody unbelievable, but it does have the positive effect of ensuring that one is really wide awake and alert.
All through the night the seas and wind stayed fairly constant………………..so much for the F3 or less forecast! – but importantly both boat and crew were comfortable. Before going (finally) to sleep I had asked Sara to wake me as we approached the traffic separation scheme (used to ensure a one way system for big commercial vessels) where yachts must not impede their progress and must cross these lanes with their heading at ninety degrees to the big ships, so that they can be seen more easily by the big boats.
When Sara woke me as requested I duly checked the AIS on the chart plotter (ships can be seen on the screen before being picked up with MK1 eyeball) and there was only one large commercial vessel showing as heading our way, with the AIS giving her course and speed. Therefore a quick bit of mental arithmetic told me that I could pass ahead of her with a safety margin of around one mile. I factored in that she would need a slight change of course to line up for the separation scheme and our forward progress (speed over the ground) all was calculated correctly. In these seas I really did not want to be slopping around waiting on it to pass across in front of us, as this would have been more than a little uncomfortable in these conditions! AIS is without doubt a really good aid to navigation, and I’m glad we had this fitted just before the start of our trip as it does provide additional comfort.
The Isles of Scilly duly hove into view and we were so pleased to see them, albeit we had to keep focussed to ensure we were tracking on the correct course through the North West passage as there are a serious amount of rocks awaiting the unwary.
No matter how carefully the planning beforehand, when you are heading towards your marker with jaggy rocks all around, and in reasonable seas it means that when you are in the trough of the waves you lose sight of land, and on the peaks have a good view – it’s a case of check, check and double check. Sara was our eyes with the binoculars to ensure we picked up and identified the correct cardinal markers. We were mightily relived to get into the approach to St Mary’s pool as we were planning on picking up one of their heavy visitors’ mooring buoys. However with the wind from this direction these moorings were very exposed and we would have been hellishly uncomfortable.
Therefore our contingency plan B came into force, and we simply went around the isthmus and into the anchorage at Porth Cressa, where it was a bit busy with boats sheltering, but we found a suitable spot and dropped anchor. Once secure we felt tired yet elated at safely completing our first “crossing” on Sun Dog. Kettle was quickly on, something hot made to eat, (as making anything hot last night was a big no no) and then some well earned zzzzzzzzzzzzzzd’s with no fishing boats to spoil my beauty sleep – and I have to say, we both slept like contented logs.