We left Penzance at 7am this morning, in the wet dock was the old fishing trawler that we rafted against in Paimpol (Pete and Sandra will know the one) apparently 'Mad Jim' has to sign on every now and again and thats why he is over here! Also Paul has a new project in mind, not the WW2 torpedo boat that I want, no his is a partly built little ship the man who owns it has gone into receivership having spent 10 million on it, it still needs 10 million spending on it too, so I had to get us out of Penzance double quick!

We are in St Mawes now, a new harbour for us, we are on a buoy, but it is very calm, compared to the Scillies. St Mawes is a lovely little fishing village opposite Falmouth. We are here for about 3 nights I think, pay for 2 get the 3rd free so thats what we are doing, its the cheapest place so far with Dartmouth still the dearest.

The water is so clear here, on the way we caught a glimpse of a dolphin, puffins and just below the surface I saw the biggest dogfish ever, well it must of been about 5ft long! we were sitting up top and I looked over the side and it was swimming alongside, then turned away quite shark like! No basking sharks though to make our depth meter go mad! Or was it a submarine the last time we were here the depth went from 60m to 0m! very strange. Paul is thinking of diving under Rowena just to get in the water!

Well here we are back in Penzance after our brief trip to the Scillies. We got to St Mary's on Saturday afternoon after a long trip from Falmouth. Sammy was sick as we rounded the Lizard, it was like being on a roller coaster, not rough just big swells. We picked up a buoy in St Mary's pool by the lifeboat. It was how shall we say quite 'sloppy' there, we were bobbing about, the water was splashing the side of Rowena so we did not get much sleep, too busy trying to stay in the bed with all the rolling around (caused by the sea conditions)!! Sunday was a beautiful day which we spent on the beach sunbathing, Sunday night was better and on Monday we left at 9 for Penzance as a force 6 was forecast. We are moored up in commercial dock here, the big boats for the Scillies use it and fishermen too, but it is interesting, in the corner I am sure there is a ww2 gun boat, but it looks very sorry for itself, would be a lovely project to do up! Today, Tuesday, we are off on the bus to St Ives for the day. I think we are leaving here Thursday for the Helston River all being well, if the wind is wrong it will probably have to be Falmouth, then Fowey and Salcombe, then we need somebody to come and fetch Tizzy and Sammy, any offers?

We arrived in Falmouth yesterday about 3pm, fuelled up and are now berthed in Pendennis Marina with some absolutely fabulous boats, I think they should be in Monaco or St Tropez, there is a yacht Adix which must be 50m long, all wood cabins, 3 masts which must be 100m high, also a 'little ship', Steel, the chandalier in the cabin I can see into is bigger than the one we have got at home! The sky domes on each boat are making Paul feel very inadequate! There must be something on the internet about them. Talking of sky it does seem to be working now, unfortunately we seem to fall asleep in front of it after all the walking and sea air we are getting. I think the reason I can't download photos is something to do with the phone internet connection that 'cheapskate paul' is using. Anyway weather is looking good and all being well we will be off to the Scillies in the morning 6am, but not before all the stainless has been cleaned.

This should be called walking adventures not boating adventures, we have been stuck here in Dartmouth since last Friday, two force 8 gales later we are hoping to leave early tomorrow (thurs) for Falmouth. Also unable, for some reason, to download photos onto the blog, which is a shame because we have some good ones of Dartmouth, and Torquay. We have spent our time walking while we have been here, the only trouble being its very hilly and we know that when we are going downhill we will have to go up! We are going to watch the Royal Marines beating the retreat in a minute, thats Dartmouth life for you. Will try again in Falmouth to download photos and let you know what the sea is like, at the moment it looks 'insignificant' to me! (Craggs will know how bad that is).

Sorry guys can't download photos at the moment will try this evening

Weymouth to Dartmouth

The wind finally died down, but not before it had deposited half of Weymouth beach all over Rowena, of course this gave Paul a good excuse to CLEAN, the brushes came out, the dusters, hosepipe and everything had a good scrub, I took Tizzy and Sammy out of the way before he started on them. We set off at about 1pm past Portland Bill, which we could hardly see for the mist then onto Torquay. Lyme Bay was the calmest we had ever known, how strange after a force 9! We moored up in Torquay on the town quay, only us there, no water or electric but thats no problem to us, water always kept topped up by the skipper. It was so quiet after Weymouth, no fenders squeaking, no wind whistling, no fishing boats zooming past, it was bliss.
But all good things come to an end and we set off about 4pm for Dartmouth, on the way, we had to polish all the fenders as they were covered in dust, rain marks and paint from out stay in Weymouth, they certainly took some hammering. So we arrived in Dartmouth shining like a new pin! Even Paul was happy!

We are moored up on the town quay, in the most expensive berth that Dart Harbour has! Off to walk to Dittisham in a minute. We are here until at least Sunday, more wind forecast.

We left Portsmouth on Saturday 9th May for Weymouth, it was calm and sunny for most of the way, though we did meet a big sea at St Annes Head, however, taking all his courage in his hands the skipper went the nearest yet to the land, as recommended in the almanac, and we were only in the overfalls for a very short time. We reached Weymouth after 6 1/2 hours with the engines being revved to no more than 1800 all they way. What happened to the 2000 I was promised. Its very windy now, Monday, force 9, a yacht did go out, but came back again, everyone else had the sense to stay tied up. We walked to Portland and the new Olympic marina which you can see in the photo. The weather is looking better for Wed/Thur and we will try to get to Dartmouth then.