Mid July 2021 – Padstow to Newlyn and Mousehole

10th July – Saturday

A long day started wet at 05.45.  64.5 miles which took 14 and a half hours.  Thankfully the sun appeared later and the sea turned glassy.  We passed Newquay and St Ives at a distance avoiding the many and varied fishing pots.  Heading towards one of the largest fishing ports in the UK, pots are to be expected.

We collected some large clumps of weed and felt our rope cutter successfully slicing through other clumps, thankfully.  It is strong stuff and can foul a propeller and rudders if not removed.  There is a long list of things we have to watch out for.

We rolled around Lands End, where the Celtic Sea meets the English Channel, passed the Longships Lighthouse.  The second on this site.  Off the coast of Lands End in Cornwall, it is remotely monitored from Trinity House Operations centre in Harwich.  It was Electrified in 1967, replacing a paraffin burner.  The isophase light has a 19 Nm range (35km).  1974 the helipad was constructed.

St Michaels Mount appears on the right as we head for Newlyn across Mounts Bay.

Beware of large fishing vessels, which arrive and depart at any time of day.  They don’t spare the horses on their way out of the harbour.  Re-enforcing that it is their place of work and our privilege to be allowed anywhere near.

11th July – Sunday

Spoiler Alert – It didn’t come home….

The rest of the day had been windy and very rainy.  Mick went for fuel and the papers. 

A very large Fishing Vessel arrived in the afternoon.  It was promptly unloaded and then for the next 2 days and nights it was re-loaded and provisioned.  The generators run 24 hours a day, and the bright lights shine all night.  It was directly behind our boat on the visitors pontoon.  We were glad of a place to rest after going around Lands End, so no complaints from us.  It was still there when we left.

12th July – Monday

In the morning we walked to Lidl in Penzance, approx. 20 minutes, to stock up.

Then a walk around Newlyn, which isn’t very big.  The Strand is a well known vintage shop along with ‘Coddiwomple’ a local Art Gallery.  Sadly the Newlyn Art Gallery was closed for preparation of their next exhibition.  Newlyn is famous for Newlyn School of Art, so this was a blow.

We then set off and walked to Mousehole, a pretty village approximately 40 minutes walk West along the coastal path.  Aim up out of town and follow your nose.

From the path there is a good view of Newlyn Harbour.  Fleur Middle Left.

To give you some perspective on our neighbours.

Solera on the end on the right, more of which later.

We mainly took the road route on the way there.  Turning the corner you first see ‘The Mousehole’ which is a lovely ‘everything you never needed’ shop.

It is deceptively spacious inside.  Do have a peek.

Then you turn round and see the picturesque harbour.  Sadly the tide was out, but still very pretty.

We wended our way around the road passed this beautiful stilted house.

The small streets and alleys reveal the cutest cottages.

And quaintest streets and lanes.

Jessie’s dairy is tucked just off the main drag.

Today’s choice, Chicken, Cheese and Bacon pasty.

We sat on the harbourside for a good while eating and people watching.

We took the lower road back to Newlyn.

The path took us passed the Stacked Beach Stone sculpture.  Hundreds of stacks of balancing pebbles.

The path ends at a steep staircase back to the road.

Later another lower road beckons us down to another lower path, which finishes at Newlyn Harbour.  These paths keep us away from the traffic.

If you visit, please walk to Mousehole, it is delightful.  Make sure to explore the lanes and nooks.

That evening we catch sight of yacht ‘Solera’ and remember we have encountered Val and John before in Cherbourg in France and Cuxhaven in Germany.

I braved the showers, as we thought Falmouth may be very busy and we might have to anchor.  See below.

Sailors Info – Newlyn

Newlyn is a fishing harbour which takes passing boats, as it is a safe haven after rounding Lands End.  It can not be described as a yacht harbour, they make us welcome, but not that welcome, that we might outstay our welcome!!

£23 per night and £2.50 for electric, which was switched on after you paid from the office.  Limited wifi.

Showers are basic and cost £2.  Collect a token from the Harbour Office and a key for the door opposite.  One shower with toilets for all visiting sailors.

Shopping : There is a Co-op in Newlyn, and a Lidl in Penzance, an easy walk away.

Lewis’s Fish and Chip Shop is highly rated.  One portion of chips and two fish would have been plenty.  Massive portions but at £17, large price too, but they were excellent.  The Seafood bar across from Lewis’s was also popular.

Fresh fish is available on the Main Street.

Picture of Newlyn Harbourmasters Office, at the other side of the Fish Market, will help locate the shower!

Next stop Falmouth

Early July – Milford Haven to Padstow

30th June 2021 – To Padstow Overnight

Correction to last post.  The Dolphins are Porpoise (I call everything Dolphins) and the Seagull was a Black Legged Kittiwake.  Thanks Paul H.

Before an overnight trip there is obviously some apprehension.  So hairdressing is a good way to use a few hours, dyeing and cutting.

 

Milford Haven Lock.  It was a hot and sunny day and very unusually we entered Milford Haven lock at 5.50pm in shorts. 

After visiting the museum it was so much more interesting, passing the Gas storage terminal on the way out of the Haven.

One of the impossibly large tankers.

All well in the evening sunshine.  We were then contacted by the Castle Martin Firing Range to inform us practice was taking place.  They had seen us on the AIS and called on the VHF radio.  We were told to stick to a heading of 180 degrees, which was only slightly different to the bearing Mick had planned.  Over the next few hours we could actually hear booming noises.  We hoped they were good at their jobs.

We watched the sunset, while repeating the oven Lasagne routine, as it was so welcome last time.  After which Mick retired at 10.00pm until 01.00am.  Once night fell, it became very cold.  Even with the radio for company, there were few stars and I was glad to be relieved at 1.00am.

I then slept 01.00 til 05.00.  Mick rested after but did not sleep again.

We had a terrific dolphin display during the evening, while crossing the Bristol Channel.  The sea was calm and a small pod joined us at about 9.00pm.  They stayed for a good few hours and into the night, but was very difficult to see them when it was dark and there was no moonlight.

Four Porpoises surfacing together.  Mick snatched this from a Video Clip.

Large shipping in the Bristol Channel and a constant mist.

The mist had mostly cleared when we arrived in Padstow.  The River Camel channel is narrow but well buoyed.  We arrived at 10.15am and were assigned Ladder No.9. 

The harbourmaster had a supply of Calor Gas, so we are now OK for the summer.

I took the opportunity to take some pictures as it was likely we would be rafted against soon.  We deployed the fender board.  A plank of wood, tied across three fenders, which rested on the ladder, to stop damage to the boat, especially as other boats arrived.

The following day Keith and Harry arrived on Alchemy and were excellent raft buddies, so courteous, removing their shoes and treading lightly when they were coming and going across the front of our boat to get to the shore. 

Before too long the harbour was rafted 3 deep everywhere.  Not all rafters are as courteous, including the couple with the dog later, whose dog left its muddy paw prints with no apologies from the owners.  They thankfully moved as soon as they could to a better landing spot for the dog.

1st July – Thursday

We spent a few hours on Thursday trying to secure a table for dinner on Saturday night for my Birthday.  I have had a few dire birthdays lately and needed a better one.  No room at the Inns.  Even the most expensive.  However, the nice man at Rick Steins finest told us to try ‘Burgers and Fish’.  Don’t be put off by the name he said the food is great. 

 

So I went up the stairs in the alley and asked the guy.  He told us that currently the situation is so tricky with staff, they were deciding day by day how many bookings they could cope with.  I had to ring back at 10.30 the following morning after they had their meeting.

Mick thought I had a slim to zero chance.

2nd July – Friday

10.30 on the dot I rang.  Hurray the lovely lady said we had a spot.  Perseverance wins again.

Washed the boat, as Keith and Harry had a hosepipe out.  Mick changed the fan belt.

We later walked up the coast path to the Memorial and beyond to the beach.  Over looking ‘Doom Bar’, hence the name of the beer.

3rd July – Saturday

The best Cherry and Almond Croissants were collected by my dear husband.  A lazy morning reading the paper.  Cards and gifts from Mick and Liz x. 

The meal at ‘Burgers and Fish’ was terrific.  The restaurant is in a large loft space and felt cozy and special.  Not cheap, but the Chimichurri prawns were worth going for alone.

4th July – Sunday

More croissants.  Naughty.

We walked up to Prideaux Place, the local Manor House.  The house is currently closed, but the grounds and the tea shop are open.

What we did not expect was the field of Deer across the road.

So many.

And so close.

And not camera shy.

5th July – Monday

Intermittent showers today.  We darted out at lunchtime to go uphill to Tesco.  The town car park, the overflow car parks and the two fields behind Tesco were all full with visitor cars.

6th July – Tuesday

We escaped the crowds and went to Wadebridge on the bus.

The bridge of the name Wadebridge.

A small but pretty town at the other end of the Camel Trail from Padstow.  Most people hire bikes.  We cycled it on our own bikes last time.

Excellent pasties from Malcolm Barnecutt’s bakery.

Later this Padstow fishing boat arrived.  We think it is a tight harbour for maneuvering then this arrives to show us how it’s done.

It was interesting to see the lock gate submerge into the water.

Then fully submerge to allow traffic to pass over.

7th July – Wednesday

Mick downloaded two new maps for our TopoGPS map app.  The split in the maps was straight down the middle of Padstow.

They proved worthwhile as we found a better path higher over the coast, and got some fabulous views over the River Camel.  We ended up back at Prideaux Place, but no Deer today, we were lucky to see them.

8th July – Thursday

We took the 11.00am ferry ‘Black Tor’ to Rock.  Across the river Camel from Padstow.  £3 per person each way.  Operates every half hour.

 

At this time of year two ferries run all day.  From the slipway at High Water and from the lower beach at Low Water.

We walked uphill, looking at all the amazing houses.  There is a small group of shops and …

Another Malcolm Barnecutt Bakery.  The mass produced pasties can be a bit dry, but not these.

The walk downhill was very pleasant.  Above is the watersports Club.

Coffee in ‘The Rock Inn’ before going back on the ferry.  We will go the other way on the coast path next time.  For beach lovers Rock is ideal.

In the evening I attended our W.I. Zoom meeting and listened to Gill’s excellent talk about Walking in the Mont Blanc area of France.

9th July – Friday

The navy arrived.  Another lesson in boat movement.

HMS Explorer Patrol and Training Vessel, Primarily assigned to Yorkshire Universities Royal Naval Unit, serving Hull, Sheffield and Leeds Uni’s.

Our last day in Padstow was spent filling the boat with food and water.

We had planned to stay longer but a good tidal window was too good to resist for the Captain.

I quite like the people watching, but Mick is less keen to be on show.

The best was a guy who proclaimed himself the ‘Crabbing King’, catching more than 20 in a couple of hours.  One of his pals had her sandwich stolen by a seagull, which caused great uproar.  Then a seagull stole his bait, in its bag, and opened it, in front of him, on the harbourside….cheeky.

It really is us, watching them, watching us.  People arrived at our corner from the car parks, immediately took selfies, of themselves, couples, their children, their dogs, bought ice creams, pasties, fish and chips, phoned their friends, facetimed, talking loudly to family and grandchildren, parking themselves on the benches and declaring which boat they like best, and which they would buy, many stating sailing was NOT for them etc etc.  A constantly changing sea of faces.  One guy stopped, looked at the crowds, declared loudly it is too claustrophobic and left.  All life right here.

Ice Cream Index for single cones £2.00 (nr The Whistledown Gallery) to £2.70.

Our favourite Fish and Chips this time was the Walkers Café on the harbourside.  Sit-In, self service, no skin on the fish.

Sailors Info

We love Padstow, it is a melting pot of people.  The boats come and go on every tide.

The fee’s are only £23 per night and £18 after 7 nights. 

Two sets of facilities at each side of the harbour.  One in the harbour office building, one in the red brick building across the lock.  The red brick had consistently hot water and plug sockets.

Both had laundry facilities. £3 Wash and £2 Dry.

Wifi was better when the harbour was empty.

Tesco uphill, 15 minutes walk.  Spar in town.  Lots of bakeries and other eateries.  MANY Restaurants.  Lots of Lovely ‘everything you never needed’ shops.

Until next time Padstow.

Next stop Newlyn.

Late June 2021–Caernarfon to Milford Haven

23rd June – Wednesday

When we set off on our travels in 2014 we had a horrid trip from Arklow in Ireland to Milford Haven.  Fingers crossed for this one, hopefully we have got better at coping on longer passages.

The forecast was for very little wind, calm sea and a balmy 12C at night.  No one mentioned the fog.

We set off at a reasonable 08.30 to make the 123 miles to Milford Haven.  The weather was cool and overcast all day.  We had jackets on all day.

We had contacted Aberporth Firing range before departure and they picked us up on AIS and told us it was alright to proceed through the firing range as they had finished for the day.  Always good to hear!

The fog arrived at 21.00 and stayed for most of the journey.  Visibility was about half a mile, but reduced to a couple of boat lengths at times.

Mick took the first sleep from 10.00 til 01.00.  During my watch I was shocked by the arrival of a visitor, who first sat on the outboard motor.

He seemed to be quite young and could not be persuaded to leave.  During Mick’s night shift from 01.00 to 05.00 he stayed on the foredeck.  Mick slept again from 05.00 to 6.30.

The seagull repositioned himself at dawn onto the sprayhood and started to poop.  At this point he was again persuaded to move by wafting the boat hook.  We thought that had done the trick until we spotted him, up the mast sat on the Radar Reflector. How so much poop came from a young seagull I have no idea, but it was epic.  Splatted on the deck from a great height for added decoration.  In proper daylight he realised that if he flew from the boat he could float on the water, but seemed to prefer the boat.

We did hear later that there was some kind of magnetic anomaly at this time and racing pigeons had lost their way too.   ‘Bondie Seagull Tours’ parted company with him in unknown territory to him, near Skomer Island bird sanctuary, hopefully he made new friends.

When the fog it heavy, we are required to blow a fog horn.  One long blast every two minutes.  The asthmatic crew (above) proved a bit useless at this.  We have an air horn for big emergencies, but as there was no traffic on the AIS, tooting the horn we bought in France, French Horn, did the trick.  More like a Vuvuzela which Mick made a much better noise with.

I had made a container of sandwiches, but for the first time we cooked readymade Lasagne’s for tea that night.  Very welcome and warming.

I wore my thermal walking trousers, and used the hot water bottle on watch.  We listened to the radio with one earphone plugging into a phone, while the other person slept, to keep us company.  Sadly no stars but you can’t have everything.  No seasickness (we both took pills), no choruses of Jerusalem, light wind, calm sea.  We saw several Dolphins and puffins but they were camera shy.

As we approached Milton Haven via the middle channel, the mist was lifting and we could see the lighthouse on St Ann’s Head.

These huge lights are used for guiding ships into the channel.  The picture belies their size.

You may recall me describing our last entry into port as looking like a 70s disco.  In the daylight we could see why, and where all the lights were this time.

After a large ferry passed us in the channel we approached Milford Haven lock at 12.15.  Passing the huge ships feeding the Gas Holders, more of which later.

The harbourmaster then tried to send us to a very narrow berth B005, after 30 hours we did not need an extra test of manoeuvring skills right at the end.  The harbour was getting full and a kind lady pointed us to a berth next to her.  A friendly Lancashire face in our time of need.

All in all not a bad passage.  Sleep, showers and poop cleaning next.

Picture of Milford Haven lock emptying.  Picture taken the day after arrival.  Massive volumes of water are involved.

It is very deep and takes 10 minutes to fill and empty.

25th June – Friday

Mick completed a 100 hour service on the engine.  I went to restock at Tesco.

For the next few days we orientated, did cleaning jobs on the boat, filled the diesel cans, did the laundry (£2 wash and dry woohoo).

29th June – Tuesday

The marina welcome pack had two free tickets for the town Museum, located on the harbourside.

Open 10 til 4 every day, except Sunday.

Something we hadn’t seen was a petrol powered trolley, used on the docks for hauling fish.

70 women were employed on the dockside making and mending fishing nets, a very repetitive task.

Glad the life jackets have improved.

A full sized sea mine from during the war.  Milford Haven was a target as it was used as a port for Atlantic convoys.  I did not realise they were so big.

Upstairs is the story of the Nantucket Quaker Whalers who came here to live and start the whaling fleet in the 1700s.  This was followed by Fishing as the main employment of the town and then the Gas Companies arrived.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is condensed at minus 160C into Liquid Gas.  It reduces to 1/600th of it’s volume when in liquid form.  Just for this terminal the ‘Qatargas’ supply chain has 25 carrier tankers in permanent rotation bringing liquid gas from Qatar to Milford Haven.  5 massive tanks make up the South Hook terminal.  Each is bigger than the Albert Hall and took 15 days to pore the concrete continuously.  The roofs were elevated into place using gas.  This is one of 3 terminals in the UK, two are in Milford Haven.  They supply 20% of the nations gas supplies.  Mind blogging.

The museum is normally £4 to enter and donations are freely given, as it was a great way to pass an hour.

30th June – Wednesday

Hairdressing for us both.  A quiet day in preparation for our second overnight trip of the year to Padstow.

Sailors Info

Milford Haven marina is accessibility at most states of the tide, due to the huge lock.  It is best to be there 4 hours either side of high water.

5 nights for the price of 4.  Facilities were excellent and very clean.  A vanity room with hairdryer and plug sockets was the icing on the cake.  Laundry £2 per wash/dry.

Tesco and it’s associate retail park is a 10 minute walk from the marina.  The High St has a number of shops and an Original Factory Shop.  Lidl is a walk uphill.

There are cafes and restaurants all around the marina, which makes for a good atmosphere.  We tried ‘Foam’ at the end of the marina.  Great food and a conservatory overlooking the Haven.  Also the ‘Harbourmasters’ restaurant.  Both serving modern wholesome food.

Wifi was good.  Electricity Included.  Small but good chandlers.

Ironically, with our current location in Gas central, Calor Gas is in short supply, due to gas BBQs and the extra staycation campers this year.

Next stop Padstow.