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 When you have big plans that span big distances, it is best to keep an eye on the weather. As we would like to make our way up and through the Irish Sea and into western Scotland this spring, we need to move when there are no storms. After Christmas, an unusually long stretch of calm weather was hovering over the southwest United Kingdom … but following three to four days of gentle seas was a series of storms that were best avoided. We are also getting close to when we will leave Chinook to attend the Dusseldorf Boat Show and want a secure and safe marina to tie up. We decided to abandon our snug spot in Falmouth and sail ‘round to Wales. In the Bristol Channel there are several less-interesting ports you can call into, but most have muddy water, a dearth of attractions and a long slog in and out of the Channel itself. We knew of a good marina north of the Channel … and that is where we are now. The route around Lands End showing the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). ...

After our brush with the law, we continued onto Falmouth, arriving after dark, at low tide with 20kn of wind howling in from the west.   In the dark, we wound our way up the channel, into the shallow Penryn River and wiggled our way through the myriad of empty moorings to our berth in the Falmouth Marina. Hurrah for our friends  Fi and Adrian who plied our jangled nerves with wine and a hearty dinner. Our route into Falmouth - Sean on the bow squinting into the dark looking out for mooring balls  and Kate on the helm keeping a constant watch the depth.  Yay for a lifting centreboard! After a leisurely breakfast, we rode our bikes into Falmouth to find it jammed packed with festive celebrations and the annual Cornish Harmony Choir.  In a tradition dating back a century, the Harmony Choir is made up from choirs across Wales and performs through the streets of Falmouth on Christmas Eve.  And half of Wales had shown up to enjoy the carolling!  ...

Imagine nonchalantly driving along a familiar highway at 110 km/h with a friend calmly seated in the passenger seat, perhaps with a nice tune playing on the stereo. Suddenly the back door of your vehicle is wrenched open and two black-clad, helmeted dudes jump in ...  while you are travelling at full speed. W. T. F. Not your standard hitchhikers. The sailing equivalent of this happened to us.  Read on. We left Yealm under beautiful conditions.  The wind wasn't in a perfect direction and required us to do some tacking but we were happily cruising along south-west towards Falmouth at six knots (12km/hr).  The forecast was for the wind to stay north-west and gradually become more westerly later in the afternoon and bring with it rain. We figured we would motor the last hour or so if the wind was against us. Glorious sailing - sunshine and even vaguely warm! We tacked a couple of times but the wind kept moving, from north-west to west and then south-...

For Wendy and Graeme's last few days with us, we didn't want to succumb to the ease of staying in a marina.  Following some good advice, we decided to head for a small river that was a two-hour voyage from where we were tied up. Out the entrance to the left and around the point lays the River Yealm. Rounding this point looks much tougher on the charts. After arriving at the visitor pontoon in the fading light last night, we spent today wandering the two towns straddling one of the River Yealm estuaries. On the visitor's pontoon.  No walk-ashore access - time to blow up the dinghy. We came ashore here and walked to town. It made for a very pleasant 20 minute stroll. The tide was going out and we had been told by the harbourmaster that we could walk across "stepping stones" from the town on one side of the estuary to the other side.  We weren't perfectly clear on how this would look, but we thought we could always come back to the dinghy a...

Sailing to another country is always fun and particularly so when you have crew aboard who are doing it for the first time.  Make that passage a crossing of the English Channel and it is truely exciting! Crossing The Channel, no matter how many times you have done it, requires some planning.  Not only does it have some of the busiest shipping lanes on the globe, it also has some of the zippiest tides. Add in a bit of winter weather and you can understand why so many shipwrecks litter its shores.  Our proposed route from Cherbourg to Plymouth - skirting under the Casquets TSS Our plan was to sail to Plymouth on the Devon coast.  This adds an additional complication of the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). TSS are put in place to keep the shipping traffic separated in narrow busy waters. The challenge for us, as a small pleasure craft, is we cannot cross a TSS willy-nilly, it must be either avoided or crossed perpendicular to the traffic flow.  The Casques...

Storm Darragh was a beauty, the second named storm in as many weeks. With wild seas and hurricane force * winds forecast, we were happy to be snugged up the the Chantereyne Marina.  Certainly not the day to be crossing The Channel! We prepared the best we could.  Put out all the fenders, doubled up the mooring lines, took down the bimini, flags and secured halyards and sheets.  We ensured we were stocked with plenty of provisions (wine, cheese, wine... we are in France after all!).  We even hired a car so we could drive out to the Goury Lighthouse at Cap de la Hague and watch the crashing waves. That's a pretty gusty forecast! And did it blow! The boat was heeling over in the slip and we had a sustained 40kn (80km/hr) with gusts up to 60kn (120km/hr), for days. Flights, ferries, trains and buses were cancelled or delayed, bridges and roads were closed, trees uprooted, roofs torn off and power was cut to approximately 2.5 million people. Four people lost their ...