Day 22 - 'Dead Calm' after a 'Perfect Storm' in 'Open Water'

So, here we are on day 22 (Three whole weeks!). A night of heavy rain (four inches of rain in the tender) and no wind... 'the perfect storm' on St Marys, Scilly Isles left a heavy fog in the harbour as we awoke; this soon lifted as departure time arrived. The customs cruiser from the night before steamed away from the harbour just prior to our own departure and off we went for the final heading, North!

The sea state was 'dead calm', very unusual for this area according to our skipper, and we made good progress with a 2 knot tide pushing Stray Cat along at a steady 20 knots over ground. Out in 'open water', with no land in sight and an ominous presence of absolutely nothing, a lone puffin suddenly appeared. The little sea bird with a technicolour proboscis tried to take off and eventually succeeded with his little orange legs akimbo.....nice to finally see some marine life, albeit of the feathered variety.

The sea remained calm as we pushed past Lands End and all of a sudden to the Port side a couple of Porpoise were espied. We attempted to get a closer view but our dear little porpoise decided that it was not to be and dived to unseen depths. Not to worry though, the sea remained 'dead calm' and ahead in the distance came a fabulous sight - the dorsal fin of a basking shark, then another, then another and then another up to at least 20 - we may need a bigger boat! With no land in sight and a 'dead calm' sea it was a fabulous to see these graceful creatures feeding on their phyto plankton feast. They twisted and turned serenely, right in front of the boat and seemed unperturbed by our presence - happy to keep on feeding with their mouths wide open displaying open gills.........and then they were gone.

We continued on our heading for another few hours past St Ives and Godrevy Lighthouse. The only other boat we saw was Molly G which we cruised past en route to Padstow. We approached Padstow at around 12:30pm where an overnight stop was planned. The approach into the harbour was severely hampered by some submerged scaffolding which worried our skipper but he skilfully piloted the Cat into the harbour without incident where Stray Cat is presently tethered to the harbour wall. Our arrival coincided nicely with the arrival of 2 new crew members and the very sad departure of Ian who has provided many hours of laughter with his wonderful one liners and unique outlook on life.

About an hour after arrival at Padstow the crew of Molly G came to speak to Tim saying how good Stray Cat looked as it passed. After a quick shower and a lobster lunch - it was time to say Goodbye to Ian and hello to Brian and Dave. This is now the crew until the conclusion of this voyage.

Dinner was enjoyed in Pucelli's restaurant as Margot's was fully booked for the entirety of June, along with many other restaurants! Pucelli's was more than acceptable with good food and some excellent Cornish strawberry wine and gratis entertainment provided by the latest addition to Padstow harbour - a scrumpy drinking, bare bellied, bearded, hanky wielding, willy waving, stick bashing vagrant!

A short walk along the headland with beautiful views of the estuary followed... and here we are ready to turn in for the night with just 3 days or so left until we arrive back in Pwllheli. It's going to be hard to go home as after just 3 days Stray Cat feels like home and it feels just so right to be navigating the inshore waters of our fabulous coastline.

Here's hoping for calm waters and blue skies for our planned passage to Lundy tomorrow.... Charlie Bravo (with a little help from Sarah & Tim)