A glorious day greeted us in Plymouth which filled us with anticipation for the final leg of this epic voyage. We motored out of the harbour following farewells to Shaun and hearty bacon sandwiches. The sun was beating down on us as we headed towards the marina at Falmouth, the sea was dead calm, with barely a ripple to trouble the twin hulls of this fine piece of maritime engineering. A few miles from Falmouth we came across a couple of young lads in need of a tow into the harbour after the motor on their dinghy gave up the ghost, it slowed us down on our entry to the harbour but if you can't help another human being in need then what the hell is the world coming to?
After jettisoning our 'cargo' a swift 285 litres of our countries finest red diesel was placed into the vast chasms that are the fuel tanks of Stray Cat and lunch was snaffled from Stavros for the very 'reasonable' (?) price of 19.50 for a few quids worth of sandwiches. A course was entered straight for Helford passage and after a false start with the first 'unserviced' swinging mooring, we found a secure mooring slightly upstream in which to place Stray Cat.
A few hours later we braved the tender with Ian fretting that he was going to be involved in a 'water incident' but we reached the shoreline with no problems and were able to sample the Guinness without incident!
Next came an emotionally charged incident that I can only liken to that of a national accident/event..... I am of course referring to the ceremonial placing of the new peregrine falcon on the flybridge of Stray Cat, which had arrived in Plymouth with us the night before. Velcro aplenty was placed onto the base of said falcon along with copious amounts of Helford Sand in its base. Tim placed the falcon atop the doodarfirkin that helps us on our way (It's a radar or something!) and suddenly everything in the world seemed right. The evils of the North Sea had been laid to rest and once again Stray Cat was being watched over by a guardian 'angel'.
Dinner at the local Yacht Club is best left unmentioned as 'The Committee' would probably not allow us to speak about this!
The sea fog that rolled in along the river earlier has enveloped us in a real pea souper that had Ian convinced he was looking at Venus as we pootled along in the tender.......of course, Venus turned out to be the light atop the very tall mast of a very big sail type boat and much hearty laughter was enjoyed by all.........well apart from Ian that is :O) Fortunately we had the foresight to take a handheld GPS with us to the shore - this facilitated our safe passage back to Stray Cat in the fog (good thinking, huh?).
Anyway time to sign off and we pray the fog clears so we can head for the Scilly Isles tomorrow and all that remains to say is hello to Gwyneth, Karen, Helen and Blodwyn..................well I did say I'd mention you after all! Ta-Ra!
G'night!
Charlie Bravo.
After jettisoning our 'cargo' a swift 285 litres of our countries finest red diesel was placed into the vast chasms that are the fuel tanks of Stray Cat and lunch was snaffled from Stavros for the very 'reasonable' (?) price of 19.50 for a few quids worth of sandwiches. A course was entered straight for Helford passage and after a false start with the first 'unserviced' swinging mooring, we found a secure mooring slightly upstream in which to place Stray Cat.
A few hours later we braved the tender with Ian fretting that he was going to be involved in a 'water incident' but we reached the shoreline with no problems and were able to sample the Guinness without incident!
Next came an emotionally charged incident that I can only liken to that of a national accident/event..... I am of course referring to the ceremonial placing of the new peregrine falcon on the flybridge of Stray Cat, which had arrived in Plymouth with us the night before. Velcro aplenty was placed onto the base of said falcon along with copious amounts of Helford Sand in its base. Tim placed the falcon atop the doodarfirkin that helps us on our way (It's a radar or something!) and suddenly everything in the world seemed right. The evils of the North Sea had been laid to rest and once again Stray Cat was being watched over by a guardian 'angel'.
Dinner at the local Yacht Club is best left unmentioned as 'The Committee' would probably not allow us to speak about this!
The sea fog that rolled in along the river earlier has enveloped us in a real pea souper that had Ian convinced he was looking at Venus as we pootled along in the tender.......of course, Venus turned out to be the light atop the very tall mast of a very big sail type boat and much hearty laughter was enjoyed by all.........well apart from Ian that is :O) Fortunately we had the foresight to take a handheld GPS with us to the shore - this facilitated our safe passage back to Stray Cat in the fog (good thinking, huh?).
Anyway time to sign off and we pray the fog clears so we can head for the Scilly Isles tomorrow and all that remains to say is hello to Gwyneth, Karen, Helen and Blodwyn..................well I did say I'd mention you after all! Ta-Ra!
G'night!
Charlie Bravo.
