The Final Leg, Moving South

It's mid-December now and I'm home with time to post a final entry for this year's expedition.

Matthew on board Mantra in Glasgow

Matthew joined us in Glasgow. He loves Glasgow after doing a summer program at the University a few years ago. Sherri left for sunny California. Matthew crewed for me on the drive back down the river to Holy Loch and then a short motor/sail to Largs Yacht Haven.

Rob joined us in Largs and Matthew headed back by train to London. An unusual weather window was forecast, with high pressure settling over the Irish Sea for about a week. This lined up with Rob’s schedule so we’d decided it would be best to use the window to get south as fast as possible — disappointing for me as I’d love to have done a little cruising along the Scottish and Irish coasts, day sailing south.

Ailsa Craig

As we left The Clyde we passed close by Ailsa Craig, a rugged rock island where micro-granite is mined for curling stones, now uninhabited and a bird sanctuary with masses of gannets and puffins. Rob called Ailsa, who we had met at John and Catherine’s a week earlier and who is named after the island. There was a gathering on shore, not too far away, and they invited us to dinner. Unfortunately the logistics of finding an anchorage, getting transport, etc., were too complicated, and we were on a mission to get south so we continued, using any wind we could.

Rob is an excellent sailing chef so we were well fed as we hurried south. I hadn’t realized how strong the currents are in and out of the Irish Sea. Luckily for me we had timed it perfectly and current swept us out of the Clyde, towards northwest Ireland, then along the coast past Dublin. When the current turned against us we hugged the coast until the current helped again later in the day. If we had kept sailing the current would have turned against us again as we left the Irish coast toward Lands End so instead we turned in toward Wexford and dropped anchor off the nature reserve in the dark to get a little sleep. At 4 am we raised anchor to catch favorable currents. We now had wind, though it kept us busy, reefing and then shaking them out, sailing close hauled, then motor-sailing into wind to make Lands End which we rounded the following night. Once around Lands End the wind and seas were definitely adverse and it was hard work, pounding as we motor-sailed towards Falmouth.

As we turned into Falmouth Bay, we were treated to tuna jumping clear out of the water as they fed on schools of fish. There were flocks of sea birds and fishermen busy in the area. That was a first for me, to see tuna jumping. Apparently they’ve only recently returned to this area.

Falmouth

We picked up a mooring ball in Falmouth, a large and well protected harbour where I could catch my breath and visit Ed and Liz ffrench-Constant.

Ed admiring the morning moth catch

I met Ed on my first day at St. John’s college, Oxford in 1976 and we’ve been fast friends ever since. Ed and his family are settled all around Falmouth so it was a treat for me to spend time catching up while waiting for good weather to continue up the English Channel. One of Ed’s many hobbies is documenting moths from his back yard on iNaturalist.

Mirror Dinghy No. 1

Falmouth has an excellent maritime museum. They have the first Mirror Dinghy on display.This little boat is responsible for my sailing obsession. Dad built ours, #899, from a kit in the early 1960s. Ours had a red hull and brown sails made by mum. We (Rob, Mike and I) spent every hour mum would allow us out in the sun while at our cottage on the Tanzania coast mucking about in our Mirror Dinghy.

Peter, little dinghy motor and Mantra

Ed’s sister Sally has recently moved back near Falmouth from Zimbabwe. She and husband Dick came out to visit Mantra and got this good picture of me, the little outboard motor, and Mantra in the background. This 3 ½ hp outboard gave me endless grief for the first few years we owned Mantra, but I’ve finally got it running well and I love it. It is light, so can be handled without lines and winches and is just powerful enough to move us around at the 5 knot speed limit in most harbours. It doesn’t use too much fuel which is good because being a two stroke it’s not great for the environment. It is super simple, so easy to maintain, touch wood.

Mike casting off from the mooring ball

Mike joined me in Falmouth and we cast off the mooring ball in the morning, headed for Salcombe Bay. It was close to sunset as we approached the mouth of the bay and the wind was forecast to be steady from the northwest overnight, so we dropped anchor in Starehole Bay, named for the large cave at the shoreline. This anchorage would normally be too exposed, but it turned out to be a good choice because when I planned the route for the following day in order to arrive in Weymouth before a change in the weather, we needed to leave before dawn, so it was good to have an easy exit. As we approached Weymouth we had two close encounters, the first with a fishing boat which was zigzagging in front of us to the point I didn’t know which way to turn to stay out of its way, and the second with a gaggle of Oppies (tiny Optimist dinghies) who started a race as we were passing and then expected us to give way! I had to heave to at the last minute to avoid wiping them out. I don’t even know if they’d seen us as they were hidden behind their sails.

Mantra and a sail training yacht in Weymouth

We stopped at the dock in Weymouth, right outside the harbourmaster’s office.Weymouth is a charming town and a better choice than Portland harbour, where I’d been tempted to anchor as it is such a historic place. It is a huge man-made harbour, now little used. Portland Harbour is where those Oppies should have been sailing, rather than in a busy approach to Weymouth.

Wind and current were favorable and we had three great days of sailing up the channel, averaging 7.5, 7.8 and 6.9 knots. Here's a short video as Mantra briefly surfs a wave. It was an exhilarating end to a memorable expedition.

Anchored south of Brownsea Island in South Deep

We rounded Old Harry Rock and checked out the moorings in Studland Bay but they were too small and shallow for us. Anchoring is discouraged so we continued into Poole Harbour. Poole looks like a large protected body of water which should be a great place to anchor but much of it is too shallow. We snuck in past Brownsea Island, famous in Boy Scout circles, the site of Baden-Powell’s first Boy Scout camp, and anchored in South Deep which is actually a very tight and shallow anchorage.

From Poole we motor-sailed to Gosport, Portsmouth. We docked Mantra and our luck with the weather continued as we were able to get the sails off dry in light winds. Rob came down for the day to help.

Brown brothers celebrating the end of the expedition

In the evening we celebrated with dinner at the Castle Tavern. It's a long time since the three of us were alone together. Food, drink and conversation were all good, a fitting end to a memorable expedition.