Back in Blighty – The Long Version

Having now spent nearly a week in Falmouth we can be said to be back in Blighty for definite now. It still feels very strange, not least since we will not be moving into our house till the middle of October.

A last sight of the night scene in Horta

Keen eyed readers will remember that we intended to set out from Horta on 09 August. However, the wind was blowing pretty hard and we didn't fancy a very rough first night at sea so we diverted to Velas on Sao Jorge and actually left the Archipelago on the tenth.

The passage from the Azores was a rather slow affair and took fourteen days in all. As expected, we had to motor for a fair bit to get clear of the islands. We passed quite close to Graciosa and it looked extremely enticing. Thankfully however the wind filled in from there and we had a good few days heading north east till we were off the middle of the Bay of Biscay. There a ridge of high pressure built and took all our wind away, we motored as much as we dared and managed to pick up a bit of wind to keep on the move until we were about five hundred miles out to the west of Brittany where the wind abandoned us completely.

By this time fuel was getting low so we were left with sails in whatever zephyr we could catch. We did catch a bit of wind as we crossed the continental shelf but then had nearly two days of calm until about 30 miles west of the Isles of Scilly. From there an Atlantic low started rolling in to give us a thrilling last 100 miles or so. At dawn we were still west of the Bishop Rock on Scilly but we still tied up before sun down in Falmouth. Our first sight of land – appropriately enough – was Lands End but we were able to pass quite close to Lizard point which we class as our landfall. Arrival was enlivened by being welcomed by my Brother, Matthew with a supply of Betty Stoggs beer!

Landfall around lunch time with a force 6 to 7 from the south.

While off the Lizard, a gray boat passed west. I assumed it was a bit of Navy but it came round and turned into the Eborders boat who tried to board us in what was effectively the tidal race! They did not manage but proceeded to ask us the standard questions over the radio! We fully expected to be boarded in Falmouth and they were tied up there but we were roundly ignored! All quite exciting in its way.

Falmouth is very busy at the moment with their annual regatta being supplemented by a visit by the tall ships fleet. We are still struggling to come to terms with the weather though. We have appreciated the good beer though.

A few pictures of the classics and tall ships

I'll update as we move on. We do want to visit Plymouth so as to “close the circle” given that we departed the UK from there in August 2011.