More old friends and more new friends, family crew, and onwards to the Isles of Scilly

That's John - old friend - and Jo - nephew!

And here's Jo with his Dad!

On Thursday evening the diver managed to free John's anchor chain from the large Victorian anchor it had wrapped itself around and a little later, John rafted up Samsara alongside Bonny at Falmouth Yachthaven.

Shortly after that John and I headed for the Chainlocker to wet our whistles and later his Irish friends Alan and Connor who were returning to Galway, having cruised to the Channel Isles and then Salcome, joined us. Alan's boat was an early 'Feeling' named "Feeling Groovy" which he had restored from a near wreck. Connor was the proud owner of another Rival (all John's fault) and also owned a 'Heavenly Twins' catermaran, both currently in Greece.

I forgot to get photos of them I'm aftaid but needless to say we all spent a most enjoyabe evening. The Fish and Chips at The Chainlocker were excellent. I rediscovered the fact that my body was incapable of absorbing more than 3 pints of beer!

The next morning I cleaned up the boat before meeting old friends Peter and Steffenie whom I had first met in Albufeira on the Algarve in 2020 when I went out to buy Bonny. They have since relocated to to Truro.

It was great to see them again. We went to the Windjammer Cafe for lunch where all three of us attempted to eat what turned out to be the biggest burgers any of us had ever come across. None of us succeeded!

After lunch and our goodbyes I walked to the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club at the other end of town to pick up my driving licence which Sharon has posted out for me.

Back at the boat, John took a fancy to my Spade Anchor and asked if he could try it for size on his boat. We couldn't detach it from the chain and so began a game of giant sized 'cats cradle' as we transfered 20 kilogram of anchor and probably 20 metres of 10mm anchor chain from Bonny's bow to Samsara (the boats being moored toe to tail). Luckily we avoided dopping the whole lot over the side and best of all it was a perfect fit for Samsara.

After that I went shopping to provision the boat for the next few days. Basty and Jo turned up around 1730 and an hour later we'd teamed up with John, Alan and Connor for yet more drinks followed by a curry!

Bast and Jo went shopping for swimming trunks and a towel (for Jo) and trainers for Bast this morning, but returned empty handed. The cheapest trunks in Falmouth were £40! They did however come back with croissants and pasties.

We left our berth around midday and topped up with fuel and then headed out of the harbour. We sailed for an hour or so but then the breeze died and so we continueed under power. We plan to anchor off The Lizard at Parn Voose Cove for a few hours before heading off for the Isles of Scilly.