That evening Mervyn and Penny who we met in the Azores last year, returned Arethusa to her mooring, which, by complete coincidence, was immediately adjacent to Bonny.
I was very kindly invited to supper with them the following evening.
Wednesday dawned grey and damp but soon cheered up and I launched the dinghy around midday. After lunch I rowed ashore to undertake one of the local walks and on landing bumped into the owner of a Tradewind 35 who had passed our mooring the previous evening. As most sailors are, David was very friendly and our chat ended with an invitation to drop by his boat after my walk. I had long coveted the Tradewind 35 but when I was looking for a boat there were very few on the market and those that were, were beyond my budget. David's invitation was therefore doubly welcome.
So, after my walk I rowed up the river and went aboard Amirra and swapped boating yarns with David and Chris. A brand new bottle of Pultney was soon produced and the three of set to depleting its contents with enthusiasm. I don't think I've ever had it before but it was most enjoyableš¤£
A couple of hours slid by and with the bottle significantly depleted, I realised I needed to make my way back to Bonny to change for my supper date. Back on board I hastily made myself a little more presentable and hoping that I would sober up a little, got back in the dinghy for my rendezvous with Mervyn at the top of the landing steps.
I got ashore without mishap and enjoyed a thoroughly delightful evening with Mervyn and Penny and their friends Sally and Andrew. Penny served up a delicious rice dinner of which I consumed a rather large amount as we updated eachother on family matters and yarned the evening into the dead of night.
The walk back to the landing steps was about a mile and would, I hoped, mitigate the combined effects of the Pultney, and the equally generous quantaties of wine served by Mervyn as a most attentive host.
No headache followed but I awoke after only a couple of hours sleep with what felt like a streaming cold. I hardly slept a wink after that and gave up trying at 6.30. I got the dinghy on deck had breakfast and prepared the boat for departure.
I dropped the mooring just after 9 and headed down the river. Once clear of the shoreline I hoisted sail, switched the engine off and headed for Falmouth. Just before doing so I had a minor panic when I could not turn the wheel. The rudder seemed to be locked solid. After running through the likely causes and considering the advisability of diving down to investigate, I realised with enormous relief that I had simply failed to disingage the autohelm.
A very pleasant sail towards Falmouth followed.
A wonderful sail to Falmouth on a close/beam reach and then a stirring beat up the harbour to Trefusis Point where I briefly rafted up alongside Samsara skippered by John Passmore who I first met on the Jester Baltimore Challenge in 2019. John is an ex journalist with a number of books published both sailing and fiction and like Mervyn is a vastly experienced sailor and well known in sailing circles. He's just returned from a year long Atlantic Circuit. We hope to get together for a pint or two tonight and catch up, but he is waiting for a diver to come out and free his fouled anchor chain!
After a brief chat with John I motored over to Falmouth Haven Marina and moored up.
A very good day so far!
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