Brown Bear and Bonny moored up at Falmouth Yacht Haven on Monday evening 8th September. Photo by George.
I thought I had set my alarm for 0500 but didn't and awoke at 0710. Dam, we're late. I call George and the crew assembles as quickly as our groggy heads allow.
We have a date in Falmouth this evening with Hugh and the rest of the Brown Bear crew. Brown Bear was in Greenland when we were there and we were briefly both in Nanortalik but didn't meet owing to their very quick stopover coinciding with our (mainly George's) works on the engine. They left the day after us and made Falmouth yesterday after our arrival in Hugh Town. We really want to meet and share our experiences.
So we drop our mooring and motor out of Hugh Town and make our way through the islands' south eastern approach/exit channel. The sea is pretty lumpy and despite white caps on the waves there is not much wind and so we continue under power.
Within an hour we are in a demented washing machine. The waves are by far the biggest we have experienced since leaving Greenland and probably the biggest I've ever seen. The fact that there is little wind makes the experience worse not better, because there is little pressure on the sails to steady the boat. We have two reefs in in anticipation of strong winds. We are only making a couple of knots under sail and at this rate will miss our tidal gate at the Lizard. So I get up to the mast and eventually succeed in shaking out the reefs. I get saturated again in the process.
It improves things a little but not enough so we press the engine into service once again in an attempt to power through what we hope is a localised area of really rough water caused by the relatively shallow and uneven bottom. We were expecting some chop to be leftover from the gale overnight but nothing like this!
Eventually after 2-3 hours the wind picks up and the sea subsides to a more reasonable state and we are able to make good progress under sail alone.
Our leak rate increases - not to crisis levels - but we need to pump out a couple of hundred strokes every six hours or so to empty the bilge (or at least until the cockpit bilge pump sucks air).
The day gradually becomes quite pleasant with warm sunshine and after the horrendous start to the short passage to Falmouth, we enjoy a good sail and pick up speed sufficiently to make the tidal gate off the Lizard. We run into overfalls there and have to power through another lumpy area although it's not as bad as earlier.
After the overfalls, which we get through at about 1800, we experience a delightful sail in the evening sunshine (and occasional shower) and moor up alongside Brown Bear at 2000. Unfortunately, the cloud arrives before us and so we didn't see the much vaunted Blood Moon.
Once moored up we are invited on board Brown Bear for drinks and to meet the crew.
Brown Bear's owner skipper, Hugh Clay is a delightful and most generous host. Clearly a very, very experienced and accomplished sailor he's a well known figure in the ocean sailing world. As a young man he sailed with the late great Willy Ker on one of his expeditions to Greenland in his Contessa 33 in 1987. Willy and Hugh were awarded the Royal Cruising Club's Tillman medal in recognition of their exploits in getting there and exploring such challenging waters. The only electronic aids they had on board were a GPS set that provided a position every 12 hours or so on a good day and a radio direction finding set. They must have been rather better at operating it than I was when trying to use my Dad's set back in the 1970's!
Hugj's crew were two young Spanish guys - very charming too. His boat is wonderful, custom built in wood and epoxy for the previous owner and designed by one of the Ocean Cruising Club's founding figures. We have G&T on board, then all head out for a Chinese, then back to Brown Bear for Coffee and a night cap and more story sharing. We discover that both Hugh and George have competed in the Three Peaks Challenge in memory of Bill Tillman (although in different years) and that Hugh's Uncle knew the designer of George's boat and that High's brother has a classic wooden Yawl based on the river Medway!
We also watched some incredible drone footage of Brown Bear in Labrador and Greenland. That's one of the reasons the youngsters were there, they flew the drone. They came across some really huge ice bergs, which rather put 'ours' in their place.
Eventually it's time for bed and George and I return to Bonny, fully satisfied with being able to round off our great adventure in such delightful and hospitable company.
Tomorrow afternoon, George catch's a train home and I set sail for the Medway on the final leg of a very eventful two year cruise!
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