Update from Padstow 26th July

Thanks to everyone for their comments that have been added to the web diary – it’s nice to know that you are checking for updates, although internet access has not been as easy since we left Holyhead.

Thurs 19th
Left Holyhead at 2pm and anchored in Aberdaron bay ( near Bardsey Island, N Wales) at about 8:30pm to wait for the tide and make a better arrival time at Dale.

Fri 20th
A 3 am start to make the most of the tides down to Dale (near Milford Haven) and another long day ‘til we arrived at 5 pm. Not much wind – and what there was was in the wrong direction so we had a lot of motoring again.
The pontoon ‘s about a mile from the shore so the evening is spent aboard.

Sat 21st
Another early start (5am) from Dale to Padstow but we had a good sail for most of the way and arrived at about 8pm then had to wait for the tide to be high enough for the Harbourmaster to open the gate to the inner harbour. Loads of boats were waiting to go in so the H/Master had a bit of juggling to do to fit us all in.
The sail down was spent trying to guess how many dolphins were playing around the boat. There must have been between 20 to 40 of them – absolutely brilliant – jumping & twisting & turning around us.

Sunday was spent in Padstow catching up with laundry and sleep and trying to best guess the weather for the leg to the Scillies.

Mon 23rd
We thought we’d take our chance with a small weather window that had wind from the north to make the Scillies – but it was not to be…… When we got outside the estuary the weather was worse than we had anticipated so the decision was made to turn back and wait for better weather. We stayed on a buoy outside the harbour for the night rather than be locked in just in case the weather eased enough to allow us to make the Scillies – but we came back into the inner harbour at lunch time on the Tuesday (24th).

Wed 25th
Wadebridge had the pleasure of our company - it’s about 9 miles by bus. It was heavy drizzle when we left Padstow but the day brightened enough to let us walk back from Wadebridge along part of the Camel Trail. Not a camel in sight… but where we are is called the Camel Estuary – I wonder if that’s it?!?!

Thurs 26th
Another day in Padstow – another pasty for lunch – another guess at the weather ( looks like it will be Saturday or Sunday at the earliest) – we may just stay here for the ice-cream and clotted cream fudge. It’s a hard old life.