We left at midday to sail to Fowey. It was reasonable weather as we set out and a good sail. However, not long after passing Falmouth the weather closed in and the swell increased.
To get to Fowey from the West you have to go round Dodman Point then head just East of North. As we approached the headland the wind was picking up to the point where we should reef. I held on to the sails assuming that as we turned past Dodman the wind would be more behind us and I wouldn't need to reef. That was a mistake. As we came around the point we were still close hauled with the wind on the nose and now we definitely did need to reef. The visibility was down to about half a mile in the driving rain. The only other vessel we saw was a coastguard cutter going the other way bouncing off the waves.
Reefing done the boat felt more comfortable. The autopilot then started to complain about the battery voltage. Having been at anchor for four days without shore power - and not much sunshine for the last two days for the solar panels to work - the batteries were low. Not surprising with the autopilot working hard and the radar on. Reluctantly I turned on the engine to charge the batteries and motor sailed reasoning that if the engine is going to be on I might as well get some forward motion from it.
It was still raining hard when we got to Fowey. There was a space on the Town Quay and given that we were soaking wet anyway we decided to go alongside and fill our water tanks. We motored across the river to berth up to a midstream pontoon opposite the lifeboat.
When we had got settled down below we got a message from Tigermoon II that they could see us and that they were berthed a little upstream at a walk ashore pontoon. This was a bit of a (pleasant) surprise as we thought they were going to Falmouth. The next day they messaged us to say that a boat had left and that there was a vacancy on the pontoon so we quickly slipped our berth and berthed behind them on the walk ashore pontoons at Mixtow.
Mixtow
Mixtow turned out to be delightful. A quiet spot with electricity, water and showers and a little bar/cafe. There is also a laundry at a camp site about a mile (vertically) away.
We had a couple of days in Mixtow drying out and walking the circuit to Polruan and Fowey.
Polruan
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