Today is day five of our trip, and we are rapidly working out the difference between being "weekenders" and "live-aboards". The existence of a weekender is how many people would imagine the yachting life - after a good day's sailing they moor up in a well-equipped marina, shower and change into something clean, before heading to the bar followed by a good restaurant. As our trip is for three months, we are classed as live-aboards, and life is entirely different from that described above.
We have not yet been into a marina and probably will not do many on this trip. Anchoring is often free, compared to £30+ for a marina. Our first night at anchor in Studland Bay was a great success. We were hugely relieved to be in the safety of a flat, calm bay, after beating all day into a force five. Eloise had been sick for much of the day, and we had taken in a lot of sea water up the basin drain, so there was a fair bit of clearing up to do that evening. Our anchor held beautifully, there was not a breath of wind, and we slept like babies.
Buoyed by the success of our first night at anchor, and faced (due to the tide times) with an arrival in Salcombe around 11pm on day two, we decided to anchor for the night in a little bay at the harbour entrance, and enter the harbour in the safety of daylight the following day. Starehole Bay looked innocent enough on the chart, and there was no wind and a flat calm sea, so the only obstacle was picking our spot in the dark. In pitch black, with no moon and no shore lights, we nosed slowly in and dropped the anchor as planned. We settled back on the chain and the anchor bit well. The noise of waves washing against the rocks behind us was rather unnerving. A flash of the search light confirmed that the inky blackness behind us was indeed a sheer rock face. The GPS put its distance at 180 feet away. We might have considered moving, but a second boat which entered the bay just before us was by now on its fourth anchoring attempt, and clearly struggling to find any more satisfactory spot. We decided that as our anchor was holding, we should stay where we were. We set an anchor alarm and woke up at least hourly anchor checks. Neither of us slept much, and in the morning we were pretty tired so it was a relief to pick up a visitors mooring in Salcombe for a day ashore.
And on that shore day, there was glamour at times, as we mingled with the Salcombe crowd. We played on the beach, bought Salcombe ice-creams from the ice-cream parlour, and went for pre-dinner drinks in the yacht club. But as soon as we climbed back aboard Snow Goose, flanked by "weekenders" on either side, we were reminded of our status. They sat in their cockpits sipping wine, with apparently no maintenance to do; we rushed around replacing and upgrading bits of kit, and finishing off jobs we should really have done in preparation for the trip. Their boats were immaculate; we resembled a Chinese laundry, with clothes and towels from day one's "dirty coughs" (Eloise's phrase) hanging everywhere, having finally been scrubbed clean of their peppa pig pasta shapes in a bucket of fresh cold soapy water on the dock.
Oh, the glamour! We did all manage to have a shower that day, but the harbour authority showers left a bit to be desired, both in number and facilities, and it ended up being a family shower in a single cubicle - no basin, no mirror, no hair dryer, and a flood all over the floor. But it was certainly memorable.
We are now in St Mawes and on track to meet Dad and Lucy in Penzance at the end of the week, and head for the Scillies. Long may this lovely weather continue and hooray for Andy Murray!!
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