Nikki and I drove down to Plymouth and back last night to deliver my kit bag and a some random bits and bobs to the boat. A six hour round trip was worth it to save me carrying 17 days of spare clothes on my back when Dad and I take the train down to the boat. Train tickets are now booked for he and I, we leave Gloucester at 1908hrs Thursday evening.
Haven't looked at the forecast since the weekend, obviously I will before we go, but don't see the point in stressing myself out about it in the meantime. If we get to Wednesday (ie. tomorrow) and it looks like another Atlantic storm is inbound for next week, we shall seriously consider scrapping our plans and putting Calstar on the back of a lorry.
I have until the 13th June to get her back to Portishead. If things went south, then I could theoretically abandon her somewhere, get the train back to work, and then use the weekend of the 19th & 20th to finish the trip. After that, life gets very complicated with band and office commitments.
When I did check at the weekend however, things looked very promising for the coming weekend and week to follow.
The original plan was to head to Fowey and spend the weekend there with friends at the Gallants Sailing Club and from the Moth fleet who are also visiting that weekend. But if the weather forecast delivers as promised, we'll call in but won't delay there. Instead, we'll push on to Helford the next day, then around to Newlyn, and from there gather our wits and catch the next tide to take us around Lands End.
It's from there that I'm seriously reconsidering plans.
If the weather remains fair, I'm very, very tempted to use it and just carry on up the Bristol Channel once we're around the corner. Ignore St Ives, skip Padstow and aim straight for Lundy. There we can drop the anchor and wait for a fair tide to take us in to Ilfracombe if we want, or even straight up to Cardiff. Beyond Lundy the tide becomes a significant issue, but if it turns foul before we reach Cardiff, we can always wait it out in Barry.
The leg from Newlyn (waypoint 3 on the chart at the top) to Lundy (waypoint 6) would be, very roughly, about 100nm however. Which, being the harbour hoppers that we are, is significantly longer than any single passage we've ever tried with Calstar before. So quite how I'll manage it with Dad is unknown territory. And, once we commit, with very few bolt holes to opt out in. North Cornwall is, in typically conditions, a very long, very rocky lee shore.
On the other hand, nights are currently short (even if they're not yet warm!) and at an average of 4 knots, which we should manage easily, it's around 25 hours, which doesn't seem too daunting.
So I think that's the new "Plan A"
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