Spider From Mars goes to Falmouth

Having sailed Geese my 5m outrigger canoe for 9 years, I fell victim to the desire for a little more comfort and space. For a committed dinghy cruiser, this risks being “over boated” but I thought I would give it a go. Not wanting to spend another 2 years of my life building my own trimaran design, I opted to buy a french production boat. Spider From Mars is a Tricat “Access 6 Sport” trimaran. She is 6m LOA, 2.35m/4.25m beam, 0.3m draft, 22m2 of sail and 490kg displacement (empty). She has a tiny cabin, smaller than first impressions because the part of the deck-house forward of the mast is actually a deck locker where I keep my anchor and fenders. There is a vee berth extending under the foredeck. I have owned her since 2012 and she lives on a drying mooring in a creek near Saltash. On Friday 27th June the 5 day forecast was for easterly winds coinciding with the start of the Dinghy Cruising Association’s Falmouth Rally and I saw my opportunity to sail there. Due to a busy start to the year, SFM was still on her trailer so there followed 3 days hard work to antifoul and launch.

I launched on Monday at the Saltash boat park 100 yards upstream of Brunel’s Royal Albert railway bridge over the Tamar where there is a convenient pontoon. There is free parking but limited to 24 hours so I had to take the car and trailer home. After having to raise the mast twice to recover a lost halyard, I was running late so hurriedly departed under engine from the pontoon at 1320 to catch the last of the ebb down the Tamar/Hamoaze against a S2 breeze. There was slack water for me to exit the narrows at Cremyll, raise sail and pass through “The Bridge” (a gap in the wartime, underwater barrier) into Plymouth Sound at 1420. The sun shone, the wind in the open became SE3 and the west going tide made for comfortable progess past Rame Head at 1510. The plan was to reach Fowey which would be 8 miles further than my previous trips to Looe. I took a straight route across Whitsand Bay as dipping in there would only mean having to beat out again past Looe Island. It was a very pleasant sail passing 3 miles south of Seaton and a mile south of Polperro. I rigged a line from the tiller to a cleat in the cockpit which, in these conditions, allowed me to steer by occasional fingertip pressure to correct our course. On such a long trip it was a relief to not hold the tiller extension. 1815 saw me dropping sail in Fowey entrance with 25 NM logged (hand held GPS). As I motored around looking for a shallow spot to drop my hook, the Harbour Master informed me that anchoring was not permitted in Fowey which I found a little dissapointing. (Attending the Fowey Rally a few weeks later, I learned that one needs to go further up river to Golant or above to avoid being troubled.) As I didn’t want access to the town, he directed me to a visitors mooring at Mixtow point by the china clay works. I tied up there for a few minutes but the noise from the railway siding loading operations was horrendous! As it was already past 1900 I thought it may go on all night. So I moved around the corner to a mid river visitors pontoon which allowed me to stretch my legs for 30 yards in the last of the sun.

Tuesday, I wanted to be away early for Falmouth. The only problem was that the west going tide didn’t start until 1300 but I thought it would be ok. Leaving Fowey at 0805, it soon became obvious that I was in for a bumpy trip. The E4 wind and opposing tide were causing steep waves of about 2m height. I set a course to be clear of Dodman Point by 3 miles with the aim of avoiding the overfalls. There was no chance this time of any lazy steering techniques as full attention and hard work was required on the tiller to maintain course as the waves overtook me. About an hour later with wind now E5, I briefly pointed up to pull down a reef and was relieved to be able to achieve it quickly while bouncing around! Also with a couple of rolls in the genoa, the boat now felt more controllable but still regularly touched 9 or 10 knots surfing on waves. At 1000 Dodman Point was abeam and 3 miles distant. The overfalls never really seemed to change the seastate – it was just as bad the whole way! There had been occasional breaking waves around me and I hoped that my luck would help me miss them. Eventually, luck ran out and a small one broke into the cockpit through the open transom but only wet my feet. I really needed to change course now to 250° for Falmouth but the genoa would collapse if I bore away so far and I needed to keep good control. So I had to head off into the rather uninviting distant sea without the encouragement of seeing my destination “on the nose”. Around an hour later Anthony Head lighthouse was almost abeam at about 3 miles and I “tacked” downwind (actually by sailing her round in a smooth patch). Now I could see my goal and spirits rose. Progress was rapid on 310°. At 1130 Anthony Head lighthouse was abeam, the water smoothed and I laughed with relief. The last gust from the open sea had us screaming along at 14 knots in the smooth water for 5 or 10 seconds. Once at the entrance to St Just creek, I rang Pascoe’s yard and was directed to one of their moorings. I drank several cups of tea, cooked and then dozed with exhaustion for the rest of the beautiful sunny day - although the wind continued to blow! Would the sea conditions have been better if I had waited for the west going tide? I think they might. Average speed from Fowey to Anthony Head had been 6.5 knots.

I met up with friends from the Dinghy Cruising Association (DCA) the next day and enjoyed a few days exploring the local creeks.

Friday was miserable sailing weather and I caught the bus into St Mawes to visit the Co-op and replenish supplies. There are also many places to enjoy lunch and tea although I did feel a little out of place among the crisply clad tourists from the local hotels. Then I made the bad choice, given the deteriorating weather, to walk back to St Just. It would have been a lovely coastal walk but left me with wet shoes and clothes in my tiny cabin for the rest of the day. I put some thought into how I might get home. The Maritime Safety Information (MSI) inshore forecast on VHF was for W4/5 winds on Saturday. For my passage up the coast to Fowey, the wind would be off the land so I reckoned that this would be perfect. So I prepared to arrive at Dodman Pt just before slack water as per the standard guidance. There would then be 4 hours of favourable tide to take me on to Fowey from there.

Saturday 0945 I raised sail outside St Just. As predicted, I had a lovely broad reach in a W3 averaging 6.5 knots to Dodman Pt by 1145. Although I had been aiming to arrive at 1300, the wave conditions were, in any case, easy. I decided to change course direct for Plymouth with a conservative ETA of 1800. Progess continued smoothly and I again utilised my tiller lashing method. The sandwich box, chart and GPS were laid out on the cockpit floor in a most unseamanlike way but it is a habit I have developed because of the dryness of the boat and the maximum heal angle of about 10°. Gazing around on this lazy leg of the passage I saw we were approaching a fin in the water. I could see the fin and head of what appeared to be a small shark basking in the sun that looked very relaxed but, just the same, I was quite glad to leave it behind. Around 1500, the wind and waves picked up. I guessed it was because the tide must have been turning and also, there was now more fetch as I departed from the windward coast. The wind now appeared to be backing to the SW and I was finding it difficult to steer for Rame Head without the genoa collapsing again. I put in a few long downwind tacks which certainly improved progress but Rame Head refused to get bigger as fast as I would have liked. The two or three yachts that we had passed must have been even more frustrated. However, there was one yacht ahead that we could not catch and I wondered what class she was. Finally at 1615 Rame Head was abeam. The stretch of cliff from Rame Head to Penlee Pt is only about 1.4 NM but passing it seems to take forever at the end of a return trip as one waits to be able to turn into Cawsand Bay. You can tell I was now getting tired! Now past Penlee Pt and heading for Drake’s Island we were broad reaching and surfing at high speed again. I thought we were going to sail cleanly through “The Bridge” but as we turned around the port hand mark, it became obvious that we were headed by the wind and worse, the tide was washing us rapidly across the narrow passage towards the underwater barrier which was now visible at low water. Three or four progressively more desperate pulls at the outboard, then a moment of clear thought to squeeze the fuel primer, one more pull and it fired up. Phew! I’ll start it much earlier in future! The last of the ebb was still coming out past Cremyll so at 1730 I was anchored in Barnpool off Mount Edgecombe Country Park with several others waiting for the flood up the Hamoaze. A few cups of tea in the evening sun and I reflected on the trip. What luxury to be able to wait for the wind to be in the right direction and then make your passage. I had never experienced this until recently retiring from regular full time work. Fantastic!

I motored up the Hamoaze against the wind back to Forder creek off the Lynher. As it was still over 3 hours before high water I very carefully nosed my way in past the railway viaduct, following what I remembered of the course of the channel and the positions of the few broken stakes left in the mud. I must have touched one because the outboard jumped but thankfully kept going. I shifted to neutral and glided in to pick up my running mooring, thankfully, without any hitches as there are always lines floating around ready to catch the prop. Thus ended (most of) six days afloat which was my longest cruise in a boat of my own so far. Spider from Mars had proved herself to be a capable coastal cruiser while also managing to access the shallows.