We were five days in Padstow waiting for the northerly winds to end. There are worse places to be – we had a good berth in the inner harbour, with quite a buzz around. We were right outside the Old Customs House inn, which has lots of people enjoying the harbour ambience, and an excellent and very melodious busker has enhanced our evenings.
Camel Estuary looking towards the sea
Saturday was a calm and sunny day and we got the cycles out and explored the Camel Trail to Wadebridge and Bodmin. Many years ago Padstow had a railway branch line from Bodmin, but this fell to Beeching’s Axe in the 1960s. Now it has been converted to an excellent cycle trail, which is very popular and supports half-a-dozen cycle hire companies. The trail runs along the Camel estuary, with lovely views across the sands, and then, above Wadebridge follows the river to Bodmin. There we had lunch before the easier run back to Wadebridge, where we found an excellent cream tea – the best of the season.
As you may have gathered we have been sampling cream teas throughout our time in the West Country. For those who are not aware of the subtleties of the art, in Devon the scone is topped with clotted cream and then strawberry jam on top, while in Cornwall the cream is placed on top of the jam. In Tony’s opinion, neither quite matches his own arrangement of butter under the jam and cream on the top. This is also the old Cornish tradition still followed in some homes, if not in tea houses, but most are willing to oblige by providing butter on request.
On Sunday we decided to make the 70nm crossing from Padstow to Milford Haven ahead of more grotty weather expected on Monday. There was hardly a breath of wind first thing, so we anchored off Polzeath beach to await some and then set off as soon as a light air from the west appeared. At first we scarcely moved over the tide, but we soon had the cruising ‘chute up set as a jenniker and as the wind built to Force 3 we made good progress. It turned out to be a magnificent passage. We were joined by a large pod of dolphins – there must have been fifty or more – and they accompanied us for several hours, criss-crossing under our bow, diving under the boat to appear on the other side and playing along with us. Click on this link to see some video we took and see how many dolphins you can spot! We sailed all the way into Milford Haven around 11pm and anchored off Angle Bay, seeking shelter from the impending southerly winds. Despite shallow water, we put out 40m of chain in anticipation of the gales and retired to our bunk. On Monday it blew hard and rained heavily and we stayed put all day.
Tuesday was a lovely sunny day and we sailed further up the haven to the marina at Neyland. On Wednesday we were visited by Mike (Ynskje’s erstwhile brother-in-law) and Nina, who live nearby in Saundersfoot. We had a very enjoyable time and lunch at the rather good marina restaurant followed by tea on board.
Now we await the arrival from Germany of Tony’s son David.
That’s the news for now… Ynskje & Tony