A night of precision steering in very light winds ensued because of the
England match deadline! A glorious morning and with 35nm to go the wind picked
up within seconds from 3.9 knots to 17 and then over 20. Shenanigan responded
well and we were back to the sort of sailing we have become accustomed to, with
speeds of 7-8 knots. After two hours it dropped again as quickly as it had
arrived, thankfully to pick up again shortly after. We were still beating into
wind but able to make a good heading. As we rounded the Lizard winds were
constant at 20 knots – welcome to the English Channel off the Cornish Coast!
With some exhilarating tacking around anchored cargo ships, and amazingly, given
the wind direction, the sea was flat.
We are sure our keel was on full view due
to our heeling despite the mainsail being reefed. This made for exciting and
fast sailing – the best beating we have ever had! Kick-off was looming, Radio 5
was blaring and Christopher, hanging on for dear life at every tack,
successfully retuned an old TV we had on board that turned out not to be so old
i.e. it WAS digital! I was at the helm and Brian rushed from side to side with
the winch handle and the picture on the TV was perfect- sadly the result wasn’t.
We sailed as far as we could up the Fal due to the fuel situation and berthed at
Falmouth Marina at half-time. We were very proud of Shenanigan as we think that
her engine got us into the berth on fumes! and we are very proud of ourselves
for completing our first Atlantic Circuit, sailing over 10,000 nm since leaving
Brighton last year.
We celebrated with champagne and a fish and chip
supper. Knowing the whole time that we have had all the support and
interest from you all at home throughout our circuit has been fantastic, we hope
that we have been able to share a little bit of it through our blogs and we
thank you form the bottom of our hearts. Looking forward to seeing some of
you in Salcombe in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we are planning our
next adventure!.....