Eventually we managed to leave Salcombe and motor sailed the 22nm to Plymouth. We had very light wind and sailed most of the way with a bit of help from the engine. Tony did some routine engine checks enroute checking on the strainers etc and discovered the main engine coolant was hissing out the top of the engine cap. The engine was fine but thankfully we didn’t have far to go to our anchorage in Jennycliff Bay.
We had been getting a mysterious small volume of water in the engine bilge so I decided to pull the whole engine space apart and see if we could locate the leak and fix the leaky cap. We discovered the coolant overflow tank cap had no gasket at all so most likely the leak is from there. We also finally found the dipstick on the generator which means taking all the panels off, hardly a quick 2 minute job.
More things to learn and understand was the large volume of liquids left onboard by the previous owner which would link to potential problems as yet not encountered. We found nearly 8 litres of coolant onboard which seemd a lot, however it came in useful when we suddenly needed 4 litres. The galley ocasionally comes in useful when working out the exact ratios of coolant to water.
Salcombe to Plymouth is an easy sail in good weather with plenty to see along the way, ofcourse there are always Lobster pots everywhere.
Plymouth is a Navy town and we expected to see some activity. the entrance to the harbour has a large breakwater built in the middle of the entrance with a small castle ontop. The breakwater basically divides the harbour in two, so you are pretty much guaranteed to have lots of activity around as you enter and exit.
Numerous marinas and Anchorages are dotted all around giving lots of options for the weather protection.
We have our own washing machine onboard and can wash at will so I took the opportunity for good drying weather and hung out the bed sheets to dry without any pegs. I haven’t found rust free ones yet.
I watched the bedding and linen carefully, of course I got distracted and then one of the pillowcases blew in the water. The dinghy was up on the davits with cover on but the pillowcase was floating still just out of reach. Despite Tony’s protestations I saw this as a good opportunity to practise quick launching and we put the dinghy in the water in our quickest launch yet- about 5 minutes, I thought we were doomed as I lost site of it just as we launched the dinghy. Last seen about 400m from the boat. I headed away from the boat trying not to create more wash and circled around where I thought it was. I hadnt seen it for a good 10 minutes, so I turned around to get the light behind me and there it was still bobbing just below the surface. I was very excited with our first inwater rescue, tony not so. He didnt think to pick up a camera so the only photo I have is of the washing machine.
Our anchorage in Jennycliff was lovely and occasionally crowded with day trippers. The general standard of seamanship from other boats was scarily lacking with boats dropping anchors haphazardly, coming to close, driving way too fast. To the point that when we did go ashore we would worry that some clown would anchor over our anchor and drag it up. Thankfully that didn’t happen however the most memorable fellow came charging through the anchorage on a 40ft motorboat at around 10kn. I gave him the universal handsignal to slow down and he sped up. I yelled out “Mate, slow down your in an anchorage” he yelled back “Dont Mate me” whilst looking backwards at me and still going forward. At which point I suggested he should check “Daddys insurance”. needless to say his anchoring tecnique was not efective whilst complaing about being called “Mate”.
The sail to Fowey ( pronounced Foy) was incident free with the wind ever increasing, we would have enjoyed it more were it not for the ominous cloud on the horizon and a sudden unexpected gale warning on the radio.