Mousehole Sea, Salt & Sail festival (10 July)
The solenoid on Radiance’s engine had fried itself to bits on arrival at Brixham, so we decided to stop in at Topsham after the Regatta in order to have a look at it. It was a fast sail across the bay with all three boats in company, and I was only mildly upset to watch Radiance and Nora slip past us. Although I may blame it on the extra reef and following wind there was definitely some distance between us as they arrived at the fairway buoy. Sailing up the Exe without the reassurance of an engine is always slightly terrifying, and as it was Jake’s first time going up the river, and only his second sail on Radiance, he received a tow from Nora. After a week on my dad’s mooring at Turf, we both sailed Radiance back down the river with a reconditioned starter motor, heading for Falmouth. Initially the wind was pushing us along at just under 6kts, however by the early afternoon it had disappeared completely. We bobbed around for a couple of hrs in Torbay before starting the engine to