Mousehole Sea, Salt & Sail festival (10 July)

August 12, 2024

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 catch the tide around Start Point. An hour later, after extended engine issues we turned around and were left drifting without an engine or any wind.

4 hrs later, we had made the 4 miles back to Berry Head when we decided that we couldn’t make it anywhere before morning, so we turned around again, for Falmouth.

By sunset the wind had come back and we were approaching Start Point, slowly and against the tide. At 11 pm we were off Start Point, doing over 6kts through the water but only making 2/3 over ground. Then the wind died, and we spent almost 5 hrs stuck between Start Point and Salcombe.

Although tedious, the beauty of this trip was that we were both on the same boat, allowing for 2 hr watches each. I went to bed with the sails flopping around and emerged 2 hrs later to be sailing at 3 kts in the right direction. How wonderful!

The rest of the second day went smoothly, we pointed high enough to get to St Antony’s Head before tacking in, up the channel and into Falmouth anchorage at around 5pm. The trip was 31hrs in total.

Falmouth Classics took place, we sailed up the Fal and anchored a bit and then sailed up to Penryn where I left Jake onboard trying to get the engine going again.

I got on a train back to Topsham in time for Falanda to get hauled out, and then spent a week at Retreat Boatyard repainting her. I sanded and glossed right over the mermaid, almost as if she wasn’t ever there. Soon she was back in the muddy Exe water, many thanks to Retreat Boatyard, in Topsham.

The next day I went back to Falmouth, just in time to jump onboard Radiance for her trip to Mousehole. We sailed to Coverack for the night in company with a few Falmouth boats, and two amazing engineless boats that had just sailed from France.

The next morning we left at 6, with plenty of wind we shot around the Lizard before tacking across the bay to Mousehole. There was a bit of chop and with only 1 reef in the main Radiance shot around at between 6/8kts, even keeping up with 60’ Gleaner for a short period.

We took part in 3 races over the weekend at the Seasalt and Sail festival. With enough wind to get her moving Radiance turned out to be a relatively fast boat contrary to what Jake had been told. She came 3rd in two races, coming in behind Gladys and Guide Me, who led the course.

Coming back to the Exe I sorted a few thing onboard Falanda, before leaving this morning for Brixham, alongside my dad on Nora. We are now preparing to leave tomorrow morning towards Brest!