When I saw them in a market in Holland a few years back, I knew those children’s life jackets would come in handy one day. That day finally came and this week when the Witch welcomed the Boyes family on board. Scarlet and Sam had been eager to sleep on a boat overnight for a while and so the Witch sailed to Fowey for two days filled with fun, novelty and adventure.
Perfect wind conditions on Thursday allowed us to sail to windward in a pretty much straight line and single tack all the way from Rame Head to Fowey. Sailor Sam, being only 8, did very well holding a five ton boat on course all by himself!
When in Fowey we picked up a mooring buoy and after a few unsuccessful attempts to get the dinghy outboard running to go ashore, we succumbed, called the water taxi and went to the village for dinner. The journey back to the boat was made in complete darkness which was cool, and before going to sleep Emma read a bit of The Tale of Samuel Whiskers which I had only just bought last weekend when Laura and David were here.
Friday started off with a bit of fog but it wasn’t before long that the sun was shining. Having gone out to try the outboard, I was very happy to discover that it had since regained life, so after breakfast we explored smugglers cave and swam off a rocky bit by the River Fowey.
We then set sails back to Plymouth, except we couldn’t because there was hardly any wind on Friday, what was of it was from dead ahead and it would have taken us some twenty odd hours at least to get back. We motored instead. But not having much wind has its rewards; a glorious sunny and warm day and shortly after setting off from Fowey we had the highlight of the day: Matt saw them fist and there they were, Dolphins!!! , quite a few of them too, swimming past very close to us! Now that was a lot of fun!
We then let the newly installed auto-pilot self-steer the Witch back to port and enjoyed the afternoon sitting on deck, sun bathing, waving at passing ships, chatting, listening to music and even dancing. There were plenty of jelly fish too so we caught one with a net, which we later rescued from it and returned to sea.
Nearly back in Devon but not just yet; time for a quick Cream Tea in Kingsand, for which we anchored in Cawsand Bay and came ashore on a couple of dinghy journeys.
And so it finished back where we started in Plymouth, two days with a lot of fun things worth remembering. Thank you for comming Boyes family and until soon says the Witch.
