Departure - The Rehearsal

Friday 23rd March (evening)

Delayed by our van... again. Still in the garage and it seemed we were going to have to wait till Monday before collecting it from our friends at Halfords. So we resigned ourselves to a frustrating weekend aboard DD. And then, just when we least expected it, the phone rang. It was John from Halfords but all Nikki could say was, "John, do you know what time it is?" He had worked late and was ringing to say that following final checks we'd be able to pick it up in the morning.
So just maybe we would finally be able to get moving with our pre-voyage provisioning and then make one last journey up-country to drop off the van with family before returning to Falmouth for departure.

Nearly home.

This news was made all the better with the knowledge that favourable weather conditions would prevail through the week ahead. So fingers crossed for the plan to come together.
Saturday 24th
Wahoo! A bus ride to Camborne (well, a bus and a taxi actually) and we finally got to drive our van again. Rained all day but we cared not and got on with Asda food shopping and buying more diesel. By late afternoon, having squeezed as much as we could into the galley and under the decks, we jumped into the van and drove the 5 hours up-country to mum's.
Sunday 25th
A day off with mum. Visited Hughenden Manor where Benjamin Disraeli lived and where they secretly made WW2 maps. Simon and Angela came round in the afternoon for a cheeky beer/wine.

Card from Pendennis team.

Monday 26th

Train home to Falmouth having dispensed with cars. All that was needed now would be good 'boat moving' weather. Having looked ahead for weather forecasting to suit us we decided on Thursday morning.

I did not drink them all.

So Wednesday we lunched at Harbour Lights fish and chips and bought tickets for the movies at Falmouth Poly. ‘Three Billboards...’ is quite a movie.

View from Harbour Lights

Thursday 29th

Slipped our lines 8 o’clock onto a glassy sea and waved goodbye to Falmouth

... or so we thought. 20 mins in and not yet past St Anthony light (aka Fraggle Rock) when our engine temp warning light came on so no choice but to return to Pendennis boo hoo ☹️ Spent the remainder of the day checking our engine and ensuring all was well.

Turned out to be the heat exchanger clogged with solidified salt.

Took DD out for a sea trial in the afternoon to check the engine one final time and all went very well. Nicola on the wheel the whole time. She is a superb helmswoman and just the best at manoeuvring DD 👍

Captain Nik

So we spent one more night alongside and planned our  rescheduled departure for Friday morning.

Friday 30th

First Mate at work.

Slipped off 8 thirty with another calm sea and no breeze to speak of. It looked as though we’d be on the engine all the way to Fowey later that afternoon. A milky and ever warmer sun appeared as we rounded Fraggle Rock and out into the English Channel. A beautiful morning as we watched manx shearwaters skimming the surface and gannets patrolling the sea in search of fish.

We reached our halfway point by 11.30, a mile off Dodman Head with the red and white striped day mark visible in the distance on Gribben Head. “Nikki, we will be in Fowey for a late lunch.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth when the port propeller lost power and I felt a huge and quite violent vibration from it.

We later found out that we had hit something in the water badly damaging our prop. Half an hour later the engine lost power and died completely 😮 So we found ourselves without power and becalmed off Dodman Head with the possibility of drifting towards it. Actually the engine was fine in the end. We'd allowed the revs to drop too low, stalling it, and were extremely reticent to restart probably because we were worried about the damage to the propeller.

We had no option so Nikki called the coastguard while I pulled up the sails in the hope that we would get enough of a breath to sail away from the hazard. And we did... very slowly. A friendly fishing boat came along side and reassured us that they would tow if needed and in the distance we could already see Falmouth lifeboat approaching.

Well above top speed.

Carl came on board and rode back with us as we were towed by the lifeboat at speeds Distance Drummer has probably never reached before! An hour or so later we were safely alongside and thanking the RLNI crew profusely.

Thank you!

Keith, one of our neighbours at Pendennis, offered to film the damage to our prop with his waterproof camera which revealed that 2 out of the 3 blades had been snapped clean off.

A massive thank you to all who helped us on what was a very challenging day.

Not quite where we thought we'd end up but at least we were safe and sound.