Although I am a keen dinghy sailor, I do not yet own a boat of my own, consequently I have to make use of the facilities offered by the various hire firms and sailing centres. Last year Marjorie and I decided to make use of the excellent facilities of the Falmouth Sailing Centre, as a change from our usual sailing area of The Solent and Spithead.

A study of the relevant charts and pilot books revealed the extensive possibilities in this area for ‘going places’ — from ditch-crawling in the upper reaches of the Fal Estuary to the relatively open waters of Falmouth Bay, with the Helford River just a few miles away.

The weather was kind to us for the first part of our week at Falmouth, but the tides were wrong for any extensive exploration of the Truro end of the estuary. On one occasion we did get up as far as Woodbury Point, mainly by careful use of the sounding lead and a fair amount of luck. We made two trips to the Helford River. On the second occasion Robert Manry in Tinkerbelle was reported as being close to Falmouth and as far as the eye could see the water was littered with just about everything that could get afloat; however we preferred to spend a pleasant day on the Helford River. Tinkerbelle in fact arrived as we were sitting down to our evening meal back at the Falmouth Sailing Centre. It was difficult to pick out the tiny craft from among the vast fleet of escorting vessels.

For some days we had been toying with the idea of a slightly more ambitious trip, possibly eastwards, out past Gull Rock and on to Portloe; a study of the charts and tide tables showed that the N.E. and S.W. tidal streams would be favourable for us on the Friday.

On the Friday morning the weather forecast from the Culdrose Naval Helicopter Station was reasonable, though with the wind in the S.W. it would mean that the return trip would be dead to windward. As we went out to our Wrights Family Fourteen dinghy we must have looked like a mobile ship’s chandlers as we were loaded with charts, compass, spare warp and a kitbag containing spare woollens, waterproofs, food and a waterproof torch.

Soon after 11.00 with everything satisfactorily stowed, we were ghosting down towards the harbour entrance. Once clear of the harbour we were able to lay our course for Gull Rock. The sea was calm and the light breeze was dead astern, so that we were able to goose-wing the jib. Our progress under these conditions was leisurely to say the least. By 12.55 we were south of Porthmellin Head and at 13.35 we were halfway across Gerrans Bay. We decided to take the inside passage between Gull Rock and the mainland, keeping well clear of The Whelps. At 14.10 Gull Rock was about one cable off the starboard bow. Soon afterwards we were able to see the houses of Portloe, but there was no sign of a harbour. However the sight of a boat apparently disappearing into the cliff gave an indication of where the entrance lay. In fact the entrance remained invisible until we were quite close. Keeping a wary eye on the water ahead we entered the tiny harbour. Once inside we lost the wind, but a few strokes with the oars brought us to the shingle beach.

We didn’t stay ashore very long and by 15.30 we were once again under way. Even during this short time the wind had freshened considerably; this, together with the wind against tide effect had produced decidedly choppy conditions with a fair number of white-caps. This being the case we put on our waterproofs and made doubly sure that all loose gear was secured before leaving the shelter of Portloe. Then we settled down to a hard, exhilarating thrash to windward. Under those conditions I didn’t fancy returning through the narrow passage on the landward side of Gull Rock, so we stood out to sea until we could comfortably clear Gull Rock and The Whelps on the next tack. During the first tack it became obvious that the tidal stream was effectively cancelling out our leeway. It was certainly an exciting ride, perched on the crest of a wave one moment and swooping down into the trough the next.

I was very impressed with the seaworthiness of the Wrights Family Fourteen under these conditions. I was also pleased with the performance of my Sestrel Junior Compass in its gimbal on the rear thwart.

I had manufactured a brass mounting bracket for this so that it can be readily mounted on the thwart of any dinghy without the need for drilling holes. For such an inexpensive instrument the Sestrel is remarkably good. However I do wish that someone would invent windscreen wipers for spectacle wearers.

Our second tack took us in towards Porthscatho and for a short time we were in calmer waters, however we were soon heading seawards again. According to the charts there are overfalls in this area known as The Bizzies, but the sea was no worse than elsewhere so we just carried on. We reached the entrance to Falmouth Harbour in four tacks and by 19.30 we were back on the moorings at the Sailing Centre ready for a hot bath and a meal.

This turned out to be the last decent sail of the holiday as the weather rapidly deteriorated during the last couple of days.