Lundy Island

This evening was Worm's first use to go ashore of the season. Getting in to her was quite tricky with the swell bouncing her up and down but Alison handled the row to the landing place with ease.

Getting ashore was another matter. It was high water and there was only a little of the slip above water and nowhere to tie up to. We gave it a go but it was quite dangerous so we tried the beach instead. There was only a couple of feet of steep shingle showing but we managed to stick to it and clambered ashore. There was enough room to pull Worm above the high water line and leave her but it was a major scramble over the rocks to get to the road.

The road climbs steeply from the landing place past the big house to the farm. On the way up we fell in with a couple and chatted about the weather. We agreed the forecasts had been roughly right but not quite good enough.

The pub is at the farm and Alison checked we would be able to eat and we walked on to see a bit more of the island. It really is quite big though and we turned back to eat just as the arable land turned to rough pasture. We had a nice chat with the farmer on the way back. He had watched us motor in and had grand tales about yachts and bad sailors.

Food and drink at the pub was great. I had a trio of Lundy sausages on mash with carrots and broccoli. The sausages were lovely - a venison a spicy and a pork. The beer was specially brewed ashore for the island and was nice. The pub was busy.

Back at the landing place the tide had gone down by at least 2m. It was easy to get down the slip to the beach and round to Worm but launching was a problem. Alison said "how would you like to do this?" I answered cheekily "I get in and you do all the work." Under normal circumstances this is roughly what we do but this time we came a-cropper. We launched backwards off the beach and tried to turn round to row away and a big wave drenched the boat.

We got out and emptied the water out and had another think. This time we set Worm pointing out to sea in the shallows and Alison got in over the stern and went forwards to her rowing station at the bow. I pushed Worm further in to the water and got in. This way round, when the waves crashed they just lifted the bow as is supposed to happen.

Alison rowed mightily and got us out of the shallows. The steeply shelving beach helped and once in the deeper water the swell was less of a problem. It was a bouncy row back to Robinetta but Worm handled it well.

Back on board we decided the swell was too much to put the double berth out and we re-configured the sleeping bags for single person use so we could sleep fore-and-aft on the benches.