Padstow

Getting to Padstow for the May Day celebration had been the goal of the trip and we made it with a day to spare.

Once we were moored up on the wall I went forward to put the jib in its bag and get the cover on the staysail. That was when I noticed something odd. The bobstay had vanished.

When I changed jibs on the trip from Lundy I had re-run the bob-stay tensioning line to run inside the jib traveller. Julian has no problems getting the jib to the end of the boom with the traveller trapped by the tensioner line, but I do, so I had to re-run it. Unfortunately I forgot to re tie the bowline that secured the end of the tensioner line to the pin rail.

When Julian got the bowsprit as we entered harbour the tensioner line ran just run out, letting the bobstay (which is chain) dangle beneath the boat, and the line run backward. Somehow, during all our manoeuvring in the harbour, we had managed NOT to get the line round the prop. It had gone round the rudder though, and the bobstay was held tightly along the keel.

With a lot of help and encouragement from Moshulu's crew (who were moored just ahead of us on the wall) Julian managed to get the rope and chain free, without needing to go in the water (although he had to sit in Worm using a hack saw on a rusted solid shackle). Success!


We had a wonderful time at Padstow. Being moored on the wall meant we had lots of friendly comments, and visitors, but we also had a lot of grit come off the road and onto the decks. It did not feel like a good place to leave her for a month.

We talked to the mooring master, and moved Robinetta onto the visitor pontoon in the middle of the harbour before we left. They use the "continental" mooring system at Padstow, with a line from the bow to a buoy, then backing down to moor stern first on the pontoon. Not something we have done before, but it seems to work well.