Ghostly Torpedoes

07Sep13

Another milestone and another coastline. As we crossed the main channel to leave Milford Haven we found ourselves head-to-head with a massive LNG tanker being gracefully guided by five tugs onto the South Hook Terminal. Thankfully, we made it to the safe area just outside the main channel before the Port 'Police' had chance to bark at us over the radio to make way and get out of Dodge. These tankers bring liquified natural gas all the way from Qatar before it is pumped out into our national grid system – around 30% comes in this way – possibly because the 345m of 'Lijmiliya' was just arriving, the Castlemartin range was quiet so no historical incidents [see Safe Haven] to worry about. Exiting the channel we were briefly contacted by our friends on 'Silent Wings' [we had met earlier on the way up to Shetland] who had just arrived at Dale after spending some time out in Shetland – according to them Summer was 'officially' and definitely over up there.

With a steady following wind we were hoping for a good journey south to wind away the 24hr passage. Up went the sails, down came the sails: once again chug, chug, chug. The promised wind was not as forecast and it was again time to burn some diesel – at least we would have hot water and fully-charged batteries.

Not long after sunset and in the realms of astronomical twilight we were delighted to be joined by a huge pod of common dolphins. A feeding frenzy began on shoals of small fish, about the size of whitebait, which were being driven out of the water and into the waiting mouths of their leaping predators. Our navigation lights on the bow cast an erie light on the water and along with the phosphorescence from the dolphins' trails they appeared around us like ghostly torpedoes darting along our sides and under our hull. During daylight only their dorsal fin and a brief glimpse of their flanks can usually be seen when they swim but in the dark…they were lit up as if adorned in thousands of LEDs, a magnificent sight. They stayed with us for about eight hours, we 'think' our phosphorescent trail was maybe attracting the fish or they were using us to trap the shoals in our wake after being driven to the surface. The pod came and went a couple of times more during the early morning but not in the same numbers and tended to keep us on the edge of their feeding circle.

We were a little late to risk a detour into Padstow and navigate over the sand bar for the depth of water we needed so we pressed on as planned. There had been some lightning in the west during the night and a lot of heavy showers skirted around us borne out of heavy towering clouds. The one place which had consistent blue sky and sunshine was St Ives – a popular holiday destination for one of our readers who always reports good weather there.

Land's End was soon in view. We chose the outside route past Longships lighthouse as the inside route looked quite mixed up through binoculars which meant pushing the end of a strong Spring tide. It was slow progress but gave us time to reflect on the time we stood on the shore three years earlier looking out to sea at the lighthouse wondering if we would ever see it from the other side.

Approaching Penzance the wind picked up and the heavens opened dumping all that rain intended for St Ives. Welcome to the South, welcome to Cornwall.