Logbucheintrag Nr. 011.

Alas, this is not another sequel to the notorious Pirates of the Caribbean, yet when approaching Land’s End one has this peculiar feeling of indeed reaching an end to something. At least in the eyes of the English the solid granite cliffs represent the boundary of what used to be in Roman times Britannia’s southwesternmost part Dumnonii. That’s were we were sailing to!

In the mist of the early Thursday morning, 5 August, we set sails and started a rather bumpy ride south from Milford Haven towards Land’s End. The course due south we benefited from westerly winds with a good 5-6 Beaufort arousing the sea and sending us some good waves from the side. In the later hours of the morning, the sun at last manages to win its struggle against clouds and rain and will not leave us until the end of the day. It’s beautiful sailing with 8-9 knots under a crystal blue sky. We are bearing away from Bristol Channel and the coastline and apart from some fishermen and an incredible amount of sea gulls around them we hardly meet anybody out there.

Towards Land’s End, supposedly one of the roughest areas of the UK, we make the same experience as in the equally infamous Pentland Firth and Cape Wrath: sunshine, low wind and a wonderful scenery. After all the grey and mist of the past days and weeks a more than welcome change. The beaches along the southern shore are even populated, people are gathering in an open-air theatre and boats are out on the water. On our approach to Mounts Bay, the first real shelter to the southwestern winds we expect for the night to come, we anchor off a picturesque small outpost of Penzance called Mousehole. We dig our anchor into the ground awash with mussels and enjoy on last evening out at the sea. A rather calm one.