Annie and Pete Hill are now set for embarkation on their next sea-going adventure and far from being laid up and at work full time in Falmouth they have been clocking up the miles in their Westcoaster, Missee Lee.
Since we came back to England in June 1987, we’ve managed to keep ourselves occupied. Based in Falmouth, we both got jobs and started to put some money into the cruising fund. We also thought that we’d spend a bit of money on Badger, and the largest job we have done is to remove her ferro-cement keel and to replace it with a Warwick Collins Tandem Keel. Badger was hauled out of the water last March to do this, and, due to the high prices of safe Winter berths afloat round here, she is still out of the water, so we have not yet been able to try out the keel. We’ve done several jobs inside, such as altering one or two lockers, and we will give her a repaint and varnish all her brightwork before putting her back in. We’ve also treated her to some new bronze winches and stanchion bases, so she looks pretty smart!
Because of buying Missee Lee (a Westcoaster, 20’ LOA and named after Arthur Ransome’s lady pirate), we have been able to keep our sanity, as most weekends we’ve sailed her and explored the rivers and creeks in this area. Known as a deep water area, we have been delighted by the number of places that are open only to shallow draught vessels, and have therefore been able to get away to lonely anchorages even in the middle of Summer.
We could no longer put up with Missee Lee’s Bermudan rig and so had fitted a Junk rig to her. This has proved a great success and enabled us to have two splendid holidays in her last year. As well as changing the rig, we installed a bridge deck, which gave room for a sink and raised the cockpit floor, increasing stowage and making the seats more comfortable. We laid iroko decks fore and aft and over the cockpit seats and bridgedeck, which had the dual purpose of looking extremely attractive and stopping leaks that had found their way into the corners.
The centre deck we stripped and then coated with WEST epoxy and polyurethane paint, finishing it with deck paint. I stripped the paint off the cabin sides and re-varnished them, and we put strips of ‘tongue and groove’ mahogany down the back of the cabin. (In fact they are pieces ¼” thick with chamfers planed on each edge). We replaced most of her galvanised fittings with bronze and painted the hull in the “house colours” of black and cream. Inside, we changed the forward end of the boat, slightly offsetting the mast tabernacle to provide a double bunk to port. To starboard we have a Reflex diesel heater, which means that we can enjoy sailing in Winter. The offset mast puts the sail on the centre-line of the boat, and doesn’t seem to make any difference to her. Up until now, we have found the tabernacle entirely satisfactory.
Our first major cruise was in June, when we decided to take her to Exeter to the JRA Rally. We day sailed along the coast to Fowey, Plymouth, Salcombe, Dartmouth, Torquay and finally to Exeter. In Torquay we met George and Rachael on Anna Tertius and spent the night alongside them. The following morning there were four junks converging on the River Exe, all quite different from one another and including Tony Richardson’s T’AI-SHAN as well as David Tyler’s LLUITRO with a Swing Wing rig.
Those of us who attended had such a good time. About half a dozen boats were there, and a lot of JRA members came by land, making for a very successful occasion. The Exeter Maritime Museum made an interesting venue, although we were disappointed that their Junk was not rigged and looked rather neglected. As ever, Robin Blain put in a tremendous amount of work to make it a success. T’Ai-Shan acted as the “mother” ship, so that we all climbed on board whenever we wanted, with Tony making us all feel at home.
Due to the early tide, we left our moorings intending to go back just a short distance, but had a splendid breeze off the land, which had us doing 11 miles in 2 hours! This distance was measured by bearings ashore, and we had no tide with us, which just goes to show how MISSEE LEE (18’ LWL) likes her junk rig. We reefed after that, but still made sufficiently good progress to be in Salcombe by late afternoon. From there, we went to Plymouth and up the St. German River, a lovely trip. We then left for Fowey. Sailing out of Plymouth, we saw a bank of fog rolling in, so we turned round to anchor temporarily.
Even as Pete was dropping the anchor, a Customs inflatable came alongside and requested permission to board. Really a rhetorical question, we of course replied in the affirmative. There was only room for two of them, so they came into the cockpit and sent the third one off with the boat. Pete finished sorting out the anchor and came back to see what was wanted. In fact, they decided to search the boat, and did a pretty thorough job of it, even emptying out the rubbish. In the end, of course, there was nothing to be found, but we couldn’t help thinking that MISSEE LEE would have been a rather peculiar choice for smuggling! No doubt a combination of a green junk sail and Pete’s beard and ”long” hair would provide the explanation!
After this little adventure, the fog cleared, and we set off again and slowly made our way to Fowey and back to the Fal. We had a lot of very light winds and fair weather. Unfortunately, in this part of the World, that seems to be a recipe for mist and fog, so that we rarely saw the sun. That apart however, it was a very satisfactory holiday.
Our next jaunt was across to Douarnenez for the festival of traditional boats. We had glorious weather for the crossing, about Force 2-3 on the beam and brilliant sunshine for most of our stay. Our landfall at the Chenal du Four turned out to be the Chenal de la Helle, which the misty conditions did nothing to assist, but once we’d worked out where we were, we were rewarded by the sun’s reappearance and no more fog in Brittany.
We spent our first night in Camaret, anchored and drying out off the beach, and thoroughly enjoyed the little town that we had never visited before. In our little boat, we were much better off than most visiting Yachts who had to either anchor right out in the bay or use the marina, both of which involved either a long row or a long walk in order to get to town.
From Camaret, we sailed to Morgat and thence to Douarnenez with a crowd of traditional and beautiful boats. There was another junk there too. She looked the part, at least! The festival was absolutely wonderful and we were looked after with great generosity. There were over 700 boats there and lots of events ashore. We were given a superb meal with wine flowing like water, and, of course, there was lots of meeting old friends and making new ones. All in all, it was more than worth the effort. We had a secret pride too, in discovering that we were the smallest foreign boat actually to sail there.
After the festival was over, we sailed back to Camaret and stocked up with wine, olive oil, etc, before going back to England. The day we left was very hot with light winds, so light in fact that we had a fierce debate as to whether to spend the night in a harbour somewhere at the top of the Chenal du Four or whether to continue on our way. In the end, Pete said we ought to continue. So I reluctantly agreed, and, as usual, I was proved wrong. Not long after sundown, the wind sprang up and through the night.
Not having self-steering, it was watch and watch about steering downwind under a scrap of sail, Missee Lee tore along with the Southerly wind up her tail.
In the squalls, it was blowing a full force 6, and the odd wave would slop over the aft deck into the cockpit, which was particularly embarrassing, as we had not at that stage got around to fitting a bilge pump, and had to resort to a bucket. However, approaching the Cornwall coast, we were somewhat heartened by the sight of a Morecombe Bay Prawner of 30 feet or so hove to. I gave a brave smile and a cheery wave as we passed, and concluded that actually Missee Lee could have taken a lot more and been quite happy.
The weather thickened as we closed the coast, but the RDF bearing put the Lizard somewhere to port of us. Missee Lee doesn’t possess a log, but we had a reasonably good idea of what speed we’d been making and knew when we were close to hand. Eventually, we heard waves breaking and crept towards the shoreline. A few minutes later, we saw what appeared to be steam over the water and realised it was the surf; further investigation convinced Pete that we were off Gull rock, to the East of Falmouth, so we hauled our wind and set off towards the West, keeping within earshot of the coast.
A break in the mist confirmed our position, and we eventually anchored off St Mawes late in the afternoon. With good visibility to have permitted a late alteration of course, Misses Lee would have made a splendid passage back. As it happened, Pete’s judgement was proved correct, the wind increasing overnight and blowing very briskly for a couple more days. Had we not left when we did, we’d have had quite a wait!
Keeping as usual to a 5-day plus weekend way of life, we have tried to go sailing in Missee Lee every weekend. The weather has been uncommonly fine with few gales and not much rain, and our heater has kept the cabin snug in the evening so that we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We explored most of the Helford River, Truro River, River Fal and enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of the season with few boats about and empty anchorages. With such a small boat, we need not worry about overloading anyone’s moorings and can pick and choose, selecting those with a plastic mooring buoy and a well-designed pickup buoy! Normally, one does not pick up moorings in this part of the world, as so many boats day sail and will be wanting them again. The leafless trees enable us to see more, and the lack of boats means that we can sail through what are normally wall-to-wall moorings. In a nutshell, we are astonished at how few people sail in the Winter and can’t recommend it too highly, if you are fortunate enough to be situated in a sheltered cruising ground.
Missee Lee has given us so much pleasure that we feel we owe it to her to have a “proper” cruise in her and so are planning to leave Falmouth in early April, sail along the South coast and, picking our time, cross to St Malo. From there, we hope to enter the Brittany canals, which we will explore during April, May and June, working down toward the Baie de Morbihan. After pottering around there for a while, we hope to sail back up the coast and return to Falmouth about Mid July. Then, alas, we will have to sell Missee Lee to someone else who will appreciate her many virtues.