Ru88ell
Well-Known Member
Is the gap between them a goer?
Gull Rock and Nare Head, Cornwall
- Thread starter Ru88ell
- Start date
doug748
Well-Known Member
Yes.
There is a nice little cove on the east end, so you can anchor and have a cup of tea.
There is a nice little cove on the east end, so you can anchor and have a cup of tea.
Robert Wilson
Well-Known Member
Yes, but look out for Dodman Point. Go WELL out or right in so you can touch it.
Don't ask how I know why NOT to be a few cables off!
Don't ask how I know why NOT to be a few cables off!
FWB
N/A
Yes as doug748 has said, but watch out for the whelps...
Ru88ell
Well-Known Member
Thanks all. We sailed quite close to it on Monday, but it looks like a nice target for an 'out and back' trip.
cagey
Well-Known Member
Please tell
cagey
Well-Known Member
The gap is massive ,depths close in are vertical, spent lots of time there watching seabirds. Landscape approaching from East is Lunar, nice excursion
Robert Wilson
Well-Known Member
Our first Falmouth - Fowey race in 60s on Benbecula we ignored the advice and took a green sea right over the boat (bowsprit to stern), seemed like about four feet high right along the deck. It was blowing an easterly about F4
We were later advised that right in or right out avoids a weird sea, which often throws up big standing-type waves. We hit one. No damage, but H*ll of a fright.
Some years later a pleasure boat (can't remember the name) foundered off the Dodman with much loss of life (20+ I think). IIRC their passage had been uneventful until they reached the Dodman Point.
When I took Nav evening classes at Darlington Tech we were set to plot a course from Falmouth to Plymouth. Those who plotted "through the middle" were politely told that they had chosen most unwisely. I had remembered my experience in Benbecula and went right in. Lecturer commented I had obviously been there!
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jdc
Well-Known Member
Yes of course. You can anchor between them if you like. It's good fishing. Sometimes (not winter I imagine 'tho) there are dive boats there. I'm not sure I'd go between them them in a gale or with huge swell, but one probably could.
WRT Dodman, I've maybe been lucky, but have never had any issues. I've been past in E7 and W9 and all winds in between without a millisecond of danger or worry, usually right where the chart shows overfalls. I have had a katabatic down-draft off Dodman which blew us flat (or so it seemed, hence was probably only 50 degrees in reality), but it was strangely, even eerily, smooth, noiseless and undramatic.
Ru88ell
Well-Known Member
Thanks all. I shall definitely make a point of getting there in the summer.
Where else is a nice 'out and back' day sail from Falmouth? I'm up to speed on Carrick Roads and Truro River, and I've been to Helford. Anywhere else recommended?
Where else is a nice 'out and back' day sail from Falmouth? I'm up to speed on Carrick Roads and Truro River, and I've been to Helford. Anywhere else recommended?
FWB
N/A
Try Coverack, unless East winds. Can be a lot of swell at times though. Pub on the hill and fish n chips in the old lifeboat station.
Robert Wilson
Well-Known Member
Just goes to show how sailing and the sea is not a definitive "science"! Unpredictability is a cross we have to bear, but I'm glad you've been lucky.
Certainly when we were approaching there that day there seemed to be nothing untoward ahead. I've also heard of the katabatic downdraft, but fortunately never suffered any - there or elsewhere. Perhaps one is lying in wait for me.........
Good luck and good sailing to the OP. It's nice to hear reports and advice about my old sailing area.
robertj
Well-Known Member
dodman point is miles away from where the poster is asking. I take it that its the inside passage between gull rock and the mainland?
jimi
Well-Known Member
Wind against tide on a big sea can be nasty at the Dodman, in **** weather I always used to stay about 1.5 miles off in deeper water. Gap between Nare & Gull Rock is massive, a useful lunch stop in the area can be Portscatho
KINGFISHER 9
Well-Known Member
The boat was called Darlwyn ... old admiralty pinnace with a rear cockpit ... left Fowey when the weather was far too rough for the return journey to Falmouth. As I remember she wasn't licenced to carry passengers, no safety gear etc and privately owned, and the skipper wasn't qualified for anything.
Bad business all round ... no survivors.
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Greenheart
Well-Known Member
Well remembered. I just read the whole report: http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLibraries/WreckReports2002/20836.asp ...though it doesn't relate closely to Nare Head.
Grim business...a slender 44' ex-naval launch with her watertight bulkheads removed for convenience in the cabin, and almost two tonnes of passengers (31) presumed to have been sheltering inside from the rising head wind, when defects in the re-built cockpit allowed seawater to flood the accommodation...
...perhaps the worst thing is how completely unanswerable any questions about her fate were, and remain. No radio, few life-jackets, and the best estimate about her time of sinking is made from stopped wrist-watches on the bodies found. Evidently the vessel wasn't seaworthy and culpably overloaded, but the location sounds as if it justifies wariness.
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AndrewfromFal
Well-Known Member
Meant to reply to this on the day you OPed, but was defeated by technology. The only thing to be aware of (apart from the rocks to the South of Gull Rock), is that when the prevailing wind is on, there's a large wind hole to the east of the Rock, which can slow your progress a bit.
Many years ago, on a calmish day (F2-3, SW IIRD), we anchored of the North Eastern side of Gull Rock, blew up the zodiac and rowed ashore. There was a flatish rock that you could haul the dinghy up onto while you went for a climb about and it was a fun exercise on a sunny day. - We did it in shifts and left someone one the boat 'just in case', but had no problems; of course there were no restrictions on going ashore at the rock at the time, but it wouldn't surprise me if that has now changed.
Many years ago, on a calmish day (F2-3, SW IIRD), we anchored of the North Eastern side of Gull Rock, blew up the zodiac and rowed ashore. There was a flatish rock that you could haul the dinghy up onto while you went for a climb about and it was a fun exercise on a sunny day. - We did it in shifts and left someone one the boat 'just in case', but had no problems; of course there were no restrictions on going ashore at the rock at the time, but it wouldn't surprise me if that has now changed.
Boreades
Well-Known Member
If you are early out, Fowey could be there-and-back in a day. But then you wouldn't get much time in Fowey. Alternatively, stay the night in Fowey.
trapezeartist
Well-Known Member
Yes as doug748 has said, but watch out for the whelps...
Note of caution: it's not as deep as it looks! Those depths are in FEET. (Remember them?)
Robert Wilson
Well-Known Member
That's the one, thank you.
We arrived on holiday the next morning (from t'north, tha knows) and the sense of shock and distress was immense. Dreadful tragedy.
As to my comment regarding the Dodman (see robertj's above crit.) I was merely adding a bit of local info. Sorry if it drifted or confused anyone.
RW
Addition:
Just read the report. Grim reading indeed. The people on board must have had a terrifying last few moments, preceded possibly by a mounting feeling of dread. Horrible.
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