In summary, a great cruise of about 100 miles total starting in Falmouth in Cornwall, stopping off at Helford River, Fowey, and Mevagissey, in glorious suntan lotion weather throughout – we did not hit anything, nothing hit us, we did not murder each other on the boat, and many thanks to Victor for organising and skippering.
This was the delayed departure of the Easter cruise, the sort of thing you read about on the train destination boards when the time now is quite clearly different from what the destination board shows. At least we had an explanation – Force 8 at Easter is not conducive to good sailing, manic yes, good no. So this was the Easter cruise. What sort of sailing did we have? Manic at times, and that was just the crew!
Victor rebooked for late September and we sailed for the whole of this year’s summer – all one week of it – sun tan lotion, shorts, tropical gardens (more of that later), complete with a scenic rail journey to Falmouth (actually we took the train as far as Penryn with a change at Truro where the train arrived about 10 minutes late but the connection was held). Truro is just over 300 miles from Paddington via the south coast, literally, at Dawlish.
At Plymouth the railway crosses the River Tamar into Cornwall via the single track Royal Albert Bridge that Brunel built and which was opened in 1859.
We arrived at the MDL marina in Falmouth in the late afternoon on the 20th and Nick, the manager of Cornish Charters informed Victor that the boat he had booked had visited the rocks at the entrance to the Helford River and would we like to take another instead? He gave us a choice of three. We selected the Beneteau 411, Aquarius, two heads luxury, but in need of some TLC, and a few other bits and pieces that were sorted out on the Sunday morning.
After parking our bags on board we headed back up the road to the local Co-op supermarket where, two trolleys later, we headed back with lots of food and a bottle or two. By this time the tide had come in so there was not so much of a drop on the ramp to the pontoon. The thought of all that food running wild down the ramp did not need contemplating. In the evening we headed for town, found some decent restaurants that were all fully booked, so settled in at the Thai Orchid. The food was quite good, the scent of joss sticks quite overpowering at first, but manageable.
We surfaced late on Sunday morning (21st) and did a proper check of the boat. We deemed some items unsatisfactory and Victor called Nick to arrange for them to be changed. The depth indicator was checked using a make-shift lead line (actually it was stainless steel), and this showed the reading was about right for depth below waterline rather than depth below keel.
In full sunshine, with sun tan lotion on, we departed just before lunch time for the Helford River, mindful of the previous comments about the rocks. On the way down the river to the main River Fal we passed some Cornish working boats that were racing.
We sailed under one reef in an easterly F5 past the Helford River to the Manacles and then headed back to the river mouth. Cornish Cruising have a buoy at the Helford River so we did not have to pay mooring fees. Finding it amongst all the other buoys was a bit more challenging, but we eventually found it after help from the harbourmaster. Our first day’s sail – 18.9 miles. Diana cooked us a gourmet meal (weren’t they all?) and we all went to our sleeping bags.
On Monday morning (22nd) we woke up in a leisurely fashion as befits those on holiday, had breakfast and took advantage of the high tide to motor upriver as far as Vallum Tremayne Creek – it dries out at low tide – and back, hailed a water taxi and then repaired to the local hostelry for lunch on a terrace looking out through the palm trees on the sea wall across a small bay.
This was followed by a digestive walk towards Manacan (the sign post said 3/4 mile) out of Helford up some fairly steep paths. There was a lot of summer activity in the village – house painting in the one (only?) week of summer. Seems a three bedroom cottage that was not immune from flash flooding and had to be rebuilt in 1989 is worth about £700k. We returned to the boat and Diana and Janice cooked stuffed eggs, rice and vegetables.
On Tuesday (23rd) again in brilliant sunshine, we departed at 09h30 (that’s early for a holiday) with the intention of sailing past Falmouth and on to Fowey. The wind was about an easterly F5 again, so we reefed, and headed out to sea. Did we reach the southernmost point of the UK? No, but we saw it in the haze in the distance.
We had a bloody good sail in slight to moderate seas and a long swell. After two hours with just one tack and intending to use the 50m contour as a safe heading we eventually had to resort to motor sailing to make ground against a losing battle of making the tack – we could not sail that close enough to the wind. The tower in the photo at the entry to Fowey is Gribbin Tower, a daymark painted red and white. A daymark is the daytime equivalent of a lighthouse, in this case to identify Gribbin Head – in the old days there was a tendency to mistake it for the similar St Anthony’s Head just east of Falmouth. The tower is about 28m high and was built in 1832.
We arrived in Fowey at 
just gone 16h00 and moored on the visitors’ pontoon to take on water and have a shower at the Fowey Gallant Dinghy Sailing club – the showers were built with assistance from the Lottery Fund. We then motored over the river to a floating pontoon to moor up for the night. 39.2 miles for the day.
There were a lot of kids canoeing and sailing Mirror dinghies – I guess this is the local equivalent of after-school football or whatever in London. We took the water taxi back across the river to Fowey and ate in the Galleon Inn on the harbour front where Jo Gore met us later in the evening.
We discussed at length whether to go to the Eden Project, or to some other gardens such as the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The Lost Gardens of Heligan won. It was a choice between getting the water taxi and public transport or pumping up the dinghy at Mevagissey to get ashore and walking, and having to decide what to do with the life jackets once we were ashore.
So on Wednesday morning (24th) we sailed for Mevagissey, brilliant sunshine again and a good wind, but not reefed. Victor had radioed the harbourmaster to determine the mooring situation there. Mevagissey harbour has an outer harbour and an inner one. The inner one dries out so the yachts and working boats there were stood on sea legs at low tide, whilst others were sat on the dried out mud and sand. The outer harbour has yellow visitor buoys so we moored up between two. Distance for the day’s sail was 7.5 miles.
Howard pumped up the dinghy, if only there was Viagra for dinghies! We were going to use the outboard motor but could not find the safety cut-out. So, Victor tried his arms at rowing, in circles. The idea of getting off Aquarius to the gardens was receding fast. However, after a bit of hacksaw work Robert fashioned a safety cut out from a wooden clothes peg and Howard took the first shore party across. All was not well, the cut-out broke and the engine could not be restarted to get the next party over. The harbourmaster came to the rescue and towed the dinghy back. Meanwhile a rummage round the odd and sods box revealed a plastic door catch that looked about the right size for a cut-out. We were in business again and got ashore, did the obligatory family photo, and walked along the quayside for dinner at The Wheel House in the inner harbour.
On Thursday (25th) with adequate supplies of water and sun tan lotion, we got ashore, left our life jackets locked in the harbourmaster’s store, and set off on foot for the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Towards the outskirts of Mevagissey is a memorial to fishermen lost at sea, the flower bed of which contained a palm tree. Two women were tending to the garden. Turns out one is the daughter of a Mr Chesterfield who is named on the memorial and the other is a member of the parish council whose aim is to have the whole section of adjoining grass verge converted from a doggy toilet to shrubs and bulbs. The grandfather of this second lady served on the Cutty Sark.
After a stiff climb through the woods along sunken pathways between the fields reminiscent of the scenes in Watership Down we arrived at Heligan. 
Heligan has been the seat of the Tremayne family for more than 400 years, and the gardens were almost devastated by a hurricane in 1990, with rebuilding starting in 1991. The gardens are set at different levels, each with its own micro climate so there are banana trees, palms of various sorts, bamboos, and some plants such as proteas that are native to southern Africa.
The gardens are best visited in spring rather than late summer because the colours are better, not all shades of green. The farm shop has all sorts of goodies that require a car to bring back – they advertise the product, the cost per kg, and the food miles to bring them. Food miles ranged from “lots” for the ginger from Brazil to 7 for the potatoes.
Exhausted from all the walking, we returned to Mevagissey by bus, paid a visit to the leather goods shop, retrieved our life jackets from the harbourmaster’s store, and returned to the boat. We had a long discussion about eating out again which would have meant going by dinghy, etc, etc. We ate in – pasta à la Diana and a side menu of scrambled egg and beans.
After a second night on board, on Friday (26th) we departed early again to get the tides southbound. Under full sail we headed off eastwards, then turned towards Falmouth, reaching just over 7 knots at times goose winging with a preventer. We sailed past St Anthony’s Head light house, first lit in 1835, and round into St Mawes bay where we tied up to a visitor’s buoy and had a leisurely lunch.
We slipped the buoy after a couple of hours under jib only, and sailed out of the bay towards the River Fal. After raising the main we crossed over to Falmouth, again goose winging and this time reached 8 knots for a short burst, arriving in Falmouth at just after 16h00, total sail for the day was 20.5 miles.
In the evening we ate in the marina restaurant. For marina cooking the food was actually quite good (Surprised? Yes)
On Saturday (27th) one third of the crew jumped ship to return home whilst the remainder went shopping for food. At the Co-op Diana got talking to the lady ahead of us in the queue who recommended a restaurant for the evening.
In brilliant sunshine yet again (this is getting boring) and only F3 to 4 forecast, we headed out to the River Fal and sailed upriver to a visitors’ pontoon just upriver from the Turnaware Bar buoy.
The scenery was stunning, but the weather and sun were too hot to sit out so we raised the spray hood for some shade. After just under a couple of hours and a visit by the parking meter man, we were off again, upriver to the confluence of the Truro River with the River Fal at Smugglers Cottage – no guesses what went on in the old days. The cottage is overlooked by a large mansion (marked as Nancarrow on the chart) on the opposite hill. Who was looking at whom?
We sailed back to the marina, filled with gasoil (I know they call it red diesel but it isn’t actually diesel) and moored up for the last time – 14.5 miles for the day, trip total 103.8 miles.
In the evening we walked up the main street again to the restaurant recommended by the lady in the Co-op. It was the Ratho Wine Bar and Restaurant, which opened about a year ago above the Falmouth Bookshop in Church Street. The internet describes the food as a balance between British fine dining and French Bistro. It was very good, well presented with delicate flavours, certainly the best on-shore cooking we tasted during the trip. For anybody going to Falmouth, this is a “must eat at” restaurant.
So there we are, Sunday morning. All that was left was to hand the boat back to Nick, and return to London. We went again by taxi to Penryn station to catch the “Maritime Line” two-coach train back to Truro. 
So why did we not know on the way out it was the Maritime Line? That’s because we did not have the advertising leaflet extolling the virtues of First Great Western’s “Rail Ale Trail”. From Truro we came back on the “proper” train along the coast on G-d’s Wonderful Railway to London.
This was another successful HSSC venture, crewed by Diana, Janice, Howard, Michael, and Robert and very ably organised and skippered by Victor to whom we all give our thanks.