Helford river to Newlyn

Juniper sailing round GB
Gordon and Catherine
Sun 26 Jun 2011 10:11

50:06.15N 05:32.76W  Saturday ‘I can see clearly now… I can see all obstacles in my way’  - we wish!  We wake to fog after a really stormy night, and the boats look quite ghostly as they swing on their moorings in Helford River.   I decide to try the water taxi and get a ride into Helford village, while Gordon checks our route.  It’s a great system, the local foot ferry is also a water taxi, collecting folks from their boat and delivering them back.  He lands you at a small jetty and there’s a blue sign that you open up to signal when you want the taxi back.   The village is chocolate box with whitewashed cottages, village store and thatched roof pub (sorry, forgot the camera).  The village store is an unexpected gem with Cornish camembert and homemade bread.   The fog’s gone by lunchtime so we leave, and have a  brisk sail as the wind and waves rise as we near Lizard Point.  I didn’t realise you can have wind and fog together but that’s what happened and we catch glimpses of the lighthouse as the visibility drops.  Once we’re round the point it turns into serious fog and we creep cautiously into Newlyn, unable to see the land or even St Michael’s Mount which must be somewhere out there in the bay.  Sailing in fog is both disorientating and disconcerting and you really have the sense of being alone on the sea.  Enough said, we have rounded the Lizard, the most southerly point of GB!  According to the pilot book Newlyn is a fishing harbour not set up for yachts but we are made most welcome and tie up gratefully after a cold, wet passage – did I hear temperatures of 30C mentioned for London today?