Plymouth to Falmouth

Summer 2022
John Andrews
Fri 8 Jun 2012 09:57

We arrived back in Plymouth on Tuesday 29th having completed all our domestic chores. The gale had abated, and Suilven was sitting happily alongside the pontoon. The folding bike was dusted off and pressed into action to do the last of the provisioning. A search for jubilee bunting proved as useless as in Leek – the country seems to have sold out! We are beginning to feel a bit sad that we won’t be in the country for the jubilee celebrations and want to create our own party atmosphere on board.

The next day we slipped round to Fowey where we picked up a mooring. The wind was light and completely on the nose, so we had to motor all the way. The skies were clear and the sea deep blue and sparkling, so not too much to complain about. There is a lot of sailing activity on Fowey on a Wednesday evening. The Royal Fowey yacht club was running its evening racing and there was a large fleet of the Troy Class boats, a local fleet of 28 wooden clinker built keel boats. Local experts that they were, they all made a clean start, reaching down the river on an ebb tide.

We took ourselves off to the yacht club for a drink on the terrace, and watched the leading boats cross the finishing line a couple of hours later.

Dinner was a very fine turbot, caught that morning and purchased from Fowey’s fishmonger that afternoon.

The following day, and yet another motor around to Falmouth. Port Pendennis Marina found room for us, despite being overrun with super yachts. We met up with Richard and Jeannie, who took us to a great fish restaurant on  beach, a mile or so’s walk down the coast. They are planning to sail up to Scotland, setting off a week later than us, and going up the East side of Ireland. We may meet up in Oban.

I had great fun provisioning in Falmouth. There are lots of specialty shops selling local produce, we we were well stocked up with fish, pasties, cheeses etc. We were to be joined by James and Kat and Tess and Theo that afternoon. It was  Kat’s birthday, so a bit of an effort was required. We dressed the boat overall – a joint celebration of Kat’s birthday and the jubilee. Falmouth also yielded the coveted bunting, so the cabin was festooned with red white and blue.

 

   

 We were able to give Kat a birthday tea of clotted cream and strawberry jam scones, followed by very over the top cupcakes ordered specially the day before from a local baker. Dinner that night was at Rick Stein’s fish and chip shop. We all opted for the cod and chips which lived up to expectations.