It was with some reluctance that we pulled up the anchor in Helford River the next morning as it was so peaceful. We had a light wind on our quarter, and beautiful flat water, allowing us to try out our asymmetrical spinnaker crossing Falmouth Bay. The only hazards were the frequent lobster pots, some of which had 3 buoys together in a line, increasing further the danger of entanglement.
After a very pleasant sail we rounded Dodman and then Gribbin Head, with its distinctive red and white striped beacon. Fowey (pronounced Foy) is a very quaint river estuary with regular ferries across to the equally picturesque Polruan on the other side of the river. On our left as we entered the harbour we noted a very Italian looking grand house on the cliff near a beach. This was Point Neptune, which was formerly owned by the actress Dawn French, until she sold it recently for £6.6 million.
There are public moorings (blue, without pick up buoys) along the eastern side (starboard) and various floating pontoons, which are not connected to shore. These were all full so we had to raft alongside another boat to share a mooring buoy. We chose a relatively similar sized boat, a Dehler 44 and the crew, although understandably reluctant to share the mooring, turned out to be very friendly and gave us some great tips for dinner, which was at an Italian restaurant called Bufala, with lovely views over the harbour.
The next day was forecast to be a washout, so we took a taxi to the Eden Project which was a mere 20 minute drive away. On arrival, we discovered that we had left our bag, containing our camera behind on the side of the road, but, no problem, within 2 minutes our taxi driver had called the proprietor if the nearby shop who retrieved it and kept it for us until later on., all negotiated with West Country accents. People here really are very friendly. The Eden Project was very interesting with various geodesic domes, essentially giant greenhouses, called “biomes”. The main biome was a rainforest, hot and humid, while the other was a Mediterranean climate. in other words hot and dry. The highlight of the day was Tomas and I doing the 660m, 50 second zip line over the Eden Project site.
Adrenaline rush complete, it was back to Fowey and a pint at The Galleon and then dinner at the beautiful waterside pub, Havener’s. During dinner we were treated to a male voice choir singing Cornish Sea Shanties. The weather having settled, it was back to the boat for a well earned rest. The next day Dad was flying home from Newquay and we had a long upwind slog to Mousehole, and then the Isles of Scilly.
