The Cornish lifestyle

Well, the good old UK weather has decided that we should stay and enjoy the Falmouth area and Cornwall for a few days. A nice deep depression is messing up the sea with a second following hot on its heels and we have no plans to venture out into stuff officially described as “very rough”. This is meant to be fun after all.

So, we explored the Truro River and Fal area a little, enjoying the woodland walks around Trelissick (NT property) and of course a Cornish cream tea because you just have to. We and our arteries felt better when we only ate one of the packs of clotted cream provided, not both. The river here is very deep and so big ships get dragged several miles inland and laid up waiting for work or a decision on their future. Just around the corner from our overnight mooring was:

If ever you think your job is strange, imagine the life of the guys who live on the “dead” ships here. They keep the generators running, do little bits of maintenance, hang over the guardrails smoking and looking bored and take the lifeboats up to Truro to go shopping. Neighbours / nights out – a little lacking!

This little baby has been at the same spot opposite Smugglers Cottage for years. A lovely old ship owned by the JCB (Bamford) family. Apparently it gets maintained, used for some film work and not a lot else. A strange toy to have and not use, but good that an elegant old lady is being preserved.  

For the BMW Hook people, this is the King Harry chain ferry that I think you helped buy. If you remember back to when Copernicus developed IT systems for the business you might remember the interesting costs of their work too. Some of the profit allowed the Copernicus owner to buy a share of this ferry business, one of the few (4 or 5 I think) chain ferries left in the UK:

For the wet and windy days, we came into a marina – Port Pendennis, in Falmouth. Yet again, we are being stalked by cruise liners. This arrived at 5am and berthed opposite us as an early morning alarm call:

This was a very up market albeit elderly liner; full of very well behaved German tourists who were mainly off to see the Eden project by coach. For all my German friends – thank you for sending us a much better class of passenger then the Black Watch managed in Guernsey! The following day, another 5 am alarm from another liner. We are being stalked!! Think we will write a piece on liner passengers and their behaviour linked to the cruise line and nationality. Two days later a large ugly liner anchored off (Caribbean Princess). Falmouth’s narrow streets and quaint alleyways were no match for the hordes of American tourists with large cameras and windcheaters advertising the cruise liners they had previously been on board. I wonder how many had a close encounter with a car as they tried to get the photo from the angle they wanted. Behaviour – yes, they owned the place.

On Thursday we met up with Norman and Julie for lunch. The BMW people might remember Norman as “Big Norm Lazarus” the infrastructure manager from Bracknell. Norm is no longer big (physically) and is also enjoying retirement in Cornwall. Of course we went for a most up-market lunch (fish and chips overlooking the waterside). It was great to catch up with them and hopefully we meet again in Scotland as Norm is buying a serious motorhome and will be going to Scotland for his first trip. A delivery of fresh eggs from Julie’s own chickens meant breakfast the next day was extra special too.

Having never visited St Ives but having heard lots of good things about it, we made amends by taking the train (actually it is 3 trains from Falmouth, via Truro and St Erth). This café had probably the best ever carrot cake (and we have sampled many I must admit):

We will continue to report on great carrot cakes as / if we find them en route. The cafe also had one of the best picture window views you could wish for:

All in all, a pretty good day and the short train trip from St Erth to St Ives really is a delight. If you haven’t done it, you should. The town was amazingly busy for a blowy day in May with many Americans and Germans in evidence giving a great multi-cultural feel to a special corner of Cornwall.  I hate to think what a warm July weekend is like in the streets and on the beaches though – perhaps St Ives is best avoided then?

Course planning and boating? Well, all the routes etc are prepared for a run to Milford Haven area direct, or via the Scilly Islands if it looks nice and settled for a few days. The bad news is that the next 4/5 days have more gales forecast so we have no desire to head off anywhere yet. Should we stay in Falmouth itself or head off up river again or anchor in the Helford River for a while? Decisions decisions…..