Falmouth to Fowey

As the nice easterly winds were continuing, we thought that we would have a short trip up to Fowey, one of our favourite spots. To minimise the size of the waves on our nose for the trip, we headed off with the tide against us, living with the longer passage time for slightly calmer conditions.

As we exited Falmouth harbour, half the NATO warship fleet were leaving too.  UK, Danish, German, US warships and a dinky little Dutch minehunter that looked like a bath-tub toy compared to the rest.  A suitably splashy trip was undertaken, watching / avoiding a small yacht that was struggling in the conditions. The crew were all attired in identical wet gear and arranged on the side-deck. Perhaps the Russians had chartered it as a spy ship and were regretting the size?

Around Dodman point it calmed down a lot, with the waves on the starboard bow and the stabilisers switched on.  Approaching Fowey, the daymark on Gribben head really works:

Entering Fowey isn’t as dramatic as, say, Dartmouth but it has two castles and some lovely houses to admire too:

Always fancied living in this one on the Polruan side, probably would not fancy the price much though:

We dropped onto the pontoon near the lifeboat for a water top up. Apparently on Marinetraffic.com, it looked like we were alongside the lifeboat and perhaps had been towed in. Nope, happy to report that we didn't bother them at all! After a chat with the kids who were fishing / crabbing we went over to a mid-river pontoon that was almost empty and settled in. Here is the view from the port pilothouse door.

The harbour man came to take our mooring fees and his posh tablet device and credit card reader failed. So,we went across to the office and the nice lady said that “it was 4:50 and she’d already done her day end computer run so could we pay tomorrow?” You can tell the council run operations – MDL would hold you upside down and pump money from your pocket at any opportunity!

Maintenance news:

None at all. A 4.5 hour trip with about 22 nautical miles out to sea and the rest in the harbours.  Actually there is some maintenance but it isn't too savoury. The captain finished a serious descaling job on the heads (OK toilets for the non-nautical types) pipework . Good to do from time to time to keep the hoses and the diverter valves clear.