Helford River via Falmouth

As the early hours caught up with me I found I was having the odd brief sleep between the alarms. There was no traffic even though I was near the major port of Plymouth.

The wind at last had eased and the seas calmed by 04.00 and I was able to increase speed as well as taking out the reefs at dawn.
I kept the Eddystone rocks well to starboard and set a course for Falmouth reaching the harbour mouth at 10.00.
I dropped the main and motored up to the fuel berth on the visitors yacht haven where I was assisted in tieing up by the friendly fuel attendant. .

I began filling the tank and was almost full when Chris & Eddie arrived.
With their help I moved Eureka around the corner to another pontoon which had just been vacated by a Fisher 34, flying a very large and I mean large Irish ensign.

We went to a café to catch up on news and where I had breakfast.
Strangely I was still feeling bright but expected that I'd be having a very early night later.

Maeve was flying into Newquay and driving to Falmouth the following day but seeing that Chris & Eddie had spent the last few days in Falmouth and had seen it all, we decided to overnight in the Helford River just a short distance south and return to collect Maeve tomorrow.

The three of us did some provisioning before departing Falmouth.
We hoisted full sail just outside the harbour and had a lovely gentle sail in light winds to Helford with Chris on the helm as I took a back seat.
We sailed in under main, down the fairway and the crew on one of the moored yachts shouted "Nice to see it being done proper".
We were still smiling and congratulating ourselves when we picked up a visitor mooring.

We stowed the sails and tidied the boat before blowing up the dinghy and going ashore.
The pontoon we tied the dinghy to was private and had an honesty box for payment, all very Cornish.
We walked the short distance to Helford village and had a lovely meal in the 'Shipwright Arms' before returning to Eureka where I headed to bed at 22.30 much later than I expected.Read more