11th July 2024
Reading Time: Five Minutes
We did eat in the Edgcumbe Arms, but only just. Their excellent Sunday carvery was closed for the evening, but they managed to rustle up some doggy boxes from the leftovers. Mine was rather good but I’m not sure everyone agreed. Paul and I got the last ferry across the water and walked to the Mayflower Marina. We set off early in the morning for the 25 nm sail to Fowey. I had promised Paul a civilised time to start, but the forecast was for strong winds later in the day and I hoped to avoid them so we set off clasping an early morning mug of coffee to wake us up. We took the short cut through the Bridge and faced into a slight chop and a light wind giving us a mere 2.5 kn SOG against a 0.5 kn foul tide. However, that was soon to change as the wind increased and we were soon making 5.5 kn with one reef and a Yankee.
By 12:09 we were happily tied up to a buoy in Polruan, opposite Fowey. We took the water taxi ashore to explore Fowey and were surprised to find most of the pasty shops had sold out!
The following day we explored the local area. We took the river taxi ashore to Fowey then crossed to Polruan by foot ferry.
We decided to walk the loop along Hall Walk to the car ferry further up the estuary. We had had a massive bacon and banana sandwich for breakfast so a stiff hilly walk was the perfect antidote.
We took a small diversion to see St Wyllow’s Church which had been recommended to us. It is a very fine and rather large church certainly worth the detour.
After a swift pint in Fowey we returned to Sumara for our evening meal. In the morning we set off towards Falmouth. It was a cracking sail.
When we arrived we were a bit confused as to whether we were hungry or not, when Paul suggested that as it was almost 18:00, why don’t we have a beer? Not to argue, we found the old sailors favourite pub “The Chain Locker”. It is often the first pub visited by those returning from an Atlantic Circuit. It soon dawned on us that there was an important Euro match being played in the evening and as we were seated in front of a stonking big screen we decided to watch it. I thought it was due to start at 19:00 LT but was a bit disappointed when we learned it was to start at 20:00. Another beer was needed. By half time I had had enough, and we decided to retire to the boat to listen to the match on the radio. I just fell asleep but I believe England won.
There were two boats of note in the harbour.
The Skipper of Magnus Zaremba was very surprised to see me when he called in to refuel. I had last seen him refueling in Cambridge Bay while I was sailing with Will Stirling on Integrity through the North West Passage. He had actually sailed 10,000 miles through the Panama Canal and was returning to Poland.
The other boat of note was Hummingbird which was a 20 ft boat constantly surrounded by film crew! I later discovered that the Skipper was about to attempt to sail around the world non-stop. If he succeeds it will be the shortest boat to have completed the circuit. Good luck to him, it doesn’t look like much fun to me!
Paul left me to get back to work on his cabin and Sim joined me for the short trip up to Mylor where I was going to stay for a couple of days before leaving the boat on a buoy for a few weeks while I returned to London.
The boundary between sailing and flying is being eroded!
It was great to catch up with Jo, Sim and Lotte who are currently in Mylors huge boatyard refitting a Tradewind 39 for future adventures. They are all busy bees and luckily for me, Jo works as a Patrol Officer for the Port of Truro keeping an eye on all the moorings so I will feel very relaxed about leaving Sumara in her safe hands!
Now I am back in town having just enjoyed Saturday at the Traditional Boat Festival in Henley. I just cant get enough of boats!
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