Yacht Seaduction 2023

28th July – Friday

We awoke to sunshine and light showers and after having our own in the marina facilities, we discussed over breakfast whether we should stay one more night in Falmouth or head in to the Helford river for a night. Chris checked the weather forecast and we decided we would get ready to leave. Carole did some floor sweeping and cleaning, while Chris topped up the water tanks and got the electrics in. We then slipped our lines and motored to the fuel berth where we topped up our diesel and petrol can for the outboard. This is the first place we have found which supplies petrol, but at £1.60 per litre, we were glad we only needed a few litres.

We then slipped our lines again and as Chris followed the channel out, Carole brought the fenders in and put them away. Once we had passed the big rock protected by an isolated danger buoy, we got full sails out and the speed soon increased to about 6 knots. Chris optimistically put out his fishing line as we approached the river. The wind was starting to pick up and we decided to put a reef in the sails to keep the boat sailing comfortably. At the same time, Chris noticed that his fishing line had moved over to the other side of the boat. On further investigation, he discovered he had caught two nice sized mackerel, which he brought in quickly and put in a bucket, before doing what he had to do with them and putting them in a sealed bowl in the fridge to be cooked for supper.

We were now in the river and on the lookout for a visitors buoy to pick up. We were lucky to have a choice of about four and with Carole on the helm and Chris on pickup duty, we were soon safely attached to a buoy. We had a nice cuppa and slice of cake, after which Chris put on his fishmonger’s cap and filleted our mackerel ready for the pan. Carole prepared some salad and buttered some bread (and poured a couple of glasses of wine) while Chris panfried the fish and voila! supper was ready and it was delicious and couldn’t have been fresher. Carole boiled some water for washing up and once everything was clean and tidied away, we sat and had a couple of games of cards before retiring to our bunks for a good night’s sleep.