30th July – Saturday
We were awake just after 7 am feeling refreshed after a quiet night. After we had dressed and had our first cuppa, we sorted out the dinghy and outboard engine so that we could explore further up the river as we had not done so on our 2012 trip due to the poor weather. Not many others had stirred yet, so apart from the hum of our little engine, it was fairly peaceful. We continued for quite a way, passing a number of anchored boats which either did not need much water to stay afloat or could take the ground. We spotted Barnabas, a 19th century Cornish lugger owned by the Cornish Maritime Trust, of which our friends, Tom and Linda are supporters. Chris took a photo of her at anchor, which reminded us that we had seen her in 2012 in Mousehole. Before we reached the really shallow water, we turned the boat around and motored back to the yacht club’s landing jetty, where we got out and tied up. Not much was going on here, so we just stretched our legs for a bit before continuing back to the boat via the bank on the other side, which had a private landing only. Once back onboard the boat, we ate breakfast and while Chris re-confirmed our route to Fowey, Carole updated the blog.
Just before midday we released our lines from the mooring buoy and set off under engine out of the river, optimistic for a good sail to the river Fowey. The wind was surprisingly right on the nose, so we just got the mainsail out, but continued under engine. The wind increased enough for a while to sail, so the engine went off and we got the Genoa sail out, too. However, disappointingly as it warmed up the wind dropped to about 2 knots and so we gave up trying to sail and turned the engine back on. Sod’s law, the wind didn’t pick up again until just before we entered the river Fowey.
We entered the river closely followed by another half a dozen boats all seeking a berth for the night. From listening to the harbour frequency, we were aware that most visitor buoys and pontoon berths were already occupied by at least one boat, so on radioing in, Carole was advised to look for a similar size and type of boat to raft up against. We didn’t hang about and soon found a Bavaria 40 on a visitor buoy to be our neighbour for the night. Carole quickly fendered both sides of the boat and Chris shortened the line on our dinghy so that it would not cause a problem when rafting. Chris then made a text book “coming alongside” and Carole gently stepped aboard and secured our bow and spring lines while Chris secured our stern line. We then put our own line from our boat through the buoy to complete the process. By the time our neighbours returned to their boat, we were well settled and enjoying showers onboard making good use of the hot water produced by the use of the engine. After the visit by the harbour officer to collect his dues, Chris cooked us a tasty spaghetti bolognese for our supper accompanied by a nice glass of red wine. We then discussed the problem we had of the broken speaker hanging by its wire above the first spreaders up the mast. We didn’t want it to detach itself and fall to the deck either on one of us or causing damage to anything else, so we decided that Carole would go up the mast and cut the wire and bring the speaker down. We would then buy another speaker and replace it at a later date.
While Carole washed up and tidied away, Chris sorted out the “top climber” apparatus and topping lift to be used. Chris then strapped Carole in securely and smoothly winched her up the mast just beyond the first spreaders. The only dodgy moment was when a motor boat went through the moorings causing some rocking and rolling for a few moments. However, once things had calmed back down, Carole proceeded to cut the wire with a pair of wire cutters which detached the speaker. This was then placed safely in a bag and Chris then winched Carole and bag back to deck safely. Job done! We could go to bed tonight without having to worry about doing this job in the morning.