Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

9 th to 17 th of August 2018 - Falmouth

We woke at 0600 in order to catch the west bound tide to Falmouth. We left the anchorage along with one other yacht at around 0700. Once past Rame Head we were able to sail slowly away from the coast whilst the other yacht motored directly into the wind. As the wind backed to the west it took us further out to sea. We made good speed and had an exhilarating sail.

After a couple of tacks dark rain clouds approached and brought a squall so we took in several reefs in the genoa and dropped the mizzen. By this time we were round St Anthony Head and able to turn toward Falmouth. The wind was perfect for us to sail up The Carrick Roads and we didn't need to worry about depth as we were near high water. As we turned into the narrow river toward King Harry Passage the wind dropped so we motored the rest of the way. We were very disappointed to be reminded that the Smuggler's Cottage is no longer a tea rooms and we would have to miss our cream tea. When we were here in Ocean Mist we were able to see the amazing museum and memorabilia about the D Day landings. It's now all been sold and the cottage is now a private House. We anchored in the Truro River in a lovely peaceful spot surrounded by woodland and birdlife at low water. A large blue boat called Cape Cornwall was still here after 2 years with an older couple living on board. We weren't sure whether they had been here all winter, but later discovered that they over-winter in a marina and spend the summers on the river. We enjoyed a sunshine and showery evening at anchor, something we hadn't experienced for a while. We were treated to a few rainbows and overnight listened to the sound of the rain on the hatches.

The following day we went up river to Malpas in the tender and had a Full English in The Heron. We had a lovely walk along the river, dodging the occasional showers, to beyond St Clements. On returning to The Heron we had a couple of pints followed by a cream tea. When we got back to Speedwell Cape Cornwall appeared quite close to us so we decided to move and chose a spot further up river. We had just settled down when the harbour master turned up. He was a very friendly chap and told us a large coaster was due to come up to Truro at 4am next morning so he was asking boats to move well in out of the channel. It was time to move again. We tried a couple of spots, eventually anchoring not far from Cape Cornwall again but this time on her stern so that we would be further away at the change of tide.

We spent over a week anchored in the Truro River, enjoying the peace and quiet. We visited Cape Cornwall and they came over to visit us. We also went into Truro a couple of times by tender and bus which was very straight forward. Although we felt it was a bit much having to pay £6 a night to anchor, the harbour master took 2 weeks of recycling and our rubbish away with him and we were able to fill up with water at the King Harry ferry pontoon. We attempted to get diesel at Mylor but there was someone on the pontoon and loads of moorings around making it a bit of pain to hang around so we turned around and went to anchor off Trellisick Gardens for a couple more nights where we were able to enjoy some more walking. Despite it being Falmouth week the pontoons in the river were very quiet and not many boats joined us at anchor.

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