The River Fal

6/14-21 We pulled into the surprisingly bustling harbor of Falmouth mid morning on Thursday, June 13. We managed to snag a mooring buoy - only catching it by the aid of a fisherman who saw our plight and rowed over from his boat to help us transfer our rope through the fixed loop on the top of the buoy - I like being moored, and catching them is not usually a problem, but some of them are very hard to get a line attached to! We found out it was a Classic Boat Regatta and a Sea Chanty Festival that weekend - hence the full and busy harbor! 

 Although Falmouth is a significant port, lots of commercial traffic and a long maritime history so it would have been the busiest harbor we’d called at yet no matter what festivals were going on.

The tides were impressive, and the stone wharfs even more so...

Feeding the birds...

 Our mooring was a significant distance to row from the marina or any docks where we could leave a dingy so we generally called a water taxi to get to and from shore. 

Murray rowing us home through the boats

A huge jelly, hanging out near the wharf

We did lots of wandering through the town, sightseeing, shopping, eating,

 looking at the beautiful classic boats - both at dock and out sailing - and enjoying the singing. 

Not all of us appreciated the singing equally

However, the best part of our time in Falmouth was connecting with people - Murray had corresponded with a professional sailor and writer. He surveyed the Young Larry during our purchase process and has been a wealth of information and help. The morning after we arrived, he texted that he could see the Young Larry from the window of his house! He lives in Falmouth and recognized her at her mooring in the harbor. It was great to meet him in person: Murray picked his brain about a rigging issue, and he had invaluable advice about route planning.

Sunday as the hoopla from the festival died down we sailed/motored up the Truro River as far as we could go - and the wind followed us up! It was impressive to be away from the sea, up a river and have the wind whirling us about. It was Father's Day so Murray spent it on an adventure with his kids - hiked around, found the Old Kea Church and caught one of their twice monthly services.  

After 1 night there we came back down to have work done on the rigging at Mylor Harbor, just around the corner from Falmouth. And another amazing connection: the man who owned the original Larry and built the Young Larry (in Malta) was in the area as well, having work done on his newest boat (still an old boat). He came over and we spent a fabulous hour or 2 talking to him. How amazing to meet him! And he confirmed that the Larry was in Falmouth Harbor as well on a mooring - we found her the next day. 

There wasn’t anything except the marina and 2 little restaurants at Mylor, so the next few days while the rigging was being worked on we came and went. We got a bus pass and took the bus to see Truro and the cathedral there, Natty and I went into Falmouth and got her a wetsuit (which we’d been talking about for months) and loaded up on more groceries. We had hilarious bus connections but made it home in 1 piece to leave Mylor Wednesday evening for a picture-perfect sail down to Helford River  again - up through the kajillion boats on moorings and into a little hole further up the river that Murray spotted on the chart. 

The kids slept out on the deck and we planned to spend some time exploring the next day. Which started out well - Natalie got to use her wetsuit and jump into the river from the bowsprit, rigging, etc. But the wind really kicked up and we spent the rest of the day holed up in the boat watching the shore circle by. I got some much needed trip planning done - timings set, way points plotted and a sense of how we need to make the big push around Land’s End to Milford Haven. In the evening the wind died down and Murray took each kid out sailing in our PP. They all needed some fresh air and energy released by then! (we did take pictures, but I can't get them to load just now)

We start tomorrow and plan to round Lizard Point at 11:30 and be rounding Land’s End between 1430-1530 to keep the current on our side. Then an overnight push to get up to Wales by the next day. We anticipate it’ll take 18-24 hrs to make the passage. And we will keep pushing to get closer to Glasgow for our first visitor pick-up on June 27th. These last 3 weeks have flown by!