Helford river

We arrived on a peaceful evening and had planned to move around and deliver Annandale to David by sailing to Mylor creek which is in the beautiful harbour of Falmouth, unfortunately it is also in the grip of the Falmouth Harbour Authority who charge £10 a night just to anchor.

Even a mooring buoy picked up is a rather startling £17.50 a night.

Luckily we got a message from Dave and Carol that they intend to come around to the Helford river from Penzance so we changed the arrangements with David so as to be able to remain to welcome Hocus Pocus. Dave and Carols large (50ft) catamaran.

She duly arrived that afternoon.

We were anchored just of a small beach which seemed to have a small cafe building at one end. We decided to explore.

First we decided to investigate the upper Helford river, once past the forest of yacht moorings at Helford passage the river has a much calmer character, moorings are few and far between because of the bylaws pertaining to the oyster beds. Consequently the upper reaches are a quiet delight with white Egrets and herons lining the banks.

We went as far as Frenchmans creek, made famous in the novel by Daphne du Maurier. We also explored the myriad of small creeks off the main river and had a generally swallows and Amazon type afternoon. It was also going to be our last trip in Annandale for a while.

We landed back on our beach to have a look round the Trebah gardens after of course all the tourists had left.

The gardens are a kind of tropical lost world and have an amazing variety of plants and trees.

There are giant rhubarb plants from Brazil.

Bamboo trees.

Interesting places to sit.

All too soon we had to return to the boat lying peacefully at anchor. Lynne had already negotiated access to the rubbish bins on the beach with the local squirrels who have taken up residence in them. The previous night had given her quite a scare! This time she was ready for them......

We did have a pint in the Ferryboat Inn, but to be honest any pub that offers shredded pigs ears with bacon jam on the menu isn't really our cup of tea!

So we retired aboard Hocus Pocus for a very convivial evening with Dave and Carol. Dave had somehow acquired an extra SSB radio which he very generously offered to give us, so we were well loaded going back to Dark Tarn, luckily Dave shone his 3 million candlepower light so we could see what we were doing.

All too soon we had to leave for Falmouth, a short hop across the bay to deliver Annandale to what would be her new owner David Chidell.

We left early in the morning accompanied by Hocus Pocus. Winds were very light and as we entered the bay Dave and Carol headed off towards Plymouth.

We were about to exchange the peace of the Helford for the hugely crowded yachting centre of Mylor Yacht Harbour.