After arriving in Falmouth we avoided the Falmouth area as the charge for anchoring there is £10.50 a day for our yacht. I guess Prince Charles needs the cash as his Cornish estates only netted him £18,000,000.00 last year.
Instead we went up towards Truro. The charge to anchor in the port of Truro is £5.00 a day and if you want to spend secure time on the pontoons in the middle of the river or on a mooring it will cost £12.00 a day. You can dispose of the boats rubbish on the pontoons whether anchoring or using the pontoons
and water can be had at the pontoon by the King Harry Ferry.
The water berth is on the South end of the pontoon. It only has 1 metre depth at low water and is best approached with the falling tide to make berthing easy. If you want to go alongside where the ferries berth on the outside then keep to one end (South is best) and maybe go after the ferries stop which I think is 7pm.
The Truro harbour staff are really helpful and obliging, so the £5.00 doesn’t seem too much.
It is possible to take a yacht up to Truro itself but the route is very tortuous and the vessel will dry out once there.
We anchored just below Malpas and were happy to pay Chris and Jenny of Malpas Marine £2.00 to land and leave our dinghy on their pontoon while we went out for the day. They very kindly also received and held our mail for us. They have a small chandlery and can arrange to obtain what you need. Their web site is at http://www.malpasmarine.freeserve.co.uk/
There is a bus service from Malpas to Truro on week days. (Not at weekends.) Currently it is number 83 and details can be found at http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/ The bus goes about every two hours so check current times.
The whole of the Truro port area which is above Turnaware point seems to be fairly well sheltered and the holding wherever we anchored was excellent.
The weather was really bad and we started to resurrect the last century cordiality between yachts and started approaching or talking to other cruisers in the anchorages, inviting the crew aboard Ti Gitu. This was great and we have met several other cruising families who we have had aboard and who have reciprocated.
That was how it was in the 1950’s to 1990’s and Mo and I have many, many good memories of the cruisers we have met, but lately with the increase of yuppie weekend sailors it has forced people to be more reserved.
If Ti Gitu is anchored near you then come say ‘Hi’ and lets get together and resurrect the true cruising scene.
Anyway, after a couple of weeks I had a call to go to Penzance, to look at a yacht there, and looking at the weather and tides, we decided it would be best to leave from the Helford. While doing a passage plan from the Helford to Penzance we thought that going the 10 miles to the Helford river would set us up for rounding the Lizard easily.
However we TOTALLY ignored making a passage plan to go to the Helford. It is only 10 miles and instead of taking 2 hours to cover the distance - because we left too late - the tide and wind became against us and it took us nearly 4 hours.
Don’t ever think that us so called ‘experienced sailors’ never make mistakes. We generally look at a 10 mile passage which should take a couple of hours, nonchalantly, as a walk in the park. BUT. We didn’t check the tides. The wind was against us and we ended up motor sailing for several hours, in difficult choppy conditions to get to the Helford. Sometimes we make mistakes that the newer more careful sailors will not.
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