24th to 28th June: Swallow Yachts Raid

[NB this is my “Diary Entry”; Raid photos are available viaSwallow Yachts Raid 2019“]

Pendennis Castle

I drove down to Cornwall on Monday 24th June calling in at the National Coastwatch office in Lostwithiel on route. In the afternoon I visited Pendennis Castle before a complimentary cream tea back at the Greenbank Hotel – it’s my fourth visit!

Gwynver Beach from the “pigsty terrace” at the top of Escalls Cliff.

On the Tuesday I revived old memories from my surfing days by visiting Escalls cliff near Sennen Cove having first visited the remains of the Romano-British village at Chysauster. On the way back, on a whim,  I looked for “Ordnance Datum Newlyn” as well as visiting the old harbour at Porthleven.

St Just Creek

Wednesday was the first day of the raid and it started grey but with the promise of wind and sunshine. Lunch was in St Just Creek and I walked up through the Churchyard. As usual I was in one of the safety RIBs with Matt Newland and the photos I managed to take are available via “Swallow Yachts Raid 2019“.

St Just in Roseland Church

The forecast for Thursday through to Friday morning was for easterly gales. Sailing was not going to be possible, so Lara had arranged tickets for the Eden Project for the Thursday. It really is spectacular and well worth a visit. However we were there when it was relatively quiet – I would not like to go there in the holiday season!

Mylor Harbour Friday morning

Given the weather a later start was planned for Friday morning and I walked along the shore towards Falmouth exploring the “private” quays (see photos below). At Mylor it was still blowing hard and I took some photos on the pontoons.  We were due to sail to Pandora Inn for lunch/cream tea and we used the two RIBs to go there by water to give a chance to look at the conditions. On the way out we passed a yacht which had dragged its mooring and ended up on the rocks – which we reported to the coastguard. Mylor Harbour later recovered it.

I drove back to Southampton on the Saturday having discovered that the Greenbank Hotel don’t serve breakfast until 9am at weekends – I’d have left earlier had I known!