The last full day of our holiday.  We avoided this by sneaking in one last trip.  Turning our back on Falmouth Bay we went upriver.  We knew that you could, in a smaller boat than ours, get all the way to Truro.  We’d settle for less than that.

I’d wanted to climbi the trees at Trelissick so the first plan was to sail and anchor in the bay off Trelissick.  As usual plans change.  We had a great downwind sail across the bay and into Carrick Roads.  This was full sail, goose winged with the genoa poled out.  Our course was helped by the wind as it gradually backed during the day and the tide giving us an extra knot.  Yet it was slow progress we were only doing about 2.5 NM/hour.  As the wind died off completely we reluctantly turned on the engine and motored up river.

We passed the Trelissick anchorage.  With three boats already in the bay we decided to carry on and explore the river.  Just passed this anchorage is a visitor mooring.  Instead of anchoring we carried on up river.  Turning a corner we saw 5 large ships in cold layup.  Passing these we came across The King Harry Ferry.  This is the eighth since the 1880s but there’s been some sort of floating bridge across this stretch over river for over 500 years.  It joins Falmouth and the Roseland peninsula and avoids the 27 mile diversion to Truro.  Then the river forked to the right is the Falmouth River and the left is the Truro.

We took the left hand turning into the Truro River and passed more large ships.  Still in deep water another 3 ships were laid up. Juxtaposed against the woodland banks and a thatched cottage they looked really out of place;  in these surroundings they dominate the landscape.

Big ships, small river by Kathryn Lewis

We motored further still and passed an empty visitors pontoon to see what else was on offer.  The one further upriver was busier so we elected to turn around and use the empty one.

We eventually moored up but had made it a challenge for ourselves as we’d thought the tide had turned but it hadn’t.  Just as we had sorted out all the lines the rain started.  The pontoon is run by the council and the harbour master came to collect the £12 mooring fee in the late afternoon.  The pontoon is even supplied with rubbish bins including recycling but that’s the extent of the facilities.

Instead of climbing trees in a National Trust garden we snugged up inside, read our books and drank tea.  It was a very quiet mooring and felt as though it was in the middle of nowhere.

Truro River by Kathryn Lewis

Things we’d have done:

• Trelissick Gardens – to climb the trees and look at the view across Carrick Roads
• Malpas Marine
• King Harry Ferry
• Halwyn’s Tea Garden
• Truro by tender
• Tregothnan – Cornish Tea Plantation