26th May–Monday - Padstow to Newlyn

We wanted to leave early in the morning at first light, so the lock opens 2 hours before and after high tide we had to time it so that we left at 4:40am on Bank Holiday Monday the 26th May.

Leaving just after high water gave a following tide for the first 6 hours of the trip and the correct timing to round Lands End in order to gain a fair tide to Newlyn.

When we arrived in Padstow there was a heavy mist 1 mile out, and therefore the outward passage was much more scenic, as we could see the rocky and dramatic coastline, with its off lying rocks and islands.

By lunchtime we were passing St Ives bay and by one o’clock the Longships Lighthouse at Lands End.  There are 2 routes around the Longships rocks the inner and the outer which we took.

Slightly choppy sea in the morning, but we rounded the Runnel Stone within 10 minutes of our estimated ETA.

We arrived in Newlyn Fish Harbour at 17.30.  The harbourmaster was pleasant enough and told us where the facilities were, but we could not find them.  They turned out the be the fishermen’s toilets, so the £18 mooring fee was literally just for rafting to another boat.  Newlyn is not advertised as a Marina for yacht but proved a very welcome stopping point.

We walked to Penzance which was lovely and then collapsed back into the boat with a bag of chips for chip butties.  Long Day.

Penzance and Newlyn run into each other and whilst passing Penzance on the way in it was obvious from the crowd and the noise that there was an event taking place.  The locals were trying for a World Record of having the most Pirates in the same place at once.  There were bands, stalls and much jollity, including pirates of all ages and baby buggy pirate ships.  Unfortunately the record was not broken having been found to be 77 pirates short of the 14,000 required for the record. 

We had no desire to stay in the fish dock and so pressed on to Falmouth.  The boat got very dirty from soot specs from the fishing boats.