An English Summer 21

 

The midsummer sun is back today, but the breeze is still strong, gusting from the north east. Stargazer, and the craft around her, swing uneasily. They have done, since the turn of the tide, late this morning. As the new flood seeks to swing our sterns north east, so the wind pushes them back . The boats lie all ahoo, stern to stern, bow to bow, and everything between. Jigging from side to side, according to the strength of the wind, at any given moment.

Once I am sure, as I can be, that, whichever way Stargazer swings, and however her neighbours lie, we will not collide, I catch the ferry ashore. Access to the shoreline path was restored yesterday, in the driving rain, by the simple expedient of demolishing the, unstable landward section of, the old jetty. (Right foreground, where the two wooden stakes now stand, to mark the path). An improvement, on the age old necessity, to limbo beneath the structure.

The lane climbs steeply up from the river. Winding between whitewashed cottages, ringed by dry stone walls, festooned with a riot of flowers. Both wild and cultivated.

Side lanes join, forming a precipitous crossroads, as I ascend further.

The Red Lion pub huddles alongside the Post Office and General Store. . . .

. . . . on an undulating lane, broader than the rest, known as The Level, running parallel to the serpentine river below.

The forecast is for the wind to swing into the north, overnight, and to ease further by morning. By the afternoon it is expected to come round into the west . How quickly it does this, and how much it drops by, will affect our choice of landfall, tomorrow : 

Both the Helford River and the Fal Estuary lie approximately eighty nautical miles away, on a course which is mainly due west . Fowey is a similar distance, but west north west, and therefore an option, if headed . Closer at hand, within thirty nautical miles, Salcombe and Plymouth could both be reached on a single fair tide, with the wind in the north or the west, even if it falls light. All are options, according to conditions.

PS I am hoping, as always, for fair winds and a dawn to dusk passage tomorrow. In which case I expect to next post on Thursday morning, to let you know where we are.