We had such a peaceful and serene night that we are almost sorry to leave this little
anchorage. But with coffee and breakfast on the go, we weigh anchor and slip out into the first of the morning ebb down the river. The day is rather overcast at first, but there are a few other boats on the move and we motor across a glassy sea in almost a dead calm.

We see a pod of dolphins in the distance, but again they seem more interested in
their fish supper than playing with us.
The Lizard opens up, and for the first time we catch a glimpse of what will be our most southerly point of the trip.

The wind picks up to a gentle breeze and we can at least set some sail and pretend…even though they don’t help much.
The headlands and small villages slide past and then, as we expected, the sea begins
to build into a slightly uncomfortable chop, reminiscent of late afternoons in the Solent when the sea breezes come in. The light and the rather lonely cottages pass by pleasingly quickly as we now have the benefit of the real ebb around the headland. As morning turns to afternoon, we also turn north and head out across Mounts Bay…

…the wind frees, the clouds just disappear and we have a glorious sunny fetch to Newlyn.

We arrive just outside and take the sails down, but feel slightly harassed by a large
trawler seemingly intent on beating us in.

We are directed to a berth on the shallow side of the harbour and with lines snug, we have a late lunch in a very sunny and almost too hot cockpit, washed down with the first cold beer of the day.
We loved Newlyn on the previous occasions, as it has a rather workaday but friendly feel about it…no pretentions. The Penlee lifeboat goes out on exercise and we are reminded of the old Penlee boat The Solomon Brown which went down with the loss of 8 lifeboatmen in 1981. That disaster led to the development of the new design of boats…

Newlyn has lost none of it’s character but it has invested in some new (and decidedly less fishhy) showers since the last time we came.  The only cloud is that the prices have more than doubled in the last 7 years!!! Personally I could cope with a fishy shower!

The harbour is glorious in the evening sun and the Fisherman’s arms doesn’t disappoint.