All was going to plan except there was even less wind than forecast so we had to motor sail most of the way at around 3-4 knots or drop to 1.5knots on wind/sails alone..
We arrived at the mouth of the Helford and rounded August Rock in just under 2hours.. we didn’t feel so bad as we only passed one yacht under sail.. all others were just on engine.. at least we were Motor Sailing.. (which is using the engine to boost the sail power.)

As we trundled down the Carrick Roads at the start of our journey.. Egret (A small motor Cruiser usually moored just behind us in loe Beach) came past us on the starboard side showing the glassy reflection in the almost still waters…

Egret overtaking on glassy waters

There was one of the big Cruise liners sitting at Anchor in the Falmouth side of the river SAGA ..probably full of the over 50′s Saga louts lol.. she made a pretty picture sat there so out came the camera…

SAGA RUBY Cruise liner sitting in the mouth of the river

A little further down the Roads we obviously came closer to her and had to pass between the Anglian Princess Coastguard vessel and the Saga Ruby which both towered above us…

The Anglian Princess

Leaving the Saga Ruby Behind in the Carrick Roads

Out into the open Bay at last and still no change in the wind.. so as I said earlier it was looking like a motor sail all the way..

however we weren’t alone as this Dragonfly Trimaran came out alongside us and cruised out into the bay under engine…

A Nice Tri- Hull coming out of the Carrick Roads

We were soon passing the outer reaches of Falmouth Castle and out over open water towards Helford…
The castle looked busy today looking at the amount of cars in the car park there.. one of the beauteous things about sailing there’s usually lots of space..something I like a lot.. moreso since I got ill.

Falmouth Castle from the sea

Soon we were well out into the bay and heading down towards August rock… our next waypoint on the chart and one we needed to make sure we were on the outside of as we rounded the Gedges into the Mouth of the Helford river.. thankfully it was marked with a great big conical Green buoy so it was easy to Navigate..

Things were made clearer and easier for us as the Helford River Pleasure cruise Princessa from Falmouth overtook us and we were able to follow in his wake into the mouth..

Princessa taking visitors to see the fabulous Helford River

Looking back over the distance we’d covered in the last hour or so we could see a few now had sails up but they were just trying to pleasure sail… anyone still trying to get anywhere were under engine too..

Falmouth in the distance

Around the Gedges and into the the Mouth of the Helford River and Mission accomplished for our first major sail… bugger all really but quite an acheivement for us to have managed to navigate and safely arrived in the Helford river with the Lady Emily and crew feeling pretty proud

Fun and games going on as usually in the mouth with the water skiers flying about

water skiing in the Helford

And waiting there in the mouth at anchor was the Jubilee Sailing Trusts Flagship.. the Lord Nelson.. a fabulous Tall ship designed to help the disabled to sail… quite fitting really that as a registered disabled person here I was sailing my own boat into the river past it.. albeit heavily drug induced lol it was still a pretty proud moment for me

The JST Flagship Lord Nelson

Well! Here we were finally Checking out the anchorage at Durgan on the Helford river so we could stop and have some Lunch.. however we did decide to head up with the inflow of the tide to where we’d originally planned on staying for a few days opposite Tremayne Quay in the pool where we could anchor safely and be central for anywhere we wanted to get to using the Dinghy..

So we did finally arrive and dropped anchor directly opposite Tremayne quay behind a nice old Gaffer and just down river from a brightly painted little houseboat.. and we sat to have lunch there and sort ourselves out… little did we know what was to come!!!

Goose winging up river to catch any available wind...

We sat enjoying Lunch and watching the River life and the odd boat trying to sail up with the tide.. Leanne spotted a solitary Canoeist in the distance and said.. is that Aidan?.. sure enough within minutes he’d reached us on his kayak having seen us come into the river so we invited him on board to have some lunch with us..
The Marine VHF radio was still on from our trip and on came the shipping forecast courtesy of Falmouth Coastguard, so we switched to 84 and listened while we had lunch in glorious sunshine anchored opposite Tremayne Quay.

Wind increasing to Gale force 6 going 8 later 9′s and possibly going cyclonic – Oh Goody!! so the decision was to stay anchored and at Low tide with no way of getting out of the way facing Gales racing up the Helford or weigh Anchor and head back to the safety of our mooring at Loe beach.. and so after lunch we pulled anchor and headed back down to the mouth of the river.

Passing Helford passage the rain started so I said to Leanne you get your waterproofs on and then take the tiller while I put mine on.. However! it would appear that the waterproofs were actually still in the back of the van in Loe beach Car park so it was going to be a damp journey back…

So out of the river mouth and out around August Rock and by now it was raining.. heavily we thought but not by comparison of what was to come before we were half way across Falmouth bay.. it became torrential, literally as though someone was pouring water down on us… I’d told Leanne to get into the cabin and pull to top cover over as it was pointless both of us getting saturated when it wasn’t necessary.
Fortunately or Unfortunately the wind still wasn’t with us yet and try as I may I couldn’t catch any wind to help with the journey so we simply motored all the way up to the Carrick Roads.

I could see the storm heading our way on the horizon.. it was quite black rising just above the ships out in the shipping lanes and growing closer all the time.

Last boat out on the water I turned into the Carrick Roads, just one other yacht motoring into Falmouth and the Towering sight of Saga Rose still sitting at anchor…

Looking back I suddenly realised the shipping lanes were no longer visible, they were lost in the mist of the rain and winds heading our way…Still breathless in the Roads I tried again to catch some wind in the Genoa but to no avail. I wound it back in and carried on engine only past the Saga rose.

Just as I passed her bow she let out a long single ear splitting noise from her fog horn. I almost ran off the front of the boat with surprise..I couldn’t understand why she’d done that as she was still firmly anchored with her circular at Anchor sign on the bow, then I saw the pilot coming up alongside her ready to get her off and out to sea just as the storm was heading in.. finally we reached the moorings at Loe beach and Leanne came up to get us on the mooring.

The rain was relentless and I couldn’t have been any wetter if I’d jumped in and swum for shore… saturated was an understatement..

We moored her safely up and closed everything down and loaded the dinghy, which had about 8 inches of water in it, locked up checked the moorings and everything around the boat and headed for shore..

Back at the van we took turns with the umbrella and fresh clothes and underwear and got dry and changed in the disabled toilets at Loe beach.

Dry Warm and standing beneath the big fishing brolly at the van with a nice freshly made cup of tea we reflected on the trip and agreed we’d made the right decision to leave the anchorage and head home.

Looking out ov er the Carrick roads was a completely different scene to when we’d started out earlier that day just showing how quickly things can change..

The Fast approaching storm over the Carrick Roads

The only people out on the water as the storm came in was the Falmouth Gig boat Crew and those aboard the Saga Rose which had just pulled out of the Carrick Roads… I’ll leave you with a little footage of the calm before the storm…

As with all things related to sailing, any trip is an idea until it actually happens.. especially down here in the far South West where everything is so changeable so quickly…

So our planned trip from Loe beach to the River Helford was about to change…
We set off from Loe beach at 12 noon and headed down the Carrick roads… the winds were a fresh South Westerly so we were reefed down and had the Genoa out just over two thirds…
The wind gave us a good speed of around 3-4knots but it was very gusty as always along the Carrick roads and I could tell Leanne was feeling very uneasy every time the boat heeled over.
I had more feelings of control now and wasn’t panicky when these gusts hit but these were actually quite strong and becoming more frequent so it did make me wonder if it was probably such a good idea to head out into the open sea in a force 5-6.

Our mentors, Keith and Julie had both said they wouldn’t have expected us to make the trip with the forecasted winds being so strong but I’d decided I’d only really know once we rounded black rock and could see the sea conditions for myself…
Sometimes my stubborn Northern attitude and true grit determination isn’t always a good thing and when I heard Leanne’s voice from the cabin saying.. I can’t do this! (she was trying to make tea) I’m coming up, and then seeing her face as we heeled over at about 45-50 degree’s in a long gust, I said to her.. ‘You’d be happier going up the river wouldn’t you?’
Now although she said I don’t want to spoil it for you and I feel stupid etc, in many ways I was glad she’d said yes as it gave me the reason to be able to say ’Okay lets come about and head back up the river ‘ especially as the gusts were getting longer and stronger..

I ran through everything in my mind and prepared to turn the boat around.. checking for gusts on the water and traffic.. (which there wasn’t a lot of), I threw the rudder over and pulled the genoa ropes for Lea to pull it over as we turned…
It was a good manouver, probably one of our best as we only lost 1 knot on the turn about, and we were soon picking up speed again heading towards  Loe beach and the creek that would lead us up the river..

There was a lovely look of relief on Leanne’s face as we trundled along, though only momentary as the next gust hit us as we came about level with the end of Restronguet Creek.. that was a particularly strong one and lasted a good minute.. which doesn’t seem long but certainly does when its trying to lay you flat… so with Gunnels in the water and my confidence slipping a bit I eased it slowly into the wind to help it come back up… She responded beautifully and we were soon heading into the shelter of the pool at the bottom of the river…
The winds were probably still plenty strong enough to sail up to the King harry ferry but I decided we’d drop the mainsail and use the engine as I’m still not totally confident of sailing in a confined space… Leanne did a great job getting the mainsail down while I held her steady into the wind with the engine ticking over… and we could then relax and motor slowly up the river towards Malpas… at last Leanne could make some tea comfortably and we sat together going up the river…
I took us past the King Harry ferry crossing and it was then time to hand the tiller over to Leanne so I could get my camera’s and take a few pictures as we sauntered up the river… there were a few Herons about fishing on the edge, though it wasn’t easy to get any good shots as the wind was still knocking us a bit even with the sails down..

You begin to realise how small you are by comparison when you see some of the moored ships that sit up the river… I did wonder at what my reaction would be  if I was to meet one coming at me while out at sea lol…  but on this occasion Leanne kept us on a nice steady course past them…

Ther mooring buoys do make a good spot for the blackhead and med gulls to rest..

Past the ships and veer to starboard and we come to the beautiful little, Very Popular, Smugglers pub… they do a fabulous cream tea and its a place I definitely will be taking my German Brother Jan and his wife Irina if we get a chance on one of their visits from their new home in Byron Bay .

It was extremely busy and i’m not yet fully versed in pontoon mooring so we carried on past and up further towards Malpas…  Another Buoy another Blackhead.

A quick check on the GPS chart plotter to see our depths and any obstructions etc and back on course for Malpas…

Plenty of depth and water so on we go.. it was all a bit much for this gull so she decided to settle down for a rest…

There were some lovely boats moored up both in the river and on the visitors pontoons… (where we’d hoped to moor and explore the creeks with the dinghy)

and another Heron lurking in the rocks by the edge of the river…

we came to the top of the river and had to turn around as the visitor moorings were a little unclear… Leanne thought that all the yellow buoys were visitor moorings but I thought they may be private and the pontoons were a bit full of boats… there were spaces but I didn’t feel confident enough to attempt fitting in between a couple £30k plus Yachts so we slowly turned around in the pool..

There’s always lots of activity on the rivers, which was one of the reasons for us setting up Riverimages.. and for our entertainment today we saw two guys and a girl trying to Sail a Canadian Canoe using a groundsheet… and why not…

managed to catch a Flying Cormorant as it passed us..

Right in the pool was anchored a beautiful 40foot plus Catamaran with bits residents on the sun deck enjoying the river and the weather out of the wind..

Thought I’d add that one just for Aidan

Well realising that I couldn’t get on the end of one of the mooring pontoons I made the decision to head back down river a bit and see if we could find anywhere to anchor or moor up so we could have some late lunch…

By now our flypast friend had found himself a nice Buoy to sit on…

The reason why I didn’t want to risk trying to moor up to the visitors pontoon for the very first time…

Carrying on back down river and we came upon the windsor castle and Santa Giulietta from Hamburg resting there in the river… the crew were giving the Windsor castle a repaint..

Back round the Bend and again past the Smugglers… this was a good steady point in the river with plenty of depth to allow me to climb over the coach roof up to the front of the boat and get a couple of nice shots of the skipper..

I’m going to be a little cautious how i say this as its something which is so often incorrectly said about Leanne and I  BUT! I think this is Father and daughter enjoying their Hobie Pedal Paddle Kayaks.. my apologies if I got it wrong lol..

Passed by the pride of falmouth heading up river and a couple more ferries cruisers coming back down made some nice wobbly bits for us to spill some tea lol… thankfully I’d already got back to the cockpit..

Of course many people still wonder what the hell you’re doing when you point a camera at them…

Well by the time we got back to the bottom of the river where the last pontoon was we’d decided not to bother and just head back onto the moorings and have some food there… the sun was out but it was windy as hell so we sat on the moorings having lunch and I sorted out the ropes from the lockers… the great thing about sailing boats is there’s always loads of rope and stuff to play with

Lots of activity out on the water of the Carrick Roads now including this beautiful Gaffer which sailed right by us and made me want to raise our sails again…

Well that about rounded up our day and cut the planned few days away short as with a severe wind warning from the coastguard and the promise of it bringing some horendous weather with it we decided to call it a day and head off home to re-schedule for later in the week..hopefully… but its just a thought

Sifting the mud for food as the tide comes into Helford Creek

After a nice sandwich and cuppa, the water finally reached us with enough depth to float the boat so we pushed her into the water and slowly eased our way past the weed and out into the river…

We were still on the first pushes of the incoming tide as we turned into Frenchman’s Creek, the good thing about that is there weren’t many out in the creeks yet so there may be more chance of seeing the, Fast  disappearing from Cornwall, Kingfisher. In fact there was just a young couple of a twin Kayak own the Creek as we approached slowly.

Enjoying the afternoon sun in Frenchman's creek

We spent around 1/2hr in the creek but saw very little, I’m hoping at least one pair of Kingfishers did survive the cold winter snaps and predators (Having seen at least 3 stoats searching the river back last time we were here) that they may have a chance to re-populate the river by the end of the year..

Kingfishers are very short-lived. Many young will not have learned to fish by the time they are driven out of their parents territory and realistically only about half of the fledglings would survive more than a week or two.

Although very few survive to breed the following year, it’s usually enough to maintain the population. Likewise, only a quarter of adult birds survive from one breeding season to the next. Very few birds live longer than one breeding season. The oldest bird on record was only 7.5 years.

Most kingfishers die of cold or lack of food a severe winter can kill a very high percentage of the birds. Despite high breeding productivity, populations can take many years to recover from a bad winter, and of course thats what we have recently experienced with the warm one minute and cold the next climate changes over the winter.

We did see one lone female at the mouth of Frenchman’s on the fallen tree on our last trip but alas not to be seen this time, unfortunately the males will stay territorial and await the females to join them so she may have gone in search of a male.
Well enough of my favourite river bird, there was still plenty of activity out on the river and certainly the Black headed gulls were there in great numbers today..
The other species we saw in larger numbers than last year were the Shelduck, several pairs with youngsters were about in the creeks and the main river but unfortunately a little skittish when I took out the camera.. still we did manage a couple of shots of the youngsters…

Running for cover from the camera

A little uncertain young shelduck follows his siblings

Well certainly one thing that has returned to the river in significant numbers is boats and people… and there seemed to be more about than ever, and some very nice boats amongst them I have to say… as we’ll see later when we return down river to view the boats..
Meantime we decided to break out onto the main river again and head up towards Bishops Quay and Mawgan Creek.
It was so much less windy on the far side of the river so we tucked into the edge in the shelter of the ancient Oaks and sauntered up the river..
Lots of little boats were out too with people enjoying such a beautiful day on the river… here’s some friends we passed having a good old Sunday afternoon natter whilst being ferried down river in their little atlantic fisher…

Having a good old fashioned Chinwag as my Grandfather used to say

We Turned into Magan Creek and stopped to photograph some Blackheads and redshanks on the bank opposite Bishop’s quay.. unfortunately the boat wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a good shot and it was then we noticed the vast amount of trailing weed that was happily winding itself round the prop and engine so I had to shout off the engine and drift back across into the channel while we cleared it off the prop and water intake..

Egret amongst the Gulls and redshanks

Back in the Channel we stopped off at the quay for a few moments to say Hello to Ben and Kate who had the Grandchildren with them and obviously busy with the summer visitors  who I think had just launched in their little sailing Dinghy and were also enjoying the river…

Always good to see Kate’s smiling Face, but they seemed very busy so we didn’t hang around and left them to the Grandchildren while we went over to what used to be the swinging kettle before someone stole it (see previous post)
and there we had a nice cup of tea on the side of the river and watched others out enjoying themselves, including Ben and Kate’s Guests from the holiday home (we think)…

Getting the hang of it and having fun

Happy Holidays on the river

We were joined by a gentleman who was walking the local farmers dogs while they were away and had a really nice chat.. thats the one great thing about River life, we meet some fantastic really friendly people.
He showed us the sea spinach which we’d no idea existed and then took his leave and wandered back into the woods on to re-appear later in Helford village as we were putting the boat back on the roof of the van..

We set off again to head up to Gweek, but there was a bit of a nippy headwind so we decided against it and instead sailed slowly back down the river where the wind dropped and it was once again Beautiful in the sunshine..

Lots were out with their dogs today too, we passed a good few boats with dogs aboard in one form or another which does show how mans best friend can enjoy the river too

Full speed ahead Capn' and how about Mullet for tea?

A Life on the Ocean wave

We took some time out on the beach outside Port Navas and had a cuppa before continuing our search for a small sailing boat so that we could extend our trips by staying up the river for a few days at a time

These trips are all too short as we are so governed by getting the boat in and out of the water that we’re nearly always restricted to a 2 hours either side of the tide and it nearly always means we have to get off the river just when you don’t want to … especially now that we’ve been told we can’t launch our dinghy from the sailing club without being a member… but the site doesn’t earn us £400 a year yet to warrant paying that for membership just to launch the dinghy maybe once a week.. so the option is to buy a boat we can sail into the river on and stay on and sail home..  Something up to a 21-22 ft with a bilge keel would be perfect for us if anyone knows of anything or would like to help us with some patronage

Well that just about wrapped up our trip as we’d once again started to run out of water in the creek and we needed to get the boat out and loaded onto the van..

We’re planning a few more trips very soon so we hope to see you then…

Hope you enjoy the images.. many more of which are in our Galleries HERE!

bye for now

He’d brought with him the tender and engine from his own Yacht  so we all decided to meet up at Gweek and await the incoming tide.
Of course this is Cornwall, and as such is prone to rapid weather changes and today was no exception and the tide finally arrived into the creek along with the rain..
I (ever the optimist) decided it would soon pass over and by the time we were out of the creek and down towards Bishop’s Quay it would have cleared and be again a pleasant evening .. How wrong can you be

WE set off out of Gweek followed closely by Shin and Aidan in his boat and Richard and Charlie in their boat.. by the time we hit the Seal Sanctuary corner we had the umbrella’s up and the light had dropped to almost darkness making photographs all but impossible..
First encounter on the sandbank was one of the Grey Heron’s looking rather bedraggled and rain soaked and sorry for itself… so much so that he couldn’t even be bothered to fly off as we approached…

Grey Heron looking fed up and bedraggled by the rain

Across the river in the channel as the river was still quite low on the tide and the usual small waders had gathered on the corner… a good few redshanks were sheltering under the overhanging trees…

Redshanks under the shelter of overhanging trees

Well contrary to my thoughts.. the weather was in fact worsening and the wind was now funnelling up the river making it rather uncomfortable to say the least…
I had a quick chat with Leanne and we made the decision to head for the shelter of the swinging Kettle.. a favoutie little spot opposite Bishop’s quay where for years an old kettle has hung from a tree over the river which you could use to boil over a fire in the fire pit and make some tea.. and after all this time we found someone had taken it or simply thrown it in the river… some people are just unbelievable!!! if anyone has an old boiling kettle we can have.. the type with a spout, then we’d be happy to have it toreplace it and hope the t**ds ur will have gone home and it will hang there for another few years…

Anyhow we headed into the shelter there and gathered under the tree’s and enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the river regardless of the rain…

We stayed there for about 15-20 minutes and the rain just kept on coming down… thankfully we were dry under the old Oak trees but we eventually decided to call the trip off and head back with the tide and the wind to Gweek…
I grabbed a couple of shots of the Egrets and swans on the other side of the river and denied my urges to head over to Bishop’s Quay and we launched the boats again umbrella’s up and headed for the boatyard…

More Sheltering from the egrets while the swan's swim past

Richard and Charlie making the best of it

Aidan Ferries Sinead in her waterproof Poncho up the inside of the river

Charlie on the Helm with the Cap'n under the brolly

Well we finally made it back to the vans and got everything stripped down while the Girls made Tea.. the timimg was actually great as Glyn Jennie (my Aunt) and Sally (My Cousin) arrived back to collect Richard and Charlie just as we arrived back..

They soon packed up and decided to head off back to the house for warmth and to get dry.. I think regardless of the weather they had a chance to see what the great appeal was for me and I think underneath it they enjoyed the time on the river… Sadly the weather didn’t get much better for the time they were here so we didn’t get a chance to repeat it under better circumstances but hopefully they can enjoy it through the blog as many of our city dwelling friends do…

We sat under the big Brolly and watched the rain and the ducks drinking Tea until it was too dark to see much and then we headed home…

I can’t help it but rain or shine I find the river a beautiful place to be and can’t wait for the next trip…

Looking down river from Gweek

I’ll leave you with a couple of shots from the roadside after we’d loaded up…

Swans and Ducks being fed by the skipper of Lady Clare...

A couple of sorry looking bedraggled crows watch the Ducks being fed..

All fed and ready for Bed

more pics in the gallery … http://riverimages.co.uk/RiverGalleries/main.php?g2_itemId=12448 … enjoy!!

night all

The oily Bugger

Sammy the Lap dancing Seal

Laid back taking a rest between performances

I think we probably worried him more than a little by chasing after him, as we got closer he dived and we lost sight of him again.
Feeling rather soggy from the wave thrown over me from the Seals flippers, I turned the boat and headed back up the river towards Malpas.. Leanne was still quite dazed and stunned about what had just happened and just kept on saying she couldn’t believe what had just happened..

Well I have to say with all sincerity it is So good to be Back out on the river.. and what a fabulous day we picked to get back out there.. though I have to say it was cold out of the sun, and I’d made the mistake of launching in a pair of crocks and for those who haven’t felt the water at the moment let me say its definately COLD!!!
So apart from my feet being numb for the whole 4-5hours out on the water, we had a fantastic time which was rounded off by catching the end of the Gig Racing at the Helford passage..

Our journey began with a brief confrontation as we tried to launch from the sailing club, of which we aren’t members but we now realise that its members only that can launch from their slip.
My apologies for that oversight, but my thanks to the two very kind ladies who allowed us to continue and launch on this occasion only as it saved me from dragging the boat plus very heavy camera equipment back through the car park and down to the village to launch in the creek.

So smiling once more we burbled out of the sailing club and onto the river heading up to Port Navas for our first stop.

We were blessed with sunshine lighting up the river and a light but cold wind so we headed across the river into Port Navas and had a look around.. there wasn’t much in the way of wildlife but it was so beautiful out of the wind and in full sun.

Port Navas Yacht Club

We turned around by the Yacht club and headed back towards the main river followed closely by our Anchor man Aidan

Aidan Bringing up the rear and doing lots of spotting for us

Still very little in the way of wildlife, a couple of redshanks made a flyby calling out as they passed but I couldn’t get stable enough to get a shot of them.. still it was so nice to hear their pheep pheep pheep echo across the creek..

We set off up River with full intentions of calling on Kate and Ben at Bishop’s Quay, but the wind coming down river was really cutting so we diverted into Frenchman’s Creek for a cup of tea on the pontoon which has now taken up residence in the middle of the far end of the creek..

We were led into the creek by a single swan who foraged around in the edge and was joined by a pair of mallard..

Two mallard sneak past while the swan wasn't looking

Leanne spotted our first Little Egret sitting in a tree and I had to circle the boat around in the creek to get back to where I could photograph him… he was a beauty and stood there in the sun in all his glory for me to shoot him..

Little Egret watching over the River

We moored to the pontoon and stepped out of the boat for a while so Leanne could stretch her legs and back, she’s still suffering from the whiplash from the accident last month, so we were just making short trips today so it wasn’t too much for her.
The sun was on the Pontoon and it was just so beautiful and peaceful that we sat there and had a cup of tea whilst watching for any signs of other wildlife..
The reflections in the water of the old roots and trees were pretty awesome and I mounted the camera on the tripod using the pontoon as a base….

Amazing Reflections in Frenchman's Creek

More reflections

It was while I was shooting the reflections from the pontoon that i thought I’d spotted the kingfisher, you can just see him in the middle of the fallen tree just above the waterline in this next shot.. the speck of his blue back shining through the tree and also reflecting in the water…

Is that a Kingfisher?

After watching him for around 10 minutes and him not moving we got into the boat to take a closer look.. it was then that we discovered  our kingfisher was actually a Lenor fabric softener bottle wedged in the branches of the fallen tree… it took a while for Leanne’s laughter to subside and I learned the lesson of sailing without my glasses .
As we turned to head out of the creek we both noticed it had got distinctively more windy than it had been while we sat on the pontoon.. and I noticed the reflections were gone as we realised the wind had changed direction and was now blowing into the creek.
Aidan had popped over to Constantine to see if there was any fishing to be had while we went into Frenchman’s so we headed across the river to the creek to catch up for some Lunch..
As we burbled into the creek there was a nice little yacht up for sale… very tempting as the thoughts of having somewhere to sleep over on the river is something we’ve both long had a hankering for.. However with more pressing financial committments we have to continue to dream for a little longer..

A case of be still my beating heart.. there's only two noughts in hundred not three

Onward into the creek where Aidan was waiting with fresh cooked bacon and cheese rolls…and as we approached we were given an arial display of some precision from the Helfords answer to the red arrows.. the Helford Shelducks… here’s the highlights!!

The Flyby

Getting into Formation

Chasing Gerry

Heading Home

Well with that spectacular show we pulled into shore for Lunch…

After Lunch we left Aidan to tend the fire and make sure it was all out before joining us on the river again, and we headed off up the creek.. on the Quay we spotted one man and his dog pulling in a fish, I whipped out the camera to record the catch..

Line taut with the pull of the catch

Obviously too small to eat and being a gentleman of the river he replaced it back to the river to grow and be caught again..

Back to freedom

I just love this next image it shows a true bond between man and his best freind as he points out the fish and the dog watches on one leg raised…Priceless

There he goes...

It warms the heart, and thats what I love about our expeditions on the river.. there’s always so much to photograph, and candid river life is the best of all..
We decided at the mouth of the creek that we’d pass on going up river as there was still a cold breeze blowing right in your face and it certainly had a bite to it..so we headed down river.
20 – 20 vision Leanne spotted the burnt out roof of one of the houses just after constantine.. I, of course only saw it through the lens at 500mm

Sadly burned out roof

We carried on Down River and was treated to our second beautiful Little Egret.. snow white in the afternoon sun..

Egret takes flight

The Graceful flight of the Little Egret

The last stretch before the helford passage and we saw our last piece of wildlife for the day… half a dozen Oystercatchers.. probably hoping to grab some cockles before the trigging on good friday

Well as we approached the Helford passage and noticed a crowd on the beach plus a large Gazebo etc Aidan called out and pointed out what appeared to be a lot of gig boats being rowed back into the mouth of the river.
Switching to full power on our little 2.5 yamaha we screamed off down river haha
We reached the finish line Just before the ladies teams came in.. although I wasn’t in position to see who won for which I apologise but if anyone would like to let me know we’ll gladly add it here… for now here’s Richard Lander and Irene too

Richard lander Ladies team

Irene Too Ladies

Well we followed them in towards the Passage not really knowing what was happening, and as we approached the beach we noticed the men were getting in as the ladies got out and figured there must be another race…

Mens teams preparing to race

I checked the time to see if we would have time to shoot the race as we now knew we couldn’t recover the boat from the sailing club so we had to make sure there was water in the creek for us to get out.. it looked as though we may just be able to make it so we made our way back out into the river to wait for the start.
Sitting out in the middle of the river like a cork at sea seemed to be forever as the gigs rowed out to the start line.. we were both by now getting cold and was tempted to just head in to the warm van and a nice cup of tea.. Then Leanne pointed out that the race had actually started and they were well under way..

I manouvered to a good spot to shoot the finish but the light was dropping  a bit and with the move,ent of the boat it was certainly promising more than a few blurry images.. However we did manage to get a few..
I had to quickly manouver the boat as the Regina Maris came in just in front of the Gigs but I’m pretty sure Irene too was first over the line followed closely by Lantic..

Regina Maris sailing Home

Irene Too over the finish line

Lantic follows in Second

Just time to shoot the last of the gigs coming home and then follow them across to the Passage to grab a few final shots before heading off at full speed across the river..

Races over all gethering back on the beach... hopefully a good event for the teams

WE made it into the creek in the nick of time just having to drag the boat the last 10 yards to the ford and haul it up onto the road..
Will have to check out and see if we can afford to join the sailing Club as I hate cutting the shooting short so iyt will be a real advantage to be able to get in at lower times of the tide using their facilities.. hopefully we’ll sell enough pics over the season to cover the cost

Hope you enjoyed our first real trip back out on the river and we look forward to many more with the coming Season..
You can view the rest of the images from our trip in the Gallery and the Gig Races in their own category HERE

Please feel free to contact us leave a message or comment on any of our posts and we’ll hopefully see you all again very soon

Mel & Leanne ^

A local fisherman to us decided to rush home after 7 days at sea and rounded a corner way too fast.. I saw him before he saw me and stopped as far over the left of the road as was possible with two large granite hedgerows but by the time he saw us and tried to brake he lost control and mounted the wall before ploughing into the side of us as he fell off the wall..

His car ended up wedged down the side of my van on its side and thankfully no one was hurt badly.. Leanne took a really bad shaking up and is suffering from whiplash but the main problem is the van, for the present time, is unusable and consequently we can’t transport our little boat to the river to be able to get out and take some more river Images…..

So unless anyone’s got anything we could use to go out on the river in while we’re there, we won’t be able to get out there until the van is fixed which will be hopefully by the end of march fingers crossed…

We did manage a trip in the hire car to Gweek this week and I’ll post the shots we got from there as soon as I can but we so desperately want to get out into the creeks again and get this site up and running ready for Easter when we hope you’ll all be back with us..

Here’s a few images from Kate Kirby at Bishop’s Quay which are definately showing us what we’re missing…

A beautiful frosty morning on the Quay -image by Kate Kirby

Wonderful reflections

Gig on the river

I love this image Kate, its a perfect composition the winterry tree’s the stillness of the river and the cut through of the Gig throwing perfect reflections of all into the river.. wonderful pictures and this is definately my favourite followed by the view from your window

gigboat2

Canada's in the field

Thanks for your comments, thoughts and kindness, and a special thank you to Kate for the wonderful images above,    we look forward to seeing you all again soon

Until then Happy St Pirans Day to everyone!!

Mel & Leanne xx

we made it onto the river this afternoon for a few hours and it was great to be back out on the water surveying the wildlife and just generally drinking in the beauty of the river..

We decided to launch from Gweek as it was only a 6mtr Tide so we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of water to play with.. we arrived at Gweek just before 12 noon, and got the boat ready and had some lunch while we waited for some water in the Creek..

A couple of swans had made their way up river and were being fed by one of the local residents of the river from his boat..

The river was running quite rapidly through the road bridge but the creek was still empty and we were now chasing the time if we were going to be able to spend a little time with Kate and Ben at the Quay and still do all we wanted to do.. But it was just good to be going out at all…

Finally there was enough water to get the boat in by the bridge and manouver it through the shallows past the moored boats until we were deep enough to drop the engine and burble out of the creek and into the main Helford River

The river was so quiet and peaceful as we moved down out of  Gweek Quay and down past the Seal Sanctuary… AQ couple of fishermen were fishing from the banks opposite the sanctuary so we negotiated their lines and headed towards the first mudbank where Shelduck and Curlew were sifting the mud and drilling for food..Shelduck on the bank by the Seal Sanctuary

In no time at all we rounded the corner on the far side and were heading to Bishop’s quay, there were lots of waders around, Redshank Curlew Whimbrel Egret and Heron and lots of small waders flying about as we came close to them most probably dunlin and sandpiper or sanderlings but it was difficult to see as we had left the binoculars in the van in my rush to get on the water..

The light had fallen quite dramatically as the skies filled with what looked like snow clouds and blocked out the sun so Photography was becoming more and more difficult.. You need High ISO and fast speeds to overcome the movement and vibration of the boat and engine and in this light almost everything I shot had motion blur of one kind or another, so my apologies for the few photographs this trip but it was just a short visit and as I say we lost the light quickly.

We turned into the Quay and saw the welcome waves from the house and off the quay so we headed in to see Kate and Ben and drop off one of our desk calendars for Kate.. Ben was busy moving Nets around and general work on the Quay and Kate invited us to join her upstairs for a cup of tea and some of her wonderful Lemon Drizzle cake oh and spice cake mmm
We had a lovely chat and met our New friend Gracie May River, who was adorable and Kept Leanne busy with a game of snap or happy families before showing us around the holiday house which is a dream if you want a really lovely place to stay for a holiday.. I couldn’t think of anywhere better..
watered fed and warm we decided we should get back out onto the river as we’d arranged to meet up with a friend Aidan who was probably just heading down river on his Kayak.. Kate Packed us some cake to take for us and him and we thanked her once again and said goodbye to her and Gracie May promising we would return soon…

We sailed out of the creek and turned down river to see if we could find Aidan and eventually moored on the bank to wait for him to catch us up.. eventually he appeared round the corner and rowed in to meet up with us..

We had more tea from Leanne’s flask and a piece of Kate’s Spice cake.. (Aidan ate all the Lemon Drizzle) and said how wonderfully moist and tasty it was…
I’d put the camera on the tripod to try and get a few shots in the fading light and we realised the tide had actually dropped out quite a bit as one leg of the tripod was originally in the edge of the water and was noaw a foot clear of it so we figured as it was a smaller tide we’d best think of making our way back up river to gweek..

I captured a couple of shots down river to show how quiet it was, blissfully quiet in fact

as we burbled up the river once again the birds were flying over us or away from us and the light so low now it was almost impossible to get a flight shot but I tried and here’s the results :

Heron passing over

Female Mallard heading back to Bishops Quay

Shelduck flying in a full circle until we got past them and they settled where they'd started from behind us..

By the time we got to Gweek there was very little water in the creek so we had to go up past the boatyard where I dropped Leanne off and rowed up the river to the bridge.. Aidan pulled me into the deeper water when I ran shallow and we eventually got the boat out of the water by the Bridge..

What an absolutely superb afternoon it had been.. a little dissappointing Photography wise but nontheless the spirit was filled once more..

Massive massive thank you’s to Ben Kate and Gracie May River for making us so welcome again on the Quay and sharing their hospitality.

By the time we arrived home we’d a lovely Mail from kate and she’d added some more of her images which I’ll leave you with for today.. including the masses of Blue tits and finches which were constantly on her feeders…

Canada Geese on the mud and grass banks in Bishops Quay -image by Kate Kirby

A lovely Crisp Image from Kate's balcony overlooking the Quay -image by Kate Kirby

Bishop’s Quay Bird Feeders -images by Kate Kirby

thank you for taking time to read our adventures on the river..

Until Next time

Mel^

The long and short of it was that the Chemotherapy they are now using to treat My RA should have lasted up to 6 months from August which would have meant I would be only just starting to feel it wearing off about now, but I had to be booked back into Treliske on the 21st December for more treatment..
The Chemo infusions take around 6 hours and my second one had to be postponed because of the ice and snow until the 8th january so here I am almost 2 weeks after and hoping that the sickness that comes with it will have worn off by the weekend and allow me to make my first trip of 2010 up the Helford River.

I’m indeed looking forward to catching up with a few friends we’ve met on our visits, and especially Kate and Ben who have so kindly sent me some images of the River and the Quay in snow, which has also prompted me to write on the blog just so I can share those with you as I’m sure Kate won’t mind me publishing them.

I’ll start with the Snow Images from Bishops Quay which I believe are taken on Kate’s   Fujifilm Finepix  S5700..

Bishop's Quay in Snow

Bishop's Quay in Snow

Bishop's Quay in Snow

4 fabulous images showing a little of the beauty the snow brought along with the Chaos for many.. and speaking of Chaos Kate tells me they have now closed the lane up to Mawgan past Rock Cottage for the next 8 weeks which will have no doubt isolated them more than a little so if you’re on the river and pass Bishops Quay shout a Hello to help them avoid cabin fever..

We will definitely be going up there in the next week or so to say hello and to thank Kate personally for these lovely Photographs.. I’m presuming this is Kate’s Grandson showing us the lane is closed..

The lane to Mawgan closed for 8 weeks

but here’s a much prettier view of the lane in snow..

No doubt treachorous to drive on but a beautiful vision of the lane in snow

Kate tells me she’s been feeding the wild birds around the clock as Have many of us, thankfully their feeding ground is getting better again now but with the large influx of birds due to the freezing conditions elsewhere there really is still a food shortage for so many species..

I tried hard to save the life of one poor Lapwing who’d had one foot frozen off and was in a real bad way when I found him.. we thought it would be his only chance to keep him warm and feed him up but sadly he died the next day having lost so much bodyweight due to the frozen ground.. They feed on worms and insects and he obviously couldn’t find anything with the frozen land probably for a few days..
They need so much body fat which comes from their food and proteins to help them fly and as with this chap if they don’t have that they become grounded and endangered and many have died in the freeze.

So please keep feeding the birds always, but especially in winter.

Frozen Lapwing we rescued from the frozen marsh

Back to the River, or Riverside.. Here’s a couple of Kates Fine feathered friends who were kept happy and healthy on Spaghetti and hot Pasta during the freeze

A happy Clan fed on Hot spaghetti and Pasta

and from one Happy Brood to what must have been another when they arrived to this spread.. Now those who have tasted Kate’s Cakes well know how delicious and moreish they are so I can ascertain this spread would have been absolutely Mouthwatering..

A Fabulous Christmas Spread at Bishops Quay

Well I have to sincerely Thank Kate and Ben for the Photographs that have given me my first opportunity to blog about the River this year, and I’m looking forward to many many trips there this year and to meeting again Old Friends and many New ones..

New year Blessings to you all, be sure to give our little Dinghy a wave if you see us on the river this year and if we manage to capture some good images we’ll most definately share them here with you all..

All the Very Very Best for 2010 from Leanne and Myself

Mel^

Was great to see Ben & Kate from Bishops Quay again, and thanks for supporting us Kate.

here’s a few pics from the day while you were all working

It was nice to see the village from a different perspective anyhow and it can all look so different.. The Larch at larch Cottage taking on some lovely shades of Autumn for example..

The river was looking particularly quiet when I reached the ferry point and look out to sea… just a few boats moving slowly in the breeze, a far cry from a few weeks back when the river was alive with the end of summer tourists… still all things need time to recover

Onward and upward was the next stage heading over to the beach at Penarvon for the first stop.. saw lots of these on my walk which I have no clue what they were so if the plant lovers or gardeners among you wish to enlighten me it will be appreciated.. I just thought they made a really nice picture..

Just up the path from Penarvon cottage I discovered this beautiful old out building.. I’d thought it really lent itself to some sepia toning but decided to leave the colours as it just didn’t warrant taking anything away from it.. I love old buildings like this and there’s so much within the picture.. I stood for quite a while there and watched the birds to-ing and fro-ing for food from the feeders just by the side.

beeches by the beach at Penarvon

Those who have made this uphill climb on the way over to Frenchmans creek will have come across the wonderful yard up above ‘Penguin’ ( always thought that should have been written as Pen Gwynn complete with its old mangles and machinery..

From there its into the woodland walk and more beautiful shades of Autumn with sunlight streaming through the now stark oaks where squirrels were busy gathering for the cold weather to come.. they were far too busy to stop for a photograph so I made do with the trees..

I have to admit that this was as far as I got.. with all the uphill and downhill climbs my legs were becoming increasingly more unstable so I figured I’d best not make the descent down to frenchmans and headed back to the village.. besides I was feeling a little hungry too especially when I saw these fellows sitting there looking rather delicious… not that I ate any as I honestly don’t know my Fungii well enough to take the risks.. sometimes I miss my old walking buddy from my days in the Yorkshire dales who would simply grab a wonderful selection of natural foods during our walks and promptly fry them up for lunch.. I headed back to the down by the riverside cafe..

Suitably refreshed after lunch with my lovely wife I set off once again for the village and the creek.. I’d bought bread at the post office and met a lovely local lady who’d thought I was TV crew due to having the big tripod and camera Lens and who seemed quite relieved that I was only shooting the wildlife and beauty of the village and River… she told me where I could photograph ‘Egg’ her very own Egret friend who had become rather territorial about his space on the Helford creek.. so here he is prancing around the boat looking for unsuspecting fish and raisinga commotion to any other Egret who fancied his space..

 and in scenes reminiscent of a summers day.. which immediately reminded of the poem…shall I compare thee..

and more of the hairy plants

back along the creek and it was simply curteous to visit the most photographed cottage in Helford.. I didn’t clone out the satellite dish on this image though many do… I do think its a sign of our times

Sometimes art just creates itself.. like this image which was taken completely unknowingly when I caught the shutter button as I walked along..

Well the afternoon had galloped away from me and I walked back along the creek catching the mallards at play in the edge of the creek in the incoming tide.. finally water was making its way into the creek.

A sudden Pheep pheep pheep drew my attention along the creek to the main river where a few oystercatchers flew past .. I just managed to get the tripod down in time to catch the last one passing by.. on their way up to Bishop’s Quay I shouldn’t wonder..

and that rounds up another trip to Helford.. I hope you enjoyed the different viewpoint as I enjoyed the river from its walks rather than from the boat…

Until next time.. thanks for dropping by and having a look..

your comments are always welcomed..

Mel x

Mel