Hi everyone,

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.

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

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..

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..

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….

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…

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..

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!!

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..

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..

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

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

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

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

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…

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..

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..

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 ^

Hi everyone.. so sorry for the lack of posts recently and yes we know the river has been beautiful in this beginning of spring but the truth is we can’t get out!!

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…

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

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