Cassini's blog - Cassini blog #181 A month in the West Country...

Cassini blog #181 A month in the West Country...

Cassini's blog

Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine

Fri 25 Jul 2025 20:24

A month in the West Country

Simon and I had 10 days onboard in July prior to Catherine and Nigel returning. The weather was glorious and Pendennis marina, very central and very welcoming.

Simon and Nigel had already met Mark, living on the big “gin palace” next door to Cassini. He runs day and evening cruises for tourists, and on my very first day, (which happened to be my birthday), he had two prepaid no-shows for an evening of gin tasting cruising which he very generously offered to us.

The local producer, a delightfully informative host from “Pocketful of Stones”, brought an array of spirits and we had a glorious three hours cruising the surrounding bays, inlets and harbours, tasting drinks along the way… yes we did buy some local ‘marmalade’ gin; might be saved for Christmas, unless Simon discovers where I’ve hidden it beforehand!

Mark was a veritable gold-mine of local knowledge and very happy to share his experiences. All safely stored away for future reference.

As we left that evening, Mark also invited us to go out on his RIB the following morning which was another fabulous experience exploring the close but up close this time - and at speed at times - exciting!

We used our dinghy to get over to Flushing (the other side of the river from Pendennis) for a walk around the headland, a lovely meal at the Royal Standard pub there and also to watch Bella (our niece at university in Falmouth) come in 2nd in her regular Friday night sailing race meet. All very lovely.

Sarah, Anna, Liz and Bella joined Simon for a boisterous sail one day, heading out into the bay then to St Mawes for lunch. I had decided it wasn’t for me, so went National Trust garden visiting and cream-tea eating! They enjoyed their day, and I enjoyed mine!

We revisited Flushing and Mylor with them all a day later (in calm weather) and enjoyed ice creams and beers!

A trip up the Helford River was our final outing with these guests. We picked up a buoy, dinghied across to the Ferry Boat pub and had a good time people-watching! Unbelievably, Liz bumped into an old friend… that woman knows folk everywhere!

Super sail back to Pendennis marina, real champagne sailing as the saying goes, and even a dolphin to round things off. Wonderful, it was great fun having them all aboard. Thanks for coming everyone.

Catherine and Nigel returned mid July and we revisited some of the walks, pubs and bays from the previous week as well as getting a few jobs done. On our last week there, a sea shanty/ folk band, Old Time Sailors, had a three hour set at the Stable in Falmouth. A fantastic evening; great show, great music, great atmosphere. A great send-off from Falmouth.

We had all hoped to go to the Scilly Isles as part of this cruise, but as ever, the weather conditions had other ideas. There was never quite enough calm between low pressure fronts for a boat of Cassini's size to be comfortable in the unsheltered Scillies. Another time in another boat, we’ll be back.

Knowing the plan to head east back to Portsmouth, we thought 24 miles to Fowey would be a start. There are no marina berths available to us, but we did tie up alongside a floating mid stream pontoon, so some stability and a short dingy hop to the shore.

The Royal Fowey Yacht club offers visiting yachties good facilities, free Wi-Fi, hot showers, a lovely clubhouse and bar, and does a cracking Sunday lunch… Yes we did - exceptional!

We did one good walk, involving 2 ferries, and enjoyed plenty of pasties and scones with jam (first - in Cornwall) and cream.

Catherine and I left Cassini in Fowey and Simon and Nigel then sailed a little further east to Plymouth.

Liz and David (one of Nigel’s navy friends) will be joining them on Sunday for the next section: Salcombe, Portland and then into Poole for a week, where more family are expected to come and visit.

Then it really will be the final leg to Gosport and Port Solent, remove all our belongings, clean, polish and prepare Cassini for new adventures with new owners… and then we will have new adventures of our own.

Thanks for reading all our blogs; as Nigel says… "We have been adventurers and explorers; definitely not tourists”.

What an absolute adventure on so many levels, and such a privilege to be able to say WE DID IT.

Thank you SV Cassini for keeping us safe and sound and being home away from home for the last couple of years.

Sally