Another month passes, and the world (or, at least, our small part of it) is slowly returning to a semblance of normality as the lockdown measures ease. And, of course, as my broken ankle slowly heals… more on that shortly.
We finally got back down to Cornwall later in May, and we’ve been living on our boat at last. This, of course, was always the “Summer plan”, although if things had indeed gone to plan, we would be well on our way to the Med by now. As it is, the boat is firmly moored in the Marina at Port Pendennis in Falmouth, and likely to stay in Falmouth this Summer.
The weather has been stunning: certainly the best spring we can remember, bringing out the surfers (seen above at Gylly Beach) and the flowers. The weather has helped my rehab, pushing me to walk a little further each day on a stroll (or hobble) along the South coast stretch between Falmouth bay and Gylly beach. On our arrival in Cornwall I was walking perhaps a couple of hundred yards. By early June I have weaned myself out of the brace into normal shoes and can walk three to four miles at near normal pace. In the last few days I’ve gone a stage further, no longer using the crutches, although I have a pronounced limp still and am far from running, swimming or any sports.
So what have we kept ourselves busy with over the past month? On our arrival at the boat a major job was to scrub Merryn clean. She was looking in a sorry state after a winter in the Marina and Cate soon got to work with bucket and brush, cleaning every nook and cranny. I like to think I did a good job of supervising (there are some advantages to having a broken ankle!); certainly she now looks immaculate. Beyond cleaning, we have also done some minor repairs and modifications, fixing the leaking heads (I couldn’t get out of that job) and preparing the boat for future sailing. We took the decision not to put the running rigging or sails on just yet: although sailing in local waters is now allowed, I don’t think my ankle is strong enough yet, so we have decided to leave the sailing till later in the Summer.
No restaurants are open, so cooking has been on the boat every day. That’s meant a good few barbecues with our little portable barbecue on the dockside, washed down with a nicely chilled beer!
The local fishmonger (Seabourne Fish, in Penryn) has been open, so we have been able to get hold of some delicious fresh seafood, including a lobster to celebrate our wedding anniversary on the 22nd of May, complete with a bottle of champagne.
As we got towards the end of May, the weather remained beautiful and brought out the inevitable crowds on the bank holiday. Gylly beach looked almost back to normal, with swimmers and sun bathers, helped by the local cafe serving ice creams and fish and chips.
At the beginning of June we finally got word that Merryn could be lifted out and have the winter work done. This was something we’ve been waiting a long time for. We had planned for a water maker, wind vane self-steering system, and solar panels to be installed over the winter. The work first got delayed by the bad weather for much of the winter. Just as the boatyard were about to get our boat out and start the work early in March, the pandemic arrived and the yard shut as part of the lockdown measures. So it with some considerable relief that the yard announced it could now do the work.
However, that brought another problem, as we couldn’t stay on the boat once lifted out. Fortunately, a good friend was able to put us up for a few days in his “granny flat” which has been lying empty during the lockdown. That gave us a chance to stay in Cornwall and keep an eye on the work being done in the yard, as well as an opportunity to revisit some of our other Cornwall haunts now that we were no longer in Falmouth. We took a stroll along the Truro river to Malpas (Cate is by the river at Sunny Corner in the photo above), and found, to our delight, that the Heron pub in Malpas was open for take away beers. We couldn’t say no, so bought a couple of bottles and sat by the river sipping them (as they were takeaway, they were supplied with the caps still on the bottles, so I had to relearn the old student technique of opening them with a key!).
After a few days enjoying our friend’s kind hospitality, we felt we couldn’t intrude any longer and, as Merryn is still scheduled to be in the yard for another week, we have had to return to London. We hope to get back to Cornwall soon, then, when restrictions ease further, a return to France…