The tide waits for no one (especially not us)

We arrived in Newlyn on Sunday night, but didn't even manage to leave the boat, thanks to a leaky water tank (you can read about that particular drama here).

So, here's how the next few days shaped up. Expect changes to plans more than once, impromptu fun, and of course a pint of cider or two.

Monday muddles

Plan A, B and C

Having checked the forecast the night before, our plan was to head to St Ives that day, then up to Padstow the next, then on to Lundy Island the day after that. The tidal currents around Land's End are notoriously fierce, so we'd worked out we needed to leave at 2pm on Monday 8th June to time it right.

The plan for the morning, then, was simple. A long, overdue hot shower (we were pretty stinky by this point). A tasty breakfast out somewhere nice. A quick shop to restock the galley. Back to the boat, lines away by 2pm.

Nothing ever goes to plan, does it?

On the way to the showers, we got talking to a boat on the pontoon who reckoned we'd struggle to stay overnight in St Ives. Cheeky Monkey has a pretty deep draft for a boat her size. Naturally, this got Rich thinking about alternatives. And a hot shower, it turns out, is prime thinking time for "should we just head straight to Padstow?"

All scrubbed up and clean at last, we headed to Duke Street Café to hatch a new plan over coffee and breakfast. Two plates of smoked salmon and eggs on toast later, caffeine levels topped up, we had a new plan. St Ives at 2pm today (Plan A) was out. Now we were either heading to Padstow the next day, Tuesday (Plan B), or Clovelly on Wednesday (Plan C).

We weighed it all up, but really it came down to this: Newlyn seemed nice, the weather was beautifully sunny, and the whole point of this trip was to actually explore the places we stopped at. I'd grown up with family holidays in this part of Cornwall. Rich had never been here before, and I think he was still gutted about not getting a proper look at St Michael's Mount as we sailed in the day before.

So, plan settled. We had at least a whole day to spend in Newlyn.

Accidentally Penzance

We started walking along the coast with no real destination, just to stretch our legs and see what we could see. In the distance I spotted an open-air pool and, for reasons unknown even to me, felt a sudden urge to go and check it out.

Little did I know that "checking it out" meant accidentally walking all the way to Penzance.

If I'd said to Rich that morning, "hey babe, let's walk to Penzance today, it'll only take two hours," I'd have had a firm "hell no" in response. So really, this was the only way it was ever going to happen.

When we got to the pool, it was closed for RNLI training. Boo for us, yay for them. RNLI are our heroes.

So instead we explored the rock pools around it, and found a little pool shaped exactly like a bathtub.

It felt like a fitting discovery for a day that had already gone entirely off-script.

Pints, pubs and a plan for tomorrow

Realising we'd accidentally ended up in Penzance, we started the walk back, with a stop at a pub along the way. (This is my tried and tested method for bribing Rich to actually walk anywhere.)

A pint in the sun, overlooking the bay (kind of), and we were ready to carry on.

Back in Newlyn, we stopped at the Red Lion for a pint or two, and took over the empty rooftop garden to compare notes and catch up on the latest blog posts.

Determined to make the most of Newlyn in case we had to leave the next morning, we headed to The Fisherman's Arms for another pint and a few rounds of Uno. Somehow, it was suddenly dinner time. We watched plate after plate of delicious-smelling food come out of the kitchen and gave in. Gemma had the mussels. Rich had a steak (of course).

Bellies full, we headed back to the boat to check the forecast and see whether Padstow was still on for the morning.

It was not. 🙈

The new plan for Tuesday: a food shop, bus to St Michael's Mount, and a two-hour walk back to Newlyn (via a stop for dinner, obviously).

Tourist day Tuesday

Bakery and a shop

We woke up, headed to the local shop, and spotted Warren’s bakery. A proper Cornish pasty, we decided, was exactly the mid-passage lunch we'd need for Wednesday. It's Cornwall, it's choppy, and you can eat it one-handed. Practical and delicious.

Rich picked up a sausage roll for breakfast, which I'd later come to regret not doing myself. We sat on a bench in the sun for a bit, watching the world go by.

Daydreaming over, it was time for the serious shopping. A whizz round the Co-op for essentials: milk, wraps, fajitas, pork pies (x3), ham, toilet roll, red wine, and Rich's beloved salt and vinegar crisps. Backpacks full and arms loaded, we headed back to the boat to stow it all away.

St Michael's Mount, finally

We caught the bus to Penzance, then on to St Michael's Mount, picking up tickets for the gardens and castle from a little hut on the beach (£37 for Rich, free for me as a National Trust member).

The tide was high, and we wanted to walk across one way or another, so we dawdled along the beach towards the boats ferrying people to and from the island. I attempted a cartwheel on the sand.

I have a bad back.

Note to self: you are not a 14-year-old gymnast anymore, Gemma.

Remembering Rich's sausage roll from earlier, and deeply regretting not getting one myself, I peeled off to a bakery for a snackywack while Rich sniffed out a pub for a pint to wait it out.

Snacks and pints sorted, we caught the boat over to the Mount. First stop, obviously, the gift shop, for a tea towel (we may now have too many tea towels). Then up the steep path to the castle, where we fell completely in love with the map room. We really do love a map. The castle was full of history but surprisingly chilly and breezy for June.

My knees are not built for walking downhill, and the cartwheel hadn't helped matters, so we slowly made our way carefully back down the cobbled path to a café, where Rich somehow manifested both a sandwich and a beer (two for two!). We sat outside for lunch, taking in the view, and started to see the footpath back to the beach appearing as the tide dropped.

With an hour left before it closed, we headed to the garden. It made me thoroughly ashamed of the state of our garden back in Bristol, I really have been neglecting it, but there were succulents and flowers in bloom everywhere, and it was worth the guilt trip.

The tide comes back in

By the time we left the garden, the footpath was starting to reappear, but Rich wasn't quite prepared to walk it in his socks and trainers. (Somehow this was still entirely my fault 🤷‍♀️)

We had a mooch round a second gift shop, because apparently one wasn't enough, and picked up some fudge. I have to ration Rich's fudge intake ever since witnessing his complete lack of self-control with a bag of it in Bryher in the Scilly Isles, which ended in a stomach ache almost immediately.

We started walking back along the footpath, hopeful the wet patch in the middle would have dried out by the time we reached it.

It had not. A wave crashed over the path and soaked Rich's trainers and socks. Lols.

We found a pub on the beach, The Godolphin, and settled in with the view, a bit of bird watching, and the bus timetable. My back and knees had officially vetoed the two-hour walk home.

While we waited, another bus turned up going the right way, so we made a dash for it and hoped for the best. A short wait at Penzance bus station for the connection, and then the reward: top deck, front seats, best view in the house.

We got back to Newlyn and called it an early night.

Three changed plans, two gift shops, one cartwheel I'll be paying for all week, and a pair of soaked trainers later, this was the first day of the trip that actually felt like a holiday.

Tomorrow we set sail for Clovelly at 4am. I'm already looking forward to watching the sunrise as we go.

Tourist Stats

Route: Newlyn → Penzance → Newlyn → St Michael's Mount → Newlyn
Distance walked: ~5 miles
Distance bussed: ~9 miles
Pints consumed: >10
Gift shops visited: 2
Tea towels acquired: 1
Rounds of Uno played: several
Cartwheels attempted: 1 (regretted immediately)