14 July 2009, Falmouth, Cornwall, England.

After our departure from Newport the weather did not improve very much and the moment we cleared the Scilly Isles the wind picked up to wind force 8. Luckily we were going eastwards and so the wind was blowing from behind with the waves doing the same thing. Hence the ship was fairly stable compared to what it could have been. Falmouth is located on the SE side of Cornwall and is a harbor fairly sheltered from the elements. The port is swell free from all directions but not completely sheltered from winds coming from the seaside. The port is very well known to ships historians for the claim to fame that its river, the river Fal, has been used from the mists of time as a layup port. Ships waiting to be sold, ships in the reserve fleet, or ships waiting to be scrapped, all were anchored up stream in the river. I have quite a few photos in my collection that show historic P&O and British India vessels laid up in the river, awaiting their final disposal and this was round the turn of the century. Northing has changed since then; and although it cannot be seen from the port itself there were a number of cargo ships laid up again, this time victims of the credit crunch. The river is preferred, because upstream it is very sheltered and quite deep so it can take almost any size vessel.

Due to the fact that Newport is to the North of Cornwall on the welsh side and Falmouth on the Southside we had to sail first West out of the river Severn, then South between Lands end and the Scilly Isles and then East under the coast towards this port. Hence our arrival time was scheduled for 12.00 or noon time. I always try to be a little bit early to help shore excursions so I approached the pilot station by 10 am because I had calculated that I would need about 1.5 hours to get in, swing around and dock nose out towards the sea again. The pilot was one of those persons, who clearly loved his job and was one bundle of optimism and positive attitude towards anything and everybody. As I like my job as much we got on like a house on fire.

We were docked were the small white cruise ship is located on the photo to the left. Entrance to the port is to the far left.

The port for docking is a bit peculiar, the channel can only be negotiated during high tides and even then it is quite shallow. You basically approach the main pier head on and at the last moment swing the bow away and sail past. As the wind was blowing quite strongly on the beam, it looked even more dramatic. Our drift angle was such that even while clearing the pier by a wide margin, the bow looked as if it was skirting right over it. The town is overlooked by Pendennis Castle on the top of a hill and that gave some shelter while the Prinsendam swung around and came alongside the Queens wharf. There was another cruise ship in port, the Artemis from P&O and they were going to stay overnight as the weather tomorrow is going to be too inclement at St. Peter Port Guernsey to make a safe call possible. We will be in St. Peter Port the day after tomorrow and hopefully it will be better then. We cannot have bobbing tenders in the port. The Artemis occupied the “close to down town” berth because of this and we were on one of the repair yards.

The 1935 shuttle bus of Falmouth at the end of the pier area. Photo courtesy: Captain Alberts port database.

Hence the port organized a shuttle service across the dock with several buses. One of them is the pride of the town, a mini bus from 1935. I have no knowledge about buses at all, so I could not say what brand, size or pedigree this particular bus had. It just looked cute. For the rest the port of Falmouth is very much focused on navy repair work and we saw several ships along the docks where various maintenance is carried out. However the Royal Navy is getting smaller and smaller and thus there is less work for the repair yards. That leaves the piers available for other ships and the cruise ships are nowadays welcomed with open arms.

We left at 8 pm. A departure time dictated by the tide again. I am becoming quite practiced with the “blow way maneuver” and with the wind still blowing strong over the dock that is what I did to get away. Outside there were still gale force winds blowing and it took quite a bit of maneuvering to get the pilot off the ship on a good lee side. Tomorrow we are in Portland, England and that is a fairly sheltered harbour but before we are there, the gale force winds will ensure a rather bumpy ride. Luckily wind and swell are still with us so it will not be as bad as it could have been.