I met a man with seven wives!

[DERF]

I am planning a trip to the West country, Fowey, Falmouth et al, and would really like to visit St Ives.

I have read the channel cruising companion, but would really appreciate any first hand knowledge from anyone on the forum who has been there.

Can you anchor overnight? is there much to see? is it in fact worth a visit? should I give it a miss altogether and head stright for Padstein(sic)? Any handy info would be appreciated.

 

[tcm]

all walking to the south coast praps...

I wd like to know this too -been to s coast but n coast is all surfy innit?

I've been s coast with own boat and I had our car trucked down to meet us at plymouth to get around a bit. imho lots of ace anchorage all around there on the s coast , and the fact that the n coast is luverly for surfing means praps it's not so ace for anchorages and so on. the harbour was packed. Good old hack too. But not been with boat. But then again, that's cos there's not many flippin places...

Padstein involves prebooking and then wondering why you did it - forget the telly programs - you don't get that much erm food. Big-Mac style bit of fish on top of a bit of spud on top of a bit of spinach £27 yahoo. Dump the car outside with the bonnet up and no ticket anyway.

Anyway, i've just realised that i am talking to someone with totally different tastes - as fast as you wanted to get a med cruiser back from palma to the uk, so i'm tranna get back to the med. You even drove past El tunnel in Barcelona - a zillion times better than poxy rick stein's at half the money. argh.

Anyway though but, imho the most special harbour/place is probably dartmouth, and salcombe is nice too, but the best bit is arriving cos the food and crush ashore is all ghastly, even worse than the padstein, mostly gravy-based albeit plentiful.

You need to book a long way ahead for rick steins - like over a month if it's a specific must-have day btw.

Oh er, St ives. Forgot about that bit. Quite nice bay. Mostly the place was shut.

 

[TomIsitt]

There's an article in the Feb issue of MBY (out now) on this part of the world. All the info you'll need about St Ives, Padstow, Rock, Ilfracombe etc

St Ives is delightful, but tricky in a boat. The harbour dries, but you can anchor south-east of the harbour if weather is calm and settled. The Barbara Hepworth Museum and the Tate gallery are both excellent (some brilliant Bridget Riley's in the Tate), there are a couple of good restaurants (one in an old sail loft, as I recall), and some great beaches. Padstow gets a bad press these days, but I rather liked the place when I was there out of season six or seven years ago) and had good nosh at Rick Stein's (he even sat at our table and chatted to us for a while).

 

[DERF]

Different Tastes

Wouldn't say we have different tastes TCM, just in choice of boat!..Don't get me wrong, I loved the whole Med thing, however the honeymoon of cheap flights(yeah sure) short flights(never took less than 7hrs from home), irritation of car hire each time and the hugely more expensive moorings and fuel in the Balerics, meant that as I don't have the luxury of only working 1 week out of 4, I was spending twice the money and half the time out on the boat!

Was a no brainer IMO. When I have more time on my hands and buy something a little bigger, I will probably trundle back out there again... loved the Predator 72 at LIBS...(save the all the heads)... oh and the deck saloon ceiling that was installed 3" too low... But still really want a Mangusta 72! On the shopping list now so better start saving.

You may be right, may just end up in Falmouth and Fowey, and hire a car to do the others.

BTW when you back in the med?

 

[Talbot]

Have only just looked at your real post, as I have finally recovered from a panic attack caused by the thought of seven mother's-in-law /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif