Last weekend Falmouth was wet and windy; it is November after all. I like it here at this time of the year when the elements dictate the mood and people hibernate, or so it seems. The wind was blowing strongly from the north and looking out of the master bedroom window we watched the largest sloop in the world, Mirabella V, (CLICK HERE to see her doing 19 knots!) as she sat patiently on the inside of the harbour jetty below us.
It really doesn’t seem that long ago that my brother was the captain of Mirabella III, and he took me onboard when she was being built; seeing her here, just outside my bedroom window, is a nice connection for me with both him and the past.
M5, as she is known, has just completed a year’s refit and she and her crew must yearn to get back to sea again, but perhaps not on such a windy day. A month or so ago we watched as her enormous mast was refitted in the dark and assumed she would be gone by now, before the winter winds came. M5 was downwind from, and partly protected by, a large tanker on the upwind side of the pier but her 95m mast still caught the gusting breeze and tilted her to port; weighted down by the flow of moving air she was noticeably listing, leaning away from the cold northerly breeze.
Further out, Carrick Roads was unusually crinkly early in the day. The Plaster of Paris showing through the watery diorama as the short sharp waves crested and broke. A few brave souls charged across the scene under reduced sails; St Just in Roseland, on the opposite bank, a wonderful backdrop to the wild weather.
Later in the day the wind died down a little and the sun came out over Falmouth Bay and made “outside” seem a little more inviting, but this weekend we were happy relaxing inside and watching the world blow by.
Falmouth is famously an “event driven town” and most of the time there is something going on. Our last few visits here have coincided with: the annual Oyster festival; the Town Carnival; and the annual International Sea Shanty Festival, to name but a few, but this weekend we just enjoyed the raw natural beauty of the place from inside the comfort of The Captains’ House.
Mark
