Fowey: A Nautical Destination
A few weeks ago the Boatshed team decided to pull into Fowey. We didn’t quite realise that it was also the Fowey Regatta, so this made things a little busier than normal. If you have never visited Fowey, I can strongly recommend it. It seems to be a completely boat mad place. In fact, salt seems to be wired into the population’s DNA as I think you would be hard pressed to find a more nautically keen location in the UK. Everything about it says boats and boating. What we really liked was the very practical traditional approach to sailing and motor boating.
It is pretty busy in tourist time and certainly Regatta week, but it certainly does seem cut off from the rest of the planet. That may be because it is a deep river valley and most of the people either come in down to the valley itself or come in by boat and then don’t seem to escape. If you are a Vodafone customer, the week which we were there was a Vodafone mobile signal vacuum, but a lot of the pubs and sailing clubs offered great Wi-Fi. Talking of sailing clubs, we found the Fowey Gallants Sailing Club probably one of the best sailing clubs in the UK we have visited. The club itself looks over the Fowey and is what can only be termed a serious sailing club. We arrived there one morning at about 7 o’clock to find the place filled with hungry sailors and a fantastic breakfast being served for £7.50 per person. This included coffee, toast, eggs, black pudding, sausages, everything a hungry sailor needs on a day before going out boating. Apparently, on the day we were there, they did 80 breakfasts and this is normal. Couple this with great shower facilities and the clubhouse area upstairs with Wi-Fi, we found ourselves completely at home.
If you’re looking for a great pub, we would recommend the King of Prussia in the centre of town. Again, great Wi-Fi, us Boatshed people need to be able to work and play simultaneously. Great coffee and lunch at a great price too. There is a Daphne Du Maurier bookshop if you need to pick up a copy of ? Frenchman’s Creek. We seemed to find various people reading this and I found it a useful alternative to images of Poldark that seem to be constantly banded around in this neck of the woods. There is a factory shop making fudge where lots of people seem to be stood outside with their noses pressed against the window watching large quantities of fudge being mixed up and made into fudge squares. There are also lots of pasty shops which is useful to stock up for night watches. We found Pasty Presto particularly helpful and tasty.
We arrived in Fowey having munched through most of our supplies in the Scillies and therefore were in need of a restocking. I was quite surprised that the little Mace store in the centre of town seemed to stock everything that we needed, including great fresh veg and fruit and a basic selection of all the other supplies that generally you need on board when you’re in transit mode. The harbour commissioners come out and collect your harbour dues and mooring fees and everything can be done via Wi-Fi, including paying by credit card and getting the receipt emailed to you.
A special mention also for the little yellow Plymouth pilot water taxis. Not only do these guys handle the boats extremely well, but anything you needed from laundry to showers to where to get a new solenoid, either the guy driving the boat knew about it or there was an advert on the inside of the boat promoting that particular service.
All in all, Fowey, if you’ve never been, I fully recommend it.