Wednesday 15 March
Right up until the last minute, it was looking dodgy: intended departure time was High Water at 0800, and we finally slipped the lines and slid out of berth A12 around 1130, just before Low Water, which was almost too low for enough to keep us afloat at the fuel dock. However, we managed to fill our diesel tanks: 550 litres in all, and we motored gently away from Mayflower Marina (thanks for a great Winter stay, guys) to follow the main channel around the inside of Drake’s Island as there wasn’t enough water to traverse the Bridge – the shortcut to the 
Western end of the Breakwater. The crew enjoyed picking out all the familiar landmarks around Edgcumbe Park, Fort Picklecombe and the pretty smuggling villages of Kingsand and Cawsand, before rounding the distinctive cone of Rame Head to head West for Fowey.
A distinct lack of wind meant we motored all the way there, an ideal distance for a first shake down passage of 22M, that we covered in around four hours. The highlight was a brief sighting of a couple of dolphins. On entering the river, the crew were bemused by the total absence of leisure craft, and the fields of empty mooring buoys…a little different from their last visit, seven years ago in high season. We continued up the river to find a quiet spot on a buoy with enough swinging room to give us a very comfortable night, albeit with the somewhat uninspiring scenery of a 38-wagon clay train shunting into the shipping depot for most of the evening.