Helford River
6th September 2026
One of our goals for this season was to sail to the Helford River. Compared with the passages we made in Pipit, hardly an epic voyage - door to door only 8nm, but we're very glad we've done it. The Helford River is beautiful and the last time we were there, on the water, was in 2010 aboard Pipit, on our way from Plymouth to Greece. The last time we were there, on land, was last year, on our wedding day.
It was, though, very much a game of two halves.
On Saturday afternoon we had a lovely sail, as opposed to a gentle drift, from the Carrick Roads to the Helford, and picked up a visitors' buoy. After a late lunch of pasty we then had a relaxing afternoon, reading and watching the comings and goings of other craft, as you do. This was followed by an al fresco chilli con carne, to the accompaniment of a local owl t'witting - alas its mate was not t'wooing... A tranquil end to a perfect day.
![](P1110719.JPG")
In the small hours, unforecast, the wind shifted from the south to the east, and an unpleasant swell started rolling in to the river - the Helford is not a comfortable place to be in an easterly. Thus not much sleep was had, but as the sun rose, the wind shifted again, back to more southerly, and the swell subsided and all was once again calm. If the swell was no longer entering the river, it must be calm outside, right? Wrong. In all the years we chartered from Liberty Yachts, and subsequently sailed Pipit in these waters, we have never seen a sea state quite like it. Obviously it happens, but not generally on a lovely late summer weekend when we are likely to be on the water. The sea state put us in mind of that we found ourselves in off the Cap del la Hague, near Cherbourg - short, steep waves, smaller in amplitude compared with those we encountered on the Atlantic coast of Portugal, but there the wavelength is much longer and so a much smoother motion.
The only comfortable point of sail was just south of east, and a quick check of the charts revealed that would have got us to Alderney in time for breakfast the next day... But alas Falmouth was our destination, which meant turning beam on to the waves - thoroughly uncomfortable and something of a helming challenge to anticipate 'the next big one'. The irony of all this is, the passage was all of 3 miles, and we had our destination in sight at all times, but it was an 'orrible couple of hours - putting us in mind of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco.
Alas, no photos as we were too busy steering into the waves when needed and bracing, with a few bruises to prove it!
As we got back to the Carrick Roads, the sea calmed considerably, and by the time we arrived at the marina, everything was as calm as a calm thing on a very calm day.
Lessons learnt - Sea Apple is better at handling unpleasant conditions than we are (we already knew that really), and we should have looked at the sea state forecast as well as the wind forecast. The other thing we know, we are looking forward to doing (most) of it again very soon!
