All hands on deck: a sailing adventure on the Cornish coast

Novices can learn the ropes aboard a classic wooden boat on a trip from Falmouth to Fowey

“You’ve got your weather report and your sailing experience, but you never really know what you’re going to find until you get out there,” said Gabe, skipper of the 14-metre pilot cutter Agnes, when I asked him what we could expect. The prediction was for strong winds from the east, promising a wild ride to Fowey as we set out from Falmouth on our three-day voyage along the coast.

Beyond the calm waters of Falmouth harbour there was a heavy swell, but the 30mph winds did not materialise. There was plenty to fill the sails, though, and leaving behind the derricks and cranes of Falmouth’s industrial waterfront on a wooden boat almost identical to those that sailed around nearby Scilly almost 200 years ago felt to me as though we were stepping back in time as much as heading out to sea.