About Me

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Crete, Greece
Married to the lovely Geoffrey, my soulmate. I have two fantastic big kids,both married, whom I love and miss every day I'm not with them, but I know they're living and loving their lives and we make up for time when we get together.I now have three granddaughters too...

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Falmouth Working Boats 1

It seemed that several of my blogging friends were heading down to Cornwall over the Easter holidays. I felt... homesick... and I spent a while remembering happy times while I lived there.
We are still ploughing through boxes and boxes of our belongings which were in storage for a few years while we were sailing here but during the weekend I found this collage of photos of the Falmouth Working boats.They are rather grubby and a little torn around the edges but the memories are still intact....
I spent several summer seasons crewing on these wonderful traditional boats and had many friends who enjoyed it with me. If you are local you may recognise some faces, slightly older now as these photos were taken the the mid 1990's.
In fact, that's me, above, with Robin and Howard. Julian is on watch above.
We crewed "Agnes" who was one of the younger boats, some were nearly 100 years old. Some owners would not allow women on board, bad luck. The working boats belonged to a small fleet of oyster dredgers and Agnes had spent some of her life actually doing that. Some boats are built these days just to race. None of them race with engines so it's all the power of the wind and stratagy by the boss.
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17 comments:

Amanda said...

What terrific photographs. Sailing ships are so beautiful to look at, whatever their age.

soulbrush said...

oh wow, i love cornwall. my hubby was a devon product.

Pipany said...

I helped crew the Cousin Jack once Jude! Lovely to see 'home' on your blog. Grotty weather ths week if that helps? x

Katiejane said...

Oh! This is marvelous! Your photos and dialog captured the event wonderfully. I could imagine myself there. That must have been so exciting. We don't have much of that here in the states, well maybe some in New England. Mostly the "America's Cup" races, which are so fun to watch. Good post!

Maria Verivaki said...

you've given up a lot to come here.

i dont get homesick for new zealand, but then agaqin, i was 25 when i left, so i only have nice memories these days!

(fennel fritter answer to your questions posted)

Jenny said...

Oh lovely, I shall miss our annual Cornish holiday this year - but look forward to Crete instead!

Chris Daly said...

How wonderful to have so many memories of the sea. I wish you many more wonderful memories of sun and sea.

Anonymous said...

They are lovely boats Jude. It's nice to know they are still being used too.
There is a smaller version of these boats called a 'Jumbo' which is unique to St Ives. Unfortunately there are no originals left but a replica is being built at the moment to original plans. I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

Anonymous said...

What fabulous pics, Jude. Although I am not a sailing person, I loved the many holidays we spent in Fowey when our boys were small (early 1960s)- and the Scilly Isles. Thanks for sharing your memories.

maddie said...

Cornwall is hot, hot, hot at the moment. Lovely pictures Jude. Wish I had your boating pedigree. But it's coming...

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Elizabeth Musgrave said...

Beautiful boats jude, lucky you to have sailed them.

Chris Stovell said...

Great photos and interesting to read of your sailing experiences. We stayed at Fowey when we brought our old wooden boat round from Portsmouth to Fishguard - we ended up near the china clay works but I was so tired I went out like a light.

Melanie said...

What lovely photos. It looks like a lovely experience to a landlocked lady like me.

ArtPropelled said...

Wow, amazing photos! We spent an afternoon in Falmouth when we were over in Britain. I'm feeling homesick myself. (though I was born in South Africa my ancestors come from Devon and I really do feel homesick)

John said...

Sounds and looks like it was great fun. No good for me though,boat and sea always ends up with me heave-hoing overboard........

Anonymous said...

These are amazing photos... Came across them looking for old photos of working boat Victory...