Falmouth and the Sea

In the wonderful rental house where we were staying, there were tons of brochures about the area. In one of them I found a listing for "Orcas Sea Safaris" which was actually a wildlife spotting cruise. There are dolphins, seals, basking sharks and humpback whales in the area and the possibility of seeing them was very exciting. We went online and, wouldn't you know it, they were fully booked. There was another company that did wildlife tours only on Saturdays and they had room, so we booked. We walked from our digs through the little town of Falmouth to the dock where we would meet our captain.

He arrived and started his introduction by saying that "this isn't a wildlife tour, per se. I'm not a wildlife expert, but I sail a lot in these waters and I know where to look for wildlife." That should have been enough to make us reconsider, but we'd already bought the tickets, so we thought we might as well give it a shot. He gave us our life vests and led us down to the docks which held mostly private yachts. When we rounded the last corner and got to our boat, we were all a bit gobsmacked. The boat had funny little seats that you straddled like a saddle. The captain explained that they're "easier on the back when we start bouncing along on the waves." Hmm... In we got, then our captain steered us slowly away from our mooring and into the harbor. We cruised by the Maritime Museum

and St. Anthony's Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was built in 1835 and the original light came from eight Argand oil lamps mounted on a revolving frame. A fog bell was installed in 1865 then replaced in 1882 by a larger 2-ton bell. During foggy weather, the bell would sound every 15 seconds. The lighthouse operator lived on the premises and it's often quite foggy in Falmouth, so our captain said that the operators wouldn't last too long on the job.

The weather turned chilly as soon as we left the protection of the harbor. We were motoring along at a good clip, bouncing around like crazy and getting hit with seaspray quite often.

Bruce hanging on for dear life:

If there are any Blackadder fans reading this, I thought the guy sitting next to me looked like Baldrick.

We flew along the sea, getting colder and wetter by the minute. At one point we had to stop because the fog was so thick the captain couldn't see anything but could hear other boats in the area. We cruised along slowly till we found a patch where the fog had lifted, then resumed our high-speed chase. What we were chasing I still don't know. The captain said that if we saw any seagulls or other seabirds congregating in some area, that we should shout out to him, because it might mean that a whale or a dolphin was feeding. Uh huh.

We went further and further out to sea until the captain announced that he hadn't seen a thing, and wasn't that surprising? After about 2 hours of bouncing and splashing and shivering, we headed back toward the harbor, but turned south and headed toward a giant rock.

We saw birds and one passenger swore he saw a seal.

We cruised around the rock for twenty minutes or so then started back towards the harbor. At last the boat docked and we were released from our watery hell. (That's a bit harsh, isn't it?) Okay, we walked up the dockside walkway to freedom. (Better?) Bruce found a pub near the dock and I decided to see a little of the town.

It was late in the afternoon now and lots of places were starting to close, but I had a nice wander, stopped for a cup of tea and enjoyed the walk back to the flat, passing some lovely gardens and sea views along the way.

Back at the flat, the swans all gathered to welcome me home - at least that's what I chose to believe. If that guy on the boat could see a seal, then I could imagine the swans were waiting to greet me.