Today we explored Fowey, a charming and extremely picturesque medieval town in Cornwall. While some of us spent the day visiting a mansion and castle, most of us spent the morning at the Eden Project. In the afternoon, we either strolled in the Lost Gardens of Heligan or walked in the hilly countryside surrounding the harbor.
Berit grew up on the rocky shores of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where she explored the marine environment through changing tides and seasons, nurturing a love of natural history and marine biology.
The first day of our voyage was truly remarkable. We experienced the wonderfully mild weather that makes Cornwall such a popular vacation spot. Guests explored the Cornish seaside on hikes with naturalists and marveled at buildings hundreds of years old, including the Fowey Church which pre-dates Norman conquest. The undersea team explored the nearby waters for interesting marine life around countless underwater granite outcroppings. One of the most charismatic fish in this region, a tompot blenny, was seen peeking out from its home crevice, as well as sightings of numerous European spiny lobsters (a threatened species due to overfishing). To top off the day, the local yacht club had a regatta just as we were exiting Fowey River. The evening was nearly windless, which was not great for the regatta, but the light and subjects were amazing. A fantastic start to our voyage around the British and Irish Isles.
We were greeted with clear skies throughout our visit to the lovely village of Fowey along the Cornish Coast. The tiny town is as picturesque as could be with its old town set along the waterfront and castles and churches along the steep hillsides. Guests hiked the nearby hills to get better views of the town and coastline, and others visited nearby castles with idyllic gardens of mature plants and trees. The undersea team took advantage of the favorable weather to explore the marine environments. We found the oar kelp forests to be teeming with fish and invertebrates. The icing on the cake was when several small-spotted catsharks swam by for a quick visit. These harmless sharks are always a treat to see, and the guests thoroughly enjoyed the footage presented to them at our farewell recap.
We navigated towards the picturesque island of Iona in mirror calm conditions as the sun rose, uncovering harbor porpoises and minke whales. After breakfast we made our way ashore to explore this island. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and the local birds narrated our journey to the historical abbey as they sang their hearts out whilst basking in the sun. After lunch, we made our way towards the Isle of Lunga via a ship’s cruise of Staffa and Fingal’s columnar basalt cave. At Lunga we chose between landing or Zodiac cruising, and all had amazing encounters with wildflowers and more notably, puffins.
