Fowey - Day Five

Having visited a number of places - Lanhydrock House, Porfell Animal Land, Mevagissey, Lost Gardens of Heligan and Charlestown as well as our walk on the first day we felt that it was time to have a day in Fowey just relaxing and pottering about. We had been pestered whilst in Mevagissey to buy a crabbing bucket and a line. Our Daughter has wanted to go crabbing for some time - every time we go to Lyme Regis "Can we go crabbing, today?" We felt that it was time to give in!

So with the bucket and line we headed for the pontoon in Fowey.

We walked to a cafe called Pinky Murphy's - what a great name for a cafe. Lovely food and a nice atmosphere - chairs with blankets on, squishy sofas and 1950's / 1960's decor - a wonderful place!

There were even old annuals etc to read - Our Daughter was well and truly made up!

After our lunch we headed to the aquarium to buy some bait and to get some tips on catching the crabs.

We parked ourselves and our belongings on the pontoon - we filled the crabbing bucket with seawater,  undid the line and dropped it into the water.  When the line hit the sea bed we pulled it back up and placed the bait into a mesh bag which was attached to the line.  The line was put back into the sea and we were ready to catch some crabs! 

A short while later we pulled the line back up - and miracle of miracles a crab was hanging onto the mesh bag. The net was quickly poised over the edge to catch the crab. Our Daughter was ecstatic!

I took a photo thinking that it was probably going to be the only crab that we would catch - beginners luck and all that sort of thing!

Down went the line and mesh bag again - the line was pulled back up and this time there were two or three clinging on! In total we caught 95! We may have caught the same ones more than once as when the bucket was full we gently tipped the crabs back in. The bucket was filled four times!

At one point our bucket was so full that the crabs formed their own escape committee and clambered out of the bucket! I screamed and the Other half and Our Daughter thought it was hilariously funny!

Our Daughter with more bait - the crabs clearly loved it!

I joined in and the Other Half unbeknown to me grabbed my camera and took a few photos! Luckily he didn't get one of me screaming with the crabs making their way sideways towards me having jumped out of the bucket!

The line was tied to Our Daughter's ankle so that she would know how much of the line she would have to let down before it reached the bottom where clearly all the crabs were waiting in an orderly line to jump onto our mesh bag with the bait!

Waiting for the line to be pulled back up!

We had a brilliant afternoon. In fact I think it was what I enjoyed the most during our holiday! I know that Our Daughter would agree! "It was the best!"

The only problem we now forsee is that when we are next in Lyme Regis a little voice will say, "Can we go crabbing, today?" Someone will be very upset if when we do go crabbing again we don't catch any. Most of the time when we have seen children crabbing in Lyme they only have one or two in their buckets. All the crabs clearly live in Fowey!

A fantastic day where the sun shone and everyone was blissfully happy!

Until next time,

June.