Falmouth to Fowey and Southampton

m/v Cefas Endeavour in Falmouth ABP docks

The r/v Cefas Endeavour is a British fishing support vessel/ multi discipline research vessel managed by Andrew Weir, incidentally same outfit that St Helena used to have back in the RMS days. She's built in 2003, and has a 650 DWT capacity.

Built & Launched: 2003 (Ferguson Shipbuilders)

Home Port: Lowestoft, United Kingdom

Length / Beam / Draught: 73.92 m / 16.11 m / 5.5 m

Gross Tonnage: 2,983 GT

Endurance & Speed: 42-day endurance with a maximum speed of 13.6 knots

Complement: Accommodates 19 scientists and 16 crew members

Noise Compliance: ICES 209-compliant low-noise hull design for fisheries research.

Science & Surveys: Conducts fish stock assessments, seabed mapping, marine protected area monitoring, pollution tracking, and international ICES-mandated surveys.

Equipment: Equipped with hull and blade-mounted sensors, deck container sockets, autonomous monitoring gear, and trawling/sampling capabilities.

Future Replacement: In September 2026, the UK government announced funding for a new 85-metre research vessel to be built in British shipyards, which is scheduled to replace the r/v Cefas Endeavour when she retires in the early 2030s.

Norwegian vessel Providana with her own gantry cranes

The Providana has been well kept by her Norwegian Owners, this is testament to her 59 port state inspections and no detentions since her launch in 2007. She seems to have gone through three owners but they could be one and the same, just under different legal structures. From her location history I can see she has been all over the world in far flung places, probably due to her versatility of the gantry cranes she's fitted with and hence able to handle difficult cargoes with insufficient shore infrastructure.

Some specs on Providana
Type: General cargo ship - Container ship - Open Hatch
IMO number: 9380788
Flag/ registry: Norway/ Bergen
Previous flag: 2007 - 2020 Republic of Singapore
GT/ NT: 39258/ 16079
DWT Summer: 54.694 t
Number of 20ft containers: on hatch cover 836, in hold: 1.670, total: 2.506
Length overall/ beam / draft: 212,50 m / 32,29 m / 12.36 m
Service speed: 15,9 knots
Built 2007, keel laid 17/11/2005, launched 19/07/2007, completion 19/09/2007
Builder: Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Saikai - Nagasaki, Japan
Yard number: 10508
Main engine: 1x Kawasaki/MAN-B&W 6S60MC- 2 stroke 6 cylinder engine 12.268 kW @ 105,0 rpm
Builder: Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Propellers: 1x Fixed pitch propeller
Boilers: 1x Auxiliary boiler, composite OEVC2-170/135-22 by Osaka Boiler
Generators: 3x MAN-B&W 6L28/32H main diesel generator set each 1.100 kW
Thrusters: 1x 1.800 kW, forward, 1x 740 kW, aft
Number of holds / total capacity: 12 / 71887 m³ 
Ballast capacity 17698,1 m³
Anchor equipment: Length: 660,00 m, diam 78mm (24 shackles!)
Cargo gear: 2x Travelling gantry cranes with weather protection - SWL 68,0 t each
Crew 30

Older RNLI lifeboat, maybe not anymore in active use

As we had arrived Falmouth we got busy washing off all the salt and grime from past few weeks of transiting the Med, Portuguese Atlantic coast and Bay of Biscay into the English Channel. Girls were unstowing the boat as were the boys out on the decks. The Chef went ashore for fresh provisions and everyone just cracked on preparing for guests arrival in 2 days. Meanwhile I was coordinating events and handling visitors from Pendennis and Pelagus. I also saw some life around us going on as you can see from my pics.

Fowey at low water and same old setups

We spent a few days with guests in Falmouth and then made ready to move to Fowey, it was a short 2 hours motor to the pilot station, we towed our tender so we could send one guest ashore ahead as she needed to catch a train in Par. Unfortunately the taxi I booked never materialized so we had to scramble for another taxi. I think the guest ended up catching the next train despite our best efforts. Anyway, we met the pilot who was the same as in spring, he jumped on the deck as our freeboard is almost same as their pilot launch. He told us the summer in UK had been very successful and they had had many cruise ships visiting. He gave me options of doing the Med mooring in front of town or the pontoon higher up the river. I chose the pontoon as I had new deck crew and my Mate away with the tender so I did not want to risk anything going wrong with the maneuver. The sail upriver is easy with a dogleg and then you're there so with 6 knots speed limit you have to be careful of slowing down in time. All went well and we tied up in good order.

Same old wrecks still there

Fowey china clay elevator

Old pontoons from the sunny side shipyard rusting away on HM's premises

Cornish fisherman trying for a catch

Rowing was still a pastime as seen last time

Upper reaches of Fowey town

Mosaique alongside the pontoon

Fowey town

Harbour masters office

I managed one day a visit ashore and tried visiting the museum but it was closed so I did go to the aquarium instead. At same visit I also grabbed an ice cream at the high street and talked about their summer with the managers, they had been busy. Then my last point of call was Harbour Masters office where I popped in for a quick hello and goodbye with the lady behind the counter. With that I summoned our tender and went back onboard.

Upper part of Fowey

Opposite sunny side villa with jetty

Prince Charles jetty a.k.a. town quay

The church on left and the competing house on right

In the evening our pilot came onboard and we started departure routines. The wind was from north and was slightly pushing us against the pontoon and I had earlier been a bit worried whether we could get off it. Luckily the water was more or less slack and wind had abated a bit so she came off fine. I went a bit ahead and turned at the china clay jetties towards sea as there was more space. We puttered down stream and chit-chatted with the pilot until we were almost out of the harbour. The pilot bid goodbye and summoned his boat and off the pilot jumped again. I set the course out to sea and after awhile due east towards Southampton. The bay just outside was calm despite the northerly wind blowing but as we got further off the coast the seas started becoming higher with the fetch.

Cornish coast

Cornish coast

Fowey from sea

We did good speed and passed a Naval patrol vessel (I assume, as they did not engage in  any communication). Just a sign of the times we live now in. The weather was getting worse, wind kept a steady 20 knots from north and soon the sun went below the horizon and it got dark. We reached Salcombe in late evening with waves at their worst and so I plotted a course along the shore as the wind was still from north, backing slowly to northwest. I thundered along the coast of Lyme Bay and traffic was light. I passed a trawler in the darkness that had a huge cloud of seagulls following them, the decklights lit all the birds up like snowflakes would be surrounding her. As I got almost around the bay the wind was from our stern from north west I handed over to my Mate who would take the rest of the trip up the Solent, I had time for a few hours kip.

HM's Navy out patrolling, possibly HMS St Alban

Sun was getting low

In the night we passed a fisherman that was kept very busy by seagulls

The mate called me earlier than expected and as I clambered up on the bridge getting my bearings he told me he had had current with us and had done 14 knots (with 10.5knots on the throttle) through the Needles. Pretty good speed, we were approaching Hythe pier and I reported to VTS our intention to moor in Ocean Village marina on the Itchen. We met a huge container ship, APL Singapore, just passing our turn off point so I got out of the channel to give them space to proceed. Speed was reduced to 6 knots dead slow and we were going along an empty fairway. As the marina came in our vision engines were stopped and we drifted on our inertia waiting for the speed to slow down further. I sent the Mate aft and started the maneuver to berth. I did a starboard turn to point our stern toward the pontoon and slowly backed in, the current was non-existent as we had timed it well for the high water. We slid easily into our berth and saw familiar faces on the pontoon receiving our lines. Lines were tied off and finished with engines was rung. Once again, we had arrived.

Arriving on the Solent we met some behemoths, here APL Singapore

Back in Ocean Village Marina