Winter and Summer on the Lizard Peninsula

We are spoiled for choice when it comes to places to relax with a cup of tea - indoors or out.

In winter we tend to go to the West coast of the Lizard and in the Summer the East coast.

Sunny January afternoon near Mullion, East coast

A rather hazy sunset taken from the Polurian Hotel, Mullion a little later the same afternoon

In Winter when the sun sets early you can enjoy really spectacular sunsets over Mounts Bay and depending where you are you can see Mousehole, Newlyn, Penzance, Praa Sands, and Porthleven.

Poldu Cove, East coast just after Christmas 2025

Polurian Hotel east coast 4pm January 2025. 
The perfect place to spend watching the sunset from their panoramic sun lounge.

In Spring and Summer the sunsets are later and so you would really need to have a meal at the Polurian to watch the sunset.  Also Summer sunsets don't seem to have the drama of Winter ones.

In Summer we often go to the East coast.  Protected from the Southwesterly winds, our favourite beach is Coverack and favourite hotel is The Bay Hotel.

Having tea in the terraced garden of The Bay Hotel Coverack is pure bliss. Especially if you also have an ice cream at nearby Roskilly's farm before or after.

Xavier is moored on the Helford Estuary and this river almost slices through the Lizard promitory, demarcating it's northern boundary.

The Helford Estuary has the most delightful coves and inlets all lined with Helford's famous ancient oak woodland.

Port Navas quay reached by a footpath behind the yatch club.

Cornwall in January means daffoddils!

From Constantine to Mullion and across to Marazion, we are in the heart of Cornish daffodil country.  Nowhere else in Cornwall grows them in such profusion.  Bright yellow fields are commonplace from Christmas to the end of March. The feeling of seeing a brilliant yellow fields full of these gorgeous blooms in the middle of winter is so uplifting.

It probably looks like we are being very naughty picking someone elses daffodils, but the pickers have been in several times and what is left are the open daffodils that are not picked. 
We are on a footpath - mostly!

The commercial pickers come in before there is much evidence of open flowers. 
They pick them to sell when still in bud.

In fact flowers come out in profusion in January.  Not only snowdrops, but camellias are found in abundance, especially in Penzance.

An echium looking good in January

How are these nasturtiums surviving?

 

Installation of Solar Panels

Julian always requires a project and when we are not renovating a house, or helping our children with building projects, he thinks of another idea to make our life on the boat even better, or to increase efficiency in some way.  Currently he is putting his mind to solar panels.

Oh dear, our panel supports are ready for sun not rain!

Our power on the boat comes from shore power electricity that we pay through the boatyard (no standing charge so it works out pretty reasonable), and oil that powers most of our radiators.  A few of the radiators are also electric. We have an electric car.  So as we are in a sunny spot, we want to make the most of this free power and are working out ways to install solar panels in a that won't detract from the look of our beautiful boat.

Julian starts by fixing the solar panel supports onto the roof of the captain's accommodation with magets!

We don't want to make holes in our boat so Julian has done the maths and calculated that solar panel supports can be fixed by powerful magnets.  By doing a lot of the work ourselves, we hope to save money and the solar people can focus on installing the panels, wiring and the batteries.   

Installation complete.

The solar company we used is the same one that our son used for his solar panels.  They are called Batteries and Solar Ltd from Plymouth and we have found them to be reasonably priced and very knowledgeable.

Very unobtrusive.

Our solar panels make electric almost free in the summer and we can even charge the car on them in the best of weather. 

The amount of electricity that is being generated can be seen on a phone app and it's quite interesting and satisfying to see the free electricity being absorbed by the panels.  There was a little bit of tweeking to get the maximum efficiency to begin with, but they are working very well.

Captain's accommodation renovation.

We want to get some money back after all the expense of the past year, but first we have to spend some more! 

We love the old skippers quarters and we feel it would make the most enchanting guest room and Air B&B accommodation.  So we plan to roll our sleeves up once more, don the facemask and get cracking!

First job is to take out everything that is not part of the final layout and start sanding the floor.

The floor is stained a dark colour.  We need to remove all that and then seal it with Osmo wax oil.
Finally we must cover it to ensure does not get damaged during the forthcoming programme of work.

A panel from the former high bed area repurposed as a wall.
Precision cutting was required to ensure that the pannels remained intact.

We spent a lot of time on the skippers accommodation to make it a comfortable place for guests.  We even considered moving in there ourselves, but it really is self contained and works better as a guest room.

The same same wall shown in place behind TV.  New kitchenette is on the right. 
One of the etched sliding doors closed to the left.

New flushing plumbed in loo and a vintage small sink.
Closed by another of the original etched sliding doors.

On the other side of the lobby,
with another etched sliding door is the shower room.

A small kitchenette enables the captain's accommodation to function like a hotel room.

One of the problems we had to overcome in this space was that is was split level.  If we wanted a kingsized bed, the bed had somehow had to straddle the step without looking odd.  

We spent ages puzzling over this wondering how it would look.  Anyhow, we bought an antique bed of similar age to the other original 1930's fittings.  One that had a high footboard.  All we had to do was reposition the footboard so that the bed base remained level whilst the bed straddled the step.

This is now tried and tested over a year's rentals with no problems at all.  The overwhelming reaction from guests apart from enjoying the views and the comforts is that is is so much more spacious than they imagined!

Split level, but the bed is tailor made to remain level!

We carpeted the raised area, and completed the painting of walls and ceiling that had been refurbished and re-insulated.  Other furniture was sourced and soft furnishings and curtains complete the look.

We love the comments that we get from our fully functioning Air B&B.  Guests have their own entrance through the wheelhouse.  The wheelhouse is also their own private space to enjoy watching the tides and the wildlife and the comings and goings of the boat yard and rivercraft.  We have out own lovely welldeck with its protective canopy and we spend a lot of time in there throughout the summer and the cooler seasons because it is an absolute sun trap.  Guests come and go, we each have enough privacy, but there are also chances to say hello and be sociable depending on whether we open or close up the sides.

Guests walk along the gunnels to the wheelhouse

View from the wheelhouse

Steps into wheelhouse

Exterior of captain's accommodation

Wheelhouse

Wheelhouse

Position within the boatyard.