The Sennen Cove Diary
October 3rd - Saturday
I had thought that we had possibly seen the last of the splendid weather for while when I took the girls around. It had either been raining overnight or it was heavy condensation, very possibly the latter, as the street was wet and the greenery glistened with dew. I could not see the stars, either and that clinched it for me.
So, it was a very pleasant surprise that when I came down to open the shop, there was clear sky above us and, on the fringes, areas of high cirrus cloud that seemed to be clearing away. It was not long before it started looking bright and happy again, which was just as well because we intended to launch the Lifeboat.
There was still a bit of ground sea but not enough to make a journey uncomfortable nor indeed to preclude a safe recovery. A morning launch suited most people and coincided with high water and a short slip operation when it returned. We launched at half past nine o’clock after I got the Missus to cover for me. The original intention was that the Inshore would launch as well. We would have been spread thinly to cover both but as only the big boat went out in the end, we were overmanned on the shore, which made for very light work.
The boat was gone for just over an hour and had followed the coast around to Porthcurno where it hung about a bit before returning. We had retired to the crew room for cups of tea and to discuss great matters and eat biscuits. There was much discussion and that much is true but since I could not hear much of it, I might be exaggerating on the greatness of it. However, from previous experience, I would suggest that it was – great, that is.
I had kept track of the boat and noticed when it was on its way back. We had set up for the short slip and it only needed minor adjustment for it to be ready for the return of the Lifeboat. There was some sporadic rise and fall as the tide diminished but not so much that we could not execute a textbook recovery up the short slip. With all due efficiency, we hauled the boat into the house and strapped it down for its next service. We are, after all, a very effective, very excellent Shore Crew.
After, we all piled into the crew room for a presentation to an ex-crew member who thoroughly deserved it and for whose benefit the boat was launched on this occasion.
I returned to the shop when it was all over and took over from the Missus standing behind the counter and staring out to sea. We were intermittently interrupted by customers when we had to resurrect our long forgotten skills of serving them and taking their money. I know that it was a change-over day but if it was this quiet when the sun was shining, I was very pleased that it was not raining.
I was also very pleased that one of our grocery suppliers had eventually got around to issuing credits for some of its mistakes it had inflicted upon us. They have previous for sending the wrong thing, replacing it quite speedily and without fuss but failing to issue a credit for the wrong thing they took back. After six weeks and multiple telephone calls reminding them of the omission, we eventually had the credits issued late yesterday. For the delivery today they sent chicken seasoning instead of Cornish sea salt with chilli. So, here we go again.
With the way the tides are, our surfing community were compelled to surf as the tide receded, which was better than nothing but not ideal. There were some waves but there was also much bobbing and much waiting. It may not have been a great surf day, but it definitely looked like a beach day and there was a small gathering at the top of the beach, with tents and with the absence of wind, no need for windbreaks – darn it. Judging from the number of swimsuits the water is still a comfortable temperature.
Now that dogs are allowed on the beach at any time, they were taking advantage – or at least more advantage than when they were not allowed on the beach. Through from the middle of the day I spotted quite a few down there. This included our own when the Missus took them in that direction to issue events posters to the Surf Lodge and OS. They came back drenched from rock pool swimming and looking very pleased with themselves.
They were a sight more pleased that I was at the end of the shop day. It is a disappointment that I shall have to become accustomed to as the day was probably the best we can expect before half term. After that we will not have to worry.
October 2nd - Friday
I was a bit more serious about my star gazing this morning. It might have been because it was darker and there were a few more on display but also, as I had intended to do yesterday but forgot, I went and looked up the names. It would have been more effective to do it while I was looking at them. It means pointing my smart mobile telephone in the appropriate direction and a very clever ‘app’ shows a picture of what you are looking at, labelled with names.
More effective it might have been but practical it was not. I had the two girls strapped to one hand trying to pull it off in two different directions and I would have to have put my spectacles on and hold the telephone steady with the other hand. That was just not going to happen, so I just had to memorise where I had seen what and emulate looking at them through the telephone when I got back home.
High above and slightly to the south was the waning gibbous moon – I did not need the app for that. Then there was a host of planets. Jupiter was up there, brightest after the moon then straight ahead near the western horizon was Saturn, which I had not expected. There was also Neptune and Uranus, but they were hiding up there somewhere and only the telephone app could see them.
Then there were the various stars. Orion is a fairly obvious constellation with lots of stars in it and nestled on the horizon – which is the top of Mayon Cliff – was Sirius, the brightest star. There were others, too but I was not taking notes and by the time I came to write these words, I had forgotten what they were – quite apart from them being long words with lots of letters in odd orders. I saw too that my smart mobile telephone app had been updated and it is a much more cluttered and complicated screen and thus less easy to read and remember. You will just have to take it from me that there were oodles of stars with complicated names, honest guv.
I was bumped back to Earth by realising that my star gazing and messing about had made me late for going downstairs to prepare the shop. I was half an hour late which by the time we opened made absolutely no difference at all. I could quite easily spend an extra half an hour in bed in the mornings and then spend the intervening time before we opened fretting that I was going to miss something or be late.
We were a little busier during the early part of the morning that we had been during the week. Many people were making preparations to leave and needed provisions to take with them. Others just needed a last breakfast milk or box of eggs and some just a newspaper. I think that it was just pleasant to see customers during the morning instead of gazing out onto a deserted street.
There were an increased number of people milling about and sitting at the benches between us and the café when I returned from my blistering session at the gymnasium. It did not appear to generate a great deal more footfall in the shop but at least the potential was there. I had to wait to see if it was fulfilled because I was despatched to the beach with the girls soon after.
We had started the day in much the same manner that we had started the day before, with blue skies. This continued into the morning and by the time we arrived on the beach, we were back to summer again. The sea state is moderating, falling back to a deep rolling ground sea providing unbreaking waves running into the beach at high water. Down in the Harbour the waves were a little more than gently slapping at the sand. I avoided getting a shoe full this time, but I still had to wind my way around the oar weed that seemed to have increased since the last time we were there.
With very little to do in the later afternoon – I did top up the stationery section, good ain’t I – I had plenty of time to stand and stare at the big beach. I do love a good low tide as there is generally quite a bit going on even if there are very few people on it. Today there were a few, some of them in swimsuits still, taking a dip. There were very few surfers at the lower ebb of the tide but they came out later as the waves increased in size. At the near side of the beach, the waves were coming on in perfect arcs, tumbling into foam at the last minute, probably a foot or two high. Out the back in the middle of the beach, the waves were coming on in classic form before breaking over some of the sandbanks. Over on the far side at North Rocks, it was a bit more disorderly and blown out.
It was on the nearside that the community of black headed gulls had decided to bob around on the shallows. Here they took to some synchronised wave jumping which they appear to be born to. A cluster of young herring gulls with their mothers gathered on the sand trying to look aloof. When I looked late, the black headed gulls were still at it. My, they must have some tenacity, but there again, they do not have television.
The gloriousness of the day stayed with us until the evening. Since the Missus was out late on an appointment for her dickie shoulder, I took the girls down to the Harbour beach after I finished in the shop. It was perfectly pleasant even then and the high cirrus cloud, providing a bit of mackerel sky, looked set to give out a spectacular sunset. I am sure someone will say whether it was or no. I was not going to hang around that long – I had some of that hake we had during the week for my tea. The Missus had lamb chops; the Missus hates fish.
October 1st - Thurday
My first treat of the morning, other than it not raining when I took the girls around, was a sky dotted with celestial bodies. Due to a combination of a bright gibbous moon and the impending dawn, I think that I could only see the bright stars and planets, but it was still splendorous, regardless.
I had to wait for daylight to see the exciting spectacle of the sea in full fury, although I could do nothing but hear it earlier. Most of the bay was covered in strings and patches of foam, rolling deeply with the waves moving in multiple directions. Waves were coming over the Harbour wall in great lumps, launching up Aire Point and Creagle opposite and dancing on top of Cowloe that was just a mess of white water.
Into this churning maelstrom came a lone person on a surfboard, paddling out from what little beach there was left by waves pounding and running up the sand. It was hard to see what he was trying to achieve because there was not one surfable wave in the bay. All he succeeded in doing was getting a sound thrashing with every wave he encountered and a couple of times parting company with his board. Maybe he was trying to cure a hangover.
It is hard to tell with the tide out, but it looks like there is a bit of an incline at the top of the beach. While I looked this morning, there was a couple, in swimsuits, standing on the slope letting waves lump into them. This looked like fun until one was knocked off their feet and had to be hauled up by the other as a wave threatened to pull them out. The sea state was really quite severe and, I think, even standing on the sand inside its reach was not the best of places to be.
The Lifeguards were apparently late on parade or were just looking for enough sand on which to place their red flag. When I looked a little later, there was a group of around fifteen people lined up looking at the sea not far from the Lifeguard hut. They were fully dressed, so clearly not there to catch a bit of sun. Much later, they were still roughly in the same spot, although more gathered around than in a line. I could not see what they might have been up to and will have to make enquiries later. If it was a litter pick, it was all in the same, now very clean, ten square metres.
Late in the morning, we started to see a little action in the shop. It was busier than it had been all week and consisted of quite a lot of going home present buying. As the afternoon drifted on, we actually became quite busy with an almost continuous stream of people passing through the shop. We even sold some posh mugs, which was a pleasant surprise and as things were going so swimmingly it was high time for an upset.
It came in the form of a response to a query I had placed with the ‘Exchange for Change’ people. This is the jack-booted body that is inflicting on the retail world unimaginably draconian conditions related to the collection of plastic and aluminium used drinks containers. The dreaded DRS – Deposit Return Scheme.
I had previously reported that rural stores under 100 metres squared were automatically exempt and had breathed a sigh of relief. It now seems that I had been misled. The lasts missive from the organisation countered that information, so I wrote to ask for clarity which I had back in spades.
The message I had back was very clear that rural stores under 100 metres squared must still register on the system and subsequently apply for exemption. I was pointed at the guidance that had been drafted, suitably entitled “Return Point Exemptions Criteria”. It is thirteen pages long. Since we were relatively quiet during the afternoon, I read it.
There are two routes to salvation. The first is by having a willing party within ‘reasonable proximity’ who will be taking in the bottles and cans. More than half the pages of the document are dedicated to the criteria defining the other store and ‘reasonable proximity’: its size,; the opening hours; the public transport around it; walking routes to it; the relationship to the hours; and location relative to the store seeking the exemption. Once all that had been taken into account, it was still a subjective opinion by someone who almost certainly had no knowledge of the local area or the nature of tourist areas.
The second route is premises-based. If it is not reasonable to host a return point because of the characteristics of the building, I can apply for exemption on this basis. This is our best hope and the one that we will be applying under. We will be required to jump through far more hoops than we were for the pavement licence and some of them may cost money. Scale plans must be submitted, fire safety reports by a certified fire assessor, ventilation constraints certified by a suitable assessor of some sort and so forth. If I felt there were questions over the parentage of the pavement licence people, these guys had been spawned from the combined offspring of Machiavelli, Marquis de Sade and Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler. I suspect that if we are to attain exemption – which we are told can be revoked at any time – we would need to sacrifice our first born and sell our souls to a deity of their choosing.
All we can do at present is register and mark the box to indicate that we wish to apply for an exemption. I must then wait for the boys at Exchange for Change head office to decide the rules and the process for exemptions all while with big sack of rusty pop cans hanging over my head – swords hanging by horse hairs have been condemned as an unacceptable health and safety risk, apparently.
While I fretted over how I might deal with bags of dirty cans and bottles while serving pasties, the weather changed on us. The blue skies and bright sunshine we had during the morning disappeared while I was distracted and was replaced with a blanket of grey, albeit light grey, cloud. I do not think that we were expecting any rain, but the temperature dipped a bit and, eventually, our customers ran off. Never mind, it was undoubtedly one of the better days of the week, if not the best. It was just a shame that the devastating news on DRS had taken the shine off it.
A good Lifeboat launching would have made all the difference after that but with the sea state being unhelpful, we had a presentation to take part in instead. We had been subjected to the introduction of Human Factors a while back by a wandering head office refugee. It is the collection of soft skills that the Institution has embarked on imbuing us with. Things like communication skills that negate misunderstandings, learning new terms, like ‘authority gradient’ and ‘plan continuation bias’, and being aware of deficiencies in previous things we had learned.
Tonight, we had one of our own, a member of the very excellent Shore Crew, telling us more. It is testament to the obvious skills of the team that the Institution thought to poach one of us for such an important role. It goes without saying, of course, it was a textbook presentation and led discussion and we all learnt big things – and far too many to mention.
We are, after all, a very multi-talented, very excellent Shore Crew.