Cornwall, England

Passage Slip, Fowey

Launch — Passage Slip is named as a public boat landing in the Fowey Harbour (General) Byelaws 1996.

Parking — Fowey Harbour Commissioners administer Old Station Yard car park, off Station Road; it does not take Cornwall Council tickets. Caffa Mill car park nearby is a Cornwall Council long-stay car park with 104 spaces and boat-launching facilities, though Cornwall Council reserves some bays for permit holders only.

Access — The slip is reached via Passage Street, at the Caffa Mill end of Fowey; the Bodinnick car ferry crosses the same stretch of shoreline immediately upstream, and harbour byelaws prohibit obstructing its operation.

Season — The Fowey Royal Regatta and Carnival, held annually in the third week of August since 1819, includes stand-up paddleboard and raft races on the Tuesday of regatta week. Yacht racing runs on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons through the sailing season, from a start line off the Royal Fowey Yacht Club. Fowey Harbour Commissioners run an annual dredging and survey programme and publish Local Notices to Mariners on their harbour-notices page.

Regulations — Paddlers must register SUPs, kayaks and canoes with Fowey Harbour Commissioners before use and display an annual licence sticker; harbour dues apply per craft. Harbour byelaws cap speed at 6 knots over the ground and require craft to minimise their wash. The Fowey (Swimming) General Direction 2024 restricts swimming in the lower harbour to designated zones.

Passage Slip sits on the west bank of the Fowey Estuary, a deep-water ria running some 11 kilometres inland from the harbour mouth to its tidal limit near Lostwithiel. The lower harbour here is a working one, shared with china clay shipping, the Bodinnick car ferry and passenger ferries to Polruan, within a stretch of coast that forms part of the Cornwall National Landscape (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).

The slip sits close by the RNLI lifeboat station on Passage Street, in its current purpose-built building since 1997. The estuary's Cornwall National Landscape designation records ancient sessile oak woodland on its steep wooded slopes, and Penpol creek, off Golant further upstream, is a heron nesting site.

The Upper Fowey and Pont Pill Marine Conservation Zone protects intertidal mud, saltmarsh and estuarine rocky habitat across two separate stretches of the estuary.

Nearby

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Crumbs Café

Cafe on Fore Street in Fowey town centre.

Penmarlam Caravan & Camping Park

Touring campsite on the east bank of the estuary at Bodinnick, with electric hookups on every pitch; open to the public.

Conditions to check

Tidal flow

Spring tides on the estuary have a range of 5.5 m, rising to about 6 m at the equinoxes; neap range is 2 m. Tidal flow often exceeds 1 knot and approaches 2 knots on springs, more after heavy rainfall.

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Boat traffic

The Bodinnick car ferry crosses immediately upstream of the slip; it is self-propelled, but strong winds and tides can restrict its ability to manoeuvre.

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Boat traffic

The harbour carries china clay shipping to terminals further upstream and around 6,000 visiting yachts and motor cruisers a year.

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Limited exit

The estuary above Wiseman's Reach dries at low water; reaching Golant, Lerryn or Lostwithiel and back requires timing against a high water of at least 4 m, 4.5 m or 5 m respectively.

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