Page 47 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

wanted to go for a walk with me, because of the stories I told her. So off we
went for a short stroll up pass the old life boat house, then we took a short
track which would open up to a small area overlooking the harbour, where
some fishing gear was stored.

It’s strange but if you moved a few crab pots there was a small opening into
the cliff. It could have been an entrance to a cave many years ago which had
a rock-fall which blocked off the cave. Why move a few pots? Simple, in
the entrance of this cave I kept an old mizzen sail which I would place on
the ground, just to keep our clothes dry, and prevent any grass stains getting
on our clothes. So after telling a few more stories and putting the mizzen sail
back into the recess of the cliff to keep it dry, for the next time.

We returned back to the cellar bar at the Ship Inn and had a few more drinks
before my Wren and her friends got into a taxi to take them back to camp.
With closing time called, the holiday makers left and we would go upstairs
into the bar. The doors would be locked but the drinking would not stop, and
the singing would begin. This may have gone on for an hour or so. At the
end of the night/morning we would wish each other well and make our way
back home.

On this occasion instead of walking back around the harbour along Bay View
and around the Institute, I thought I would take a short cut by climb down
over the jetty and cross the outer harbour, but I found the tide was not out
as far as I thought it would be. So in my state of intoxication and being tired
I sat on the jetty to wait for the tide to go out further.

Time went by and I must have fallen asleep only to be woken by a horse
nudging my back. I turned to see the horse and a group of fishermen and
standing in front of them was a person I recognised immediately, it was the
Spirit of Porthleven..

‘Come on Johnny Boy, you are in the way’. ‘In the way of what?’ I mumbled,
trying to be polite.

‘Johnny look off shore, can you not see the light of the lantern, we have a