We spent a sweaty morning at the commercial harbour in Falmouth, loading coffee onto the Grayhound Lugger. It is always a pleasure to welcome this beautiful vessel. Along with the crew and a disco soundtrack, it took us just a couple of hours to lift nearly 4 tons of coffee sacks into the ship’s cargo hold.

With the ship’s block and tackle, each sack was individually hoisted from the quay and lowered into the ship. Captain Alexis and mate Clotilde then wrestled the sack into position in the cargo hold, which is also the dining room and access to 4 of the crew’s berths. This meant heaving the hefty 70 KG sacks around the large table, beneath the benches and into the unused berths. All in all, only half of the room was filled, leaving easy access for the crew fore and aft, over the sacks and showing that the ship can easily fit another 4 tons of coffee for the next trip!

These sacks are destined for Dublin where the green beans will be transformed into deliciously roasted coffee by Farmhand Coffee Roasters. This will complete an epic voyage that began in the port of Santa Marta, Colombia, from where the coffee travelled over 4,000 nautical miles onboard another sailing vessel Ide Min, pretty much emission-free.

We hope that this is a first step towards Cornwall becoming, once again, an important stop for sailing cargo ships wishing to collect, unload and cross-load goods.

Photography: Han C Fisher