DCA rallies in the Southwest differ from the traditional style of the Solent and East Coast where members turn up at a destination from whatever starting point they choose. Here geography dictates that we have a designated starting place, and, having looked at the tides, the weather and the forecasts, decide on the day what the destination is to be; there is usually only one practical option.

So at Padstow, or rather at Rock its smaller opposite number on the east of the Camel Estuary, we launched at high tide on an overcast day with a moderate westerly breeze. As seems usual in this area we were but three boats: John and Tom Cole in Orca a Cull, Roger Bames in Baggywrinkle and Aidan de la Mare in Dinah - both Tideways. The only worthwhile choice for a sea passage was Port Isaac, 8 miles from Rock to the East, which took us two hours with a fair wind but a foul tide; all three boats making much the same speed in spite of various choices of course.

John decided to implement his mobile communications system and called for his transport to recover from there, while Roger and I set off back after lunch to make use of the last of the fair ebb tide. On the way we called in at Porth Quin, a tiny sheltered inlet so well concealed from the sea that only the certainty that it is there would induce one to sail directly at the forbidding rock bound cliffs.

The pilot books say terrible things about Doom Bar at Padstow, but we crossed it at low tide without seeing or feeling any sign that it existed. We had a leisurely walk round the charming town of Padstow with its gated inner harbour, then rowed upstream for the night.

As forecast, the morning brought a brisk northwesterly which would have made a return from Port Isaac impossible had we stayed overnight there. As it was we sailed in bright sunshine the 5 miles up to Wadebridge on the morning tide, and had a lively and rather wet tack back on the ebb, to recover at Rock before the tide had gone too far out.

The Camel Estuary is an attractive place for a visit, if somewhat limited in scope; but at least there is somewhere to sail if it blows up. And it is almost all sand, even at low tide; a change from all that mud which is usually our lot. But it would have been nice to have seen a few more people there. Aidan de la Mare