IT DOES sound a very attractive form of fund-raising: the congregation and friends of St Michael's, Penwerris, one of the more deprived parishes in Falmouth, in Truro diocese, have an annual evening trip on the party boat MV Princessa around the estuaries, rivers, and headlands of south Cornwall. They are sponsored by the skipper, John Pill, and his wife, Fiona, who pay the fuel costs. There is a buffet of home-made food, including Cornish pasties, and a raffle with useful prizes. The event means that the boat carries a full passenger list.

Primrose Peacock tells me that they leave from the Town Quay, Falmouth, and always hope to visit Helford; but, as usual this year, the weather defeated them with a heavy swell caused by storms in France. There had been light storms in Cornwall during that afternoon, and then heavy cloud before the sun broke through.

They sailed up the river to Malpas, near Truro, before returning to Falmouth, and on the way back the setting sun gave them some dramatic lighting effects. "It was incredibly beautiful, and slightly weird," Miss Peacock says.