The mouth of the River Fowey is one of the finest estuaries in Cornwall, a mecca for pleasure boating and sailing and still a vibrant working port. China clay from the moors above St Austell is loaded onto ships here for distribution around the world. But it is for its leisure facilities that most people visit Fowey harbour. A sailing regatta, one of the most important in southern England, is held every August, and on any day of the year a vast array of yachts can be seen sailing in and out of the harbour. For the less adventurous or well-off sailor, there’s always a motor boat to be hired by the hour. It was in a house overlooking this water that Daphne du Maurier wrote some of her celebrated novels.