The 2026 season is over. The Bessie James made her last scheduled crossings at the start of October, and the operator's daily status sheet has swapped its forecast for an end-of-season thank-you that looks ahead to 2027. The grid below is the operator's annual timetable, kept here so you can plan next summer's day out, but no start date for 2027 has been announced yet.
Operator's annual timetable, used for the 2026 season and read on 7 October 2026 (the same boat times appear in an August 2024 copy of the page). The 2026 season has finished; the operator will confirm the 2027 start on its social media. Mevagissey Ferry — timetable · 2026-10-07
In the late summer of 1644 a parliamentarian army of several thousand men retreated to Fowey hoping to escape by sea, only to be trapped when the king's forces seized the blockhouse guarding the harbour mouth. Centuries earlier the town had grown rich on licensed privateering against French shipping during the Hundred Years War. Further round St Austell Bay, Mevagissey built its stone harbour in two stages: the inner piers between 1770 and 1773, the outer ones in the 1860s, a structure Historic England now lists at Grade II*.
The two harbours had very different trades. Mevagissey was the centre of Cornwall's pilchard fishery and still keeps a few dozen small fishing boats; Fowey drew writers, Daphne du Maurier among them, and was home to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, whose house stands just above the quay where the boat ties up. Linking them by sea makes a good day out, and that is the purpose of the service today.
The ferry is a privately run summer boat, the Bessie James, crossing St Austell Bay a few times a day between early May and the first days of October. It carries foot passengers, dogs and bicycles, and nothing is booked in advance.
A return costs an adult £20 and a child £12, against £12 and £8 for a single, so anyone planning to come back by boat saves by asking for the return when they board. Bicycles are charged £10, and well-behaved dogs travel free.
There is nothing to book. You hand over the fare after boarding, by card or in cash, and the operator does not sell tickets in advance. Folding pushchairs can come too. The return was cheaper in 2025 (£18 for an adult), so check the figures again before next season.
| Adult, return | £ 20 |
| Adult, single | £ 12 |
| Child, return | £ 12 |
| Child, single | £ 8 |
| Bicycle | £ 10 |
| Dog | Free |
2026 fares from the operator's home page, read on 7 October 2026 and identical in a copy of the page saved on 10 May 2026 Mevagissey Ferry — fares · 2026-10-07
The boat leaves the mouth of the Fowey estuary, heads south-west across St Austell Bay and runs into Mevagissey's outer harbour. On foot the South West Coast Path joins them too, but the operator puts that walk at 17.5 miles and seven or eight hours for a fit walker, which is why many people walk one way and sail the other.
At the Fowey end the same landing serves the short Polruan ferry across the harbour mouth, useful if your walk starts on the Polruan side. Further west in Cornwall, the Flushing ferry spares walkers a long detour too.
In Fowey the boat ties up at Whitehouse, on the Esplanade, the same summer landing used by the Polruan foot ferry. The operator points drivers either to Hanson Drive car park (PL23 1ET), the closest but with a stiff climb back up, or to Caffa Mill (PL23 1DF), which is level but a walk of ten to fifteen minutes along the waterfront streets.
Readymoney Cove, the sandy beach, is roughly 400 metres to the west, and the Hall Walk can be started right from the landing. The glass-and-concrete shelter beside it was a gift from the US Navy, thanking the town for its hospitality before D-Day.
At Mevagissey the departure point is on the Lighthouse Pier, the southern arm of the outer harbour. The small car park there (PL26 6UJ) sits right beside the boat and is slightly cheaper than the main ones, but reaching it means driving round the harbour through very narrow, crowded streets.
Most visitors leave the car at Willow car park (PL26 6SB), the first large one on the left as you come in, or at Sunny Corner (PL26 6ST) on the one-way system, and walk down to the quay.
In season the operator updates a short sailing forecast every day on its timetable page. A swell in the bay is enough to stop the boat even on a sunny morning, so check it before you drive to the quay.
There is no online shop: tickets are sold by the crew, and both cards and cash are accepted.
Well-behaved dogs cross free. A bicycle costs £10, and folding pushchairs are allowed on board.
The coast path between the two towns is long and hard in places. Taking the morning boat out and walking back, or the reverse, needs an early start and an eye on the last sailing.
The Lost Gardens of Heligan are roughly 1.5 miles from Mevagissey on a footpath that climbs through woods and fields, around fifty minutes uphill and muddy after rain.
A town bus circles Fowey from the church every fifteen minutes in summer, including the top car park, which spares you the climb from the Esplanade.
Whitehouse, the Fowey landing, has its own layers of history. A lease of 1622 mentions a white house and garden on the meadow there, and between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries a gun battery stood nearby to defend the harbour. The Polruan rowing boat landed here long before its first motor launch arrived in 1912.
The Bessie James herself is a 12.3-metre Procharter 40, built in 2007, with a red hull, a white wheelhouse and a canopy over the after deck. She cruises at around 15 knots, and her Class VI passenger certificate allows 50 people aboard.
No, the boat has finished for the year. The timetable's last band ends on 3 October, the operator's note gives 4 October as closing day, and no restart date for 2027 has been set yet.
At 10:50 throughout the season. The day begins at Mevagissey at 10:00, and the boat then makes its first crossing from Fowey.
Between 25 June and 6 September the 18:00 from Fowey is the final crossing of the day. In May, June and September the last one is at 16:50.
Yes. An adult pays £20 for the round trip, while a single is £12 each way; for a child the return is £12 and the single £8.
Yes. Dogs that behave go free, and a bicycle is charged £10. Folding pushchairs are also accepted.
It stays in harbour. The operator's daily forecast on its timetable page tells you on the morning, and if you have already crossed you will need a bus, taxi or the coast path to get back.
Yes. A footpath leaves the village beyond the main car park on the St Austell road and climbs for around 1.5 miles to the gardens, roughly fifty minutes at a steady pace.