A strange package to the WatchHouse restaurant in St Mawes had left the owner, Will Gould, somewhat confused.

Will received the package containing a used tarpaulin and rope some time back and couldn’t understand why it had been sent to him.

Will told Roseland Online, “I received the random package of tarpaulin and rope a few weeks ago and have been puzzled by who had sent it ever since. No one at the restaurant had ordered anything and, anyway, it had been sent from abroad and was well used!”

Will had tried to get his head around the delivery and could only assume it was for someone else; that is, until an email arrived a few days ago from a Dutch and South African couple who he had come across looking puzzled on Towan beach a few weeks before. The email read:

I’m so sorry, Will, but just now, packing my bags, I’ve found the “thank you” post card that was meant for you and your friends. I mean to send it with the package I sent to the WatchHouse. So, now you must have only received just a package with a tarpaulin and a rope with no explanation as to why… I’m so sorry!

Only then did Will remember the incident that prompted this unusual delivery.

He was walking his dog on Towan beach when he came across a Dutch lady and her South African boyfriend. They had run out of diesel on their yacht – which they were sailing around Europe to the Canaries – and had come ashore in a small tender onto Towan beach with a Billy can. Having walked into Gerrans and filled up, they had returned only to find their tender had disappeared.

Will had offered to help them and some time later they had found the dinghy amongst some reeds with the hull damaged.

Will continued, “We tried to get it in the water, but as soon as we did, it started filling up with water, so I offered them a lift back to Gerrans to find some help. With no where else I could think of, I took them to the Plume of feathers in Portscatho where locals, Richard Moss and Simon Holman, along with their friend, Greg Willis, immediately put down their pints and rallied together to help the stranded couple. And that, on a Friday night!”

Will had to return home to his newborn child and wife and left them to find a solution for the stranded couple, which is why the tarpaulin was such a surprise when it came through some weeks later… Will knew nothing about their ingenious quick-fix.

Richard, Simon and Greg had returned to the damaged boat with a tarpaulin and some rope and tied the tarpaulin to the outside of the boat, enabling it to be put back in the water and rowed back to their yacht. The couple had then duly returned the tarpaulin to Will – the only person they knew how to get hold of – as soon as they could once they had reached dry land.

Will added, “It really does make me well up a little when I tell the story. It makes me glad to be part of a great community. It’s the opposite of what people think local pubs are like; you walk in and it all stops and everyone stares at you. London can be very much like that and it’s one of the reasons I left.

“When someone is in distress, the amount of people who would go out of their way to help is too few, and I was very proud to know that everyone in my community at our pub that night, did such a generous thing for relative strangers!”