The harbour was not the only area of Porthleven hit hard by the waves.

Lucy and Dave Page watched as the waves crashed through the back door of their ice cream parlour and cafe, Nauti But Ice, last Wednesday and flooded the inside, pushing all the furniture to the back as it went.

Lucy said: “The waves just came straight into the building. We just had to sit and watch, as we weren’t allowed in for many hours because it was too dangerous.

“We were just devastated – I was in tears. We didn’t think we would have much left, but we’ve been really lucky.”

Once the coastguards gave the all clear for the couple to re-enter their business the community rallied behind them, coming armed with mops and brooms to brush out the building and clean down the furniture – which escaped relatively unscathed.

“It’s such community spirit here. Everyone was down here lending a hand,” added Lucy.

It meant they only had to close for one day, reopening on the Thursday.

Falmouth Packet:

Their adjacent cycle hire shop remained boarded up last week, after it too suffered storm damage.

One of the port’s historic cannons, close to the Ship Inn, was also left teetering perilously close to the edge of the harbour, having been dragged there by the gale force winds – but survived the attack.