Salcombe revisited

We’d only come here once by Nordhavn, back in 2009, having been relatively frequent visitors in our earlier boats. The behaviour in the harbour made us think that we were the only Nordhavn visitor they had seen. Lots of boats slowing as they passed, gawping, pointing upwards (maybe that was just to show the green goo growing on the sat domes and sat compass) and shouting positive comments. Of course, any negative ones would probably have been sotto – voce.

The rollup dinghy (better known as the “rubber flubber” having been christened by our ex neighbour as it crawled over waves with him on board) was put into service again as the shore taxi. Salcombe town was busy, the start of the school vacations of course but the moorings were quiet.

Think we mentioned before that anywhere you have to go shopping by dinghy is a good place. Well, in Salcombe you also dispose of refuse in the same way:

The RNLI has installed some lockers for people to put their lifejackets in near the harbour office. Nice idea – encourages you to wear one when coming ashore by dinghy as you don’t have to then carry it around. Apparently most of the incidents in the harbour come from slightly inebriated people going back to their boat by dinghy at night. We took advantage of them and walked down to North Sands to admire the sandcastles being built by the kids.

We had arrived in time for the “Merlin Rocket open tiller” weekend. Lots of Merlin Rocket sailing dinghies racing up and down the harbour with a bit of sun, a bit of wind and sensible temperatures  to enjoy:

A walk to North Sands helped to work off some of that huge lunch from Fowey. A little catching up is still needed though. We avoided trying the cheese straws from the local “Artisan baker” (aren't they all these days??).  Not because we were worried that they would be better than the fabled Baker Tom offerings from Falmouth. Not because we felt guilty from the Fowey food excesses. No, it was just because they wanted to charge £1.50 each.

People news:

For those of you hungering for updates on the guest stars of this blog, here is the latest on our contributors:

John (of the wonderful knees, Falmouth Cheese twist fan and unfortunately a West Ham supporter) is sort of back on the Isle of Wight but escaping frequently for various little jaunts. We hope to see him (and Tina, of course) during our Solent time later this month so more news and potentially revealing pictures then.

Colin (the BA 747 Captain who didn’t crash the plane into the building at Johannesburg airport) has taken his Nordhavn 47 from the Hamble to near Barcelona. The trip as far as Gibraltar was together with a fellow BA captain so we guess that the navigation was spot on. Of course, with no cabin crew or BA First meals, the catering might have been a little lacking.

Patrick, the slightly overweight but rather appealing penguin has not become significantly more animated. However, on the last sea trip, he didn’t try to grab a life-jacket so we think he is more settled now.

Bronwyn the spaniel from Penarth who helps with boat painting – no news to report. We need an update from Steve on her latest exploits.

Stephen (the sailing, shooting and trolley shopper expert man) has been cleaning his yacht to within an inch of its life with lots of teak scrubbing and sealing ready for the season.  He is going to the dark side though, selling his wife’s BMW 325d and swapping it for a VW Golf. Grounds for divorce in our view Alison.

For the more normal readers, be glad you skipped the last section as it would not have enlightened your life one jot.