Salcombe to Dartmouth

Now we know how the working readers feel. An alarm call at 6am was unpleasant but necessary so we could get out of the harbour and over the bar before the water vanished. Of course, it meant we could enjoy the sunrise and a lovely quiet departure from the estuary. Out to sea, it was pretty calm and so apart from dodging many pot markers around Prawle Point, it was an uneventful trip for us.

Here is Start Point at silly o’clock in the morning:

The new boating season has started though. Heard our first mayday call – from a boat in Torbay. Eventually the poor Coastguard elicited that the problem was a dead engine. He politely asked them if they could anchor….. They occupied the inshore lifeboat for a while. Then we saw a yacht being towed into Dartmouth by the Torbay all weather lifeboat. Another breakdown. Early season, people using machinery that has been ignored / neglected all winter etc etc. You can imagine the rest.

We always love the Dartmouth entrance with the 2 castles and the town in the background. Some nice views on the way in:

Pushing a strong ebb tide (2 knots) we moored on the mid-river visitors’ pontoon just below the Higher Ferry. For the folks unfamiliar with Dartmouth, this is a chain ferry (OK, cables if you want to be pedantic):

The mooring has stunning views back into town and across to Kingswear where the steam trains run alongside the river and up to Paignton:

We managed a walk to the castle, passing the very old technology Lower Ferry:

The castle / church at the river entrance is a great spot to chill / watch the waterborne traffic  / enjoy the sun:

On the way back you get the iconic view of the Royal Naval College up on the hill:

Having heard on the radio that we only have 23 naval ships now, we wonder when they will turn half that place into a boutique hotel offering river trips and RYA courses. Must be very empty unless the training of other countries’ naval officers is a boom business. Of course, it is a high quality place – don’t forget that Colin the BA 747 Captain graduated from there a couple of years ago. OK, maybe more than a couple.

One highlight – a shopping trip yielded an unexpected bonus. We were happy to have a small M&S and small Co-op after several days in Fowey and Salcombe. We were even happier to find a reduced carrot cake in the Co-op. This was the very one that got a special commendation in the blog recently. We had to buy it, just to check that it was as good as the one we bought in Rothesay (Isle of Bute) last summer:

Well, sitting in the aft cockpit enjoying the sun, tea and cake, we are happy to confirm that despite the Co-op’s  current crisis, they have not compromised on carrot cake quality.  Hope they don’t go into receivership before we need another one. As the cake is enormous, that might just happen.