Dartmouth to Plymouth

After a few good days in Dartmouth, we thought that we should head a little further. The longer term forecast for "up north" was grim so no big rush to get around Land's End and head for the Orkneys or wherever. Hence a little trip to Plymouth was planned to allow some serious food shopping and perhaps even a little boat cleaning to take place.

The nice folks at Mayflower Marina said they had space for us so we headed off to take full advantage of the nearly spring tides. Between Dartmouth and Start Point there were some fair sized waves (up to 2 metres) from the NE as there had been strong NE'ly winds for 3 days or so. Again, some stabiliser activity. You can figure out from this track that once you approach Salcombe, you get great shelter from the wind and the sea calmed down dramatically:

We saved lunch for then, just off Prawle Point:

the little hut on the clifftop is the National Coastwatch lookout.


We were "chasing" the Nauticat yacht whose crew had kindly invited us on board for drinks - they left Dartmouth about 45 minutes earlier than us, en route to Fowey. As we travel at typical yacht speeds we didn't expect to catch them but we rounded Start Point closer in than they did (the benefit of 40 odd tonnes and stabilisers, it is lumpy around there) so we thought that a photo opportunity might present itself. Most boaters will tell you that getting pictures of your own boat at sea is very difficult!

We failed though, closest point of approach was just over a half mile and so all we could manage for them was pretty feeble:

Not something they will have printed out and framed we fear.

Plymouth harbour itself was busy, lots of people out enjoying a sunny but chilly Saturday afternoon and a yacht race cutting across everything. One guy decided that it would be fun to tack right under our bow. Perhaps we are becoming invisible; the ship that wanted to run us down crossing from St Peter Port and now a suicidal yottie. He clearly doesn't know how substantial the hull layup is on a Nordhavn. Later on he came into Mayflower Marina and gave a sheepish wave of apology.

This trip was typical of coastal cruising - some quite lumpy stuff and then almost perfect shelter in the lee of the land. It never ceases to amaze us just how many sea conditions you can face in one short trip based on wind direction, tidal flow, depth changes etc. Makes passage planning fun - for us the wave heights are not that significant as the boat is built to handle rough stuff, but it makes a huge difference to the catering when on a longer overnight trips. Calm = proper full cooked dinner. Moderate seas = reheat something from the freezer in the microwave. Rough = pre-prepared sandwiches and wraps. We have such tough decisions to take these days....