Dartmouth to Salcombe

Before they started charging us council tax, we decided to move on from Dartmouth. So, on a slightly misty morning (quite poetic really) we left the mid-river pontoon that we felt we kind of owned and headed out to sea. Passing the castle it was a bit grey and gloomy compared to the glorious sun of the last few days:

Once out to sea, it got more like fog and so the photo opportunities were limited:

In fact this picture could be anywhere en route apart from when we arrived in Salcombe as the sun decided to peep out for us. Most considerate.  After a water top up (first one for 10 days, Nordhavn's have big tanks and we did not go dirty!) the harbour guys kindly took us to a lovely mooring spot in "The Bag" - the upper area of the estuary well away from the main town and the hordes of DFL types who were polluting it. (For non UK folks DFL= Down From London and they arrive with all the nice behaviours you would expect.)

We launched the RIB and ventured into the town to collect Richard and Karen who were on holiday in the area. Richard is another ex-BMW Group employee and a complete petrol head. One quiet day we will share pictures of his rather nice Cobra and Alvis.  A lovely tranquil evening view from the mooring finished things off nicely:

We had been told that there was an airshow and rescue demonstration planned for the 1st. So, we duly dinghied ashore and walked to what was reported as the best vantage point, the Salcombe Yacht Club. There we learned that the CAA had changed the new, post Shoreham crash rules about safe distances from the public and the Salcombe estuary is no longer wide enough for a display.  Somehow we doubt that they will run an estuary widening scheme so game over.

Do the new rules mean that we should refuse the next time a rescue helicopter wants to practice and land a winchman onto our boat? Perhaps we should investigate what our insurers would say if any mishap occurred...

Instead we had a good walk in the sun to North Sands. You get some great estuary views en route. North Sands beach was tiny as it was nearly high water but plenty of folks still crowded onto it:

And a view to the rather posher South Sands:

The estuary area is really lovely. A little "over touristy" in town but the area is so special:

and the sun was out too, just to help. We hadn't seen Salcombe for a while by boat and were very glad that we revisited. Ditto we hadn't seen Richard and Karen for ages and it was great to catch up a little.

Maintenance news:

As we were leaving the boat, the main bilge pump turned on (automatic float switch), ran, pumped out the water and then kept running. This was not good! So, back inside, power off to the pump and float switch then power back on - it didn't fire up again. So, looks like the posh "ultra Safety Systems" float switch is playing up. Low level contacts failed? Drain holes that are advertised as "self flushing and cleaning" blocked a bit? No matter what the cause, getting to it deep in the keel area of the bilge will be fun. A job for tomorrow which, of course, never comes. Only in this case, it has to unless we want a burnt out bilge pump next time it is automatically switched on.