Lazing around in Dartmouth and Dittisham

Time in and around Dartmouth is always lovely. This visit was a pretty social one as Ray and Sara were on board their rather new Jenneau flying machine and berthed in Dart Marina too. We needed to share stories and a glass or two. John, Irene and Archie were staying nearby in their rather posh Hymer motorhome so, we needed to share stories and a glass or two. Anne and Izzy were on board and coming to the end of their time with us, so we needed (you get the idea……)

We had several wanders around town, visited Tracy in her shop the “Fox Exchange” and some rather interesting sun glasses were purchased:

Guilt at how we had neglected the boat forced us to a big wash off activity, removing lots of dusty stuff that we think came from a fire on the nearby fields. We reckon that the owner of this dinghy needs to give it some TLC too:

 

We had a rerun of the flybridge bonegate fun when Izzy once more hid her unchewed "good for your teeth" bone but this time struggled to find it:

Getting Anne and Izzy home on a Sunday was not easy. Partly because Anne wanted to stay on board (there was still a little gin left) but mainly because the public transport links out of Dartmouth on a Sunday (ie bus to Totnes then train home) were almost non existent - 2 per day at difficult times. So, we opted for the tourist option, taking the steam train to Paignton (sad place) and then Anne caught the normal train service home.  Amazingly, the steam train charges for a dog so Izzy got her own £2 ticket:

We joined them as far as Paignton where we scuttled into a pub for a late lunch and hid from what was outside until Anne’s train home was due. If you have been to Paignton you will understand.

After the various folks departed it all seemed a bit quiet. We pottered over from the marina to the mid-river pontoon that we have used many many times during the past 9 years of Nordhavn ownership and squeezed into a suitable gap only to be told that “you are too big for this pontoon”. We asked why now and not last year or the many before and there was really no answer. The offer was to go onto the town pontoon where the ferries and trip boats leave from (but not at the weekend as it had a rally coming in) or to go between two buoys mid-stream. We opted to head up to Dittisham instead feeling unwanted.

There used to be 3 visitor buoys capable of taking up to 18m boats. The harbour authority decided last year to let one out on a semi-permanent basis and the other 2 were occupied. So, we picked up the vacant but “sort of let out” buoy as instructed and the next day moved to one of the 2 remaining “bigger boat” buoys when a French yacht departed.

The lovely views there made things better as did a dinghy trip ashore and a drink on the terrace at the quirky Red Lion pub come shop come post office come bed and breakfast establishment:

The pub was also home to three lovely dalmatians but only two wanted to be photogenic:

Dittisham (pronounced Ditsum by the locals, we tell you just to help anyone who is thinking of visiting fit in) has a few more quirky things, like this adornment on the side of a house:

It also has people who own old tractors with a sense of humour too:

and strange looking cones on the beach (we thought this was a bit bird like):

and during our wander around several artists busy capturing the tranquil scene with varying degrees of success. This lady was good:

Sitting on the second visitor buoy, we were told by the moorings man that “the numpties in the office look at the computer system and analyse use of the buoys and based on that have decided to rent out the one you are on from next Wednesday too”. He was far from amused – there will be only one bigger buoy in future and who knows how long that will last! Clearly the harbour authority doesn’t want anything larger than 14m here. Strange and disappointing behaviour when the average size of boats is increasing. We will probably vote with our keel and not bring it here much in future – a real shame.

You get some nice passing traffic:

Kingswear Castle is  an original paddle steamer, restored and back on her old river. Have a look at paddle steamer trust website for more information on her. Continuing the lovely older boat theme this Silver "gentleman's motor yacht" arrived on the one remaining bigger buoy mooring:

The owner kindly came over by dinghy and brought us some very fresh mackerel from his catch too.

A shopping and Dartmouth castle visit trip into the town by RIB went well up to the point of return. Our Cadw (Welsh Heritage) card gets us into the English Heritage sites for free and membership of Cadw is cheaper than the English organisation…..

Great views of the river and town from the castle:

and one of the guns inside:

As we left the food shops, so it started to rain. We got plenty of looks heading back upriver by RIB with an umbrella out and some jealous looks and comments from the Naval Academy trainees who were in an open boat too but soaked through.

When we returned we found a huge Sunseeker Manhattan flash powerboat thing rafted up to us and deserted – one of the “day trip out on a posing boat and go for a boozy lunch in Dittisham” excursions. When they returned, the first question asked was “do you want brandy in your coffee”. Kind of summed it all up really. The passengers were chatty and rather taken by the Nordhavn even though we didn't offer them coffee or brandy.