Dartmouth to Salcombe 15nm
Thursday 25 September & Friday 26
We picked Penny up off Dartmouth quay in the afternoon – it’s getting to be a habit, meeting Penny in Dartmouth! (See previous blogs)
The tide was with us but the wind was very light and mostly from astern.
We had the Yankee up and foolishly tried adding the Stay sail, but all that did was shadow the Yankee. The main was flopping about disconsolately with each swell.
We had about 4-6 knots of wind. So we decided to deploy Lily the Pink.
She wasn’t cooperating in the least. There was a twist in the torsion wire and she refused to wind open. After a lot of upping and downing and humming and haring and pretty much when we had given up, David got her sorted and the decks turned pink.
She’s always worth the effort but we really do need to get the hang of her.
In 5 knots of wind we were now doing 4 knots and that was 6 over the ground so we were going as fast as the motor sailors.
Eventually the wind died completely and we motored into Salcombe, carefully over the bar.
Penny has local knowledge and we moored just outside her timeshare!
After watching the stars (a fab shooting star) and listening to owls we had a peaceful night on our buoy.
In the morning all the other yachts had gone and Penny and David went for croissants – which were excellent.
We enjoyed a glorious sunny walk to Bolt Head with our very helpful guide.
The views were breathtaking and we saw kestrels, buzzards, and ravens.
Down the vertiginous cliffs in the turquoise Caribbean waters we saw a seal.
It felt very tropical despite the Northerly wind.
There’s a sad memorial to the 13 men lost on the lifeboat in 1916, it overturned on Salcombe Bar when they answered a distress call in a gale. Only two men survived.
Tomorrow the wind turns South and we will head back East again to Brixham.
