Page 16 - Yachter Winter 2019

16 CRUISING REPORTS
We set off on our late summer cruise six days ago.We were hoping to head to the Isles of Scilly but stormy weather on the August Bank Holiday Sunday delayed our departure, and a forecast for high pressure and light winds for the rest of the week means we decide to head to Salcombe, and then Dartmouth on the South Devon coast instead.We leave ‘The Solent’ on Monday in a rough sea state due to the weather
the day before. For the first six hours or so there is plenty of wind but it is blowing up from the south west so we are tacking every hour or so. Sometime in the night the wind dies crossing Lyme Bay so we end up motoring the rest of the way. By the time we reach Salcombe, the sea is glassy and there isn’t a puff of breeze. Fortunately, we arrive just in time to pass over the sand bar at the river entrance
and pick up a swinging mooring in front of the Salcombe Harbour Hotel and Spa.
As the forecast for the next few days is for calm weather, we decide to stay put until
the end of the week, when we intend to sail round to Dartmouth.We have picked up on the sailing grapevine that it is ‘Royal Regatta Week’ so it will be busy.
Located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, Salcombe’s wooded estuary banks fringed by sandy beaches and clear blue
waters tempt us ashore.The next few days we walk the South West Coast Path
to Gara Rock beach, visit North and South Sands and indulge in fresh crab sandwiches and ice-cream made from
Devonshire clotted cream.
At the end of the week we motor
rather than sail, as there is still little wind in the forecast, bravely round
to the ‘River Dart’ to see if we can find a mooring. Our hearts are set on a mooring buoy in the deep-
water mooring pool at Dittisham, upstream from Dartmouth.We are
hoping it will be quieter further upriver from ‘Royal Regatta’
events.We are in luck as a boat leaves one of the visitor’s swinging moorings just as we arrive.
From our mooring, we watch a seal sunning itself on the rocks just by ‘The Anchor Stone’ and catch a glimpse of the late Agatha Christie’s house ‘Greenways’, now owned by the National Trust through the trees. Dittisham lives up to its reputation as a tranquil spot once dusk falls and the boat traffic on the river quietens down.
We sit on deck sipping a glass of wine and listening to owls hooting in the trees.
In the morning we row ashore with the tide, as our outboard engine is playing up, to the picturesque village of Dittisham, from where we pick up the ferry to Dartmouth to visit the ‘Royal Regatta’.We arrive in Dartmouth just at the start of the Ladies Rowing Race, where we witness Brixham’s Team Pegasus narrowly beat Dartmouth’s Team Lightning.We then wander along
the promenade lined with stalls selling everything from aromatherapy candles
to hot dogs. Centre stage in the river sits