Thursday 22nd July – Dartmouth to Salcombe
A short day with a departure at 1000hrs…… now fully fuelled and watered. No engine required today as we had a gentle breeze of around 14-16kts. There was a decision to make as to whether to go inside or outside of the Skerries and Start Point. By now Dudley had joined the group having sailed Xtract solo. As he is always competitive and an extremely experienced sailor and we are not so quick – we tracked him on AIS and followed his lead – albeit at an increasing distance as he disappeared over the horizon. This was our first visit to Salcombe and there was a little concern regarding the bar but the weather was relatively benign and we were on a flood tide. The finish point of the race was the red buoy on the other side of the bar. We were not quite as brave as the others and decided to take our mainsail down in the bay outside. It was then that I noticed we had a bit of a problem with the main halyard which seemed to be ‘slipping’ through the clutch taking the tension out of the luff. A problem to be solved when we got in as the wind had now increased to around 20kts. We found the transit very easily thanks to top tip from Tom Cunliffe’s Channel Pilot. He described very clearly that when in doubt on the transit pick up the left hand edge of the obvious red double gabled house with lots of windows – spotted first time!
Having got into Salcombe there was a man of boots, canoes, inflatables, taxis and yachts wither moored or moving about. Whilst avoiding collisions a very calm Harbour Master boat came alongside to offer help and to make sure we knew where we were going – which we did not! We finally understood that we would be berthed in the Bag – 2nd left down the channel – alongside a pontoon. We were greatly helped by Bryan and Britt frantically waving at us and helping to come alongside Karisma. That evening we hosted drinks on board Purrfect Tale and had an extremely social and enjoyable evening’s banter.
Friday 23rd July – Salcombe
It was a bit of a windy day – a definite change of weather and the forecast was for a low to come across the channel with an arrival time that evening. This did not put us off going ashore by water taxi with a plan to go to the Salcombe Gin Distillery for both a bottle or two plus coffee followed by gin cocktail. Hard on the heals of this was lunch at The Victoria Inn. We debated whether to be hardy and go for a long walk after lunch or return to the boat for a bit of a lazy (doozy) afternoon. That evening Pat had booked dinner at the Salcombe Yacht Club. A very impressive building overlooking Salcombe entrance. We were hosted wonderfully in the upstairs dining room. Most of us had been sensible and made use of an very inexpensive water taxi. However Ken felt a need to demonstrate his manliness and had come across solo in the dingy. It was by now quite blustery and for those that have not seen the dingy park by the town quay, it is manic with the need to clamber over half a dozen before you get to your own. Ken clearly made it as we saw him back on the pontoon before we had arrived.
Friday night. This deserves a paragraph of its own. Looking at the real time wind at Prawle point there were at times gusts up to 58kts from the East. The boots were strongly pushed onto the pontoon with the inner boat taking the weight of the outer. The noise of the wind comb lined with rain and lightening as well as the constant slap of waves on the stern of the boat made for noisy and uncomfortable night. I did get up a couple of times to check on lines and clanking halyards. But by the morning we were both feeling pretty exhausted. At the height of the noise, Gillian did turn over and ask – ‘we are going to be okay?’. With complete external confidence I stated ‘absolutely!’
Purrfect Tale 