Having spent two nights in the marina which burnt a huge hole in the pocket, we decided to venture up river to Weir Quay Boatyard, near Cargreen. This took us past the Tamar Ferries, Naval base, under the Tamar Bridge and under some pylons. I know that the bridge and pylons stand high above, but as you go under, all sense of prospective is lost as it looked as though the boat mast would touch - didn't fancy touching the bridge or getting an electric shock either - very strange indeed.

A very wet morning, quickly turned dryer and by the time we arrived at Weir Quay Boatyard, the clouds were lifting and sun appeared albeit only for a couple of hours. This was a lovely quiet and sheltered spot with just a few houses scattered around. We jumped into our dinghy, rowed ashore and walked to a small village, Bere Ferrers approx. 2.5 miles to find a pub so stopped for mandatory refreshments and then returned back to the boat before nightfall.

The next day, we went ashore for a shower with a view of leaving around 2pm in order to catch the tide to take us to an anchorage named 'Dandy Hole' (the cruising guide implies that this is a water hole, deep enough for boats with a 2m draft which remains at all times of the day, whilst the surrounding area dries out). The tide was going out at quite a pace so we donned wet weather gear including boots just in case we got muddy whilst walking up the slipway. Thankfully we dragged the dinghy up the slipway, as by the time we had our shower, the tide was so low that there was mud everywhere - there was no chance of us leaving at 2pm. As soon as the water returned back to the slipway, we got in the dinghy with very muddy boots and returned promptly back to the boat. Rather than walk the mud and silt around the boat we used a bucket of water to clean our boots - great idea until I noticed that we left our back cabin hatch wide open so the dirty mud from our boots had now entered via the opened hatch and on to the bedding (Lesson 3) so changed bedding enroute.

We eventually left around 3.30pm, slightly later than planned but thankfully the tide was going in the right direction for us to be able to navigate to Dandy Hole.