Weather: SE 3

Pete has always wanted to visit the River Yealm by boat. It has a shallow entrance so getting tides right was important. After a morning spent in the sunshine cleaning fenders and researching electric solutions, we slipped our mooring at 12 noon and made our way out of Salcombe. The wind had switched to SW after many days of NE. Hoisting the sails we had a pleasant sail for most of the passage. Just short of the entrance to the Yealm, we were surrounded by a large pod of dolphins all more busy fishing than coming to see us although one or two approached to have a closer look.

The navigational marks and leading lines into the Yealm are excellent and arriving near high water we had no problems picking them up and following them into the moorings. The place was packed and obviously very popular. We shared a mooring buoy with another boat.

There is not much ashore. From the landing pontoon it's a good 10 minute walk to the shop and a bit further to the pub and yacht club. However the yacht club provides good showers and we sat on the window of the bar looking at the houses across the river we couldn't afford and watching house martins diving about chasing their supper.

Weather: hot and sunny , no wind
Our target today was Salcombe, 22 miles away. But first a trip to the chandlers for more fender ropes. Our new fenders came with free ropes which unravel soon as you look at them so we are replacing them. The chandlers is at the top of a very steep hill. We took our bikes not to cycle up but because it would be fun on the way down. All that way up and they didn’t have the right rope! Luckily we found some in the outdoor shop in town. Provisions bought from the local co-op and we were off by 11 to ride the tide round Start Point. I spent the passage splicing our new fender lines. Once into Salcombe we motored past all the mooring buoys right up to the Salt Stone where we were surrounded by green fields and mud banks. We spent the evening watching egrets and herons pick at the shore and had a quiet night on board.

Today’s photo is the view of our anchorage.

Weather: hot, hazy, NE F1 increasing F2

We are due to leave Teignmouth today just before high tide which isn’t until 4pm so lots of time. Rather than go ashore we busied ourselves with cleaning tasks. Pete wanted to know why the steaming light wasn’t working so I was sent up the mast to find out. As I reached it I realised I had been here before only last year and we didn’t find anything wrong then either. Eventually he let me down and we are still no wiser.
Sitting around waited for the off was making me itchy and as soon as we had enough water over the shallows we were off carefully dodging canoes, small boats and children on paddle boards while trying to remain in deep water.

Two uneventful hours later we arrived in Brixham where the highlight of our day was the hot showers in the marina and then chips on a bench overlooking the harbour.

Weather: warm, light breeze

We are spending the day here on the pontoon just a few meters from a busy beach with people sitting in deck chairs squeezed between the beached boats, children swimming and on paddle boards and dogs everywhere. Over breakfast a group of ladies lying on paddle boards made there way towards us and tied up to a couple of mooring buoys. Turns out this was the Saturday morning yoga class!

After lunch we loaded the bikes into Pops and towed ashore. There is a ferry between Teignmouth beach and Sheldon beach but we were going to cycle round the bay and over the bridge to get some exercise. Sheldon is an unbelievably pretty village with small shops, pubs and a village green. We had cream tea and cycled back to Teignmouth to do our shopping then back to Sally for supper and to sit and watch the activity on the shore.

Today’s photo is off the village green at Sheldon

Weather: NE 2, visibility moderate

Up at 6:30, off by 7. We would be motoring all day today but put the main up for stability then Pete got on with bacon butties while I set course to round Portland Bill. We had planned to round the Bill at slack water so I was surprised to see big tidal arrows on the plotter. Re checking my passage plan I spotted my error. I had taken 5 hours off High Water rather added it. We were two hours late and the water was in full flow already and we still had 9 miles to reach it. With wind and tide together and in such light airs there would be no demons so we upped the revs to get there going in shore of the Shambles bank but still leaving a good two miles off the Bill. The tide picked us up and carried us round at ten knots and into Lyme Bay.

40 miles to go and for most of that we could see nothing but sea, the distant shores lost on the murk. Eventually we saw land and began to make out the Ness at the mouth of the Teign. The channel in over the sands is narrow and marked by a leading line so east enough once we had spotted it. Then round the steep beach with the pretty beach huts and into the harbour. There are two short visitor pontoons and we had one to ourselves. After mooring up we pumped up Pops and made the short row to the beach to explore. From the shore Teignmouth looks like a one pub town so we were surprised to find it is very big with lots of shops and pubs, an even a lido,. Chips in the crazy golf park then back to Sally.

Today’s photo is of Sally on the pontoon in Teignmouth Harbour.

Weather: rain at first

A lazy day in port today. Bank, shopping, coffee, laundry. Weymouth have a Sausage shop with lots of different flavours to chose from, a life size model of Elvis Presley and music filling the street outside. We had tried there sausages before and they are very good so we picked up some more for tea.

There is an important decision to be made on where to go next. We spent a couple of hours pouring over the pilots and almanacs and decided Teignmouth was doable and was a place we hadn’t visited before. They have an excellent website giving navigation details across the shifting sands and a quick phone call established that there would be space for us on the visitor pontoon. Leaving at 7am would give us favourable tide around Portland Bill and enough time to cross Lyme Bay, arriving off Teignmouth well before low water. Plan set we settled back into lazy day mode.

That evening we returned to the Sailors Return with our ukulele to join in the Weymouth jam. There were about 12 ukulele players who made us feel very welcome and handed us a book of songs so we could join in. As we got started a small but appreciative audience gathered in the bar. Many of the songs we were familiar with but had slightly different arrangements. There were also some new songs to enjoy. At 10pm players began to drift away and we were feel pretty tired ourselves. As we left the bar a few stalwarts will still going strong. An interesting evening but now we need some sleep before our early start tomorrow.


Today’s photo is of a lovely bass ukulele