Helford River

The Helford river is a truely beautiful, and tranquil place, even with the plethora of boats of all descriptions that inhabit the river.

After supper we took the dinghy to explore Porth Navas, Frenchman's Creek, and Helford Passage - a couple of hours of bliss!

A little later in the evening, the square rigger that we had seen in Falmouth appeared in the entrance with sails unfurled - quite a sight with all the other boats in the foreground.

The weather has now given us the chance to go to the Scilly Isles, with a fairly settled day to get out there. We will make for New Grimsby Sound, between Tresco, and Bryher, which the pilot book assures us is a secure anchorage ( if we can't get a mooring ).

Falmouth

We had a light head wind, and motor sailed to Falmouth. Rounding St. Anthony's head, we turned in and passed to the east of 'Black Rock'. We managed to get a visitor berth in the yacht haven, which was very convenient for a shopping expedition into the town.

We stayed just one night in the yacht haven, then decided to move to the Helford river, three or four miles further down the coast. As we left there was a rather magnificent square rigger in the harbour, which was quite a sight with all the other impressive yachts.

Other notables included three beautiful 'J' class yachts........

........., and this yacht that looked as if it should belong to a Bond villain ( don't know if it had a submarine pen underneath though ! ).

We motored down to the Helford river in bright sunshine, and picked up a visitor mooring just upstream of Helford Passage.

Fowey

After clearing the marina, we headed out through 'The Bridge' , and out to Rame Head, and Penlee Point. By  10-00 we had turned west towards Fowey, and were sailing.

As we approached Fowey, there appeared to be a lot of new building on the western side of the valley, but as we got nearer, realised that the 'development' was, in fact, a huge cruise liner moored in the entrance, which was busy disgorging passengers via the life boats to Fowey town.

We picked up one of the Fowey Harbour visitors moorings just opposite the town, and had a quiet night, once the cruise liner hordes had returned to their floating block of flats !

The next morning, we filled up with fuel at Polruan ( the village on the east side of the river opposite Fowey ), then set out for Falmouth.

Plymouth

We had intended to return to Leeds sometime in June to bulldoze the post from behind the front door, and make sure that everything was OK at home. In the end we departed just prior to one gale, and   returned a week later, just in time for another ! The Mayflower Marina did us a deal where we got 7 days berthing for the price of 5, and ended up having two weeks in the berth. Having re-stocked the boat, and done a few jobs around the boat, an excursion was in order, as the wind was still very strong.

A short ferry ride from just across the harbour took us to Cremyll where we had a pub lunch, then caught a bus to Cawsand near Rame Head.

Having had a short sit on the beach, we decided to have a walk out to Rame Head. This provided some spectacular views of Plymouth Sound, with waves crashing over the breakwater, and a few Naval vessels moored behind it.

Another bus ride took us to Torpoint Ferry where we sat on the bus, on the ferry - a very peculiar feeling. Another twenty minutes walk saw us back at the marina, all told, a very pleasant day out and about.

It was now Saturday, and the wind was still gusting at up to about 40 knots, the forecast was much better for Sunday, so we had a shopping trip into Plymouth centre, and got the boat ready to depart on Sunday if the weather allowed. The next destination hasn't been decided yet - we will wait and see what the sea is doing when we get out of the shelter of Plymouth Sound. Fowey is a possibility, as is Falmouth, but there is the prospect of a spell of settled weather to allow us to get out to the Scilly Isles, however, that is in the future.

River Yealm : Newton Ferrers & Noss Mayo

Quite and exciting day for wildlife today, spotted several groups of dolphins, and a great view of a pilot whale - unfortunately no photo's though. Motor sailed for the whole passage with no real wind. The entrance to the Yealm is quite interesting, with an initial entrance bearing on St. Werburgh's church, followed by two transits to safely navigate around the entrance bar which, from the ariel photograph in our pilot book, doesn't look as if it is natural at all, a sand promontory sticking out into the river, forcing a sharp turn.

Once inside, we tried to find a mooring but none were free, so we ended up tied up to a visitor's pontoon just upstream from the harbour masters office ( by the end of the evening the pontoon was three deep on the outside, and two deep on our side - lots of rope !

We had a walk into Newton Ferrers in the morning, and then risked one of the causeways ( or Vosses ), which are passable at low water, over to Noss Mayo, returning to pick up a newspaper and some milk before taking the dinghy back to the boat.

In the afternoon we took the dinghy to the end of the navigable river with quite a wind blowing by now. We just got back to the boat before it started to rain - at least the rain meant that the rafted horde stayed in their boats, and we a quiet night !

The following morning we had a lazy get up, planning to leave at 13-00 to ensure we had plenty of water over the bar, and on to the Mayflower Marina in Plymouth. We hadn't felt any of the forecast F5-7 in the river, but we certainly did after crossing the bar, with apparent wind up to 30 knots. We motored hard for a while, then when we had the angle, let out a bit of genoa and sailed into Plymouth sound. After pulling the genoa back in we passed through 'The Bridge between the west side of the sound, and Drake's Island, and on to the marina.

Dartmouth

Left our berth in Brixham at 13-10. Had a nice little sail, hard on the wind, most of the way to Dartmouth. Just before 16-00 we were at  'Castle Ledge' off Dartmouth entrance.

We  lowered the sails, and motored into the entrance with some spectacular views of the town.

The plan was to try to pick up a mooring at Dittisham, but in the event there were none free, so we motored a little further up the river and anchored just off Sandridge boat house.

The anchorage was very peaceful, and we had a comfortable night before setting off again, bound for the river Yealm.

Across Lyme Bay & Brixham

We had intended using the inside passage around Portland Bill, but the weather had other ideas. Having slipped our berth at 03-30 we motored out of Portland harbour and headed for the 'Bill', however, as we approached, a bank of fog stood in our way ! The inner passage isn't a place to be when you can't see the rocks, so we headed out to give the headland an offing of about 3 miles to avoid the race. Most of the rest of the morning was spent out of sight of land, either due to distance or mist. Finally, at about 10-00 Berry head, Brixham, and Torbay were spotted looming out of the mist. We called up the marina, and secured a berth for a couple of nights, and were tied up by 12-10.

Brixham is quite a pleasant place, much more laid back than Weymouth, but not much in the way of beaches. We caught up with sleep in the afternoon, then had a walk around the town to pick up a few stores.

 The following day consisted of catching up with laundry, and exploring the town in more detail. In the evening we had a pleasant meal in a restaurant on the quayside followed by another walk to settle the meal. After Brixham, we had several choices of places to visit, but chose Dartmouth as we had had a family holiday in Hope Cove near Salcombe a few years ago.