Lunar Sea around GB

Brixham, with a reminder of it's fishing past.  Well dear readers, we have had an extended stay in Torquay due to the salvage operations, which have completed today. Due to the high winds on Tuesday no work could be done, so it has taken yesterday and today to complete the job, which is one day later than was first thought. We had hoped to leave today (Thursday) but it wasn't going to happen. The remains of Rendezvous has now been loaded onto a barge and the crane, also on a floating barge, has been folded away and is ready to go. (We found out that the crane is charged at £75,000 a day!) So tomorrow (Friday 1 July)  we plan to leave Torquay and go straight to Weymouth, which should be a 11 hour trip. Fingers crossed. So how have we been spending our time in Torquay.? Well, the day Celia  left (Tuesday) was very windy and rainy, so we didn't leave the boat at all that day. However the next day (Wednesday) was a bit brighter, so we decided to take the ferry across to the o...

  Dear Readers, I haven't blogged for a few days because we haven't been sailing, due to the weather. We spent a lovely few days exploring Dartmouth and surrounding areas. I really like Dartmouth, it has so much to offer. It is an attractive town with its gaily painted houses tumbling down the steep hill right down to the water's edge. There are plenty of old houses left and a small open market, and I love the various ferries constantly crossing the river, carrying cars and foot passengers. Over at Kingswear where we are is the Dartmouth steam train, which runs a regular service to Paignton, so we decided to do the trip to the seaside town of Paignton on Sunday.  Goliath, the steam engine that took us to Paignton. To my generation a trip on the steam train brings back many childhood memories; the smell of the coal burning, the chuff chuff of the engine, and the old fashioned carriages. The station at the Kingswear and Paignton ends are still originals too. Paignton Pier  ...

  Rounding Start Point into Start Bay and the entrance into Dartmouth. Dear Readers, well we had a very pleasant and uneventful trip to Dartmouth yesterday. The picture above was taken rounding Start Point, which, to any day skippers out there, will be something you remember well from your navigation exercises. Start Point was so well used in the navigation lessons, that my chart had a hole where Start Point was! I was relieved to see that in real life there is no hole, although even on a clam day it was quite a confused sea off Start Point. Our entrance into Dartmouth was easy, with two sector lights to guide us in, but we were a bit taken aback by the many ferries crossing the Dart. There is the tug driven tiny car ferry, two of which are continually crossing from Kingswear to Dartmouth, and the passenger ferry as well.  We had an easy entrance into Darthaven, our chosen marina on the Kingswear side of the Dart, opposite Dartmouth.  I checked out the facilities which we...

South Sands Salcombe Hullo again dear readers,  I had heard that Salcombe is a lovely place and it hasn't let us down. It is a very pretty little village coming right down to the waters edge, with little alleyways and narrow streets. As I mentioned yesterday there is no river running into this sea inlet, know as a ria. It was formed after the Ice Age when sea levels rose . The area is a Marine Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Marine Nature Reserve. It is home to some rare plants and animals including seahorses, fan mussels that grow to over a  foot in diameter and  a sea slug thought to be unique to this area!! So Salcombe has its very own sea slug, luckily we haven't come across any of those yet. It also has a lifeboat station here and we saw them coming in from an exercise last night, a large lifeboat and several ribs, one of which neatly stows in the bottom of the large lifeboat.  Salcombe also has it's own class of boat, the Salcombe Yawl, still being bu...

  Salcombe East and West banks . Dear Readers, I am back! We have spent four days exploring Plymouth amidst very changeable weather. Our new crew member Celia joined us on Saturday in pouring rain and near gale force winds! A few days later the weather calmed down and we were able to enjoy the sunshine on the marina terrace, very civilised! Josh and Celia enjoying the sun on the marina's terrace We had more time exploring Plymouth together and I managed a swim in the harbour which was exhilarating, especially as I managed to swim out to one of the rafts. We spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon at the Plymouth Gin Distillery, and enjoyed the tastings and the gin and tonic in the bar later, which is part of the old refectory and is purportedly the oldest building in Plymouth. For gin lovers amongst my readership, I can recommend Plymouth gin, with it's very botanical flavour. Try the Navy Strength at over 50%, done to this strength so that if it spilt on the gunpowder it would ...

Plymouth Hoe from the Lunar Sea  Dear Readers, thank you for staying with me for this trip so far. We had an uneventful five hour motor sail from Fowey to Plymouth yesterday, arriving at Sutton Harbour Marina at 18.00.  Lunar Sea taken for the water taxi at Fowey, just before we left this lovely mooring. Before we left Fowey Ali and I took the water taxi into town for a look around, a bit of shopping and a coffee before returning to Lunar Sea. I found a notice on the wall by the harbour explaining the history of the Fowey river boats and the Troys, it will be of interest to some of you.  It was flat calm seas with very little wind and we could enjoy the scenery. The auto helm is not playing ball since we had the encounter with the fishing buoy and attached ropes, so we had to helm ourselves, which Ali and I enjoyed. We did get a brief visit from some porpoises - they are much shyer than dolphins and don't play around the boat.  We also witnessed a Navy patrol boat an...

My dream super yacht, a 1930's beauty. Dear Reader, a slightly longer blog as I want to convey the gorgeousness of Fowey to you. We had an early start from Falmouth at 0730 and it was beautifully calm and still. We were sorry to go, especially as it turns out that this weekend there is a classic boat regatta, but we need to head on to Fowey. Falmouth has been lovely with lots to do and see and a modern marina. It is interesting how the South coast of Cornwall has a very different feel to the North and the Penzance area, it is much more prosperous.  It was an uneventful motor sail with almost an hour of real sailing , which was lovely as it is so peaceful with the engine off. We did a quick detour into Mevagissey, a pretty fishing village, but we couldn't go right in to the harbour because it was low water, so not enough depth for us. Mevagissey from the sea We reached Fowey at lunchtime, it was a hot day and it showed off the river at its very colourful best. Being a river we c...