Dartmouth - Salcombe
We were up and out at 5:30 promptly and it was one of those mornings when you lie in bed waiting for the alarm to go off and all you can hear is the wind whistling through the shrouds of all the boats in the harbour and all you want to do it turn over and go to sleep.
We got fully dressed in the knowledge that whatever the weather has to throw at us things would only get better as the day progressed. The winds whilst strong would decline and … the forecast was for sun, which makes all the difference.
Almost as soon as we let go of the buoy you knew that we had made the right decision; it always sounds worse in a harbour than out at sea. As we emerged from Salcombe we enter the rough overfall from Bolt head and these are caused by the tide rushing around the headland. You can see the rough water ands there is a line in the sea where it ends and you cross it and within 3 yards the rough water is gone.
Soon we were tramping along at a great rate of knots. We had about 91 nautical miles to go which was due to take twelve hours. We never saw any other boats doing the same journey which never happens when you go to the CI's or Cherbourg. At about half way the sun cam out and the seas smoothed out and oh was it lovely. A short visit from the dolphins broke the monotony, however the main this was we were sailing. I decided it was time for a sail change and the pink sail was hoisted when the wind dropped. 30 minutes later it was down again as we decided it was too strong when the wind changed its mind.
Ping ping bleep bleep, these are the sounds of the end of an ocean passage as you pick up a mobile signal. I called the marina to let them know we were coming and it was a good job because they had me down as a no show for an 8am arrival! Clearly the French use the 24 hours clock more than we do. The told me that the dock-master goes home at 9pm so please arrive before then. We arrived at 8pm to the thunderous noise of a huge square rigger with a brass band right next to us. Tomorrow we plan to go to Cameret,
We got fully dressed in the knowledge that whatever the weather has to throw at us things would only get better as the day progressed. The winds whilst strong would decline and … the forecast was for sun, which makes all the difference.
Almost as soon as we let go of the buoy you knew that we had made the right decision; it always sounds worse in a harbour than out at sea. As we emerged from Salcombe we enter the rough overfall from Bolt head and these are caused by the tide rushing around the headland. You can see the rough water ands there is a line in the sea where it ends and you cross it and within 3 yards the rough water is gone.
Soon we were tramping along at a great rate of knots. We had about 91 nautical miles to go which was due to take twelve hours. We never saw any other boats doing the same journey which never happens when you go to the CI's or Cherbourg. At about half way the sun cam out and the seas smoothed out and oh was it lovely. A short visit from the dolphins broke the monotony, however the main this was we were sailing. I decided it was time for a sail change and the pink sail was hoisted when the wind dropped. 30 minutes later it was down again as we decided it was too strong when the wind changed its mind.
Ping ping bleep bleep, these are the sounds of the end of an ocean passage as you pick up a mobile signal. I called the marina to let them know we were coming and it was a good job because they had me down as a no show for an 8am arrival! Clearly the French use the 24 hours clock more than we do. The told me that the dock-master goes home at 9pm so please arrive before then. We arrived at 8pm to the thunderous noise of a huge square rigger with a brass band right next to us. Tomorrow we plan to go to Cameret,
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Graham relieved that the weather improved