13th-14th July
Despite the weather forecast still not lighting our candle, we decided it was time to leave the shelter of the marina and head out for a sail. The River Tamar and Saltash were where we were heading and we were hoping to either pick up a mooring buoy or drop anchor here. As it turned out, the wind had changed direction and was increasing in strength (it was supposed to be decreasing) and when we arrived at the Tamar Bridge we turned straight round and headed back to Plymouth.
We then decided to see if we could make it into the River Yealm as we knew it would be much more sheltered there. With Carole on the helm and Chris navigating, we took a shortcut to avoid going right the way round the harbour. This worked out well and we headed out under a well-reefed sail as the wind was now gusting up to a Force 5-6 with 3-4 metre waves. Chris wasn’t sure how this would affect us getting into the River Yealm as we had to cross a sandbar at the entrance, but as it happened, it worked out very well and once inside the river, conditions improved considerably. We were lucky to find a space on one of the pontoons and we tied up just in time for the harbour master’s visit to collect harbour dues. The only downside to our visit was the yacht that rafted up to us had an odd lady skipper and a rather large dog on board which didn’t seem too used to being afloat (on returning to the boat after a visit to shore, the dog missed its footing and if it hadn’t been for the kind, alert man on a neighbouring boat, it would have slipped into the water between our boat and the pontoon). Fortunately, they only stayed one night and our next rafting boat had a much more pleasant, interesting couple on board.
We put our dinghy in the water here and pottered up the river to places we hadn’t been on our last visit. Carole also gave Chris a laugh when she took a turn in rowing. Thank goodness for the outboard! We then motored to Noss Mayo where we got our feet wet before securing the dinghy to a small motor boat so that we could walk ashore for a swift half and a shared bowl of chips – which was perfect in the sunshine!
