19th – 21st July
Laundry and cleaning chores took us back into Darthaven Marina in Kingswear and this time we had to raft up on one of the visitors’ pontoons outside of the main marina. Our chores took us most of the first day, so on the second day we took a ferry across to Dartmouth and on to Greenways, on the opposite side of the river to Dittisham, where we paid a visit to another National Trust property which used to be the family home of Agatha Christie. It was a beautiful house, but we were simply amazed at the amount of “stuff” it contained. We were the last run for the ferry man who took us back and he very kindly dropped us off on the Kingswear side of the river, just a few steps away from our boat.
Our last day in Kingswear began with Chris busy planning our next long leg from the River Dart to Studland Bay just off of Poole Harbour. Carole took the ferry across to Dartmouth to stock up on food. On returning to the boat, Chris had been and settled our account and had been advised that as we were leaving early the next day (around 2 a.m.) it would be better if we went back in to the main marina on to a finger pontoon, so that we would not have to worry about late arrivals trying to raft up against us after we had settled down for the night. We decided we would do this and when we slipped our lines, we also took the opportunity of topping up our fuel (diesel and petrol) at the Fuel Barge in the river before returning to the main marina. We showered, had dinner and settled down a bit earlier than normal so that we would get a few hours’ sleep before leaving around 2 a.m.
We fell out of our bunks just before 2 a.m. and very soon after slipped our lines and made our way out of the marina. Carole was busy putting away the fenders as Chris steered the boat into the river and the blackness of the night (there was no moon). We were surprised at how difficult it was to navigate out of the river at night, trying to locate the buoys to keep in the channel, whilst spotting other moving vessels and unlit lobster pots. Carole kept close watch right at the front of the boat for quite some time and somehow we managed to make it to dawn’s first light without any mishaps
