29th May
We left Dittisham early to catch the tide on to Salcombe. Due to a sand bar entering Salcombe we had to be there no earlier than 09:30 or we would be using our keel to plough through and we didn’t fancy that. After we left Dittisham we saw a three porpoises swimming next to us which was very nice. Salcombe is not a river but a “ria”. ( You can google this) On the approach into Salcombe we had to pick up a transit mark to guide us in making sure that we were in the channel. We soon found our mark which was a diamond mark on the hill in front of us lining up with a lower red/white pole. Once past, Salcombe opened up on the starboard side. Carole was now checking the location of the visitor buoys. These were large yellow with “V” clearly marked. Carole used our mooring pole to pick up the buoy at our first try. Soon the Harbour Master came alongside to welcome us to Salcombe.
He offered us one of the two moorings at the town quay pontoon for the same price if we wanted to which we could use between 18:00 – 08:30 once the commercial taxis had finished for the day. Free electric and fresh water! We inflated our tender and went off exploring the local area. It was very difficult to get to the harbour quay as it was full of other boat tenders, so we waited until we got Seaduction to the Quay later that day. This is another beautiful harbour where the pace of life is nice and slow.