A day of jobs with a walk on Chesil beach and a pint in the Green Shutters (very busy for a Monday). Finally changed the impellor, although the old one looked fine once it was out. It is orientated to make it as inaccessible as possible and the bilge had a good wash due to the seacock not being entirely closed as I took it apart. Thank you Oom Wim for the Limoncello.
The main halyard winch was squeaky – I wonder if its due to the recent Sahara sand – so we had a short delay to departure in the morning to take it apart and give it a good clean before departure. Once out of the harbour Gerd sailed most of the way the the entrance to Dartmouth pretty much single handed while I was very sick (first proper trip this year.
Arrived at Dartmouth in the dark, with a lovely easy entrance due to the sector lights but I was glad we had been before to be able to find the visitors pontoon in the dark. First thing the next morning we went up river to Dittisham which was the perfect location to recover. We were held on route due to filming at the boathouse of Greenway (locals mentioned Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonhnam Carter later), before picking up a mooring just in front of the Ferry Boat Inn. Dittisham has an abnormally large number of post boxes for such a small village and we did a lovely walk to Dartmouth. Great lunch in the Seven Stars and an expensive Ferry back to the FBI for a pint.
The next day we holed the tender on the very sharp oyster shells on the beach outside Greenway quickly motoring back to the boat to find the repair glue was no longer usable and making do with some contact glue. When it eventually dried we took the tender the same distance to the pontoon at Dittisham and then the ferry back to the other side to visit the house and gardens. The house has a very eclectic collection, and gardens have lovely views over the river. Back via the FBI.
The next morning we headed to Plymouth. Of course there were dolphins en-route and interesting radio due to live firing exercises, particularly as we approached NL warship Groningen who’s radio operator sounded somewhat frustrated about having to speak over the machine guns. We entered via the east channel and anchored just of the Hoe and had a great view as the warship returned that evening. Plymouth was nice to visit, lots of history, although not much open when we were there.
It took a while to free the anchor – although we now know the windless is stronger than the fuse. Plymouth was a good location to fix the rotational alignment of the radar. We were indecisive on the way back, with mainly very light and variable wind so ended up doing the 28 hour trip in one go, with out having had much sleep during the day. We had a very slow section as we passed Salcombe (would have been better to anchor for a few hours) and almost going backwards as we passed the Bill with some big ships heading in our direction at 20kts with the tide (SOG). In the evening we passed close to the Tug Lady Sarah and were glad to have reefed for the night for a very brief spell where the wind picked up and then dropped almost entirely as we floated under the chilly stars. We decided to use the engine for an hour to make sure we kept well clear of CS Sovereign displaying RAM on AIS but covered in too many lights to see any distinguishable nagivation lights.