2022 - Third Leg - Plymouth to Weymouth

Around Britain – Year 3 – Portishead to Ramsgate – 2022.

Day 21 – 21st June – Plymouth to Salcombe – 22 miles

After a wonderful stay in Plymouth, and at £52 per night was the most expensive we had ever paid. Something we have experience throughout this year so far.it was time to leave once again. Ali had left us the day after we got into Plymouth, and Celia, a friend of Julia and me, joined us a day later. It was a great day for her first sail with us. Light airs and sunshine were the forecasted order of the day. However, to make use of the favourable tides and to take on some fuel (£1.66 a litre), this would mean an early start at 08:15 at the fuel berth and try to leave by 09:00. Unfortunately, the forecast proved to be on the light side, so with an increasing wind on the nose of course it was quite lumpy towards the end of the trip.

Plymouth Oldest Pub near Looe Street The Mayflower Steps

Salcombe Yacht Club from our Mooring

Julia and Celia on Yacht Club Balcony - Salcombe Entrance and Lunar Sea

There are numerous swinging berths on the River, I was told that there was about 800 (I didn’t count them), and a few Pontoon berths. At this time in the season, you could expect to be rafted on both the pontoons and the buoys. We were offered a buoy right opposite the Salcombe Harbour Hotel and Yacht Club and this proved to be a brilliant place to spend our time and the Water Taxi is very helpful. Being one of the first buoys not many people wanted it as it could encounter quite a swell in windy conditions, but we didn’t get rafted to and being close to the Yacht Club we were right in the middle of the local dinghy racing. They have a fleet of Toppers and a local boat, the Salcombe Yawl but there was only one of these out racing that evening. The Toppers are great in this inlet and look like they were being used by school kids in both the mornings we were there – great to see so many kids enjoying themselves.

We managed to meet up with Celia’s friends, who were sailing in the opposite direction to us towards Helford River and had a lovely meal and chat in the town the first evening at the Fortescue Inn. Salcombe is probably the place where my Lidstone ancestor’s first hailed from and I was keen to find out any information I could regarding them. There are some “Lidstone’s” in Salcombe, mainly butchers or farmers although I didn’t find any in the two local graveyards. I did find the grave of a Second Cousin 5 times removed, James Anthony Froude who was a well-known Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University and author in 1800’s, so I was quite excited as I have bought some of his books.

Day 23 – 23rd June – Salcombe to Dartmouth – 16 miles

Reluctantly we left the buoy in this lovely place, although somewhat spoilt by the many second homes that are here and consequently less places for the younger locals to live. This in turn affects the local workforce. So many of the cafes, shops and pubs were advertising for staff, it is obviously a real problem and not unique to Salcombe, many of the places we have visited around this coast are in the same predicament.

Start Point

This was quite a smooth trip until we passed Start Point, when for about half a mile we had some confused seas. It didn’t come to much and having rounded Start Point on another course we could sail for a while which was great although I had to keep the engine running as I have had some trouble with my Domestic Batteries over the last few occasions that we had moored for the night on a buoy. This would ultimately decide where we were to berth in Dartmouth as the big chandlery is on the Kingswear side at Darthaven Marina, where I could buy two new batteries and anything else I didn’t know I wanted! Chandleries are my weakness.

Entering Dartmouth Lunar Sea in Dartmouth

Darthaven Marina

St. Petrox Church & Dartmouth Castle

I managed to meet up with Ann Lidstone who is the present custodian of the Lidstone Family History Society and we managed to exchange some useful information. This led us to Dartmouth Castle at the entrance of the river Dart and St. Petrox Church with its graveyard. There are 6 Lidstone’s listed on the Gravestones and a further Lydston mentioned on a stone set in the floor of the Church, but more research needed to see if we are related. In the local Maritime History Museum, I also found some information about ‘Lidstone and Sons Boatbuilders, 1826-1956 – all very exciting.

Lidstone & Sons Boatbuilders

Day 27 – 27^th June – Dartmouth to Torquay – 12 miles

Because of weather, well the increased winds, we decided to delay our trip to Torquay and also dropped out Brixham on the way. It wasn’t a hardship as it gave us a couple of extra days in Dartmouth. There is a steam train service from Kingswear (Dartmouth North side) to Paignton which we took advantage, and which gave us a lovely view of a sheltered Tor Bay in the sunshine.

The short passage is straight forward bearing in mind the rocks of New Stone, Blackstone and Berry Head. After a calm start, the wind had picked up a bit and we did manage to sail for most of the trip, but the threat of rain had been with us all the time and chose to reach us just as we had arrived at Torquay Harbour – great! To make use of the tide we would need to leave at 08:00. We needed to get to Torquay by Monday so that Celia could catch her train home after her stay on Lunar Sea and also leaving early would give her plenty of time before her train. She had been generally lucky with the weather, apart from her arrival in Plymouth and ours at Torquay when the heavens opened on both occasions.

We had been lucky to get into Torquay as the recent sunk, burnt-out power boat was being lifted and they were closing the harbour to anyone that wasn’t staying for a few days. We were due to leave on Thursday anyway as the weather was getting worse for a couple of days.

Day 31 – 1^stJuly – Torquay to Weymouth – 50 miles

We ended up being stuck in Torquay for 4 days as the planned lifting of the sunken, burnt-out Rendezvous was delayed because of high winds and our exit was blocked. It was a shame as I had planned to leave on the Thursday and leaving the day later may have meant that we could be arriving in the dark at Weymouth.

Rendezvous - on fire and lifted

To my surprise someone was shouting my name as I came back to the boat, it was Paddy Denby and he was involved with the lifting of the wrecked boat. I should not have been surprised but it was good to see Paddy and a friendly face in this part of the world.

Given an extra day we did manage a ferry trip to Brixham and a visit to the replica of the Golden Hind which for some reason was in Brixham. There is a second one in London’s South Bank. The visit was really fascinating and amazing that 70 men were living on a vessel of this size in the 1500’s when Francis Drake circumnavigated the world and made his fortune.

Golden Hind and some stores

Apart from reference to 3 different High Waters of Dover, Plymouth and Portland, planning for the passage to Weymouth involved rounding the notoriously rough Portland Bill and negotiating the Portland Race. Ideally you need to go round the Bill with wind and tide and coming from the West there is a 2-hour window when you have ideal conditions. This would mean arriving at the Bill at about one hour before HW Portland. For us that meant arriving there at 18:00 but no earlier. It was 42 miles so meant leaving at 10:00. We would have tide with us for 3 hours and then tide against for the next 5 hours. The wind had picked up from the SW at a steady 20 knots peeking out at 28 knots, so for the first 3 hours we managed to average nearly 7 knots. Far quicker than anticipated but with the tide against us this would reduce this. At least I had hoped so, but we found ourselves in an unusual position for Lunar Sea, we were going too fast and needed to slow down otherwise we would arrive at the Bill with the tide against us. I altered course to go further into Lyme Bay and reduced the sail to make it a little easier. Finally, we arrived off the Bill at exactly 18:00. We actually sailed around the Bill with 27 knots of wind from the Southwest, and altered course to come up the East side of Portland with a favourable current all the way to Weymouth – I love it when a plan comes together. Arriving at Weymouth at 19:45, a tiring and yet exhilarating day of sailing, but we were glad to arrive alongside the town quay and a quiet, less windy berth. Along the way we would be visited by about 20 dolphins that came and played around us and went as quickly as they came to visit another passing yacht. An hour and a half later they would return to give us another terrific display of their talents.