The very last day of September – and what a scorcher! Apparently the hottest September day on record – and here we are on a boat on the River Dart!
I took John a cup of tea this morning nice and early to repay yesterdays favour – this was at 6.45! Its nice to have a good slow start though isnt it. We only planned to go to Dartmouth today as we have a few bits and pieces to do in Brixham before we leave, and I wanted to do a bit of boat manoeuvering too in this fine weather. Substantial radiation fog this morning, so we were happy to wait a little anyway whilst this cleared.
It was good to see Zoe again in SWMT office, and it felt as if I had never left there back in July to continue my trip around Britain. She told me how Larry Lamb wandered into the office the other day to find a quiet space to tape a voice over as he was here to film handing over a lottery cheque – seems I arrived too late!
(Photo to be inserted here when internet allows)
We eventually slipped the lines at Brixham, and John has created a route on the chart plotter with 6 way points, so he is gradually losing the title of technophobe – maybe I can teach him to cook one dish before he leaves??
Past Berry Head, as optimistic as ever, we raised the main sail and unfurled the head sail and hoped the 5 knots of wind would fill them just a little……alas no – we just had to enjoy the sunshine and rely on the tide to help us along the way as we kept the engine power as low as we could get away with.
I have been in Dartmouth many times, thanks to my lovely friend Nic Nac, Stu and Fred, but this is the first time I have come in as skipper, so it didnt feel quite as relaxing as before, and a glass of pimms was a long way from my mind! However, I always get a thrill coming into Dartmouth, the approach is stunningly beautiful and it just continues along the way.
We by passed Dartmouth and headed up the River Dart towards Dittisham, and my camera came out
It really is beautiful. I lassoed a mooring buoy and we settled down to a lovely evening, pumped up the dinghy then prepared our evening meal which I left to one side whilst we made our way to the shore for a pint.
We avoided the Ferry Boat Inn as Rick had told us there was a lovely pub up the hill.
We indeed walked “up the hill”, kept going, and wondered if Rick had given us a duff lead. A delivery van drove past us, so slowly as the lanes are really narrow, so I asked him if we were heading in the right direction to a pub. He crinkled his nose and said, well, there is a bit of a funny one up there on the right, its a post office really, so I was really losing my confidence in Ricks local info. However, the views from up the hill were stunning
So we didnt feel the walk to be a waste anyway.
The pub – The Red Lion, was indeed a post office too, but certainly well worth the walk. The tourist all busy in the Ferry Inn, we had a real find up here – and the views from their beer garden fabulous
We discovered what the local delivery man meant when he said it was a post office really!
The pub that is a post office too!
Lovely beer in front of me, and John produces the cards to test me on my buoyage…….! A pint of 4.5% beer inside me really seemed to help memory recall – honestly! Maybe it is something I could think about as a strategy for my yachtmaster next weekend??? Perhaps not!
Two pints only, staying sensible – back to the boat to eat the dinner I had already prepared – perfect! This lovely day was complete by sitting on the bow with a glass of wine looking wistfully up at the stars – perfect! Goodnight!
