Zorts Lives: Fowey River to Plymouth to River Yealm to Dartmouth

We left the Fowey River about two weeks ago and sailed to Plymouth, where we first landed when we left Cherbourg. We returned for a few days to the Mayflower Marina, doing laundry and having some new equipment installed.

We now have two multi-purpose instrument displays at both helm stations. We also got an AIS transponder installed, so that we will be visible to other vessels using AIS. If you want to see where we are, take a look at Marine Traffic, one of a number of sites that offer AIS tracking information. We won't necessarily be transmitting AIS all the time (there's not much point while we're in port), but our most recent location should be shown. Finally, we added a dedicated WiFi router that accepts cellular SIM cards, so our Internet access will hopefully be a bit more consistent.

While in Plymouth we took several outings, exploring. Ferries are a common mode of transportation in these southern port towns, and we started by taking a trip across the Tamar River to its west bank via the Cremyll Ferry. We walked from Cremyll to Cawsand, passing through the formal gardens of Mount Edgcumbe, past ruins, sheep pastures and churchyards.

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We had planned to take a ferry from Cawsand back to Plymouth, but it had mechanical problems and we wound up taking a bus back to Cremyll, and then yet another ferry from Cremyll to the Barbican, the site of the Mayflower Steps in the middle of Plymouth.

As we walked back to the marina along the waterfront, a submarine coasted past on its way to the Atlantic.

We also took a short train trip up the River Tamar to visit Cotehele, another National Trust location.

We didn't spend the entire time in Plymouth on the dock; we also spent a night anchored in "Dandy Hole", a deep spot in the Lynher River, a tributary to the Tamar. We went up the river on a rising tide (so we would float off if we went aground...), very carefully following the channel, and then feeling our way around the edges of the anchorage by depth sounder, searching for a spot deep enough to keep us off the bottom at low tide, but not in the channel where we would impede other boat traffic. There were other boats anchored in the hole that we needed to stay away from, so it was a bit tricky.

We were rewarded in the morning by a magnificent sunrise, over dead-calm water.

We quickly dressed, dropped the dinghy into the water, and took a few pictures of Idril.

Pictures taken, we headed still further up-river for our meeting with Pete and Tracey Goss. Their boat, Pearl of Penzance, was the Exploration 45 that we saw at Annapolis two years earlier - leading to our purchase of Idril. They picked us up at the dock at the St. Germans Sailing Club and drove us around the southeast corner of Cornwall, showing us some of their favorite places and treating us to tea and pasties.

The St. German's Viaduct

St. Michael's Chapel on Rame Head

Our visit with Pete and Tracey was not as long as we would have liked; we had to get back to the boat before the tide got too low for even our dinghy. We spent another night at anchor and then returned to Plymouth for a few more days of laundry, shopping and boat work. In particular, as noted earlier, we finally got an AIS transceiver installed, so that other boats with AIS will be aware of our position. You, too, can track us now!

From Plymouth we sailed a short distance to the River Yealm, where we spent a few nights and did more exploring. This was our first experience staying on a "pontoon" - basically a dock that is anchored and not connected to shore. It was also the first time we have been rafted on; shortly after arrival, another boat tied up along side of us. This is pretty common in busy harbors, and in many places the boats can be three deep.

As usual, we went ashore and walked.

Looking at the entrance to the river

Another shadow selfie

We had expected our next stop to be Salcombe, but we got an early enough start and had good enough winds to instead sail around Start Point and on to Dartmouth, where we have been since Monday, October 12th, waiting for fair winds to take us on to Poole, on the far side of "Portland Bill". We'll probably leave Dartmouth this coming Tuesday morning at first light.

Meanwhile - more outings. We took a coal-fired steam train to Paignton, and then a bus to Totnes, a very old town way up the Dart River. It hosts a Norman keep and a large number of tourist traps.

Closer to Dartmouth, we walked the 16km of the Dart Valley Trail, which includes two crossings of the Dart: the first from west to east on the Dartmouth Higher Ferry (a cable ferry), and then at Dittisham from east to west. While on the Higher Ferry, the train from Kingswear to Paignton passed by.