A long weekend on the boat.

Have you tired that Pizza place in the Harbour Masters office building? Amazing... The Stable I think it is called?


No but we might sneak in for a late brunch / early lunch prior to departure. It's a funny little place from the street it just looks like a doorway.

I shall let you know.

The things I do for this forum. I get no pleasure from all this pizza eating and beer drinking. It's bad enough I have to do massage reviews for the Thailand tourist board quality control division when I'm out there.

Some people just spend their whole lives taking a hit for the troops.

Henry :)
 
No but we might sneak in for a late brunch / early lunch prior to departure. It's a funny little place from the street it just looks like a doorway.

I shall let you know.

The things I do for this forum. I get no pleasure from all this pizza eating and beer drinking. It's bad enough I have to do massage reviews for the Thailand tourist board quality control division when I'm out there.

Some people just spend their whole lives taking a hit for the troops.

Henry :)

It is very very good and I like my stone baked pizza....they also have a wide range of Ciders and the last time I ate there I sat next to the Finnish Olympic Medallists and watched our man Mo storm into gold during the Olympics the whole place went bonkers...The sailor in questions was a very attractive red head which made the dining experience that little bit more special..
 
What ever !

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Henry :)
 
Day 3 of our long weekend

When a marketing guru of Richard's esteem tells you the Pizza is good you know it's going to be worth the 19 flights of stairs it takes to arrive at the Pizza and cider emporium they call The Stable. Quite how they got the horses up the stairs remains a mystery, there is a small lift, perhaps they were miniature Weymouth ponies. We will never know - I can report the pizza is good, perfect to set you up for a Lyme Bay crossing.

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We took the race close in which means you can pretty much see the end point when you enter. Timing is critical and we got it pretty much spot on although the crossing was a bit rougher than I was expecting. Not to the point of being uncomfortable, I was just expecting a little better. Once into the leg things settled down and we plodded on Westwards. I'm always amazed by how good radar is on transits like this. You have very little to do other than take periodic position fixes so you play with the radar. How soon will we overtake that vessel, can we see the radar target with our eyes and so on.

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A small pod of dolphins played around off in the distance for a while. They launched themselves out of the water before crashing back down with a while splash. The obligatory wake shot with no land in sight and a quick snap of the chart plotter showing us a long way from anywhere and then Dartmouth came into view. Well I say it came into view, from the East there is nothing that indicates Dartmouth exists. The first time we visited I was convinced we'd dropped a clanger. As with so many ports trust your charts and navigation. The entrance will appear eventually.

I'm not going to try and describe what greets you on arrival at Dartmouth, my words couldn't do it justice so I'll let the photos do their job. The sun broke through what was a rather dull sky on arrival to welcome us as warmly as the Harbour authorities had done previously. A night tied up safely to number 1 deep water pontoon, dinner on board before popping into town on the dinghy for a quick pint. Not a bad day at all.

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Henry:)
 
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Well done Henry, you got a pic of 'that' house - the one with what looks like a mountain railway behind. I don't know how they got planning permission or how it survives the weather!

Nice pics and report - thanks for posting. Coming round to Salcombe?
 
Nice pics, thanks

The inside route round the Bill is much closer in than that, like 50 yards from land, then the water stays calm. You can see there's no waves breaking on the rocks.
 
Henry,

I love Weymouth quay, always look forward to that stop off before the jaunt across Lyme Bay.

Alas, this year we booked a Med holiday after two carp UK summers on the boat. This year the weather's been mostly brilliant. Typical....:(

Enjoy your trip west, I'm extremely jealous. Oh and keep the pics coming...
 
Day 4 of our long weekend

Slight to moderate with Lyme bay being smooth at first my arse !

The initial part of the trip wasn't so bad, a steady 20 knots , bit of a lump in the sea but nothing we couldn't live with. It went downhill from there. Waves rolling in from South America greeted us with monotonous regularity. Every now and again 2 or 3 would combine to get our bow right up in the air in the vague hope it would slam down. Thankfully the P50 tends to land pretty softly - most of the time !

As we turned to starboard with each new waypoint the waves turned from being on the nose to more abeam so as we reached Salcombe I decided to bail out and head for the relative security it offered. I say relative because we still had to get in with rolling waves pushing us along. Once inside there was the obligatory dinghy race just about to start. Thankfully I've been here before, channel 14 to the ready, small channel marked by yellow buoys identified we made contact with the ever friendly harbour staff and 10 minutes later we were tied up to B1 pontoon on The Bag.

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A most excellent dinner at number 55 - new husband and wife team have had the place for 12 weeks. Superb Calamari, good steak & lamb and the best meringue I've ever tasted. Got talking to a couple on the table opposite, the usual stuff, where are you from and so on. Turns out I was more familiar with their area than they expected. My wife should have come from there I joked. Long story short - had my heart broken as a youngster, always joke that I should have married the girl to the current Mrs Henryf who rebukes by telling me she dumped me. Who was that then they asked. When I said her first name they finished the surname for me !!

Photos were taken and no doubt she will get to see what she missed out on, or what a lucky escape she had depending on your point of view :)

You couldn't plan it if you tried.

Henry:)
 
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It is very very good and I like my stone baked pizza....they also have a wide range of Ciders and the last time I ate there I sat next to the Finnish Olympic Medallists and watched our man Mo storm into gold during the Olympics the whole place went bonkers...The sailor in questions was a very attractive red head which made the dining experience that little bit more special..

Might she be anyone from this lot:

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Or maybe:

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Very interesting photos and report, Henry. Again, looking forward for more... Apologies for the drift.
 
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Day 5 of our long weekend

Took the dinghy up to Kingsbridge. A bit late on the tide so didn't stop long. We followed the last ferry up. A pleasant jaunt, the water widens quite dramatically, perfect for sailing. As we headed back down stream we were greeted by a wall of racing dinghies, "pocket rockets" according to the writing. How on earth they avoid killing each other is quite beyond me. Single series racing is always close, in theory everyone goes at the same speed so you either need unique skills or else the ability to barge the other bloke out of the way.

In sailing it's something to do with where the wind is coming from and how likely you are to hit some one. Someone raises a little flag which is a protest, someone else denies everything and the race carries on. Sitting in the middle of all this in our little tender we have no protest flags don't know whether to shout water, space, get out the f*ing way or simply carry on doing our best not to spoil anyone's race. We opt for the latter and actually quite enjoy the spectacle as we eventually all end up heading the same way. Ringside seats.

Just when we start to relax a new race looms into view. Racing Yawls are heading straight for us. Now the pocket rockets have to avoid the Yawls, the Yawls the Pocket Rockets and no one seems that bothered about us. We need 20 other tenders so we too can claim to be in a race.

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Clearly we survived otherwise I wouldn't be typing this but I can tell you racing Yawls throw out a hell of a wash. You wouldn't think it possible but they do. We were bouncing around like a fat bird on a bunjee cord.

Dinner was taken at Dick & Wills place overlooking the harbour. A stunning location, food probably wasn't quite as good as number 55 last night but that says more about the quality of number 55 rather than than any failing on Richard or William's part. Lovely service but what's with the empty champagne bottles on each table ? Someone is trying just a tiny bit too hard.

So what's Salcombe like then? Overall it's lovely. From a natural beauty perspective you could convince yourself you were on a Mediterranean island. The sharp craggy rocks, trees perfectly manicured by the salt water which kills off any growth at the waterline and the lights of the town glistening on the hillside at night. There is a sense of the beautiful people at play, Chelsea must be almost empty. At times the prices are more South of France than south of England as well but people queue up to hand over their money so who cares, and besides, if a Crepe is a fiver rather than £2.50 does it really matter.

It is boaty, very boaty. If you haven't got a rib, dinghy or yacht then you're probably in the wrong place, and these people have been on the water since they were born. Summers spent sailing in the harbour make for some very skilled youngsters which is a good thing because you're going to come across plenty of them. There are nooks and crannies to be discovered, sometimes spoiled by inconsiderate former public school types but in general everyone mucks in. A final word to the harbour staff. Absolutely magnificent, friendly, accommodating and above all well organised. If you haven't been give it a whirl.

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Tomorrow we will be heading for Plymouth.

Henry :)
 
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It's a small world!
The Sealine F43 pictured in a previous post taken at Salcombe is mine.
My 2 dogs are sitting admiring the view.

That night was the worst night we've ever spent on-board. When the tide turned the boat went beam on for about 2 hours and I swear we were pitching at angles close to 45 degrees. It was all we could do to stay in bed! One of the dogs was sick and the other was distraught. SHMBO was both!!
Great post by the way.
 
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