West Country Pubs

[Guest]

Last Whitsun, a planned cross channel trip turned in to a West Country cruise due to thick fog in the English Channel. Heading West across Lyme Bay, I realised the tide would be right for a quick beer tied up to the car park of a local hostelry before heading off to a mooring down river for the night.

A couple of nights later, further west, we were able to tie up at another pub for supper before again moving off to a mooring for the night.

By later in the week, when we headed up the Tamar, the tide was wrong for going alongside at the Crooked Spaniard though it had potential for it. We used the dinghy there.

So, what pubs are there between Portland Bill and the Helford River where you can tie up to pub property and go ashore for a beer, in a fin keeler (say 1.8m draft)?

All ideas appreciated ready for the next cruise.

Cheers

Richard

 

[cgull]

Cawsand Bay has some good pubs,a dinghy ride.(I once phoned Sally Boseman from anchor in the bay,its her home town)
My favourite is Helford River Sailing club,I can take my bilge keeler up to their pontoon on the tide and stay the night,not been charged for this either.Would give the Helford Passage pub a miss, had a bad experience there.

 

[tadpole]

Perhaps you could let us know which were the pubs you did patronise on your cruise.
Chin, chin!

 

[Guest]

e-mail for a list. There are not many where you can actually tie up alongside, but we are used to anchoring and using the dinghy down here.

 

[tonyleigh]

Plenty of pubs but you're not going to tie up alongside with 1.8m. I can think of a couple like the Maltsters' Arms or Steam Packet on the Dart, Turf Lock on the Exe etc where you could with a spring tide and lots of confidence to pilot the channels but the tidal window is short and the mud awful gooey!!! You're really talking bilge-keeler country here and, as other posts have said, the solution is to anchor and dinghy. This would generate, I guess, upwards of 30 pubs before starting to think - and perhaps even more interestingly some outstanding anchorages.

 

[Guest]

Tony

The Steam Packet Inn was the first pub we went to. On a Spring tide, the pilotage is easy and the sailing (where possible) good fun.

I don't think there is enough water enough at high tide at the Malsters Arms for Boozeroo.

Richard

 

[Guest]

Ok, the Steam Packet Inn at Totnes and the Pandora Inn at Restronguet on the Fal.

As others have said, there are lots of pubs you can use a dinghy to get to, but I really enjoy actually taking the yacht there!

 

[LadyInBed]

Wareham Quay – but not with 1.8 of Badger Draft under you.
Good crack on their carnival w/e.

 

[tonyleigh]

To be honest it's not a great pub either though a superb spot - beer's reasonable but food is disappointing. Usually choose an evening tide and anchor off entrance to cook a meal before going up for night and drink. Bow Ck is indeed a different proposition from the Totnes arm but the channel is well marked if twisty and rather narrow. For a boat that can dry it makes a great overnight stop - some 2 - 21/2 hrs either side of hw drawing a metre.