We spent a further two lovely days in the beautiful and calm Dittisham (also known by locals at 'Dittsum' - think Devon accent....) We had a view of the very pink Ferry Inn on one side and the quay for Greenway, on the other. Greenway is the estate where Agatha Christie's mansion house sits. We had seals pop up next to the boat and tour boats including a paddle steamer passing and ferries from Dartmouth passing by. The weather was a bit rainy so a long lunch at the pub was called for and then it brightened up a bit the next day so we had a lovely walk over the hill, round a creek and across farmland to Dartmouth, followed by lunch and a ferry back to Dittisham.
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| Dittisham |
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| Dittisham |
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| Dittisham |
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| After lunch! |
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| Our home in Dittisham |
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| Walk to Dartmouth |
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| Dartmouth |
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| Exploring Dartmouth with a fuel can and a bit of rope! |
We totally loved the River Dart; Carolyn went as far as to say it's her favourite place we have been (Andrew's fav so far is Mevagissey). We had a dilemma as we need to get back to the Solent and Wednesday had good wind, maybe a bit too much and rain or the following days were supposed to be light winds and of course rain... So we left about 8.30am in morning in the rain and wind - oh joy!
The trip from Dartmouth to Yarmouth was about 84 miles and took us 11 hours with very little tide assistance - amazing speed again Askari. It rained for the first hour and then we managed to get ourselves into a hole with dramatic rain clouds all around us and we sailed all the way in that hole. The rain came just after we arrived at Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. The wind was behind us at 20-25knots most of the way and the sea was about 2metres or more, so it gave us a chance to test our Atlantic Crossing set up, with the jib poled out and the preventer on the main sail. It was a really tiring day as we gybed the sails three times, each time we got a bit faster; there is a lot of bits of rope to get run correctly, but the set up is really secure. We also had to get our tide gates correct at Portland Bill and the Needles Passage - tick well done skipper, we had no overfalls to deal with today which pleased Carolyn alot - overfalls have fast begun the thing I get stressed about.....
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| View from bedroom window this morning |
We often listen to the coast guard calls on the radio when we are sailing - today we heard an exchange between a war ship and solent coastguard - the war ship was sent to find a dinghy floating with a beer keg in it!!
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| Arrival at the Needles |
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