Salcombe
No Prices in the Shop Windows!

Ian Scott asked if I could sail with him in his new Yacht, "Sunart" a kelt 8.5 a lifting keel yacht, to Salcombe, I was very pleased to say "yes! But I must be back for the visit of the grandchildren on the weekend."

The weather forecast was not good but with the rising wind in the North East it was hoped we would have a comfortable sail back.

On the Thursday morning 6th May 2010 Ian called at 08:30hrs. He had already packed but I had lots to take down and even more to fetch from "penn cirrus". Sadly I forgot the list, so forgot the canvas shoes, therefore I was in rubber wellies all the time, Ian was pleased to say how nice his expensive ones were and how they would not make his feet as smelly as mine? Also the cupper soups which could have added a little to our store of food.

It was flat calm, motored out past the Mew stone and into the sea. Heading 120 tried the Ottopilot had difficulty until we selected auto, visibility was poor so identification of the coast line was hard. GPS said we were heading 125˚T, Engine 2400 rev/min and about 5kts. Do lookout for small fishing marks and buoy's but try to keep away from the floating lines which can be yards long with which some attach them to the sinker! The wind did not pick up and we could tell later by the spots in the water how hard it was raining.

From Bolt tail to Bolt head the headlands were interesting but the visibility made deciding which was where we turn in not clear until we were right there. From the Shell pilot book the entrance transits were easy to find and the entrance was not difficult min depth 5m on the Bar, the channel was very quite not much traffic. looked at all the visitor mooring and motored up as far as the

"egremont" turned round came back and picked up a buoy opposite the harbormasters office, sounds nicer than next to the garbage pontoon.

Ian paid £12.15 Mooring & Harbour dues, I think he will want to anchor next time to reduce the cost to half, we got a informative booklet all about

salcombe , but didn't take the shower tokens which were offered!

A small snack for lunch, very tasty, much more so than intended? As I was eating the cheese & onion sandwich that Ian made, I had to look in, but couldn't see any cheese!!! His only comment was when he had tasted it, was he thought the onion was very strong!

A nice walk around the Town, to the Sailing Club, saw the Library and missed the

salcombe yacht club next door, as I was looking over to the Gardens by the river. There were no prices in the shop windows! Well if you need to see the prices you can't afford it! Ian looked for a Chandeliers to see what he wouldn't pay that much for! But only found shops with elegant outfits for showing off, in the very large nice yachts which seemed to be here, he said that compared to these, he felt that his boat was not quite in the same league.

Back out to "Sunart" and a rest, and a nice can of beer. I sewed up my coat so that the multi-tool would not fall out its small pocket, before Ian got down to making the dinner he had planned. The cooker was little on the small side or the frying pan large, he was very tidy with preparing the food and soon had a large pan frying a large Spanish sort of omelet and hot water boiling for potato mash. It tasted much better than I described and Ian is very good with the domestic work on board, apart from Onion Sandwiches. If I get another chance to cruise with him I need to plan & practice for dinner afloat

but in his class of yacht there are limitations.

to my small portable radio. Thursday it was election day and at 10 o'clock the polls closed and exit polls were being discussed. Ian heated up the kettle to wash in, I would have been happier to have used the shower token at the sailing club in the afternoon.

In the morning it was a fresh wind going in the direction of the main channel, Forecast North Easterly,  4-5 Gusting 6 and 7 in the far west, rain later. We decided to go first thing, not wait for the tide flow out at sea, didn't want the gust force 7 to get to us or the rain later. as it was blue skies above and the wind would be with us. Ian asked me what the heading back should be, I was very slow at that and before I could work it out, 5 min. later he said 300 ˚deg. at the head land off the rocks we pulled up the mainsail only to the third reef, had to tie it with a cord as the hooks could not catch this reef eye!

Then down wind an easy ride at 4 to 5kts in what seemed to be Easterly winds. good visibility could see Yelm from Bolt head and when we were at the Yelm Ian said he could see Gribben Head. We arrived at 14:30hrs and had bacon sandwiches to make up for not having much since morning muesli, when we got home his first words to Paulene were that he would rather keep me for a week than a fortnight !!!

Ralph Smith