Plymouth to Dartmouth

We have enjoyed a very social time recently. We were joined in Plymouth, first by John a friend of Bob's who lives there now, and then by Joan and Ian from back home in Brighton We explored Plymouth, both shoreside and sea, and did the coastal walk from the river Yealm to Wembury Bay.
Moving onto Dartmouth we met up with more friends, Helen and Andy who live here, and had an unexpected encounter with Matt and Elise from Brighton marina.

Start Point Lighthouse.

The weather has turned gloriously hot for the first time since April!!

Dartmouth is full of ornate old buildings. 

The view from the boat.

Took a trip up river almost to Totnes.

Nearly home now...

fowey

One last picture of Falmouth before leaving for Fowey. We left in beautiful conditions, unlike yesterday when we left in rain and fog but had to turn back due to finding a handbag that didn't belong to us on the boat. We returned it to its owner who then, full of unnecessary guilt cooked us a lovely meal on her boat.

  This time we were actually able to see the lighthouse, much better day to set off, I don't know why we bothered yesterday at all.

 Sailed all the way to Fowey, tied up on the town quay for a few hours of looking arround then out onto a mooring bouy for the night.

Sailing in Falmouth Harbour

We were joined in Falmouth By Pauline and Chris.  

Sailed up the river, passing some unexpectedly big boats at the top.

Whitehaven to Falmouth via Wales.

We left Cumbria with every intention of making a swift passage to Lands End, with only a few overnight stops. However...Having decided to stop at Bangor overnight and negotiate the Menai Straight, we found that after the Swellies it was necessary to spend a night in Carnarvon to get the tide right for the Bar.
This was just long enough for the weather to change.

We made a good passage down to Fishguard but from there it became very lumpy and we had to pull into Milford Haven to wait for suitable conditions for Landsend.
The tail end of Hurricanes  Elaine, Lee and Katia steamed across the Atlantic one after another, while we waited.
It seemed sensible to use the time to hire a car and head home to visit family, which we did for a week. Unfortunately we returned without the camera, so a bit low on pictures for this blog.
We waited a further week before setting off again in very favourable conditions (though with a two metre swell) for the trip round to Falmouth, arriving after a twentyfour hour sail.
This was the only trip during which we saw dolphins at close quarters and in significant numbers. They joined us just after midnight and stayed with the boat for several hours jumping and diving in our bow wave.  We looked out for them again next day but they didn't appear.

Lands End

Longships Lighthouse. Taken from my phone.