2nd May 2010 - Brixham - Dartmouth, Dittisham, Stoke Gabriel

[Jeff]

Decided that with the strong forecast northerlies, we'd be better off leaving Tor Bay early so set off on what we thought would be a very sedate sail to Dartmouth in pretty benign conditions. This was the case until the moment we rounded Berry Head to be greeted by 25 knot winds and a developing swell. We were under full sail at the time so heeled over substantially until Rose could secure the now shaking dog, and come out to helm while I put in a reef (reduce the amount of sail we had up). A bouncy few hours, and a motor up the beautiful river Dart and we picked up a visitor's buoy off Dittisham, about 3 miles up river.

This morning we moved even further up river to another visitors buoy off Stoke Gabriel, where we'll ride out these strong northerlies with a lot of shelter - then I think it will be a lovely bank holiday followed by a short week's work hereabouts on the river Dart.