Dartmouth & Kingswear

Thursday 19th April
Time to say goodbye to the River Yealm but also excited to head to Dartmouth and Kingswear. A lovely day to voyage onto the ocean again although we suffered with fickle, light airs so the engine was called into service once again. We encountered our fair share of bumpy turbulence along the coast but once we had rounded Start Point lighthouse and headed north towards Dartmouth the sea smoothed out and we enjoyed the ride.

Start Point lighthouse.

Favourable tides got us into the River Dart ahead of schedule and we were soon alongside at Darthaven marina a place well known to Distant Drummer but less familiar to us. Her previous owners had lived aboard at Darthaven and when we checked in at the marina office they remembered DD and were pleased to have her back again if only for a  couple of days.

Darthaven.

We made the most of the Mediterranean weather conditions to carry out minor repairs and clean Distant Drummer. Boats need lots of TLC so we always try to keep ours spring cleaned whenever we get the opportunity.

Floating odd job man.

The views from our berth at Darthaven were fantastic and we also made the most of the foot passenger ferry to explore Dartmouth on the opposite side of the river.

Cabin window view.

The Dart is a very busy river with frequent ferry crossings and fishing boats. The Kingswear side is also serviced by the Dartmouth Steam Railway company taking tourists up the river to visit 'Greenway', the holiday home of Agatha Christie and filming venue for some of the TV dramatisations.

We made the trip on foot along a riverside trail which turned out to be quite a challenge with some steep ascents and descents.

Bluebells in Hoodown woods.

Dittisham 'lake' upstream from Greenway.

The walk was worth it as we were really impressed with 'Greenway' which brought us in touch with the famous author's life filled with family artefacts largely untouched since the time she lived there. We treated ourselves to a ride back down to Dartmouth on the connecting ferry.

Greenway House.

Murder mysteries!

Just before we went to bed on Friday night fireworks erupted from the hillside just beneath the Britannia Royal Naval College. We later found out that the display was to celebrate a passing out ceremony for new naval officer graduates. Dartmouth and Kingswear are fabulous places.

Fireworks.