The wind had died down overnight and the new forecast was west then southwest force 4. Our original plan had been to go to Dartmouth but a sailing friend had told me it was Dartmouth week, would be packed out, so we altered plans to Salcombe. The tide was with us us from 0800hrs but with the wind forecasted to go southwest we didn’t want to get on an ebbing tide.
I lifted the anchor at 0750hrs and Vicki motored Elektra out of Cawsands. Calm to start with but by halfway across Plymouth Sound the swell from the day before was still running. Again l took over the helm, l had set the genoa but there wasn’t much wind so we continued to motor sail towards Bolt Head about 12nm to the southeast. We continued like this all the way, turning into Salcombe at local high water having logged 18nm in 3hrs.
Plenty of yachts moving today in both directions around Start Point! l am sure some skippers don’t know about tidal streams and Plymouth is a half tide port, the stream continues to go east 3hrs after high water.
We motor sailed upto Salcombe Bar before rolling away the genoa, motored in and up the river to anchor off Frogmore Creek at 1200hrs having logged 21.5nm. Our fastest GPS speed was 8.7kts. The plan is to stay here for 4 nights to properly enjoy the place we have only been able to visit fleetingly over the past 19 seasons on about 5 occasions.
Love Sailing 