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Published: July 28th 2016
Our Last Views of Guernsey
with another light & fortificationOur sail from Guernsey to Dartmouth, UK was a pleasant one and actually took less time than we had projected due to our help from the current. We set sail from Guernsey at 8:15AM and docked in Dartmouth by 8 PM. We try to plan a passage so we can get into a new port during daylight – it is always great when the tides give us an extra boost. Our only real “close encounter” on our trip over was when Bob was on the helm and Janice was down resting. Bob saw a freighter coming and was watching it closely. It got to the point that he felt he should call them on the radio which he did. The freighter reassured Bob that we would be OK and that he would pass us without a problem. That sounded fine, but as Bob kept a close eye on it, it didn’t appear that would be the case. He called the freighter again and said “you are making me nervous” and he got the answer “we will be fine”, but Bob decided that was not the case so took evasive action which definitely got Janice up on deck in a hurry. Janice
got to see the tail end of the freighter closer than either of us would ever like to be again! Typically we find that freighters are very good at projecting their crossing with smaller boats and making small adjustments in their direction, but as Bob says, this guy seemed to be asleep at the wheel.
Fortunately after that bit of excitement the rest of the trip was a pleasant one. Dartmouth is located a short distance in from the mouth of the River Dart. As you enter the river you are first greeted by the Dartmouth Castle on your left and the Kingswear Castle on your right – quite a greeting indeed. You can anchor here but with the tides one of the rules of the harbor patrol is that they want you to be onboard during the changing of the tides. This is a very common sense rule especially with how busy this river is; therefore we decided to take a spot on a pontoon. For those not familiar with this idea it is a floating dock near the side of the river, but not attached to the mainland. As a result you cannot walk to shore, necessitating
On Our Way to Dartmouth - We Saw Seaweed,
Naval Ships, Freighters & a Light Ship in Service your use of your dinghy or you can take the water taxi provided for the equivalent of about $2.70 each way. It is a very clever idea as you can get more boats into a space than if boats were allowed to anchor. Another bonus is that as you are tied to the pontoon, you don’t have to worry about being away from the boat during the turning of the tide. This is especially important if you want to do lots of exploring which we typically do.
When we first arrived it was the day before the Classic Boat Rally therefore it was quite hectic. For the next 3 days we saw numerous classic sailboats in the harbor, but fortunately for us we got to see them all on the last day as they had a parade of boats which went right past us. We had front row seats for it while sitting on the stern of our own boat – what a treat!
When we arrived we didn’t have any plan of how long we would be here, but we have found it an excellent base to work from so are still here in Dartmouth. When we
Our Close Encounter of the BIG kind
photos taken AFTER evasive action by Captain Bob enter a new country one of the first things we needed to get is a sim card for our iPad and phone as this makes is easier to be able to get weather reports and stay in contact with the world news. Surprisingly there were none to be found in Dartmouth so the visitor center suggested we take a bus to Paignton – our first bus trip was planned for us!
The buses used here are double-decker buses which we found worked out great as the hedgerows are very high and if you weren’t sitting on the top deck you would miss out on all the scenery as well as viewing the beautiful homes and gardens along the way. We were on a mission in Paignton so didn’t explore too much as it was near the end of the day. With our sim cards purchased, we stopped at a Lidl’s grocery store (we were first introduced to these in Portugal), had a coffee and hopped back on the bus to Dartmouth. We were very impressed already with the beautiful rolling hills with plenty of fields lined with hedgerow – an enjoyable view of the Devon countryside with plenty of
sheep and cows to complete the picture!
We learned that there was a guided tour of Dartmouth that we could book so jumped on that opportunity. It was a 90 minute wander around the town with a very knowledgeable person who filled us in on the history of the town. The biggest surprise was to find out that many of the areas that we had been walking on had been water! Over the years this area had been filled in which explained why some of the warehouses that we saw were not near the river anymore.
Many of the older buildings in town are narrower at the base with overhangs with the upper floors. We found out that this was similar to other places we have visited here in Europe. The reasons were the same as it was due to the tax laws. Here the taxes were based on the area at street level which caused many to make the upper floors larger with these “bump outs”. When it comes to taxes, people have been clever of how to work the system for centuries!
We visited the small Dartmouth Museum in town and were impressed with what
This Stone Daymark Was Built in 1864
and can be seen a long way off before entering it did have. We learned that Dartmouth has had a long maritime history due to its all weather sheltered harbor. There was a wealth of skilled labor here by the middle of the 12
th century so it was a natural area for those leaving in the 2
nd Crusade to assemble here – in 1147 there were 164 ships from various nations here in the River Dart that left for the Holy Lands. Again 47 years later Richard the Lion-Hearted left from here for the 3
rd Crusade. Numerous famous explorers such as Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake are associated with this area. Raleigh actually was given property by the Queen along the River Dart as a result of the wealth he obtained from his travels. In the 16
th & 17
th Century this area was part of what was called the Triangle Trade Route. Cod fish from Newfoundland was the base of this triangle route. Ships took salt from the Bay of Biscay to Newfoundland for salting the cod fish, the fish then was transported to Spain and the Mediterranean to be traded for dried fruit, wine and oranges. The remaining fish were brought back to Dartmouth in exchange for timber used
for building of mast and spars for the next year’s ships. The Dartmouth area was known for its large oak forests. Any profits from this trade went into building the merchants homes and numerous other buildings in the town of Dartmouth. Numerous improvements with plans to reclaim land and develop the quayside developed with the growth of the town. By 1863 the HMS Britannia was stationed in the River Dart for the training of its naval cadets. A 2
nd ship was added two years later. This helped the local economy as the town supplied their needs and tourism started. The actually Naval College building that we see today was opened in 1905 and is still very active. Daily we see numerous military boats plying the river with their trainees. The first time we looked out our window to see a “warship” with soldiers on board holding rifles, it was a bit of a surprise, but now this is the norm. Fortunately we can also see the yellow marker on the end of the rifle showing that they are loaded with blanks! The Royal Regatta started on the River Dart in 1840 and by 1896 it had become so popular it
saw 235 ships here for that years’ regatta. The Regatta continues and is still a very popular event here. During WWI many of the men of this area fought in Europe while 600 German POW’s came here and worked on the farms that were missing their men due to the war effort. This area was an important one during WWII. The Philip Shipbuilding Company located on the Dart River was where numerous American landing craft were assembled for the invasion at Utah Beach in Normandy. American soldiers trained here with the assistance of the Naval College for their upcoming D-Day campaign. Close by in Slapton Sands the area was evacuated of all its inhabitants with none of them being told why. The reason was that it had similar features to the beaches in Normandy so it was an excellent area to train the American troops. Unfortunately during a night exercise nicknamed Operation Tiger German E boats invaded and killed more than 700 American soldiers that were training. Of the 5,000 ships that headed to Normandy on June 5, 1944 485 of them took off from Dartmouth taking a full day to clear the mouth of the river. Even with the
heavy losses during training, it was felt that the extensive training that occurred in this area, was a major benefit to them on D-Day. The large loss of life during training was not publically distributed until well after the war as it was felt that this information would have definitely hurt morale.
In a room next to the museum there is what is called the Jesse Ceiling. It is a plastered ceiling depicting the family tree of Jesus based on the prophecy of Isaiah. It is thought to date from 1635 made by itinerant Italian craftsmen. It is thought to be the only one of its kind. During the reformation it had not been destroyed even though it was religious in nature as it was located in a private individual home and was not discovered. It is unusual in that it was put into a room with a low ceiling so it cannot easily be viewed unless you were laying on the floor, but have included a few photos of this unique ceiling.
Another claim to fame that Dartmouth has is that it was were the Mayflower and Speedwell anchored from August 21 – 31, 1620 in order
to have repairs done on the Speedwell as she had been leaking. They then took off from here with the aim of reaching the New World, but unfortunately the Speedwell was leaking again and they had to go into port in Plymouth. Eventually the Speedwell had to be abandoned and the Mayflower took off on her own. Some think that the crew of the Speedwell may have hampered the repairs as they did not want to leave. A few of them that were on the Speedwell moved onboard the Mayflower but the rest remained in England. As many may know Plymouth seems to get the credit for being the jumping off place for the Mayflower, but Dartmouth definitely puts their claim in as well!
For those of you that are engineers you may already know this tidbit of information but we learned that Thomas Newcomen, the inventor of the atmospheric engine came from Dartmouth. What may you ask is an atmospheric engine and what is important about it? The shallow coal mines were running out and they needed to start using deep well mines, however they would fill up with water. Also tin mining was important in the area
and they too had problems with water. At this time the only sources of power were man, beast (oxen and horse) and wind or waterwheel. In many situations these later two were not practical due to the location. The engine Newcomen developed in 1712 was the answer in that it worked on the principle of creating a vacuum in a cylinder. It did not need a strong boiler to bring water up to atmospheric pressure to create steam and therefore was easier to construct. This was the answer to the mining industry as it worked to pump the water out of the mines. It wasn’t the most efficient engine ever, but it worked and allowed the deep well mining to continue. It was the first engine to be used and it got people thinking that machines could do the work of men. Quite an accomplishment and a revolutionary idea for the times.
Dartmouth has been an enjoyable stop not only for the town itself, but has worked out well as there are numerous buses from here to neighboring towns and villages. We have taken advantage of these by taking day trips to many of them. To keep the number
of photos down on this blog entry, I’ll break up the blog and put information in on those towns in another entry and concentrate on Dartmouth with this one.
Dartmouth is right across the river from the town called Kingswear. There is a passenger ferry that can take you across as well as a car ferry called the “Lower Ferry”. The car ferry is quite unique as it is powered by a tug that is attached alongside. From what we hear this is the only one of its kind. There is another car ferry in Dartmouth called “the upper ferry” which runs on an underwater cable. It is actually considered part of the road and is shown on maps that way – as such it is considered a floating bridge. It had been a paddlewheel ferry, but a few years ago it was upgraded to a larger ferry which can carry twice the number of cars at a time. Using this ferry saves 3 hours of driving time. As we were told anyone using a GPS in their car needs to be sure they understand that this floating bridge stops working at 11PM so you should plan accordingly!
Early on when here we contacted our friends, Sandi & Colin who live in the area. We met them when we were in London in the winter of 2013 and traveled with them to Chatham and Rochester UK in the spring of 2014. They drove over to visit us in Dartmouth – we had such a lovely time having dinner and catching up in a local pub. We were sorry that Colin had to work the next day as we talked until quite late. It is so wonderful to catch up with friends like this – thanks Sandi & Colin for making the drive over to see us!
One of the days we took a lovely walk out to the Dartmouth Castle at the mouth of the river. We found that in fact there only a few parts of the Dartmouth Castle remaining, parts of a fort and the St. Petrox Church is located here as well. In fact the bells of the church were ringing constantly while there so we took a wander over to see what was happening. We found that it was Sea Sunday which is celebrated once every year. It is when there is a
blessing given to all the ships at the harbor and then a service is given for all those that work at sea – it is to support and care for seafarers around the world. We saw many of the sea cadets from the Britannia Royal Naval College here for the service and had a chance to talk to a few before going into the church. It is a training program that students can start at the age of 10 consisting of both males and females. They train during the summer months and can eventually join the Navy. When we went inside the church it had numerous items that were not typically found in a church – today they had models of ships, numerous maritime flags flying and they even had at one of the altars a paddle and a surfboard. They were making sure they were covering all that were on the water in their service today. This church has been located here since 1192. The bells were ringing constantly as the bell ringer trainees were having a training session with numerous people working the bells – it definitely got everyone’s attention in the area!
The actual Dartmouth Castle
Sea Sunday at St. Petrox Church Celebrating
those at sea -a surfboard, paddle & boat model on display was built in 1388 and all that remains of the original is part of a wall and a tower. Between 1481 and 1495 a Gun tower was built to carry guns, it is the earliest surviving one of its kind in the UK. Additions to the fortification were made during the 16
th century under Henry VIII and again in the 17
th century. The 19
th century addition of the Gun Battery was used up through WWI and WWII. It is obvious from this location that you can see how well protected the River Dart was as there was also a smaller fortification on the other side of the river called the Kingswear Castle. An underwater chain was stretched between the Kingwear and Dartmouth Castle which would be used in case of any attack at the mouth of the River. The chain would be raised to stop any enemy boats from passing. A simple but effective means of attack.
Dartmouth is definitely a tourist town and we understand why. The beauty of the river and all that it has to offer with numerous ways to tour it – there are river boats that travel up and down from Dartmouth to Totnes,
boats that take you to Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway; a ferry that will take you to a neighboring village, Dittisham; a paddlewheel boat that will take you on a tour of the river or down to the Dartmouth Castle and the 2 car ferries and 1 passenger ferry that will take you across the river. One of the attractions is what is called the Round Robin Tour. It will actually incorporate a river boat trip, a bus ride, a ferry ride and a steam train ride all within 1 day! This can be done in total or you can pick a section of it to do. The steam engine powered train actually leaves from the other side of the river in Kingswear. The irony is that there is a railroad station in Dartmouth. We were told that it is the only train station in the UK that has never had a railroad track run by it! The original plan was to bring the train to Dartmouth but the builder found out that the King would not allow a bridge to ever cross the River Dart so instead it had to end in Kingswear. As a result the passenger ferry
picks up at the end of the train tracks in Kingswear and brings people to Dartmouth which was where the station was actually located. It is not used as a station anymore but it is now a restaurant. Quite an unusual situation indeed.
We have taken the ferry to Kingswear and visited the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury. It has stood on that site since 1170, however, only the tower remains of the original church. After touring the church we had decided to take a walk that had been mentioned in one of our numerous brochures we picked up at the visitor center. We started on the walk, but it took us down to the water’s edge and we were to head out toward the Kingswear Castle. As the tide was coming in, we didn’t get too far. They hadn’t mentioned how close to the water the walk was so guess we will have to wait for low tide before trying it again.
Recently we decided to take the river trip from Dartmouth to Totnes. We could have done this with Tsamaya with the tide (or at least part of it), but we knew that we would
Napoleonic Prisoners of War
carving bone which was locally called "ivory" learn more about the area with their narrative and it was a much more relaxing way to see the area than worrying about our depths and maneuvering through the winding channel. One of the most interesting “villages” we saw actually was made up of only 3 houses! This occurred years ago as the enumerators reported that there were 100 people living here, rather than 10. It never was corrected therefore this is still on the books as a village. One place of interest pointed out to us was Agatha Christie’s summer home, Greenway which is also open to the public. It is located near another property that had been owned by Sir Walter Raleigh. This area is preserved and is still covered in woods. We were told that otters live in this section of the river, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see any – instead we did see plenty of egrets and a heron. By going up the river just a short distance from where we are we had a chance to see one of the naval training vessels (HMS Hindostan) that is permanently moored at their waterfront base. It was one of the original two ships moored within
The Jesse Ceiling is Done in Plaster
and we saw it when we went to the museum the river that had made up the original Naval College. They started training on these ships in 1863 before the current building was constructed and opened in 1905. All of the British Royals have trained here. We were told that this was also where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip first met!
Many tourists that come with children go “crabbing” along the quay here in Dartmouth. Many are very successful indeed using bacon as bait. Bob figures that it is a real waste of good bacon, but the families really enjoy it. We found that they are all caught and then released for the next group of kids to try to catch. The sea gulls definitely are on high alert for when they are returned to the water, but fortunately most of the crabs get away for another time. There are numerous fishing boats that off load their catch of crab both in Dartmouth and Kingswear. We got talking to one of the boats and found out that the season runs from May through December. Their day typically starts about 4AM and ends about 5 or 6PM as they must go one or two hours before getting to their protected
The Lower Ferry in Dartmouth is Very Unusual
as it is operated by a tug connected to the side fishing grounds. The area is reserved for crabbing so trawlers can’t use that same area. The particular boat we spoke to was one of the smaller ones and it typically brings in about 15-20 pots. Each pot weighs about 60 kilo with each kilo bringing in the equivalent of about $2. This would mean on a daily basis the gross income would be $1,350 - $1,800. Of course this is for only part of the year and does not take into consideration the costs of diesel, maintenance of the ship, wages, bait and other supplies. Just the pots alone cost about $68. Quite interesting to find out more of the details on this type of life.
We had planned to leave Dartmouth quite some time ago, but Bob has been having problems with pain in his hip and leg. The hip pain started just before leaving the Netherlands, but the leg pain started while in France. He went to a PT while in Guernsey to check on some of the exercises he was doing to be sure they were the correct ones to do, but in fact since then the leg pain has taken over. Bob is able to
The Britannia Royal Naval College
dominates the hillside in Dartmouth move around, but he has been having difficulty so the safety officer Janice decided it would be best to stay put for a little while longer in case he needed to seek medical attention again. Last week Bob did see a Dr. and he was given some pain meds and told to try them for a week. He has been doing so, but the ability to do his exercises hasn’t gotten much better. Fortunately this week he was able to see a PT here in Dartmouth who did a very thorough work up and gave him some very useful information that hopefully will help. Again, we could move, but a few more days here isn’t a bad idea as he finds out if he can do more without pain. Not a bad place to be caught as it has good grocery stores; plenty of things to see and a nice pontoon to be tied to so there are no worries about the boat no matter what the weather. It was definitely good that our plans this summer were to relax and go slow – that we are definitely doing!
Will fill you in on the various day trips we
took from here in another entry as this has turned into a long enough one for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! We finally got some nice weather with lots of sunshine for a few days, however, we could always use some of that heat that everyone keeps telling us about in the US – please send it our way – we would enjoy a few more degrees of heat here. We still keep our umbrella and raincoat close at hand as you never know what each day will bring in the way of weather.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Evasive action
My heart was pumping reading about the freighter.