Advertisement
Published: September 28th 2016
Our original plan was to travel further west along the coast of the UK, but we had to do some hard thinking about this as time was moving on. We had been told of other places to visit and that the Sicily Isles were wonderful, but that you had to be sure of a good weather window to do so. We hadn’t been having the best of weather and we had also wanted to travel east from Dartmouth where we first hit this coastline. In weighing everything we decided it was time to turn around and head east.
Fortunately we had been in touch with some friends of ours, Leslie & Gary from SV Spellbound and heard that they were actually further east and would be getting to Dartmouth about the time we could be there. Another motivation to turn east. We typically try not to return to places we have been (especially one that we had been at for so long before), but we knew it was an easy place to get to and they have excellent pontoons to tie up to. Timing wise we figured we would not stop in Salcombe as we had previously thought as we
Good to have Lighthouses Such as This
to help keep mariners safe along this coastheard that Dartmouth was going to be holding their regatta in a few days. If we were going to have a chance at an opening on the pontoon we wanted to get moving. One thing
We had a wonderful sail back along the coast and spotted a couple more dolphins along the way. We had been told the farther west you travel the more you see, therefore we may not be seeing them much longer, but will can always hope. The coastline is spectacular and we were having good winds from the right direction! While on our way we did hear a pan-pan call on the VHF radio and it sounded like it was close by so kept an eye out. All of a sudden we saw a large naval ship and a LifeBoat coming from opposite directions to answer the call. Interestingly we heard the call again and it mentioned that the boat was having engine problems but when we spotted the fishing boat, it appeared to be moving full steam ahead and even had its fishing nets down! Glad the other boats were close by to respond as they are well trained to handle these situations.
As we had been to Dartmouth it was easy to spot when we were getting close due to the large day marker high on a hill. We didn’t mind getting in at dusk as we were familiar with where the pontoons were located. This time we had to locate on the Kingswear side of the River Dart due to the numerous races that would be occurring on the Dartmouth side. It wasn’t a problem at all and gave us a new advantage point for viewing the two towns located here. The harbor people that come by to pick up your mooring fees welcomed us back – they all knew us from our month long visit previously!
With the regatta starting officially in a few days, but many of the land based activities already started the place had a much busier feel. One of the main roads along the waterfront in town was closed to traffic as they had vendors and rides similar to what you would see at a fair back home. Plenty of food offerings from the traditional hot dogs, burgers and even cotton candy found at any fair to international foods such as thai, paella, crepes and
of course the very locally popular jacketed potatoes. The bandstand in town was busy as it was the venue for a number of musical groups. Fortunately we caught a few of the performances which we really enjoyed.
Crabbing is a popular activity here as well for all ages – it is something to see everyone from youngsters to grandparents spending a few hours catching and releasing crabs. Sidewalk chalk art work was only one of the many activities set up for the kids. We saw advertised in the program a “Waiters and Waitresses Race” and a “Barrel Rolling” race so put that on our agenda to see what was involved. With the Royal Britannia Naval College in town they participate in the regatta week as well. They had the HMS Ledbury, a minesweeper, moored in the harbor to serve as guardship for the week. Some of the cadets participated in the races such as the ones we watched on land and the rowing competetions on the water. The Waiters & Waitresses Race was fun to watch. There were the professionals from all the local establishments and there were teams of cadets from the Naval College. The idea was to
run from one end of the street to a designated end point, pick up a glass of beer that was dutifully shaken by a crew at that pick up point, and then carry it back to the start. The winner would not be the fastest but the one that had the least amount of spillage. True to form the cadets ran the fastest to pick up the glass of beer, but then many of them tried to run back to the start. They were definitely fast, but the glass was definitely not full of beer at the end! The professional wait staff were a mixed bag – they all tried to run as fast as they could to pick up the beer and then some walked very fast back to the start while others walked back talking to each other on the way! The winner wound up being a woman that walked very briskly back, but with excellent posture and balance! The most important thing was that everyone looked like they were having lots of fun. They even had a competition where they had younger kids do the same race, but with coke. Next time I think they might want
Always Lots of Options in the Way of Food
These were only a few at the Dartmouth regatta to make the length of the course a little shorter as that one took quite a long time making the next scheduled event a little late – oh well, fun was had by all! The barrel rolling contest was also with teams of townspeople and cadets working together to roll barrels down the street. As the announcer said to the crowds on the sidelines – watch out for your toes as those barrels definitely do not roll in a straight line!
The opening ceremony of the regatta was lead by the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines. It was an excellent display of precision marching and fabulous horn and drum music. They put on quite the display marching through town in their majestic uniforms.
One piece of business we did have to take care of was to order a battery for the boat. Bob has been watching the charge on the batteries and was feeling that it was getting time for replacements. He decided to start with just replacing the starting battery (the oldest, smaller and easier one to install!) As we are going to France soon, decided that it might be easier to do this while we
The HM Royal Marine Band lead by Band Sergeant
helped with the opening ceremonies of the regatta were in an English speaking country making sure we were ordering the right one. We were able to order the battery we wanted, get it a few days later and installed. Boat business taken care of for now!
We were very happy to find that our schedules overlapped to get a chance to see friends, Gary and Leslie from SV Spellbound. We met them while on the Baltic Rally and have stayed in touch electronically. It was great to be able to catch up with them in person. They were on a tighter schedule so stayed only a few days, but it was wonderful to have this chance to update each other on what has been happening since we last were together.
The River Dart is a wider area; therefore the regatta here was able to get the Red Arrows to do a “fly by” as they still were not able to put on an aerial performance in this location. With the Naval College connection here in Dartmouth they also had arranged for the RAF Typhoon to fly past and another naval transport plane, the C130. We were able to catch photos of the transport plane, C130, but
unfortunately we didn’t get the Typhoon or Red Arrows as those definitely went by overhead quickly!! Even if you didn’t see the Typhoon you definitely heard it – fortunately people on the boat rafted to us warned us about the noise! The Typhoon is a multi-role combat aircraft which can carry out precision ground attack or air defense tasks.
On the last day of the regatta we decided to go to shore to catch a look at the classic boats lead by numerous steam driven vessels. We got ashore by dinghy and climbed the stairs to town, but shortly after that I (Janice) got terrible pain in my hip and left ankle to the point that it was difficult to walk. We were to the point that we weren’t sure how I was going to get back to the boat – Bob offered to do a firemen’s carry of me through the crowd, but then decided he would check in with the medical tent that was set up for anyone attending the regatta. Two medical volunteer personnel came to check on me and decided they had to move me from the chair that I had found to sit on
Another British Flag - this one is a blue ensign
that can only be flown by certain citizens in the UK to their medical tent. That was a chore in itself as they got me through the crowds and into an ambulance as the tent was quite a distance from where we were. I got checked over there and they decided it would be best to take me to a hospital for x-rays. I at first thought that would not be necessary, but they said “we are here now and can help with transporting you today, but the regatta ends and we will be gone tomorrow” so it was agreed to go! They had seen that I had a very bad bruise on my leg and they were afraid that I may have fallen/twisted my ankle etc. and wanted to be sure everything was OK. I assured them that I bruise very easy and we always get what we call “boat bites” by bumping into things on a moving sailboat. Well, decision made, they had a volunteer transport both Bob and I to the nearest hospital (the one in Dartmouth does not have x-ray capacity) which was in Torquay which was about an hour away. Just like any hospital anywhere we waited for a while for our turn, but then was
Kids Are The Same Worldwide
Notice everyone with their cell phones! efficiently taken care of. After seeing a Dr., he ordered the x-rays of my hip and ankle. Fortunately the results were negative about any type of fracture so was released to leave. Now, how to get back to Dartmouth?? Unfortunately we hadn’t taken our phone to shore with us as we aren’t in the habit of doing so, but found a phone in the lobby to call a taxi. We weren’t sure how much an hour long taxi ride would be, but we had to get back somehow. We were able to get the taxi driver to get us as close as we could to the stairway down to our dinghy and were very surprised to find that this hour long ride on a Saturday evening only cost us about $40 - what a pleasant surprise that was!
We stayed put in Dartmouth getting some rest for a couple days, but by Tuesday moved again. Fortunately the pain in my ankle was much less and we needed to continue our journey. It now seemed as if the pain may have been sciatic pain running down my leg and into my ankle area (diagnosed by Dr Janice & Dr Bob).
An Interesting Photo Gallery?
You could dress up in costume for a photo in the car! It is hard realizing that we are getting older every day – oh well, things are better and I still have a chance to see a Dr. in the next town if feel it is necessary. Just happy that the pain was much less and we can continue our journey east.
As you can see by the dates in the title this took place back in August. Those of you that are friends on Facebook will know, but those of you that aren’t - just a quick note – we are now in France and on our way to Paris soon. Will fill you in on the details in the next few blog entries.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0385s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
