Truth be told, I (Jenni) am writing this in May 2025, as only really starting to “come down” from finishing work and ready to be sat at a laptop again!  So here is a summary of our month sailing along the South West of the UK back in Autumn ’24!

Torquay

After arriving in Torquay and settling ourselves into a better berth, we knew we would be hunkered down for a while as storms were forecast.  In the end we stayed there from Monday 24 September, and only departed on Tuesday 1 October!!

We were fortunate that when the work was taking place on the deck we had moored near our contractor based at Cobbs Quay, which is part of the MDL Group. During that time we acquired Otium points as part of their loyalty scheme – and ended up with enough points to have 21 nights at MDL marinas. This was amazing as it is quite an expensive chain, and a night is over £80 for a boat our size now!  Plus, given we had established the outboard wasn’t working, we knew we would need to stay near facilities. It really took a load off our minds to know we could stay at Torquay for no actual cash requirement!

Torquay is such a lovely part of the world and we made the most of it exploring as much as we could.

We often don’t plan our excursions and will just follow our noses! One of our best days was when we decided to follow the coast path as much as possible and walked to Babbacombe.  There we happened upon the Cary Arms Hotel, which is nestled in the cliffs facing a beautiful bay.  We will tend to stop for a drink or two and chatted to a lovely Scottish couple who were celebrating completing on their house.  We were told by the bar staff that along the beach was a vernicular railway and that was the best way to get up to the town itself.  It was so quaint and lovely we had an enjoyable day … but got the bus back as decided it was too far too walk.

We also explored Paignton, using the bus service to get there and back. It wasn’t quite so cute but we had pasties on the pier and found a hotel for a drink, which must have been amazing in its heyday!

We were also joined by friends for the weekend, Sarah & Mel, so we did a pub crawl all along the promenade and had Thai food for dinner.

We even went to the theatre to see Cirque (used to be de Soleil but think that brand has been adapted for indoor use!) It was a novel way to spend an evening, but much more like a general talent and music show that a true Cirque experience!

Dittisham

When the weather had eventually passed over we decided to start making our way West to Dartmouth on Tuesday 1 October, with the intent of picking up a buoy further up river at Dittisham – we had been to Dartmouth a couple of times with PYRA, but never as far up river as that!

It was a lovely sail under Genoa only, and there were dolphins all around, although none came to play. Chris got the fishing reel out and caught 3 mackerel under way.  This was only a 15 mile hop so not a long passage, and we quickly arrived at Dittisham, where we were quite confused as to where we were able to moor. The information all said that Visitor Buoys are clearly marked but we couldn’t see anything and couldn’t get hold of the Harbour Master – we were out of season after all!

Eventually we telephoned and spoke to someone who advised that the usual buoys had been taken in and directed us to the ones that were suitable for us.  We picked up V4 and Chris quickly started sauteing the mackerel with some leftover new potatoes and garlic – delicious!

We got the dinghy out and rowed ashore to the local pub, and walked up the hill to the second, which was just how a pub should be – friendly bar staff with a little shop in their as well!  There were amazing views over the bay and we probably got a little tipsy there!

We only stayed the 1 night at Dittisham, and realised that was a mistake as we didn’t fully get chance to explore anything more than the pubs – we will remember that for next time!

Salcombe

We headed further South / West the next morning with the tide and saw a seal as we motored down the River Dart. We had read lots about how difficult it can be to get into Salcombe as there is a bar at the entry and it can be affected by strong South Westerly winds.  We were a little apprehensive but got our timings correct to arrive at high tide and had an uneventful entry.

Salcombe is a delightful town, and we easily contacted the Harbour Master and picked up a buoy. The Harbour Master did offer us the option to move to the visitor pontoon, but we were quite content where we were and wanted to practice getting used to rowing to shore .. Which we duly did on numerous occasions!

The weather in Salcombe glorious and we loved walking to various beaches and enjoyed a lovely lunch in the Winking Prawn. We really did feel like on a long holiday and knew at some point we needed to start saying no!

We met a lovely couple who had moored on the visitor pontoon after a bit of a troubled sail, also from Dittisham, where they had missed the tide and had a much rougher entry than us.  It can happen to anyone!  They invited us onboard for drinks and shared many of their adventures in the UK and France.

After 2 nights in Salcombe we decided it was time to move and left with the tide again – there was more wind this day and it really was a much rougher exit – we could totally see where they warnings come from, and it wasn’t even the worse of days!

Plymouth

Plymouth was our next destination – Plymouth is huge!! So many different marinas, moorings, naval and commercial yards. We had planned to visit another MDL marina at Queen Anne’s Battery and another potentially long stop due to more weather coming in! We use PredictWind and MetOffice avidly to stay aware of weather systems and plan our journeys as needed.

There is a 5 metre tidal range at Plymouth, and we moored on the visitor pontoon against the harbour wall.  At high tides you could see for miles – at low tide we could only see the wall! Our solar panels were also shielded by the wall so we struggled to make enough power and decided to also plug into shore power.

We walked for miles around Plymouth during these 5 days, and also went to the cinema on a very rainy day to watch the latest Joker movie.  Plymouth as a city is vibrant and with something for everyone, but 5 days was definitely enough for us and we were pleased when the weather allowed us to move again.

Fowey

The next destination on 9 October was Fowey – we had been here once before as part of a milebuilder from Plymouth to Oban many years ago, but neither of us could remember much about it as we stayed 1 night only and didn’t even set foot in the town!  It was a nice 24 mile sail, although the weather did pick up to a F5 at times – a little big fruity on a close reach all the way.  We had also spotted quite a lot of water coming into the bilge and were trying to track the source of this problem.  Eventually we realised the rudder seal was leaking, which is not a problem if you know what the cause is, and we added it to the list of work to be done over winter!

We moored against a mid stream visitor pontoon, not too far from the main town quay, and happily dinghied across whenever we decided.

Fowey is simply beautiful and the weather was glorious so we explored the coastal paths and took the ferry across to Polruan and explore the ruins of the castle there.

Falmouth

We definitely could have stayed longer in Fowey, but with more weather coming through we wanted to get to a marina again and decided to move on to Falmouth.  It was another lively sail with reefs in both the mainsail and the genoa.

We were initially heading for Mylor marina which is further up river, but on radioing we were told they were very busy and could only fit us on a pontoon which we had read was a bit exposed to the elements. We quickly changed plan and headed for Port Pendennis Marina, which was possibly one of the tightest berths we have ever been given.  Chris did a super job of getting us in there, helped by Mark the friendly Harbour Master, and we were tucked up once again.

Another great area of castles and villages, including a ferry trip to St Mawes.  Again we were here longer than expected due to weather – mainly fog which was so thick on some days it would have been crazy to try and move on.  Five days later we were ready to go – and had been debating where to! Chris was keen to head as far west as possible, even to the Isles of Scilly, but as it was getting late in the year (17 October) and we wanted to be back in Portland at the end of October as Chris had a reunion with his university friends, we decided on the sensible option of heading East again!

Brixham (via Plymouth)

We wanted to get to Brixham to meet with our friends Cat (from PYRA) and her husband Jerry – Cat was keen to do the return trip to Portland with us.  It still felt a little too far to do in one single journey so we decided to break at Plymouth again – this time going to the West of Plymouth to Mayflower marina.

We moored up on the main visitor pontoon and were met by one of the berthing team with information about the marina, and all the codes for showers etc. We were even told they have a bath – bliss!!  We did move to a different berth due to a(nother) weather front coming in as were told we would be more sheltered there. Whilst Mayflower is indeed a lovely marina we have never rocked and rolled as much in a marina setting. It was constant and seemed to be due to the movement of the tide in the marina.  It wasn’t very comfortable but gave us a better feeling of rolling at anchorage so we didn’t mind!

Fog again was very strong and stopped our departure a couple of days – but as ever we loved exploring new areas.  We took a ferry to Saltash one day – there isn’t really a lot there but it was fascinating to be driven further up the never ending river. Saltash is where Brunel’s bridge is and this was certainly a feat of engineering!  We also took the ferry across to Cremyll and did a long walk around Mount Edgcumbe Country Park.  West Plymouth was certainly a very different experience to East Plymouth!!

After 5 nights on Wednesday 23 October we were able to leave again and head to Brixham.  We were a little delayed departing due to fog, and even unsure we would be able to leave – but it lifted as soon as it arrived and we quickly set off.  We made good time and were thrashing along on a beam reach, avoiding lobster pots everywhere.  We had pods of dolphins swimming with us for at least 2 hours – we never grow tired of their joy in their antics and swear they look you in the eyes and say hello!!

Brixham was our final MDL marina, and we had enough nights left not to worry or rush.  We enjoyed exploring all around Brixham, spending some time with Cat and one of the best little museums we have ever been to!  One particular day we happened across some model boat racing in one of the old salt water swimming pools, which was very fun to watch, and try to work out which person owned which boat.  Green was constantly causing chaos and much laughter!

Portland

Portland was our final destination – a 55 mile trip across Lyme Bay which is known for sometimes difficult conditions, and essential timing to get the tides right around Portland Bill.  The Bill has 2 options – the inner (which is narrow with lots of pots) or the outer (which is recommended to be 10 miles offshore).  We had abandoned an earlier plan to leave due to forecast, and were glad we had as friends in Portland said the wind had been strong and unexpected fog had come in.

On Tuesday 29 October we decided we had to go even though this time there was little wind forecast – and again we ended up motoring all the way!! We did try and get the sails up but it lasted about 1 minute as the sails just flogged around.  Poor Cat – after all the worry about picking the right day!  But it gave us a safe first rounding of the Bill as barely a ripple could be seen! We had played it safe and took the outer route in and could see the Bill (and the pots!) quite clearly.  But better safe than sorry we always say!

So there we are – back in Portland for the final destination.  We still had lots to do to prepare the boat for haul, and pack all the things we may need for winter – for visiting the north of the UK and then 2 months in Thailand!

** How do we remember all this stuff?  It is a legal requirement to make a passage plan for any journey, and we enjoy keeping regular / hourly logs on all our passages.  It makes great reading and learning – and can be used to look back on where we’ve been..