Author: Daniel

We spent a great week in Salcombe, moored on a visitor buoy right in front of the Harbour Hotel and right on the start line for the regattas. The weather was a mixed bag, but no real summer feeling arose… Salcombe Gin SYC Regatta was on for the week and Constantin sailed in the Topper fleet with Ben and Harry from Tamesis Club and friends Ollie and Tom. The kids and parents had great fun, for race results watch the video… 😉. Made a massive catch of Mackerels with Ian – yummy Ceviche – and had a great afternoon sailing with Rear Admiral Rubbish and the Harris family. Maddie made a debut at the helm of Polaris and did great!

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After a delightful two days in Dartmouth we sailed on to Plymouth, home to Gin since 1793 and start point of the epic voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620. We visited the famous Plymouth Gin Distillery and saw the amazing National Fireworks Championships displayed at the waterfront and witnessed the first yachts finishing the Fastnet Race 2017. We left Plymouth, our westmost station, after a three days break for Salcombe which we reached after a nice 4 hours downwind sail in sunny weather. We arrived on time to see the fireworks of the Salcombe Town Regatta week, and the hilarious Crabber's Race, a traditional drag race of the local crabbing boats.

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One fine day, finally, the weather improved and so did the winds. We could continue our voyage with a 10 hour leg around Portland Bill and across Lyme Bay, our first qualifying offshore passage (>60nm and >12nm offshore). We set foot on Teignmouth, Brixham (where we weathered another storm…) and Dartmouth (which we liked best on our trip so far). Dart Marina Yacht Harbour comes highly recommended!

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