A delightful safe haven



 We reached Sutton Harbour yesterday afternoon which was a relief for all of us. The journey from Salcombe was a bit disappointing from a sailing point of view as yet again we had a west wind on the nose and a very lumpy sea, so we were relying on our valiant engine to punch through the wind and for the first few hours, the tide.  This meant for the morning we made very slow progress.  However later we had the main up with three reefs (still quite a strong wind) and kept the motor powering away as well.  With the tide now with us, we made good progress and arrived in Sutton Harbour at around 4.00 p.m. We are with the gaffer fleet, rafted up to another boat with lots of very friendly gaffer sailors around.  Last night our gaffer dinner was at ‘The Box’ a museum in Plymouth with a great collection of figureheads. The evening started with a very interesting talk about them. We are having a kind of rest day today, but just like cycle touring, there are a lot of jobs to be done - laundry, shopping, filling up with water and fuel etc but the highlight of the day may well prove to be a gin distillery tour this afternoon.  As a foretaste, an old school friend of Roger’s arrived on the boat this morning bearing a bottle of Plymouth Gin - what a great fellow. 

Our dinner tonight will be at the Piermaster’s House and Isabel will be joining us for that, with a kind offer of a bunk on Hilda - a 50ft 100 year old Dutch life boat. Tomorrow Isabel joins Indian Runner and I will leave the boat for 24 hours to drive the car to Falmouth, where with luck, Indian Runner will be on Saturday morning.  I have a b and b booked in Falmouth - I am trying not to hope for a bath rather than a shower. 

Photos of the gathered fleet, pink gins in the Plymouth gin distillery and the rather wonderful figureheads in the Box. 





Brixham - Salcombe - Plymouth         65.6 nms



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