( Overview
/ Two Scilly Bullocks on a Boat
It was a beautiful still morning, and with bad weather forecast for the weekend again, we were looking forward to remaining where we were for a few days.
Until the harbour master arrived! Not sure of the logic, but the mooring buoy we were on is owned by a house owner nearby, and he stipulates yachts stay a maximum of 2 nights. Apparently yesterday had seen nearly 50 yachts arrive, so this was an emergency measure.
As a Special Area of Conservation, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a bass nursery, the Harbour Authority aims to restrict the number of visiting boats to 90. Until now everywhere we’ve visited has been quiet and very welcoming, so a shock to feel not wanted and encouraged to move on.
Because of the forecast, we wanted to stay put! Fortunately, for the same reason, other boats weren’t staying for the weekend, so we could move onto a floating pontoon nearer civilisation.
No sooner settled, than Laurence, Peter and Eloise arrived. They’d seen us passing (we’d spotted them too).
They also own a Southerly 115, Flip Flop Five, and had admired our davits (our dinghy storage). It was great to invite them aboard and compare stories. They live in Bordeaux, but for the past 7 years have spent the summer in the UK whilst their home is rented out, visiting his family and sailing.
There were still loads of boats in the river, as reflected by the number of dinghys on the pontoon; a real fight and push to find a space!
It’s quite a long walk into the little village of Newton Ferrers, which has steep streets down to the creek (as well as a Co-op, post office, pub and yacht club).
Looking over the creek at low tide we noticed a walkway over to the village Noss Mayo on the other side.
The last of the tide receded as we got down, and it was an easy, if muddy, walk across the Voss. In Devon, a voss is a raised path across a muddy estuary, and may have the same derivation as fosse, as in the Fosse Way running from Lincoln to Exeter.
Looking back at The Yacht Club, Dolphin pub in Newton Ferrers.
In search of the bus stop, we climbed the steep steps to the church. St Peter’s was built in 1877 to replace the church of St Peter the Poor Fisherman as parish church of Revelstoke.
Looking down Newton Creek and over to the main river.
Our nephew, Peter, has just started an internship as a production engineer with Princess Yachts in Plymouth. The original plan was for him to drive out to Newton Ferrers to meet us, but just as he left work his exhaust fell off!
Wanting to go to Plymouth to exchange the bilge pump bought online, we caught the bus. We think the indirect route taken is just for the passengers’ amusement. The sides of the bus scraped the hedges on either side, and if we met cars, they had some difficult reversing. No extra passengers boarded!
We walked around the marina and fishing port areas of Plymouth to the chandlers, where sadly we had no success at getting the correct bilge pump.
In the meantime Peter had managed to get a new exhaust, and met us in Plymouth to give us a lift, taking the direct, quick route back to Newton Ferrers.
Eating at the Yacht Club, it was lovely to catch up with Peter’s news, and hear how much he is enjoying working for Princess Yachts. Kevin has already requested a site visit to see production.
As the tide came in the Yacht Club also afforded great views of the heats of the Regatta Crabber rowing races. The River Yealm Regatta takes place on the River Yealm between the two villages of Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo.
People were jumping in to swim from the jetty at the pub in Noss Mayo and spectating from lots of small boats in the creek.
The traditional Crabber boats have raced in the Regatta since 1981. Not sure whether rowing bare-chested is part of the tradition too!
Although prepared for it, we were pleased to see another boat had not rafted against us when we returned to Avalon.
We’ve never seen this before; Alexandria, the boat behind us, has lights going up its foresail - a variation on an anchor light? Certainly easy to spot after dark.
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