St Mawes Cornwall UK

Blue Velvet at anchor off St Mawes

On Wednesday 25 August we woke in St Mawes to another beautiful day.  We were keen to get ashore to explore, both to visit the castle (and not just to make in-roads into our English Heritage annual pass!) and to see something of the village itself.  As a part of latter, Neil had said that we had to try the cinnamon buns at the Da Bara Bakery which is run by friends he and Nici met on holiday.

Looking south across St Mawes.  The harbour is to the left of the pier.  On spring tides much of it dries

We dinghied into the harbour where we found a couple of options for leaving the dinghy.  There is a pontoon which is generally afloat (except at low spring tides).  The harbourmaster charges £5 per day for the use of the pontoon.  Or you can tie your dinghy to steps in the harbour wall.  There’s no charge for this but the steps dry so you might end up with a long carry back to the water, as we did later in the day.

Attractive housing lines the road that leads up to St Mawes Castle

The houses lining the harbour and the road leading up to the castle are most attractive and have fabulous views across the inlet.

View along the beach below the road that leads up to St Mawes Castle

Da Bara Bakery cinnamon buns and coffee, as recommended by Neil in Dartmouth

We enjoyed the views whilst taking elevenses as recommended, and very good the buns were too!

A beautiful day to be sailing….or to be touristy by the sea

Coffee-stop complete we strolled up to the castle……

St Mawes Castle entrance

……which really is rather impressive.

We were far from the only people enjoying the castle, and the grounds were filled with people picnicking or just enjoying the views, like us.

Top: when the castle was in its prime the square stone contained a carved and painted
 coat of arms but centuries of erosion have worn it away.  
Bottom: view out across the entrance to Falmouth Harbour from one of the gun
 emplacement ports.  Pendennis Castle (originally a near double of that at St Mawes)
 can be seen on the headland to the right of the picture.  Between them the guns
 of 2 castles could cover the whole of the harbour entrance

The views from the main tower are, unsurprisingly good and it was lovely to see so many boats out on the water enjoying the fabulous weather.

A sample of the weaponry, some replica, some original, on display inside St Mawes Castle.  The circular tower
allowed for all round defence, though the hillside close behind the castle was probably its most vulnerable point

Inside there are displays of the weaponry in use in the castle when it was first built and for the century or 2 afterwards.

In time, the castle expanded and gun emplacements were set up outside the main tower, providing greater defensive cover further up the harbour

The castle from the outside.  Top and bottom left: from one of the lower gun emplacements.  Top left: note the
gable end of the sunken magazine which housed powder and shot for the outer emplacements

The gun emplacements outside the tower are also well stocked with replica and original cannon.  Closer to the water are some more modern emplacements (c19th century) where cannon were mounted on swivel systems to provide greater arcs of fire.

The castle from the landward side

The upper reaches of St Mawes, where there is excellent all-round protection.  Much or the area is very shallow
 and, whether deep or shallow, the whole area is filled with moorings

From the castle we meandered back into the village via a variety of small, steep lanes and then headed further out, past and through some more modern housing estates, to see the inner reaches of the St Mawes inlet from the landward side.  It’s a shame that there is no coastal path running along the water’s edge (and the foreshore looked very muddy!) but there were some access points to the water and we also enjoyed views across the inlet from the road, as well as views of some very up-market properties!

St Mawes’ beach.  The harbour wall can be seen just above the lower tree branch.  The dinghy pontoon is just
 visible above the branch, to the right of the end of the wall

Back around the headland we reached the main beach, which was busy with paddleboarders and sandcastle builders alike.  This is probably where our pilot book means when it states ‘anchor off the beach’ but since it was written, moorings have taken over in this area, leaving no space for a casual visitor.  Given the settled easterly weather, our anchorage nearer the entrance suited us perfectly, and we could happily have stayed for several days more.  However, we had plans to join in with some Ocean Cruising Club events in Falmouth for the weekend and so, given that it was a Bank Holiday weekend and likely to be busy, we had decided to head across the estuary the next day.

St Mawes, Cornwall, UK

Dartmouth to St Mawes Cornwall UK

Leaving Dartmouth behind us

Dartmouth Castle

We left Dartmouth at 1020 on Tuesday 24 August, a time predicated on catching the first of the favourable tide to round Start Point and to carry it for as long as possible towards Falmouth.

Dartmouth Harbour entrance with Dartmouth Castle to starboard and Kingswear Castle to port

Dartmouth was quite grey as we left, though not as grey as when we had arrived, but it was fun to see the castle at the entrance from the sea again, having recently toured it from the land.

Reg enjoying some fun sailing on a beautiful day

Passing the Start, the wind picked up a bit, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful sailing day.

Our favourite sailplan

As we turned downwind for Falmouth, we poled out the genoa, our favourite sailplan, and delighted in watching the dolphins which rushed in to join us and which seemed to be having as much fun playing with BV as we were having watching them.

Dolphins

It was a good-sized pod, maybe 10-12 animals, and the first of many that we were to see on our cruise.

MPS flying as we passed Eddystone Light

By mid-afternoon the wind had dropped somewhat so we hoisted the MPS but only for about an hour and a half as the wind dropped further and, with a low apparent wind, the sail just slatted around, sometimes filling nicely, sometimes wrapping itself around the forestay.  At 1630 we ran out of patience, lowered the sail and switched on the iron topsail.

Nearly there.  Sunset on the final approach to Falmouth Harbour

We spent the final few hours under power, hoping that we might make it into St Mawes before the sun set but it was not to be and sun sank below the horizon whilst we were still just outside Falmouth Harbour.  However, the long period of twilight played in our favour and we made it into St Mawes, dropping the anchor clear of the moorings on the north side of the harbour just as darkness descended properly.

St Mawes, Cornwall, UK

Sightseeing near Dartmouth UK

Whaler racing at the Dartmouth Royal Regatta

Our visit to Dartmouth happened to coincide with the first few days of the Dartmouth Royal Regatta.  Yacht racing took place outside of the river so we didn’t see that but our mid-stream mooring gave us a ringside seat for the daily rowing races along the river.  However, our primary reason for visiting Dartmouth was not for the regatta but to see our friends Nici and Neil.  Sadly Nici had to visit her mother at short notice and so we only saw her briefly but that didn’t stop us from spending the next few days sightseeing with Neil.

View across the harbour mouth from Dartmouth Castle to the castle on the Kingswear side.  During the
Napoleonic Wars, a chain was strung between the two buildings which could be raised to the sea surface to
stop enemy ships from entering the harbour and then lowered to the seabed to allow friendly shipping to
come and go

Neil (with Saffy, the Red Setter) and Nicky
 enjoying the view from the cannon emplacement.  
The building behind housed the windlass
 to raise and lower the defensive chain

On one of our first walks around Dartmouth and its environs Neil took us to Dartmouth Castle.  Building began in the 1380s at the behest of John Hawley, a privateering mayor of Dartmouth, and the castle was expanded and developed over the centuries, last seeing active service in WWII.  English Heritage now runs the site, focusing on the castle’s 15^th century development as a purpose-built platform for ‘ship sinking’ heavy cannon as well as on its 19^th century gun batteries.  After a glance at the single-entry prices we quickly decided to join English Heritage (15 months for the price of 12) and vowed to get VFM out of our membership by visiting a good number of English Heritage’s sites in the South West!

The views from the castle’s walls are, unsurprisingly, rather good, and the displays too are excellent, if somewhat reduced when we visited ‘due to Covid’.

View into the harbour from Dartmouth Castle

Exterior view of Berry Pomeroy Castle from what was the moat, showing the defended entrance which
originally had a drawbridge and portculis

The next day, we visited Berry Pomeroy Castle.  Billed as ‘the perfect romantic ruin tucked away in woodland’, it began life as the family castle of the 15^th century Pomeroys.  The external walls and gatehouse have/had all the essentials of a defended castle – moat, drawbridge with a counter-balancing portcullis, holes for pouring boiling oil or water on the heads of invaders and slit windows for defensive archers and, later, musketeers.

As the years progressed, the castle was extended and became less a castle more an impressive,
somewhat defended, house

Behind the external façade, the castle was developed through the Elizabethan and Jacobean years by the Seymour family (of Henry VIII’s Jane), into a grand mansion.

Original gatehouse from the inside of the castle

It’s all ruins now, of course, but standing inside looking up at the upper storey windows and viewing the remains of each floor level with their huge fireplaces, it is clear that this was the home of a very wealthy and influential family.  Why it fell into ruin was not clear to us but it makes a fascinating adjunct to the intact Elizabethan mansions we have visited – a bit like being able to view a body’s skeleton.

Rear of the house – look the impressive number of floors

Dartmoor

Top of the tor (not a very high one!)

With Dartmoor on our doorstep and the weather looking settled, we also took a walk on the moor, which included ‘bagging’ our first tor (not a high one and I’ve now forgotten its name!).  We had a lovely walk, as did Saffy, who relished plenty of time off the lead.  And the views from the top of the tor were beautiful too.

View from the top

Totnes Castle – a proper junior school lesson in Norman motte and bailey stuff!

On our way back to Dartmouth we stopped into Totnes again.  We’d visited the town on our return from Berry Pomeroy and had enjoyed a walk along the river as well as a short stroll around the centre, filled with medieval buildings now housing artists’ galleries and New Age shops.

And here it is in real life (plus ye olde picnic benches and welcome booth!)

This time we went at Nicky’s insistence who wanted to see the town’s well preserved motte and bailey, citing memories of lessons on Norman keeps at primary school.

Not a lot of space inside the defended motte

Archer’s-eye view

It’s a great little castle and the views from the ramparts of the motte are excellent.  Plus there’s a nice short walk around what was the moat.  But the emphasis is definitely on ‘little’.  Even compared to Dartmouth Castle, which is a compact place, Totnes Castle is small.

Lookout’s view across Totnes, though somewhat more built up than it was in the 11^th century!

We stayed in Dartmouth for 4 days in which time we had a lovely time with Neil and Saffy, and we even manged to complete a few boat chores: servicing the heads – an inevitable boat job, pickling the watermaker, tweaking the new electronics and generally checking over many of the systems which haven’t had as much care and attention lavished on them as they have been used to over the previous few years.

View from the mid-stream pontoon in
classic southwesterly clag

And we enjoyed a couple of delicious meals out and some good food in, including a barbecue, with Neil.  But on Tuesday 24 Aug, the wind set in again from the east and it was time to move on west to Falmouth.

And the regatta continues….

Dartmouth, Devon, UK

Guernsey to Dartmouth UK

We really hadn’t taken Blue Velvet to sea very much since we had returned to Guernsey in June 2020. That was largely due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions but also because we had got ourselves distracted with some fairly major house renovations. So, with the easing of the travel restrictions that came towards the end of the summer, we set about planning a 6 week mini-cruise. The Ocean Cruising Club was running a West Country gathering in Falmouth and so we signed up for that and then looked closely at what was feasible with the Common Travel Area (CTA) regulations. Southern Ireland has always been a cruising ground that we hoped to explore and, as it is part of the CTA, it should be an easy place for us to visit. So, Guernsey to Falmouth was the plan and then onwards towards Ireland, perhaps stopping at the Isles of Scilly on the way. However, as we approached our Friday 20 August departure date the weather forecast offered a nice alternative to aim for. Falmouth would have us sailing close hauled for the whole passage and most likely a beat towards the end. Dartmouth, however, being a little further east would be a shorter and much more comfortable sail with the added bonus of possibly giving us the chance to spend the weekend with our friends Neil and Nici Strevens who have retired there. There was even the possibility of an easterly wind a few days later to get us from Dartmouth to Falmouth.

Approaching the Off Casquets TSS

Thursday 19 August had an excellent 10-15 knot southwesterly wind, perfect for a beam reach all the way to Dartmouth so we slipped out lines in Beaucette Marina at 0535hrs to get a favourable push from the tides around Guernsey. Half an hour later we had hoisted the sails and set course for England sailing at over 7 knots.

If we maintained that speed it would only be a 10-hour passage across to Dartmouth. So, with BV bustling along we settled back into the sailing game and started to learn a little more about our new navigation equipment. Down below at the chart table and at the helm position I had fitted new Raymarine multifunction displays and had replaced the 20-year-old Pathfinder radar with a Quantum Doppler unit which can feed the radar picture to any of the displays and overlay it onto the chart display. I had also updated the autopilot computer and sensors so there was quite a lot of new technology to get to grips with.

The shipping lanes were going to provide the ‘learn about the new radar’ phase of the passage and Mother Nature added extra realism by reducing the visibility down to 1-2km to keep us on our toes. We are already big fans of AIS which transmits ship’s positions and displays them on our chart display. Now with the new radar on we also got paints of any smaller vessels or buoys that didn’t have a transmitter. We could have that with our old system but the radar display was only at the chart table and the radar unit took so much power to run that we tended to only use it when we really had to in fog. All in all we are very pleased with the new gear. It will take a little time to really get fully comfortable with it but it is definitely a step up on what we have been used to in most areas. And, as an added bonus, whilst the autopilot is using the old drive unit, with the new computer in control it is now almost silent when operating; not something we had expected at all. 

Approaching Dartmouth

With BV zipping along on a beam reach which is her fastest point of sail, by lunchtime we were getting very close to the entrance to Dartmouth. There were still patches of low cloud but the cliffs stood out well enough. The entrance to Dartmouth opened up in front of us and the wind allowed us to sail right into the entrance where we dropped the sails and switched to motoring. 

We had pre-notified the Harbour Master that we would be arriving in case there were any special Covid procedures for yachts arriving from Guernsey; provided that we were both double vaccinated there were not. So it couldn’t have been easier. We called them up as we got into the River Dart, they were expecting us and directed us to moor up on one of the mid-stream pontoons on the Kingswear side of the river. 

The Kingswear to Dittisham steam train

We had been slightly concerned that we would have difficulty finding a mooring as the Royal Dartmouth Regatta was due to start on the Saturday after we arrived. But that was not the case and we were tied up on the pontoon with the engine switched off at 1525hrs. A 70nm passage completed in just under 10 hours.

Dartmouth, Devon, UK