June 2015
The Yealm estuary is a tree banked river mouth on the south Devon coast which opens up to the quaint village of Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo, it is around a 2hour passage from plymouth. An ideal short trip, leave Friday eve after work, either tie up to the visitor mooring or anchor up, stay the night and then sail back the next day.
A memorable trip to the Yealm, it was a very uneventful passage, we got in around 20:00, pumped up the Naish Nisco paddle boards (www.naish.com) and headed up to the pub (The Yacht Club and The Dolphin in Newton Ferrers) for a pint and chips hoping to get some food before last orders. One pint down, we wanted more, chance would have it there was a band on, one pint turned into 5 and some bopping and pub chat later we embarked on the paddle back to the boat.
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The tide had dropped significantly, however with a 300mm clearance we were OK, making our way to the main channel we started our slightly wobble paddle back to the boat, moving away from the pricey houses spilling down to the water edge shedding a dull light across the now oily black water, the water then began to glow with the disturbance of plankton causing phosphorescent to drip off the end of every paddle stroke, it was a pretty cool experience.
Back on the visitor pontoon we were accompanied by a couple of other guys on their own trip, we invited them onboard for a night cap of brandy and cheese under the light of a storm lantern, they also brought on a FM radio playing classical music, all manner of conversation were discussed. All pretty surreal experience. Inevitably this was paid for the following morning with those sweats and very dry mouth only being awoken by the harbour master collecting overnight fees. The two companions from the night before had slipped line early to continue the trip and avoid the harbour master. After sorting out our head, having a leisurely breakfast we to slipped our lines and drifted back to plymouth in the ever dying light winds, a mini adventure, not possible with bricks and mortar…
aboatlife 