R Yealm to Salcombe
Merlin
Kevin & Victoria Rolling
Fri 22 Jul 2011 11:24
With very little wind and even less of a phone signal we are motoring around to our next port of stay - Salcombe.
As you can see the sun is out and we are having a relaxing time of it.
We had a little excitement on the way home from the pub last night. We had to use our tender to travel the 800m to get from the boat to the nearest shore, as it's too small to fit the five of us in together we did a couple of trips to and walked the rest of the way - about a mile along the river bank.
When the tide is in it is possible to get the tender up to the pub, therefore saving the walk.
After a lovely meal and copious amounts of beer and wine Johnny suggested he would walk back to the tender with Nic and Freya, ferry them over to Merlin and - now that the tide was in, would bring the boat up to the pub for Torie and I.
Great we thought as they set off and we ordered another drink.
Johnny had only learned how to operate an outboard motor earlier in the day and was keen to demonstrate his new found skill.
15 minutes after they had left the pub I remembered I had not told him he must switch the petrol on - if he want to go further than a few metres before the engine would stop !
Needless to say when I arrived, breathless, at the landing stage they were gone.
It was dark an hour and twenty minutes later when I could hear a person, obviously working hard, paddling for all he was worth towards me. I called out and put my torch on for him to home in on.
Johnny lay on the slipway unable to speak, reaching for every breath. When I started the engine on the third pull he was more than a little surprised - and his language echoed as much !!
I nipped up the river to collect Torie, returned for Johnny and we were safely aboard Merlin a few minutes later.
It turns out that the rollicks had broken on the dinghy so Johnny had had to paddle with one ore all the way - mostly around in circles !
It a good job we are such good friends.....
Kevin