Dartmouth to Salcombe with dolphins
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Tue 29 Jul 2014 10:52
003:46.00W
After a beautiful night anchored up the River Dart we headed out on the roaring ebb and turned right towards Salcombe, motoring on a glassy windless sea. A shriek from Bol brought us all up on deck to find a pod of dolphins ahead, luckily for us they were heading in our direction and they came so close we felt we could have reached out and touched them. Beautiful. One thing with dolphins that you can be sure of, everyone watching will be smiling and laughing. They are such a treat to see, so free and so comfortable in their environment, Isabelle wanted to jump in and join them, maybe one day we will be able to do just that. We are now just debating what sort they were, either bottlenose or common.
They went on their way and we went on ours; past Start Point and around into Salcombe. Spotting a chap fishing at the entrance inspired us to do the same, but even with two lines out not a single mackerel was tempted to bite. No fish for supper tonight sadly.
Salcombe was bustling, the beaches on either side were full, the river was chaotic with sailing boats, paddle boarders, motor boats, racing dinghies which together with a roaring tide kept us on our toes. We anchored off a small beach called 'Small Cove' and the children spent the afternoon running in and out of the water and then rolling themselves in sand. Yuk sand everywhere, but they had a ball.