Time to move on again! Our ports of choice Salcombe or Dartmouth.
We left at mid day and headed South East up the coast. There was some swell left over from the strong winds and we made good progress. We were soon at Salcombe. At Salcombe there is a sand bar that you have to go round and the best time to go in was 6pm that night. We were a little early for that so we decided to carry on to Dartmouth. We rounded Start Point and were soon zooming across Start Bay.
In Start Bay there are Slapton Sands – a famous place where the American Forces were practicing for the D Day Normandy landings. Tragedy struck on the night of 28th April 1944 where 8 tank landing craft were engages in Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for Operation Overloard using live ammuniation for full effect, were chanced upon by German U Boats. The effect of their torpedo attack was devastating, sinking 2 of the landing craft. 986 American Soldiers lost their lives. The whole episode remained secret for 40 years! There is a memorial to the dead on the sands, its centre peice being a battered Sherman tank.
It was then into the Dart River and beautiful Dartmouth. One of the places that I don’t think I will tire of visiting. We moored up for the night right by the harbour.
Paul and I always reminisce of when we were there a few years ago. We had rented a cottage at Starcross and had gone to Dartmouth for the day. We parked at Kingswear – the opposite side to Dartmouth walked down and happened to see that the regatta was on.We had a super time wandering around Dartmouth and then heard that the Red Arrows were to put in an appearance. We climbed high up the side of the valley and we saw the Red Arrows coming up the valley right on time below us! It is one of those occasions that we will never forget.
A Paddle Steamer going across the harbour
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