August Bank Holiday – The English Riviera

On the August Bank Holiday weekend, a crew of 5 Sundowners met at Torquay to board Laita, a Bavaria 37, for a cruise to the delightful English Riviera coast.

Sailing aboard Laita were Dai (skipper), Helen, Phil, Gill and Simona.

After a night enjoying the delights of Torquay, the crew departed on Saturday morning in glorious sunshine for Salcombe.

 

Arriving in Salcombe on a busy bank holiday Saturday, we were lucky to find a berth on the inside of “The Bag” – Salcombe’s floating visitor pontoon, just north of the town.

Having secured the boat we took the river taxi to sample the delights of Salcombe in continuing sunshine.

With little wind to sail, we made the decision to motor to the River Yealm on Sunday morning, arriving in time to find a river mooring for lunch.

The crew enjoyed an hour or two sunbathing on deck after lunch before making an exploratory trip upriver to Newton Ferrers to check the available visitor facilities for future trips.

To avoid a long motor back to Torquay on Monday, we decided to return to the Salcombe area overnight and look for a suitable anchorage outside the main harbour.

With the wind from the N, the chart showed a potential overnight location just inside Prawle Point which we decided to check. Elender Cove turned out to be a stunning, peaceful anchorage with just a single boat resting at the E end of the bay.

Choosing the W end for our own anchorage, we spent another excellent night before heading back towards Torquay on Monday morning.

After motoring around Start Point on Monday morning, the wind picked up just enough for us to enjoy a final few hours of sailing back to Torquay to finish the weekend.