From delightful Dartmouth to fabulous Fowey via commercial Plymouth

May 12, 2022

After listening to the early forecast which said there were to be no gales, a smooth sea and light winds against us I slipped the lines 2 hours before HW in order to make Start Point at slack water.

Sunrise from Dartmouth before leaving

Start Point is another of those notorious headlands that have horrible seas if you get there at the wrong time in the wrong weather. As I'd again left at the recommended time and with the right forecast we arrived to a tranquil sea albeit with a few strange currents.

Start Point

A very useful tool on the boat is the plotter, a gps unit that shows me a chart of the area, where we are on the chart, our speed and our route. I have my AIS equipped radio plugged into it too so I can see other vessels marked on the chart that have an AIS transmitter. I can then see what they are doing and even get an alert if the clever boxes see that their route is too close to mine.

The plotter, just off Start Point, other vessels are the green triangles

A very uneventful motor-sail, with occasional bouts of engine off sailing, took us to Plymouth where I booked in to the Queen Anne's Battery as its the first marina you get to in Plymouth and soon after booking in I headed for an overdue shower. At £40 for the night I did intend to have two the following day to get my moneys worth. A feature of this marina is the very narrow gap between rows of very nice yachts and motorboats that you have to pass to get to the assigned berth. I had intended to buy fuel at Plymouth but after looking at the difficult access to the fuel berth decided this could wait if I moved a little of my can stored fuel into the main tank on Tzu. A waiter served Stella at the on site busy bar went down very well but at £5 a drink I refrained from spending too long there.

Tzu, Plymouth

Leg distance: 40.3nm

Total Trip: 131.8nm

The next leg was the short hop to Fowey and we left in light winds at 09:30 disregarding the initial tide aginst us as it has little effect in this area.

Fowey is an absolutely fabulous place and arriving from the sea looks very mediterannean. There was a small cruise ship moored in the harbour, Hebridean Sky, which is an ice capable cruise ship built to take passengers to much more remote destinations than Fowey.

Beyond and upstream from the town is the self serv fuel pontoon where I topped off Tzu's tank and the spare fuel cans with £72 of fuel at £1.57 per litre. A price similiar to the cost for unleaded in my local Asda.

I moved downstream with the intention of picking up a mooring buoy which Fowey has plenty of. However the buoys do not have a mooring strop already fitted, which is an easy job to pick up with the boathook, merely a loop on the top of the buoy to which I would fit my own ropes. I considered how difficult this could be leaning over the side of Tzu and changed the plan to mooring to the visitors pontoon instead.

Parked up I did not have long to wait till the harbourmasters dory arrived and I was cheerfully relieved of £20 for my overnight stay. Although there were no facilities other than rubbish disposal I considered this an absolute bargain given the outstanding surroundings we were in. The Hebridean Sky left about 9pm for the Isles of Scilly.