16 June Portland at the end of a rainbow

After a 22 hour sail from Milford Haven, we arrived in the charming town of Newton Ferrers in Devon. We tentatively sailed up the narrow channel of the River Yealm (which is pronounced Yam) and found the last visitors buoy from the River Yealm Harbour. There was quite a stream of departing yachts and they gave no quarter to us entering and we were perilously close at times. It felt a bit like driving on the road where no-one will let you in and be courteous and friendly. Quite a few snooty looks at our enthusiastic waves.

 We sadly had to say goodbye to our dear friends Craig & Sandra, as they were heading back home to Preston. One last trip out on the tender to moor at the steps of the Dolphin Inn and one last lunch. We would like to say a mahoosive thanks for your efforts to come and sail with us and to give us a bottle of Champagne.

We met up with another dear friend, Rosemary Watts, with whom we had sailed up the Shannon River many years ago although Rosemary has not stopped sailing and has many times sailed on Tenacious with the Jubilee Trust and I think it's an amazing charity. You should google it.

Rosemary came aboard and we caught up with each other's adventures over a cup of tea. She then kindly treated us to a very nice meal at the Yealm Yacht Club and a couple bottles of Rioja, not to mention the provisions she gave us as well as organising our short stay. You are a lovely lady and it was a pleasure to spend time with you. Such a shame it was so short and that the weather wasn't good enough to sail around the Eddystone Lighthouse.

We set off again early this morning (well early for me, at any rate!) at 8am for Portland. Once past the river and into the sea, we got some welcome wind and up went the Code 0. There were plenty of other yachts out today and also the regular fishing boats.

Even if you can't see what type of boat it is from miles away, you always know it's a kind of fishing vessel with those flocks of seagulls surrounding it and following it hopefully.

We had generally good wind for the first 8 hours and our speeds were averaging 8-10kts occasionally spiking up to 13-14kts but then it died away and we had to accept that if we were to make Portland, then we had to pull down the gennaker and turn on the engines.

A bright spot in any day at sea, is when the dolphins show up and we had 3 today all enjoying swimming in and under the hulls.

I know I said 3 dolphins and the photos only show 2 but I promise there were 3 Common Dolphins keeping us company for a little while. I had to stop John from photographing me, leaping up and down on the trampolines in my excitement, as I was wearing my marigolds and felt that rubber gloves would not enhance any pics!
My last photo today is of the beautiful rainbow and the end of the rainbow points to our destination tonight. Who knows what time that will be but it's been a good sail today.