The GPS Blog| Activity | Activity date | Activity description |
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| Exe Bridges | 2018-03-10 | Into Exeter and back. Average speed reduced by having to walk past the flooding on the cycle path near the Turf.
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Exe Bridges
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| Swing Bridges and SYC | 2021-04-30 | Down to Dawlish Warren for the bakery then up to the Swing Bridges and then back via SYC to pick up everything I'd left there on Wednesday. And some sea weed.
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Swing Bridges
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| Swing Bridges bike ride | 2021-04-01 | Slow ride to Swing Bridges
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Swing Bridges
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| Swing bridges and back | 2013-03-03 | Along the estuary and canal to the swing bridges on the newly serviced bikes. Stopped for a cup of coffee at the Turf on the way back
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Swing bridges
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| Swing Bridges and Sainsburys | 2020-11-24 | More cycling
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Swing Bridges
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| Dawlish Warren and Swing Bridges | 2020-12-22 | Pre-work cycle ride
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Swing Bridges
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| Swing Bridges cycle ride | 2020-08-13 | Was going to be further but Liz didn't like the thunder. Slow - very slow.
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Swing Bridges
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| Exminster bike ride | 2021-10-27 | Swing Bridges bike ride
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Swing Bridges
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| Swing bridges and back via Powder Castle | 2013-08-12 | Along the estuary and canal to the Swing Bridges and then back via Powderham Castle
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Swing Bridges
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| Lizzie bike ride | 2014-03-07 | First time back on the bike after a couple of very wet months. To the Swing Bridges and back again.
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Swing bridges
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| Swing bridge and back again | 2014-03-08 | A lovely cycle ride to the Swing Bridges. Bit of a sod on the way back straight into the southerly force 5 all the way. Aidans first time back on the bike for a couple of months.
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Swing bridges
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| New cycle cafe | 2017-09-30 | Down to Dawlish Warren with Liz to have a look round Join S's new cycle shop and cafe. Then up to the Swing Bridges and back again.
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Swingt Bridges
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| First cycle ride in months | 2016-10-10 | First bike ride in a very long time. Only as far as the Countess Wear swing bridges over the Exeter Canal.
Work is about half way through the 14 month schedule of work on the swing bridge / roads.
As per the pictures, one of the bridges was open because of the work.
The swing bridges are being retained but re-aligned during the work.
The bridges have history - there's a plaque on them that reads "In May 1944, these bridges played an important part in the preparations for D-Day. They were used over a period of three days and nights, for rehearsals of the famous and crucial glider borne attack on the bridge over the Canal de Caen (Pegasus Bridge) and the River Orne (Horsa Bridge), by the Second Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, on the night 5/6 June 1944"
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Swing bridges
Exe Estuary
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| Swing Bridges | 2017-10-02 | To the Swing Bridges and back with Liz
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Swing Bridges
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| Up and down the Exe Estuary | 2012-04-01 | Down towards Starcross a couple of times and up to the Turf on a gloriously sunny April afternoon. Lovely F3 to F4 wind. An average speed of 4.5 knots in a 30 year old Wayfarer is none too shoddy
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Exe Estuary
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| Last hurrah of the summer? | 2021-10-10 | Lovely morning on the estuary on Nigel H's Dart 18. The wind filled in a bit - nay just have guested F4 occasionally.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe to Dartmouth | 2018-08-13 | A lovely sail down from the Exe to Dartmouth.
Wind ranged from very little to about 22 knots.
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Exe
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-06-20 | Hot. Very hot.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-02-27 | A gentle ride into Exeter and back. A mixture of sunshine and showers but at least the wind was from the side.
Most impressively, Liz managed to come off her bike but still remain standing at the end of the manoeuvre!
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Mill On The Exe
Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-29 | Work and back
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Exe Estuary
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| A perfect summers sail | 2012-07-22 | With the first spell of decent weather this summer the dinghy cruise down to the Beach Cafe and back had an excellent F3 southerly sea breeze and lots of sunshine. Marvellous.
All the best photos courtesy of Lizs brother Julian.
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Exe Estuary
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| A sunny Monday evening sail | 2012-07-23 | A great Monday evening sail. The tail end of a F3 sea breeze and a strong incoming Spring tide. The average speed over the ground may not win any prizes but a cracking sail down past the floating cafe and through the moorings
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Exe Estuary
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| Turf Paddle | 2023-04-13 | The westerly F3 gusting F4 turned out to be a F5 on the nose from the north on the way out. Complete with little white horses, I was tempted to turn back as I was making little over half a knot. Calmed down after a while and then lovely paddle up to the Turf for lunch moored up to a buoy.
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Exe
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| June sea breezes | 2017-06-17 | A splendid sail in the Wayfarer on the Exe Estuary. Drifted about for half an hour waiting for the sea breeze to kick in. When it did it was a splendid steady F4 to F4. Combined with neap tides, it made for a splendid sail. Liz helmed and we went to rescue a pair on a Topper that capsized and seemed to be filling with water. Luckily a passing rib helped as after we had a couple of goes we still hadn't found a spot on the Bull Sands where Liz could stand up in the water!
Then went and had a look at the B14 event and got slightly in the way of one of the crews (oops - apologized later!).
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-07 | Got rained on
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Exe Estuary
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| Round to Exmouth and back | 2016-10-25 | I missed out on yesterday's cycle ride due to the incessant rain and being a wuss. To make up, today's ride was round to Exmouth and the start of the Jurassic Coast.
On the way out I told myself that I'd catch the ferry back. When I was there I thought "that wasn't so" bad so I rode back.
It's a long way for someone like me!
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Exe Estuary
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| Autumn estuary sail | 2012-10-06 | An end of summer sail down to the beach cafe and back. Fairly light and variable winds. Six SYC boats.
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Exe Estuary
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| More rowing than sailing | 2012-10-20 | The last SYC dinghy cruise of the year. Varied between next to no wind and no wind at all. Rowed about two thirds of the way. Lovely morning to be on the estuary though.
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Exe estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-03 | A windy ride into Exeter and back, Liz still in post lurgie mode.
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Exe Estuary
Mill On The Exe
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| Hundred miles this week | 2016-10-22 | The fifth 20 miler of the week. I'd expected this to be a gentle cycle ride with Liz but she was all gung ho! Way faster than I was expecting and I wasn't allowed my usual stopping places to have a breather.
This was the fifth day out in a row doing 20 miles meaning that the target of doing 100 miles in a week was reached with 2 days to spare.Day off tomorrow!
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Exe Estuary
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| Gusty estuary sailing | 2013-05-04 | A sail in the Wayfarer with Derek H. The wind was very gusty and very shifty. Made for an interesting sail even though we only went back and forth across the estuary
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe Estuary dawdle | 2013-05-12 | Not quite the F4 gusting F5 that was forecast. That and the fact we managed to get the furling line wrapped round the head sail furling drum means that we didnt go very far.
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Exe Estuary
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| River Clyst paddling | 2023-06-09 | Up the river Clyst for a couple of miles and then back via Topsham.
There was still more navigable water to be explored on the Clyst but left that for next time.
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-01-28 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz. Got rained on at Countess Wear.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe estuary dinghy sail | 2013-06-29 | A nice sail on the Exe in maybe a F3 to F4 on the day of the Hurricane and Dart opens. Imploded trailer tyre cut short the time available for sailing a little bit,
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Exe Estuary
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| Liz, Jill and Ben stroke Agas | 2013-07-05 | Liz, Jill and Ben cycle to Darts Farm and lust after the Aga cookers. Jills son probably not so impressed. Back via Topsham.
Average speed severely affected by taking GPS with them when Aga stroking.
Rather unbelievable max speed generated when Liz heads towards the till mistakenly believing she can actually aford an Aga.
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Exe Estuary
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| River Exe Cafe | 2018-04-08 | Birthday treat at the River Exe Cafe
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River Exe Cafe
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| Exeter and back | 2017-05-08 | Cycle ride into Exeter and back with a stop at SYC on the way back.
Not a bad average for me as I was on the Marin hybrid loaded up with a pannier, locks and a book.
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Exe Estuary
Mill On The Exe
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-01-22 | Round to Lympstone on a lovely winters afternoon. Enough wind for the sailors at Starcross Yacht Club but not so much as to make the cycling unpleasant.
Photos are from Lympstone looking at SYC and from SYC looking at Lymptstone.
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2016-12-19 | Round to Lympstone for a very nice and rather spicy tomato soup in the Swan Inn.
This ride takes me just over 500 miles since I started this regular cycling stuff back in mid October.
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Exe Estuary
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| Sunday evening sail | 2013-07-21 | That rare occurrence - plenty of water, plenty of wind and plenty of sun. A lovely evening sail on the Exe Estuary.
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Exe Estuary
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| Drew Trophy race from Exe to Brixham | 2013-07-27 | A very slow cruise from the Exe to Brixham for the SYC Drew Trophy race. Came 2nd! Partly due to some boats giving up and motoring due to lack of wind. The photos show the flat as a millpond sea at the start of the race.
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Exe
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| First Fulmar Outing | 2017-04-01 | Some fettling on Derek H's boat (re-attaching reefing lines etc) and then a quick outing along the Topsham part of the River Exe. Upwind under main and downwind under genoa. Lovely boat.
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Exe
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| Paddle round Pole Sands | 2013-10-06 | A paddle from Cockwood, out of the estuary and round the Pole Sands. There were even some little waves at times.
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Exe Estuary
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| Start of holiday Scooby walk | 2014-01-11 | Scoobys first walk of our winter holiay
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Exe Estuary
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| Drew Trophy - SYC to Brixham | 2019-07-20 | The Drew Trophy from the Exe Safe Water mark to the breakwater entrance at Brixham Harbour. A marvelous sail albeit the wind didn't veer as promised later on meaning that we had to put in one short tack in to make the finish line. Still - 2 hours 24 minutes from the Exe SWM to Brixham breakwater is none too shabby!
Everybody (well - all 3 boats that took part) claimed they didn't want to win it as they'd then have to store the humongous trophy in the loft for a year.
So a result of first across the line and second on handicap could be claimed to be ideal! But I'm sure Julian P on Kinfolk will find the loft space somehow. Either way, with all three boats finishing within about 5 minutes, it was a very pleasant way to spend the day.
Then dinner at SYC with sailors from Topsham Sailing Club.
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Exe SWM
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| Beach cafe paddle | 2024-11-01 | Too little wind to go sailing so Malcolm B and I headed down river in the Sea Eagle kayak
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Exe Estuary
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| First sail of the year | 2014-03-09 | A lovely breeze and some sun for the first dinghy sail of the year in the Wayfarer. Pottered round the club for a while to see if anything would break after the winter period without any sails. All fine - so headed up river. Bang! The port hand shroud parted company with the boat! A quick tack and then Liz repaired the problem (the circlip had come away from the pin holding the stay to the boat - luckily the pin was still hanging there). Lovely sail then back to the club.
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Exe Estuary
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| Up river to Topsham Quay and back | 2014-04-19 | Second sail of the season up the Exe as far as Topsham Quay (where the winds got a little too light and fickle to go much further). A high tide sail so straight over "Greenland" on the way up.
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Exe estuary
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| Clyst paddling | 2023-08-26 | A paddle with Marija and Jeremy L up the Clyst as far as the Bridge Inn at Topsham. Quite neapy so not a lot of water at the mouth of the Clyst (even near the top of the tide). Wind was probably the F3 gusting F5 advertised so some good exercise!
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Exe Estuary
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| Dittisham to Exe | 2024-07-04 | After deciding that we both much preferred trying to get the AIS fully working before crossing the end of the shipping lanes on the way to Roscoff, we decided to head back to SYC and wait for the next decent weather window for a crossing.
A fast sail back.
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Exe
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| Beach cafe sail | 2014-06-16 | A sail down to the beach cafe in our Wayfarer with Bob and Andy in the Wanderer. Big tides and some lovely winds. Top sailing.
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Exe Estuary
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| Sail on Nigel's Dart | 2014-07-14 | Beach cafe and just a bit beyond on Nigel's Dart 18. A day of lulls and gusts. A max speed of 14.6 knots is just a bit faster than I'm used to with my Wayfarer
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-12-26 | Easy ride on teh way out. Wet and windy on the way back. Stopped at SYC on the way back to fix the webcam and weather PC. Weather station recording 20 knots of wind right on the nose for the remaining part of the journey home.
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Mill On The Exe
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-07-25 | Work and back
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Exe Estuary
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| New Years Eve bike ride | 2016-12-31 | Exeter and back
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Mill On The Exe
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| Bike ride to Exeter | 2016-10-18 | Start of a possible attempt to maybe get a little fitter.
A twenty mile round trip ride into Exeter (Mill on the Exe area) and back again.
The final climb back up Cockwood Hill nearly killed me.
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Mill On The Exe
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| Breezy day's sail | 2015-04-13 | A decent wind. Started mostly about F5 ending up more like a F4. One reef in and a great sail. Anne Knight joined us for the second half of the sail. With 3 on board, we took out the reef in the genoa. Quite a good average speed for an old Wayfarer and no tidal assistance.
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Exe Estuary
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| First beach cafe sail of 2015 | 2015-04-19 | A down river sail from SYC to the Exmouth beach cafe.
Strange winds - a bit of everything. Off Cockwood the NE wind met a sea breeze and shifted 180 degrees! It did this on both the way down and the way back. Coming back to the Club the wind got a bit lively for the last 5 minutes of the sail.
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Exe Estuary
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| Down river paddling | 2022-08-09 | With Nigel H in the inflatable Sea Eagle. Down against some tide and sea breeze to Bull Hill Bank. Then a lovely drift back with the tide and wind.
Thanks to Derek H for the drone pics!
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-29 | Into Exeter and back. Moving average a little disappointing given how hard I pedaled!
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-11-19 | Another 20 mile ride into Exeter and back.
First ever average of 13 mph on a twenty mile ride.
Storm Angus had left the flood prevention overflows in full spate in Exeter.
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Mill On The Exe
Exe Estuary
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| Wednesday evening safety boat duty | 2015-09-09 | A Wednesday evening on the Exe Estuary crewing for Bob J on safety boat
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Exe Estuary
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| Ore Stone and back - Chaos | 2015-09-26 | Trial SYC "race" from Exe safe water mark, round the Teignmouth outfall buoy, round the Ore Stone and back to the Exe SWM.
A really great day's sailing. Relaxed and sunny on the downwind leg to the Ore Stone and really good sailing on the upwind leg back to the Exe SWM. The wind moved round a little to the east on the way back making (for us) a straight line sail; pretty much all the way back.
The "Chaos" in the title refers the the race's putative title - "CHase Around the Ore Stone"
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Exe SWM
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| Bull Sands paddling | 2024-04-18 | After tailing the safety line while Derek H went up the mast of his Fulmar, down to the Bull Sands against the wind and tide (only F3 and neaps). Lunch on the Sands and then an easy paddle back as the wind and waves got up a bit. Top paddling / exercise!
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Exe Estuary
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| Brixham to Exe | 2017-04-23 | A lovely day sail on Derek H's Fulmar.
First a quick trip with Liz on board round Berry Head. Mostly motor sailing and watching the wildlife.
Then, after dropping Liz off back in Brixham, a sail back up to SYC on the Exe. Light winds - but enough to sail most of the way. A chance to "play" with some of setup on Thalmia including the cruising chute and a think about how a preventer might be rigged.
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Exe Estuary
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| St Peter Port to SYC | 2016-06-04 | Up at the hideously early hour of 03:00 to catch the first of the tidal flow up the Little Russel at 04:00. A lovely clear night at 4am with all the navigation lights clearly visible. After Platte Fougere we "turned left a bit" to allow for the strong Spring tides. For much of the time the weather forecast was correct and what little wind there was was on the nose. However, the visibility was good making crossing the shipping lanes a lot easier than on the way out.
The photos of the Channel Light Vessel show an absolutely flat sea. The wind did pick up for a bit after this which made for a lovely sail with flat seas. A while north of the shipping lanes we were joined by about 6 to 8 dolphins for about 20 minutes. An hour or so later a much smaller porpoise made an appearance.
Amelie's engine held up well and we were back on the mooring at SYC by about 19:30.
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Exe Estuary
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| SYC to Topsham SC | 2016-06-11 | A paddle up the Exe from SYC to Topsham Sailing Club and back. First paddle of the year - a poor do indeed!
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-10-15 | Round to Lympstone and back again. Choccie bar near Lympstone Sailing Club, said 'hello' to Graham A at Topsham Sailing Club (who was putting Celtic Breeze to bed for the winter) and then round to Starcross Sailing Club for a coffee and a look at the Topper Open Meeting. A bit slow as Liz had some aches and pains and the wind was starting to get up.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-04-17 | In to Exeter on the Marin bike. Stopped at SYC on the way back to watch Liz and Nigel on the safety boat.
About the same strength and direction wind as yesterday so it seems that the posh bike makes me about 1.5 mph faster.
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Mill On The Exe
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| Exe Estuary Darting | 2020-08-30 | Back on Nigel H's Dart 18 for the first time in a long while. Lovely trip down and up the estuary. Wind was up and down - nothing too strong and it didn't completely die away/ Lovely.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-18 | Foggy ride into Exeter and back
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Exe Estuary
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| First Wayfarer sail of 2017 | 2017-04-02 | First time out in the Wayfarer this year. A very gentle sail and then a drift back down with the tide as the wind died away as forecast.
Some noisy scroat was scaring up the birds in a hovercraft between the Clyst and the Goat Walk.
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Exe Estuary
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| Bike ride to the Double Locks | 2016-07-17 | A bike ride along the Exe Estuary and canal to meet up with Rose and Midge for the first time in ages.
Wobbled back along the cycle path and stopped at SYC for a quick view of the 2nd day of the Exe Regatta.
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Exe Regatta
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| Mackerel for tea | 2016-07-18 | A glorious summer sail on a Dart 18 with Nigel H. Caught some mackerel for the first time ever - a few hundred yards off the safe water mark. Blisteringly hot and light winds - ideal for a summer sail / drift
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Exe Estuary
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