The GPS Blog| Activity | Activity date | Activity description |
|---|---|---|
| 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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| Sail with Liz and Julian | 2012-04-14 | No wind but some thunderstorms. Not the ideal sail on the estuary for Lizs brother.
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Exe Estuary
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| Up river cruise to Goat Walk | 2012-05-19 | An up river dinghy cruise from SYC to the Goat Walk. Light winds on the way back. About 15 boats out.
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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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| Work cycle ride | 2017-05-02 | Cycle ride to work and back. Not that windy but the wind was against on the way to work and against on the way home!
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-01-05 | Quite fast on the way out but a bit of a head wind on the way back slowed things down a bit overall.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe estuary drift | 2012-06-17 | Downstream against the incoming tide. Over on the Lympstone side for a change as there was some water. Got about as far as the Duck Pond before the tide started to change.
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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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| A very gusty sail | 2012-07-29 | A very short sail as Liz wasnt too keen on the gusty conditions. It was windy as the top speed of 8.2 knots was actually against the tide. It felt fast for an old Wayfarer with a lot of the front of the boat out of the water as we planed down wind.
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Exe Estuary
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| Monday evening sail | 2012-07-30 | A Monday evening sail to the Goat Walk - quite gusty.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-09-28 | Windy and slow on the way back
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-04-29 | Dinghy cruise was cancelled because the winds were too strong so Liz and I went cycling. Doh! Hard work on the way back from the Swing Bridges as it was straight into the F5 winds.
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Exe Estuary
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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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| Down river dinghy cruise | 2012-09-15 | Down to the beach cafe and back. Very light winds most of the time but the sun was shining.
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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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| Lympstone and back | 2016-11-05 | A windy ride round to Lympstone and back.
Back on the Marin after its trip to the LBS for a new rear wheel.
Not a happy bike - gear change was really sloppy, the chain came off and the rear brake rubbed. No wonder it all felt such hard work.
Stopped at the Swing Bridges to watch them open to let yachts up to the canal basin.
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Exe Estuary
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| Kayaks and canoes with Jacqui and Carol | 2023-06-03 | A lovely June day, bottom of the tide paddle down the estuary with the Canadian canoe and the inflatable kayak. A top picnic lunch and then across the estuary to Lympstone in the inflatable and the Triumph single seater kayak.
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Exe Estuary
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| Morning dog walk | 2021-08-10 | Checking out new battery in Montana 600 GPS. Old one was about 7-8 years old and had probably done 500-600 recharges so can't complain too much.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work bike ride | 2017-04-28 | Into work and back.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exmouth and back | 2016-12-28 | A slightly longer cycle ride than usual. Average speed would probably have been a fair bit better if it wasn't for a strong wind right on the nose for the last 6 miles.
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Exe Estuary
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| Car buying bike ride - part 1 | 2013-04-21 | Bike ride into town to look for a new old car given that our Citroen has just dies with only 77k on the clock.
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Exe Estuary
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| Up river to the Turf | 2013-04-28 | Only the 2nd dinghy sail of the year. Up river as far as the Turf in a nice gentle breeze
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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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| Wayfarer to Topsham Quay | 2023-05-28 | Lovely sail to just past Topsham Quay. Wind was getting a bit flukey so we didn't go further.
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Exe Estuary
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| SYC to Pole Sands | 2018-07-14 | A canoe paddle down from SYC to the Pole Sands in company with Ellie T and Marco F (and the hound).
Strong Spring tides both ways but a sea breeze made the paddle out hard work and super easy on the way back.
Scooby enjoyed having four different people to throw the ball for him on the Pole Sands!
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Exe Estuary
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| Cycle ride to work | 2017-04-25 | First cycle ride to work in many years. Strong headwind on the way there (white horses on the estuary) but tail wind on the way back. Not easy though on the way back as I hadn't eaten in the 5 hours before ride. Need to plan that a bit better!
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Exe Estuary
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| Xmas day bike ride | 2016-12-25 | A ride with Liz into Exeter and back. Lots of kids on the cycle path with shiny new Xmas present bikes.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-01-21 | Cold days cycle ride into Exeter and back. Just above freezing. Very gentle ride with Liz - reflected in the somewhat slower than usual average speed.
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Exe Estuary
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| Liz and Jill go large | 2013-06-14 | Too much talking too much wind and too much carrot cake to make for a respectable average speed but not bad on the distance front. Next week the girls will be cycling to Exmouth and back apparently.
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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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| Down river paddle | 2023-05-24 | Down river but I was short of time. So that meant paddling back against the last hour of the outgoing tide. A sea breeze helped though. Lovely day - good exercise!
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-08-27 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz. Lovely hot summer's day.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-06-12 | Quite hard work as I hadn't been on the bike for the last three weeks and there was a bit of a head wind on the way out.
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Exe Estuary
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| A drift and a sail to TSC | 2017-07-15 | Light westerly winds and little tide so we sailed and drifted towards Topsham Sailing Club. Ran out of wind just before TSC.
Sitting having coffee at SYC afterwards and we spotted a yacht where it shouldn't have been. Alan W's yacht had broken its moorings and was drifting down past buoy 29. There was already a safety boat moored up to the slipway so we took that and returned the yacht to a mooring.
Can't believe we did 5.9 knots at any point today (but that would mean my code is wrong so maybe we did!!!!!!).
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Exe Estuary
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| Monday afternoon on the Pole Sands | 2013-07-15 | A canoe trip from Cockwood Harbour to the Pole Sands off Exmouth. Scooby loved it.
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Exe Estuary
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| Post work paddle | 2013-07-17 | A paddle down the Exe Estuary and along the Pole Sands with Nigel after work. A lovely sunny evening in the middle of the heat wave. Photos by Liz from a distance!
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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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| Another twenty miles | 2016-10-20 | Third day in a row of cycling into Exeter and back.
Every day is getting harder - surely that's not right!
A couple of "reading breaks" on the way back.
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-07-23 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz. Liz's first time back on a bike for about a month.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-22 | Windy on the way back - hard work. The wind was against and small white horses were starting to develop on the estuary. Not a good combination for the ride home.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-04-16 | Into Exeter and back. A fair old head wind on the way out but speedy on the way back. Not a bad average for me given that I'm still not fully over the lurgie I've had for the last couple of weeks.
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Exe Estuary
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| Pole Sands Paddling | 2020-08-31 | An ideal days paddling. Wind and tide with us on the way out and on the way back!
Liz fell in when getting out of the kayak on the Pole Sands.
Much screaming from Liz and Scooby when we came back round the outside of the Pole Sands.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe Estuary Meandering | 2021-07-21 | With Nigel H on his Dart 18 avoiding the heatwave. Just enough wind for a cooling breeze.
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Exe Estuary
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| Autumn beach cafe sail | 2013-10-05 | An autumn sail down to the beach cafe. The sun put in an appearance and there was occasionally a bit of wind to use in the big springs tide
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Exe Estuary
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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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| Little Russell - Exe Estuary | 2023-04-04 | A kayak trip down the Exe to look at the channel near buoy 13 and the Little Russel buoy.
It is much narrower than previous years.
A summary note with photos and notes at https://aidanwhiteley.com/docs/lower-exe-and-little-russel-v1.pdf
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Exe Estuary
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| Round to Lympstone | 2017-08-20 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz. The remnants of a lurgy for Liz and the headwinds on the way back contributed to the single figure average speed!
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Exe Estuary
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| Cycle ride to work | 2017-06-13 | One of those "head wind in both directions" rides. Wind against on the way out and then a sea breeze against on the way back.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-17 | First ride in a fortnight - work and the weather put paid to the previous weekend.
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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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| First beach cafe sail of the year. | 2014-05-03 | A lovely F3 south easterly for a sail down to the Exmouth Beach Cafe and back again
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Exe estuary
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| Sunny beach cafe safety boat duty | 2014-05-17 | A lovely sunny May sail down to the beach cafe and back. Light winds but just enough.
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Exe estuary
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| Down river dinghy cruise | 2022-08-13 | Safety boat duty on a down river dinghy cruise. Twenty one boats, a big spring tide and a few minor dramas.
And my first double scoop of ice cream in about 3 months. Lush.
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Exe Estuary
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| Pole Sands Paddling | 2019-06-22 | Out to the Pole Sands in the canoe with Scooby.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-03-10 | Into Exeter and back. Average speed not too bad given that there was quite a strong headwind on the way back.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-11-27 | Liz's first time back on the bike at the tail end of a two week lurgy.
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Exe Estuary
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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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| Sail on Nigel's Dart | 2014-08-18 | A decent wind (gusting maybe F5) for a storming sail on Nigel's Dart. Some excellent speeds with a top speed of over 17 knots - probably the fastest I've been under sail. Top stuff
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Exe Estuary
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| Up river - twice | 2014-08-31 | A lovely sunny day. Wayfarer sail up river and then up river again. Winds got a bit light going up the Exe towards Topsham and the Clyst so just sailed round and round.
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Exe Estuary
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| Return to the Exe | 2020-05-15 | First time back on the Exe Estuary after many, many months.
First trip out on our new inflatable kayak - a Sea Eagle 465 FastTrack.
Overall - very pleased with it.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-04 | Into work and back
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-03-06 | Round to Lympstone with Liz. Liz impressed with the new Aldi at Topsham and less impressed with the rain on the way back.
Took some photos of a well preserved old fishing boat in the Turf Lock - later spotted heading off towards Lyme Regis way.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-05 | To the Mill On The Exe and back
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Exe Estuary
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| Estuary sailing in the Wayfarer | 2015-04-10 | A near enough perfect spring breeze made for an ideal morning's sailing on the Exe Estuary. Maybe 12 to 14 knots of steady south to south easterly wind made for a great morning's sailing in the Wayfarer with Liz's brother Julian. Chose the right day to take off work for once!
The average speed isn't too bad but reduced a little by having to sail back up the estuary against the tides.
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Exe estuary
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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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| Another 26 miles | 2016-11-06 | Round to Lympstone and back again. Another windy ride.
Stopped at SYC for the AGM.
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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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| Topper Open At SYC | 2016-10-09 | Junior Topper Open event at Starcross Yacht Club.
Safety boat crew for the 4 back-to-back races for the 23 boats at this open sailing event.
Decent winds all day between F2 and F4 from the north east.
GPS battery ran out after only a couple of hours so most of the track is missing.
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Exe Estuary
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| A tale of two ferries | 2016-08-14 | Up to buoy 45 at Topsham (off the Goat Walk) passing the Topsham to Turf ferry and then down to Starcross (to the Starcross to Exmouth ferry pier). Then round the floating cafe and back to SYC.
A gorgeous day's sailing. A strong F3 up near Topsham and one of those rare days that it was warm enough to sail without a spray top. Marvelous.
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Exe Estuary
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| Darts Farm and back | 2017-01-07 | Off to Darts Fram to hire a tandem for Liz's birthday next week. Liz bought a leek!
Average speed distorted by the time spent shuffling round Darts Farm while Liz looked for other stuff to buy.
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Exe Estuary
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| Paddle to the Pole Sands | 2015-08-17 | A paddle from Starcross to the Pole Sands making the most of the sunny almost windless weather. Scooby ran miles on the sands.
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Exe Estuary
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| SYC trip to the beach cafe - by bike | 2015-09-05 | A first SYC organised cycle ride. From SYC on the west back round to the beach cafe at Exmouth on the east bank. Ten participants.
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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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| Another 100 mile week | 2016-10-28 | Exeter and back - bringing up the 100 miles for the week.
For much of the ride, the smoke from the large fire from the buildings surrounding Cathedral Green was visible. Very sad.
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Exe Estuary
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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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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-01 | Into Exeter and back
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-06-16 | Into work and back
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-07-16 | It was going to be a longer ride round to Lympstone but it started raining and the wind got up.
Still - first time ever with an average speed of over 15 mph! Would have been faster except for having to slow down so often for huge numbers of kids and walkers. They are also digging up the cycle path at Exe Bridges which meant walking round various diversions and not getting the full 20 miles in.
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Exe Estuary
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| April Free Sailing | 2016-04-16 | A pleasant sail back and forth across the estuary. Started about F4 gusting F5 so we went out with one reef. Wind eased so we shook out the reef. The offshore lifeboat came up the river.
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Exe Estuary
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| First beach cafe sail of 2016 | 2016-04-23 | First SYC sail to the Exmouth beach cafe in 2016.
The forecast was north easterly F4 to F5. However, on the way back from the beach cafe it was really quite gusty and I'd guess that the gusts might just have been F6. Combined with a fairly large tide and the NE wind being against the tide, it made for an interesting sail back.
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Exe Estuary
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| Beach cafe sail | 2016-05-07 | Wind forecast was for a F4 gusting F5 and, after a slow start, that's what we got. Stopped half way down to put in one reef. Top choccie ice cream at the Beach Cafe. With the wind well behind us on the way back, put two reefs in the main and had full headsail on the way back. Still went quite fast on the way back.
The top speed of 9.8 knots - in a Wayfarer - is a clue to the size of the tides.
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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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| Exe paddling | 2022-08-06 | Ended up being a tour (past) most of the Exe estuary sailing clubs. So past Exe Sailing Club and Lympstone Sailing Club. Stopped at Starcross Yacht Club for lunch and then back past Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club. Would only have had to go past Topsham Sailing Club to get the "full set".
Watched a little of the Solo and Laser Opens at SYC.
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-07-31 | Round to Lympstone and back (via the Turf Locks again).
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-02-19 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz
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Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2016-11-28 | A windy ride into Exeter and back. Luckily the wind (F5 to F7 on Met Office forecast) was mostly on the side,
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Exe Estuary
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| And another twenty miles | 2016-10-21 | To the Mill On The Exe and back again.
This one was very slightly easier than yesterday but that's probably because it was such a still day.
Average of 12mph!!! I don't think I've ever averaged that before.
Cheating slightly by stopping to read a chapter of a book at the Exe Quay (safe water mark) and at the Turf Locks - as it was such a nice day.
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Exe Estuary
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| Exe Regatta Committee boat | 2016-07-16 | On a rather nice Westerly acting as the Committee Boat for the catamaran racing of the 2016 Exe Regatta. Knowing nothing about dinghy racing, we were pulling up and down various flags at the request of the endlessly patient PK. No real idea what most of the flags meant and I suspect a very goodly proportion of the competitors don't (I think they just listen for the alternate sound signals).
Still a very pleasant way to while away a Saturday afternoon on the Exe.
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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 Estuary
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| Scooby's last summer holiday walk | 2019-09-23 | Your activity description here
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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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| Whole fleet paddiling | 2019-06-29 | Paddling with Richard and Helen - first time out on canoes.
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Exe Estuary
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