The GPS Blog| Activity | Activity date | Activity description |
|---|---|---|
| The Helford and Frenchman's Creek | 2014-09-08 | From Helford Passage via Frenchman's Creek up into Mawgan Creek towards the top of the Helford Estuary. A little windy on the way back meant plenty of exercise!
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Helford Estuary
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| Helford to Gweek - Falmouth | 2010-09-20 | From Helford Passage all the way up to Gweek and back. Not stopping at Daphers French Mans Creek this time.
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Helford
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| Helford Kayaking | 2023-09-10 | A lovely paddle on the Helford. Via FranchMan's Creek then up to Tremayne Quay for lunch (and a VHF message relay for a broken down dory). Then back via Port Navas.
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Helford
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| Helford River | 2018-09-06 | A short walk down to one of our favourite canoeing spots on the Helford - without a canoe this time.
This is where Scooby previously learnt to swim just for the fun of it so Liz was keen to take him back for another paddle.
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Helford
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| Helford Passage | 2021-07-04 | Checking out the options and costs for launching a kayak or canoe at Helford Passage (we used to launch from Bar Beach when we went to Cornwall with the car),
Launch price reasonable at £2 (that's not taking the piss) but the hill back up from the Helford Passage beach will take some effort wheeling a kayak).
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Helford Passage
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| Kayak Puncture! | 2023-09-09 | A second puncture (in a about 4 year's use) in our Sea Eagle 465 inflatable kayak put paid to our kayaking plans for the day.
Instead we spent a bit of time on Bar Beach on the Helford avoiding the day's strongest sun. Scooby still doesn't like swimming.
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Helford
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| Helford Passage to Gweek | 2018-07-08 | On yet another stunning 2018 summer's day, we put the canoe in just past the Helford Passage and paddled up to Geewk at the top of the Helford.
Then a dawdle back stopping at an old lime quay.
Highlight of the day for Liz was teaching Scooby to enjoy swimming! We think that his buoyancy aid may have helped.
At Penwarne Farm Campsite - lovely views in a field overlooking the sea between Falmouth and the Helford.
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Helford Passge
Helford
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| A new walk round Durgan and Trebah | 2025-07-15 | Tried iWalk (https://www.iwalkcornwall.co.uk/) for the first time on a new walk around Helford, Durgan and Trebah.
The iWalk app and its instructions turned out to be very good (albeit this particular walk wasn't the most interesting all the way round).
Slight diversion to Glendurgan NT for an excellent lunch.
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Helford Passage
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| Helford and Frenchmans Creek | 2013-09-18 | A walk along the Helford Estuary, back inland and then along Frenchmans Creek back to the village of Helford
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Helford
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| Helford Passage to Padagarrack Cove | 2017-07-09 | With Winguru and the Met Office differing in forecast speed by about two and a half times, we wanted to avoid the possibility of too much incoming tide against the westerly wind. So we had a short paddle from Helford passage down to Padagarrack Cove and then up past Port Navas.
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Helford
Helford Passage
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| Helford to Gweek paddle | 2024-09-13 | Launched the Sea Eagle inflatable kayak at Helford and paddled up past the Seal Sanctuary to Gweek Boatyard. Which was a surprise as I didn't think, at the start, that either of us fancied paddling that much.
Lunch at Tremayne Quay as usual.
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Helford
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| Helford Paddling | 2023-05-18 | A quick dip into Frenchman's Creek and then up to near Tremayne Quay for a coffee stop.
The first bit of the track is on land to measure the distance we dragged the kayak back up from Helford Passage to the campervan. Quite hard work but do-able. The kayak launching fee from Helford Passage was £2 which we thought was fair (and the more expensive ice cream was very nice too).
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Helford Passage
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| Helford and St Anthonys | 2022-09-07 | Mostly a "re-do" of a previous walk with some slight changes after reaching Manaccan.
Heavy rain for about 20 minutes.
Annoyingly, I ripped my bike jacket on some thorns. Bloody annoyed - a very good jacket that I'd had for over 20 years. Now held together with even more gaffa tape.
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Helford
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| Helford Creeks | 2019-07-13 | An early summer long weekend paddling on the Fal and the Helford.
With the winds being from the north, we chose the Helford for the Saturday.
Back to Frenchman's Creek but with a rising tide we were able to get right to the end of it.
Lunch and some Scooby ball action at Tremayne Quay (and helping an old wooden sailing boat moor alongside) and then in to the strangely named Vallum Tremayne Creek for the first time.
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Helford
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| Rosemullion Head and Mawnan | 2015-09-18 | Round Rosemullion Head and back via Mawnan Smith. Lovely walk but the plan was slightly spoilt as the midges on the Head put paid to the idea of reading there for a couple of hours.
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Helford
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| More creeks and kingfishers | 2015-09-20 | A paddle round the creeks of the Helford. More kingfishers today - in Frenchman's Creek. Lunch at Merthen Quay and then back via Polwheveral and Porthnavas creeks
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Helford
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| Helford Paddling | 2021-07-02 | A change to normal by putting the kayak in the water on the south side of the Helford Estuary (at Helford itself).
Explored Frenchman's Creek and then up[ almost as far at Bishop's Quay (but ran out of water at neaps).
Lunch at Tremayne Quay.
Scooby really not keen on enhancing his swimming skills.
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Helford
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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
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Beach cafe sail | 2023-09-29 | Down to the Exmouth Beach Cafe with Malcolm B in his RS Vision. Gusts not as strong as forecasted but the wind was very shifty.
Gorgeous chocolate ice cream at the Beach Cafe (sorry Scooby).
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-06-23 | In to Exeter and back. Stopped at SYC on the way back.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-07-28 | Very windy (WindGuru said 25mph gusting 40) on the way back and wet. Wind was maybe 30 to 45 degrees off being dead on the nose so slightly easier than it might have been.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Channel Islands - Alderney to Exe | 2012-06-06 | The return sail from Braye Harbour Alderney to the Exe Estuary.
The second half of the sail was very breezy as we sailed across in a gap between two lows.
Unfortuantely only the 2nd half of the track was saved on the GPS.
Tags:
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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| Safety boat at SYC | 2017-06-24 | Safety boat for SYC dinghy cruise. Nearly an out to sea cruise but it was a little lumpy just out towards the fairway buoy.
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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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Meandering on Exe Estuary | 2012-09-09 | Some gusts but mostly lulls on short Wayfarer sail
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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.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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!
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| First dinghy cruise of 2013 | 2013-04-20 | On safety boat duty for the first SYC dinghy cruise event of 2013. Lovely weather and a good wind but not much water on the neap tide. Upriver to the Goat Walk at Topsham.
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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
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Orcombe Point Paddling | 2023-10-26 | Around a low tide and out to (pretty much) Orcombe Point.
Lovely late October day with little wind and a fairly big tide.
The recent easterly storm has made quite dramatic changes to Bull Hill Bank.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-05-23 | Into work and back. Not much wind which made it a bit easier.
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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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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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| Brixham to Exe | 2013-06-02 | A light wind sail from Brixham to SYC on the Exe Estuary. Light winds but that was better than the forecast of next to no winds.
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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.
Tags:
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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| Beach cafe sail | 2023-08-16 | In Malcolm B's Vision down to the Beach Cafe for a choccie ice cream. Saw Colin and Avril Y in their inflatable kayak.
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Exe Estuary
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| Work cycle ride | 2017-05-12 | Into and Exeter and back to work.
Tags:
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!
Tags:
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!
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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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| Down river paddle | 2023-08-09 | Next to no wind and very little tide, so a quick down river paddle against the little incoming tide.
A few photos of the boat that sank at the weekend and was raised yesterday - as well as a few of the posher yachts on the estuary.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-02-06 | Super fast on the way out. A bit slower on the way back. The last five miles were into a fairly strong headwind right on the nose. That and pouring rain and the cold put a slight damper on the last quarter!
Tags:
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
Tags:
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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| Paddle down to Starcross | 2024-06-17 | First time out this year in the Sea Eagle 486 inflatable kayak.
Wind was a bit stronger than we'd hoped (low end of a F4) so we changed out plans and paddled out against the wind and tide. Which meant an easy trip back when we ran out of puff.
Tags:
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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| Commodore's Cruise | 2017-07-29 | The weather forecast was rubbish - no winds and heavy rain. Turned out to be a nice wind and only occasional rain.
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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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| 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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| Beach Cafe dinghy cruise | 2023-05-20 | A downriver dinghy cruise. All sorts of wind - from absolutely nothing in the 4 knot tide past the Warren with the Tudor Rose approaching to a good F4 for the 2nd half of the trip back.
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| Work cycle ride | 2017-09-26 | First time back on the bike after two week summer hols - hard work.
Tags:
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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| 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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| Up river sail | 2016-10-22 | First time out on the Wayfarer for quite some time.
The wind didn't manage the promised F3 / F4 and we ran out of wind trying to get past Topsham.
A seal popped its head out the water about 10 yards away from us and watched us sail by the Turf. Liz would have taken a photo but was too preoccupied trying to retrieve the Double Decker she'd dropped down the centre board casing.
Pleasant sail/drift in the autumn sun.
Tags:
Ese Estuary
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| Lizzie bike ride | 2015-04-17 | Liz's first bike ride in ages
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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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| First SYC dinghy cruise of 2015 | 2015-04-25 | An upriver dinghy cruise to start the 2015 season of SYC organised dinghy cruises. Pleasant wind - maybe F3
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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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| Exeter and back | 2016-12-05 | To the Mill On The Exe and back
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Exe Estuary
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| Sunny Corner Quay and the Tresillian River | 2015-09-23 | From the small Sunny Corner Quay on the edge of Truro round to the Tresillian River on the Fal Estuary.
Not too far today as there was a keen wind to be paddled against on the way back down the Tresillian.
Tags:
Fal Estuary
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| October dinghy cruise | 2015-10-10 | An iffy weather forecast (F4 gusting F5 with occasional F6) didn't tie up with the conditions at the start time so we went out with one reef. In the end, it turned out to be a lovely sail.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Beach cafe sail | 2024-06-20 | Sail down to the beach cafe in Malcolm B's RS Vision. No wind until we got some sea breeze. Then hot weather and a reasonable sea breeze. Sail aided by the new mainsail on the Vision.
Tags:
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!
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Exeter and back | 2017-04-14 | Wanted a nice gentle ride as it was the first time back on the bike in three weeks - a camper van trip and a slow to end lurgie having got in the way.
And a nice gentle ride with Liz it was.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2016-12-04 | Round the Exe Estuary trail to Lympstone and back.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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.
Tags:
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!
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Squires Cup Safety Boat | 2016-06-12 | Safety boat for the Squires Cup racing for dinghies and cats on the Exe Estuary. Not a lot of wind so not much call for our services. Some rain at times.
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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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Up to buoy 45 | 2017-08-19 | Quite a "feisty" sail as the weather did pretty much what was forecast - which was F4 gusting F5. They were fairly big gusts on the way out. Ran aground near the Turf Locks - whoops - and mutinous crew made the captain get out and push us off.
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Exe Estuary
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| Lympstone and back | 2017-02-19 | Round to Lympstone and back with Liz
Tags:
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.
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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| Summer Sail | 2016-07-30 | Went up river to about the Goat Walk and then back again. Liz did some helming for about the 3rd time in the 10 years we've been sailing on the Exe. Then some on water reefing practice and then back to SYC for the "Commodore's BBQ".
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Exe Estuary
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| Jim Vallis Cruise | 2016-08-06 | The first Jim Vallis Memorial Cruise. A dinghy cruise in memory of our friend Jim Vallis who started up the organised dinghy cruises at SYC. A lovely sunny day with the wind varying between nothing and about force 5 - but with no big gusts so very sailable. Joined at SYC by many from Jim's family and Sandra joined us on our Wayfarer for a sail.
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Exe Estuary
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| Free Sailing Safety Boat | 2016-08-13 | Doing safety boat for a Free Sailing at SYC on a lovely summer's afternoon. A pleasant F3 with the occasional gust made for almost ideal sailing conditions with just a few things to keep us slightly busy. A surprising overall distance as we spent the first 15 minutes at anchor (and expected to remain there for much of the afternoon!)
Tags:
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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| Work cycle ride | 2017-08-15 | Work and back
Tags:
Exe Estuary
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