Dartmouth Boat Trip And Picnic Aboard Blue Marlin III

My husband Steve, has half shares on a little day fishing/cruiser boat, with his brother Mike. It is moored on the beautiful River Dart in Dartmouth down here in Devon. Steve and Mike try to go out fishing in the boat “Blue Marlin III” once a week, and I use the word “fishing” loosely as they never seem to catch anything!!! Anyway, occasionally I am taken out for a picnic on the boat, where no fishing takes place. On the 6th May 2013, the bank holiday Monday, it was a beautiful day here in Ivybridge, so we decided that today would be a good day to take for us to take the boat out.

As we live about a 40 minute drive away Dartmouth we set off from Ivybridge in the glorious sunshine at about 10.30 am. The sun stayed with us all the way until we started to get near to the coast and a thick sea mist engulfed us – typical, the only place in the Country it seemed that was not bathed in sunshine. We proceeded down to where the boat was moored, and am glad to say that the mist started to lift.

We boarded the boat (I have to emphasise that this is a little fishing boat, and unfortunately not a luxury cabin cruiser – can but dream) and set off down the River Dart and out to sea. We had only been out to sea for about 10 minutes when we spotted 2 dolphins. I was in my element and I did have my camera ready but it was impossible to guess where they were going to surface next, and I was not quick enough to catch them each time they came out of the water. Have got a couple of good photos of the sea where they were, and on zooming in, I am sure that they are there in the distance, but you will have to take my word for that.

We headed to a little cove where we moored up and opened the bottle of wine and sat there in the sunshine (thankfully) munching away on our goats cheese canapes, sounds great – still dreaming of being on a luxurious cabin cruiser, but this was a little 3 tier box containing the little biscuits, little rounds of goats cheese and a compartment for the chutney that you assemble yourself I purchased from Tesco, and a pasta salad. We sat there for a while, just rotating on the anchor and taking in the fantastic sea views. Then, would you believe it, but the mist started to roll in again (but have to say that the timing was great, as we were about to move anyway).

Just before we went back to the mooring, we took a little detour around the Mewstone, where quite often Steve and Mike see seals, but unfortunately none were around today.

We headed back to the mooring, passing the Dartmouth Castle on the left as we entered the river, and went back up the Dart in brilliant sunshine. We sat out on deck and had a cup of tea and some little cakes soaking up the warmth. Steve laid out on the seat at the back and nearly dozed off (photos below). We finally packed up and headed home after a lovely day.

A little photo gallery below detailing our trip, including some of the River Dart which cuts through the very pretty town of Dartmouth on one side and Kingswear on the other, and where some very lucky and rich people have fantastic houses. Also the paddle steamer, the “Kingswear Castle” which runs pleasure trips up and down the river, and the Higher Dartmouth Car Ferry. Also moored alongside the quay in Dartmouth was “The Fairmile” which has been reinstated back to its original specification as a Second World War Motor Torpedo boat and of course the Royal Dartmouth Naval College.