Cybercaptain: Salcombe

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

Salcombe

"Red sky in morning, sailors warning"

Salcombe was our next destination and we left early morning to catch the afternoon high tide in order to be able to cross the bar. There was inclement weather incoming and had a very typical sky that has the age old adage "red skies in the morning, sailors warning". I hadn't stayed up all night so wouldn't know if the moon had been up because the other adage goes "red sky at night, sailors delight" but I think it hadn't been as the weather got progressively worse when we plodded along westwards and the air pressure sank.

Needles and ferry boat from Yarmouth to the mainland, like a mirage

Needles fort

The clocks had also been shifted an hour ahead so i had a bit of catching up to do in order to reach the high tide. As we approached the Needles the current was against us but when we cleared the sound and Isle of Wight we turned on a westerly course and shot along with the current . We got something like 2.5kts of current with us as we clocked around 14 knots at best, it helped well to keep the schedule for Salcombe.

Needles cliffs

Swanage cliffs off Poole

I thought that we would arrive well in advance of 1600hrs but eventually the current turned on us and then we only made 9.5 knots speed ahead so I was happy I had not amended my ETA. We still arrived about 20minutes ahead. Rounding the Start Point headland to reach Prawle Point and then the inlet to Salcombe I had 2.5m waves from southwest jostling us a bit, luckily the stabilisers kept us somewhat upright. As I approached the channel into Salcombe the waves subsided quickly and there I was passing the Starehole Bay and then the bar and I was inside the river.

Entering Salcombe

Boatmen and the Harbourmaster

Once inside the river the wind abated to something like 15 knots as opposed to 25 knots outside, I had a current pushing us in and I was very quickly at our mooring buoys, I drifted past them and then swung around to approach against he current and tie up. The harbourmasters men quickly connected our lines to the forward mooring buoy with schackles and then they went astern to connect there too. The river is pretty narrow so they can't have us swing with the current.

Salcombe

As we had moored up we settled in and the wind just started to increase, by evening the weather was howling up the river blowing white horses and our anemometer got to over 25knots in gusts. We rode it out well at the buoys, the ride ashore to the Crab Shack was just very frigid and wet as it also had started raining.

Opposite side of Salcombe town

The next day was just much better, the weather had blown over and it was a bit sunny ad much less wind. Still very few went ashore apart from in evening for dinner. The day after it was almost like summer, all guests went ashore, including me, I went for a walk.

Salcombe seafront

Salcombe town

Salcombe seafront

As I walked off the ferry at the RNLI jetty I pretty quickly arrived to an ice cream parlour at the Harbour cafe', they produced also from a local dairy just around the corner. I sampled a small cup of local flavours like clotted cream, banana and Belgian chocolate and continued on. Next door I saw the Cranch shop selling their own candies apparently Devon's oldest sweetshop established in 1869. I went in a surveyed all the wares on offer but I luckily avoided the temptation and continued my walk.

Crunch candy shop

Salcombe town

The next stop I did was the local museum, the entry was free but donations were encouraged. It was actually in the cellar of the town council, consisted of 2 largish rooms filled with paraphernalia. One room was mostly Captains paintings (in old days the skipper was given a painting of his command) of local sailing vessels, mostly schooners. Then below them was Naval stuff and odd maritime tools and other oddities from times bygone. The other room was dedicated mostly for wrecks, one that was featured quite prevalently was the loss of Herzogin Cecilie some 90 years ago.

Salcombe museum and town council

Salcombe museum, Herzogin Cecilie exhibits

Herzogin Cecilie was the Finnish shipowner Gustaf Erikssons flagship, she arrived Falmouth for orders and was enroute Ipswich and eventually hit the coast in fog near Ham Rock, just 2.5 nautical miles west of Starehole Bay. She was then lightered and moved to the bay (for repairs?) but another storm came and she eventually broke her back on a rock ridge under the sand. Unfortunately that was the end of her and she sailed no more. Parts of her was then salvaged and the figure head and Captain's saloon are now exhibited in the maritime museum of Mariehamn, Finland (which I've seen some years ago).

Salcombe museum, Herzogin Cecilie homeport letters

Salcombe museum, Herzogin Cecilie exhibits

Salcombe museum, wreck corner

Salcombe museum, miniature model of Blue Funnel Lines ss Antilochus

Salcombe museum, Captain's paintings (of their ships)

After the museum I continued up the hill to get some views of the river and ventured along the river towards Starehole Bay and Bolt Head. Along the way I got some pictures of the views and eventually I ended up at Starehole Bay where Herzogin Cecilie had met her demise back in the day. As much as I stared at the murky seas I could not see anything sticking out albeit it was low tide so I guess she had been ground down by the seas into the sand.

Salcombe opposite town

Salcombe river

The museum keeper had told me that sometimes a silhouette of the hull shape could be seen and he showed me a picture, who knows how long ago that was. Still a silent thought was in place for that might windjammer that had met her tragic end here, at least nobody died in the incident. The crew that was rescued might have bought some fudge at Crunch's sweet shop before they left for home. I turned back as I needed to get back onboard because the tide was flooding and we needed to get out with it.

Salcombe northerly part of river at low tide

Salcombe seafront at low tide

I then quickly hiked along the public footpath to the road and down the hill to South Sands beach. There was a ferryman who told me the next ferry is in 15 minutes so I sat down in his tractor powered wagon to wait for the ferry to arrive. As it arrived he started up his tractor and drove us to the waters edge (it was still pretty low tide) some 25 meters and the ferry approached to a V-shape on the tractor platform and tied up there. All passengers boarded and then the ferry started up the river. I disembarked at the RNLI jetty again and waited for my ride back onboard and soon enough I was onboard preparing to depart.