Cornwall's Great White......HOAX!

So once again the infamous "Cornish Great White" shows itself in time for summer visitors....every year we have to go through this story which the media love and I presume locals push for tourism reasons, especially if the weather has been bad and visitor numbers down.

I think this comment left on the "This is Devon" web site sums it up:

The tiresome annual 'Cornish White Shark' story took a new editorial nose-dive with these latest flights of journalistic fancy - especially in The Sun. The original St Ives footage doesn't show a white shark whatsoever - period. Moreover, today's front-page lead in The Sun ('JAWS II') clearly pictures a basking shark with 100% certainty, yet is run without qualification. So to clarify this in plain language: There has been NO compelling record, sighting or otherwise, of a white shark in UK waters to-date. However, these highly-mobile sharks - probably the most wide-ranging and widely-distributed of all shark species - could (and sometimes do) appear in unlikely places worldwide. That's not to say they have, or currently do, occur in UK waters. In over 15 years of studying white sharks in eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean waters, the most 'comtemporary' confirmed record in my dataset from Atlantic European waters north of Iberia remains a juvenile female caught off La Rochelle, Bay of Biscay, in 1977. The various UK 'records' of recent years remain in the realm of either media-fed mythology or well-meaning misidentifications. They do NOT qualify as occurrence records in any scientific sense.
Ian Fergusson, Shark Biologist, IUCN Shark Specialist Group, BBC Bristol

The Oyster Shack

This is the first season for the Salcombe Oyster Shack after the success of the Bigbury based one. First mutterings are of an over priced but nice restaurant....I did hear that the seafood platter was £80 a head!!!! YES!! I KNOW!! You only pay £80 a head for the taster menu at Ramsey's Claridges!!!!

I haven't been so I will reserve my judgement, although I suspect it is already fully booked for most of the summer holiday season...if any of you have been please let us know.

Useful Links

I have added a panel of usful links on the right hand side of the blog; so far tide times for the next 7 days and a couple of links to useful Salcombe info.

Property Prices.....

As this is the hot topic I thought I would post a link to this article.

Times Article on Salcombe Property Prices

It's kind of ridiculous really, Salcombe has become a elite town for "city bonuses" and Home County "yummy mummies"....which is all very nice unless you are local (apart form the ones making money from this influx of cash) who probably earn £8-10k a year and so would need a mortgage of 35 times their salary to even afford a decent 2 bed flat in the town.

I can understand why they all come here as its an incredible place and a throw back to the 60's in terms of being safe and a great place to raise kids....no ASBO's, graffiti or gangs....in Salcombe "happy slapping" is only associated with the regatta week morris dancers!

Can property prices carry on rising?

Charging For Whitestrand!!!!!

INCREDIBLE!!! Once again the local idiots who run the council/harbour office have come up with a new gem. £25 week for visitors (£25 for residents) to be able to leave their boats overnight. If you don't pay there is a £100 tow away fee.

Maybe I am wrong but I have never seen a problem at whitestrand even in the height of summer!? yes it gets very busy but its manageable and an absolutely vital option in a tidal estuary such as salcombe.

We are not allowed to use Normandy pontoon, which is hardly ever full, as its only for visiting yachts but they want to charge us for using whitestrand overnight. What other options do we have if we don't have a mooring or at least use of one. Taking our boats out at Batson? That is a joke in itself as it is the worst facility ever and always chaos for the 12 seconds of tide we get down there!!

Come on harbour authority WAKE UP....dont join the shopkeepers in ripping us all off!

A "reef" in Salcombe

Wow I thought a reef in Salcombe....watch out Newquay...

Turns out it is a nature reef...:-(

Imagine Salcombe with a surfing reef, property would be even more expensive and instead of the 2nd homers saying "yar, absolutley" it would be all "hey dude, spiffing wotto"...hilarious.

We could have a beach bar and not have to puit up with the dirty/manky KA beer garden...how good would that be!!!!

Tell us something we didn't already know!

Property Crisis!

Is this a bad thing? Obviously it is for locals looking to buy houses, but in this day and age property is the easiest means of making money and places like Devon are an obvious target for the rich to buy second homes safe in the knowledge that they are also a sound investment.

I think the bigger problem is the extent to which they are changing look and feel of these coastal towns. Many are becoming an array of boutiques and designer shops. If you need something for sailing or boating forget it!

Great Beaches

Who needs the med? All we need now is some decent weather...
If we had the weather would the French and Spanish come to Devon?

Devon clothing.....

Everyone should have one! You dont have to have Salcombe written on it, you can just have the flag if you want! Email for details...


Look at these....

Anyone enjoy summer? It arrived on Saturday and left late last night....

However the Guardian on Satruday confidently informs us that August will be a scorcher! Fingers crossed....

Summer Weather...