Salcombe's Rare Find - The Fanshell

Not only is Salcombe just about the most stunning estuary in the UK it appears it is also home to some extremely rare creatures! Staff form Plymouth Uni & Salcombe Marine conservation found a Fanshell which is one of the most threatened marine creatures in the UK.

Apparently it's like a huge mussel that grows to more than a foot long. This one was found in a seagrass bed which makes the find even more amazing as its the first tidal living Fanshell found for more than 50 years! This seagrass bed in Salcombe could become a prtoected area under a bill proposed to protect finds such as these.

Read more about Fanshells....

New Speed Limits for Salcombe Estuary?

There was proposal on the table of the harbour Board which has been passed; to reduce the speed limit in the Salcombe & Kingsbridge estuary to 6 knots (from 8 knots), there has also been comment that the people are speeding in the "Bag" - the part of the estuary form Snapes to Saltstone. There are also concerns that the speed limits aren't being being enforced.

This proposal seems kind of mad for a few reasons:

1. Lets face it who really knows exactly what speed they are doing anyway?
2. Who can actually tell the difference between 6 and 8 knots?
3. When the tide is ripping out or in and you are going in the opposite direction speed is almost impossible to judge.
4. If no-one is really enforcing the limits now what good is lowering them going to do?

Surely 8 knots isn't too fast, people aren't stupid, no-one goes 8 knots past Whitestrand, its about common sense. Are the harbour board just looking for things to do to make them look important? I can't think of any other reason? It's true some people do go over 8 knots in the harbour but 99% of people don't and 8 knots is a perfectly safe speed.

Also, if there are 28% less visiting yachts then there must be less estuary traffic anyway! The estuary isn't anywhere near as busy as it was back in the early to mid 90's.

Come on Salcombe Harbour Board do something worthwhile!

Going back a few years (when Captain Blazeby was Salcombe Harbour Master and for a few years after) it was common practice to throttle up between Saltstone and Bowcombe. If the harbour master was about and he felt you were pushing your luck you would get a hand signal to suggest you slowed down and and smile of acknowledgment when you did. These days you get a ridiculous blue flashing light, a siren and your rights read to you!

aaaah the good old days......

40+ photos tagged "Salcombe"

Salcombe's BIG Problem...

So visiting yachts were down by 28% last year and Harbour Master Ian Gibson is "alarmed"....not sure why he is or why he would expect anything else when he introduces new policies such as charging for Whitestrand overnight rather than concentrating on the real issues such as; lack of facilities, nowhere to buy supplies ashore, nowhere to moor your boat very easily, increasingly less places to buy chandlery, overpriced shops and poor restaurants.

Supposedly the Harbour Board are going to introduce showers and WI-FI, just like they were supposedly going to do last year and the year before! It's not rocket science I don't see what the problem is.

If you are a visiting yachts person and come ashore dying for a decent coffee, your first port of call would probably be the Salcombe Coffee Company only to realise that it should have been the bank! Why they think they can charge more than Starbucks or Cafe Nero in Central London is beyond me. 2 Years ago they put their prices up 25p for a Grande Latte and the cups actually got smaller. If that isn't pure greed then what is? Also, don't expect any smiles or joviality form the owner, the miserable sod!

Your second thought is probably where can we eat tonight, only to find out that just about all Salcombe's restaurants were fully booked for August by June! So then you are left with the Kings Arm's, a lovely pub inside but a dive outside (minus the new balcony) with utterly stupid rules like you can only get pizza before 7pm, the rest of the menu is off limits...what about kids? Oh hang on there is Salcombe's new premier restaurant the Oyster Shack where you can get a seafood platter for £80 a head...the same price as the taster menu at one of Ramseys Michelin starred London restaurants.

If you want to stock up on supplies for the rest of your trip forget it, unless you want to go to Kingsbridge as there ins't anywhere to buy anything! If you need petrol you can forget that too unless you want to pay £8 a gallon at the fuel barge!

Salcombe is hard if not impossible to beat as an idyllic seaside town, but is quickly becoming a no go area for yachts people who can just go a few miles around the coast to Dartmouth for a far nicer experience.

But hey as long as the Harbour Board are getting their overnight mooring charges for Whitestrand and Salcombe traders can get people to pay their hugely inflated prices who cares, right!?

The UK's best 2 Holiday homes? Both in Salcombe!

These 2 properties are quite incredible....

The first is a new build called "Underbecks" named as such due to it's position below "Overbecks". This probably has the best position in Salcombe for views.

The second is "Beach House Quay" a pretty amazing house too! This is the house you can quite often see Michael Parkinson sat outside during town regatta week.

Both will cost you c£7k for town regatta week and both sleep 12.

Underbecks has much nicer interior and a far fresher feel to it, Beach House Quay seems a bit dark and cluttered. The one massive plus that Beach Quay House has over Underbecks is the evening sun!!! Underbecks and Salcombe in general both suffer form no sun after about 4pm. So no nice evenings on the terrace in the fading sun, more like a chilly evening huddled around the BBQ! Still you could always get your binoculars out and have a jealous look down the estuary at the folks in Beach Quay House with their G&T's and sunshine!!

YOU CHOOSE!

Oyster Shack (Salcombe) Rowers Make Good Progress.

5 endurance athletes are attempting to break the "trans-at" record, the Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger , yes you guessed it, they are being sponsored by the Oyster Shack, Salcombe, are currently about 500 miles into their row.

The Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger must make landfall in the Caribbean by 20:30 on Sunday 27th January 2008 to break the record.

Fingers crossed!

Keep up to date with their progress here.