THE VIEW FROM THE DARTMOUTH OFFICE

Every picture on this website, with no exception, is taken from one place - our Dartmouth office garden

For those of you that don’t already know..........every single snap on this website is taken from one place -

our garden in Above Town, Dartmouth, Devon, England


Thursday 28th March 2024 - 11am


Storm Nelson has arrived and upset the ferries.

But loads more to see.

We've only a few days of the month to go and we're already well over 150 pix.

Do look inside both the January and February albums.


TVFTDO is a unique record of life in, on, around and above the wonderful river Dart.

See all of last years albums here.

You can also take a look at The Pick of TVFTDO.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well done for getting this far. You now have a choice. Continue on below looking at the previous updates or heading inside to look at  ALL the February photos. For every one here on the front page there are ten more inside. January pix here.

PREVIOUS UPDATES

06 March 2024 - 12:27:34

Lots of activity around the mainstream buoys this week. Divers were conducting mainstream mooring inspection and maintenance.

This diver has just come back up after a stint on the river bed. Quite an outfit.

06 March 2024 - 12:28:18

And here's the face of the man in the iron mask.

07 March 2024 - 16:53:22

Unusual goings on over on the Higher Ferry slip at Britannia Halt. For a moment it looked like the council had got their rotas wrong.

But turned out they were all photographers of the train enthusiast variety. The Kingswear Railway has spent two years refurbishing the Lydham Manor loco and this was one of its first outings.

07 March 2024 - 16:53:23

The train company went out of their way to give the snappers the pix they wanted.

Backwards and forwards the train went giving them ample chances to get the snaps of their dreams.

07 March 2024 - 17:16:31

And how did the photographers get there and get home? Here's a clue.

And who knew part of a photographers kit included a step ladder? Who knew?


06 March 2024 - 07:06:54

This is called the sun. In case you had forgotten.

I was trying to get it rising behind the Daymark. This day was about three days too early.

But for the next week, clouds were early risers.

10 March 2024 - 11:00:39

What larks. What mudlarks.

On the opposite shore across from the Dart Marina he's apparently looking for peeler crabs, considered one of the best baits available.

Not a specific type of crab, just one that has jettisoned its shell and has yet to grow a new hard casing.

02 March 2024 - 07:30:40

Not so much a megayacht, more of a metayacht.

Well, what do you know? One morning at the beginning of the month I somewhat fortuitously snapped megayacht Launchpad passing the end of the river. Apparently on its way to St Maarten in the caribbean from the Feadship yard in the Netherlands where it was built. It has now arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where a number of publications are reporting the new owner as Mark Zuckerberg and it has arrived just in time for his birthday. Aaah, that's nice.

The yacht is 118m long and has its own support ship to hold all the toys (the helicopter etc).


13 March 2024 - 15:42:13

Always good to see the Kingswear trots being relaid.

Spring can't be that far away.

07 March 2024 - 15:23:26

Is this a parliament ?

Way up river from us and making a heck of a racket. Looks like crows to me.

11 March 2024 - 12:37:11

Lots of debris in the river this week.

Some of it will be in the logbook.

08 March 2024 - 09:51:59

The day the Lower Ferry allowed its thoughts of ambition to run wild....yes, it COULD be a tanker.

12 March 2024 - 15:08:49

Flying in, both under the radar, and the Daymark.

A Royal Navy Merlin came over the town before departing downriver.

01 March 2024 - 15:08:28

Construction update.

Not the best of weather to go camping.

(they're known as 'scaffold tents').

15 March 2024 - 09:15:06

One by one the trot moorings are rebuilt. This is buoy number 13 going back in the water.

15 March 2024 - 12:03:33

Up on Bridge Road the little thatch extension is coming on nicely.


15 March 2024 - 10:31:29

Builders in Kingswear and Dartmouth are known to apply a local premium cost on account of difficulty of access for many projects.

Here's a prime example, power elevators.....and extra manpower needed to simply get bricks and mortar to site.

12 March 2024 - 07:53:24

You know when the tide is high - you have to walk UP to the ferry.

07 March 2024 - 14:34:54

Luckily it wasn't high tide when this South West Water crew visited the Kingswear slip beside RDYC.

They have clearly been having an issue there, there has been a visit most days this week.

20 March 2024 - 09:49:18

Less expensive, but more local, one of the many houses being built on the riverside along a short stretch of Castle Road in Dartmouth is being readied for its unveiling.

21 March 2024 - 15:14:28

Let the season begin. Out come the pontoons for RDYC.

Moodys Island (the dinghy parking platform) came along later in the day.

21 March 2024 - 13:19:34

Up on Gallants Bower, some beautiful rhododendrons. The red certainly stands out on the hillside.

21 March 2024 - 15:19:36

Not exactly "Curtain Up!" But this is how the unveiling is working.


20 March 2024 - 18:47:02

The wonders of modern cameras. I very much doubt if this could have been caught on film, certainly not ion colour.

The nights are getting lighter, but at a quarter to seven it was getting pretty darn dark.

This is the 272 metre container ship One Reassurance passing Brixham pilot station - and the end of the river Dart.

On its way to Cape Town from Rotterdam.

21 March 2024 - 06:40:01

Low cloud over the river, but it's looking all clear through that narrow tunnel out to sea.

17 March 2024 - 17:57:21

Torbay pleasure boat Dolphin Princess tows motor vessel Sea-La-Vie (Geddit?) into Dartmouth.

28 March 2024 - 07:57:55

Storm Nelson arrived with some unsettling winds. Well, they unsettled the car ferries. I noticed one of the Lower ferries seeming to have problems keeping a straight course - it soon headed for its own pontoon refuge. In the meantime the other tug and barge combination tried to deliver its load from Kingswear into Dartmouth. It took two attempts. The Higher Ferry was also moored up, but the crew of the passenger ferry carried on.

You can see the whole thing with lots more pix inside. Just click the pic.

26 March 2024 - 12:05:43

There's little better than a good head of steam. Well, yes there is....two good heads of steam.

Here's Goliath (5239) and Lydham Manor (7827) striding out in a blaze of the white stuff.

27 March 2024 - 15:43:55

Theis Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter (ZZ517) has just taken off from the parade ground at BRNC.  

My camera is level, it's the pilot putting on a show as he departs.

27 March 2024 - 15:43:35

Just seconds earlier ZZ517 was ascending flat and level as it passed the Golden Hind atop the mast.

27 March 2024 - 14:43:20

The rainbow bridge. Well, the virtual rainbow bridge

27 March 2024 - 13:29:45

Not often seen inthe same room together. Both of Dart Harbour's lifting cranes working hard to renstate the Kingsweartrots before Easter.

26 March 2024 - 12:14:14

This JD is probably ploughing a mile a way from the Daymark. Perspective does that.

A strange way of looking at things. Quite gives one a different viewpoint.

Enough of the punning pontiificating. It's Mr John Deere the farming turning over a few acres.

25 March 2024 - 15:55:46                                                                                25 March 2024 - 15:56:02

25 March 2024 - 15:56:06                                                                                25 March 2024 - 15:56:11

One up, one down. One back up, both down.

How to repair the motor, John.

The rib's engine needed looking at and so the crew went under the hood.

Or, in this case as in most boats,  under the seat.

22 March 2024 - 14:22:23

Yetanother rebuild project underway in Kingswear.

Peak activity is all we'll get to see.

24 March 2024 - 22:06:42

It's a rare sight.And so it ought to be acknowledged and recorded.