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 21st March 2024 - 10.30am


More and more activity.  Lots to interest you. Well I hope so, it interests me..

Click on any March pic to see the entire March album.

We've still a week of the month to go and we're already well over 100 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.

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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

26 February 2024 - 11:26:31

Warfleet and Half Tide rock would normally be considered a particularly sheltered spot inside Dartmouth's sheltered harbour.

That changes when the wind comes in from the North East. White horses in Warfleet Creek, whatever next?

26 February 2024 - 22:26:48

Twelve hours later it was all change as the moon lit up the water and Half Tide Rock at the bottom right sits serene in calm waters.

22 February 2024 - 12:42:02

That guy could plead all he wanted. Possession is nine tenths of the law, and the man in the makeshift cuddy was not for moving.

27 February 2024 - 13:48:31

Houses used to be built with bricks and mortar and a bit of wood.

Nowadays steel girders are getting to be the norm.

Well, it is in Kengswear.

27 February 2024 - 11:54:58

And here's a wider view of over Hoodown way.

It's like a combination of Lego and Meccano.

26 February 2024 - 10:21:30

My first sightig of two Lower Ferries working this month.

Back from repairs.

27 February 2024 - 14:46:38

With two good heads of steam loco Goliath (5239) leads Lydham Manor (7827) out of Kingswear past Britannia Halt and up the incline towards Noss.

24 February 2024 - 16:03:26

For nearly a week Torbay anchorage has been filling up with craft either awaiting orders or preparing to shelter from the expected winds. Among them was this pairing - the Maersk Handler, an 80 metre offshore upply vessel which is towing Castoro 10, a 140m pipe burying vessel, it did the infamous Nord Stream 2 pipeline. These two spent days going round in circles rather than anchoring. And then finally they came past the end of the river..........

24 February 2024 - 16:41:20

...........and forty minutes later went back again.

27 February 2024 - 08:16:26

Remember the tree that fell down last year over by Inverdart ? Well it's still hanging in there, literally.

It doesn't look that much different to the day it toppled. See below.

13 June 2023 - 14:13:39

Just a few hours after the collapse last June.

16 February 2024 - 09:11:27

Well, Dartmouth is a naval town, so this shouldn't be a surprise to see some BRNC folk going about armed.

But from the look of it, that's more a Webley air rifle than an SA80 assault weapon.

15 February 2024 - 09:46:38

Groundworks for the Noss-on-Dart hotel are well under way.

This pile driver from Sheppard Piling arrived at the end of January and is gradualliy moving across the site

Looks like it's going to be screwing the hotel to the ground.

25 February 2024 - 09:57:12

Not the worse weather, but unusual to see a possible surfable wave spanning almost the entire width of the river.

16 February 2024 - 12:22:25

Just a few minutes earlier this RAF Embraer Phenom T1 jet  (ZM335) had been preceded by another (ZM334).

Sadly it was the first one that came down river really low.  And, of course, I wasn't ready.

There is a pic to be seen (inside the February album, just click the pic) just not as close as this one.

If you're wondering, they're used for multi engine pilot training.

21 February 2024 - 16:46:40

This buoy has been marking a spot at the end of the south embankment, close to the Lower Ferry slip.

It's full marking says 'North Cape'. And that's my sum knowledge.

22 February 2024 - 18:50:08

Strange lighting effect as the moon on night picked out just one roof to reflect back to us in Above Town.

19 February 2024 - 17:46:09

There's been some great sunrises since the start of the year.

And, for balance, the odd decent sunset.

27 February 2024 - 15:35:19

First buzzard sighting of the year. Which made me look up their migration habits.

Put simply, they don't - they are year round residents.

So resist all temptation to ask if they pay their council tax.

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.