Salcombe to Fowey

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Salcombe to Fowey

Note the gull flying alongside!

I was looking forward to this next part of the journey - it was to an old stomping ground of mine; Cornwall.

The days route.

Whilst I was in the RAF Regiment I was lucky enough to have worked at the Survival School (or SERE; Survive Evade, Resist, Extract, as it’s now called) for a couple of years and we had regularly taken aircrew out to sea from Fowey to chuck them off the back of a boat so that they could experience ‘ditching’ in the sea first hand - such fun!

Dispatching aircrew into the sea.....

This was always performed off the back of a boat called Smit Dart and this afternoon our paths crossed again!

We meet again.....Smit Dart

As always when you pass Plymouth the Royal Navy is out in force and today was no different.

Whilst passing, there was a Mayday call that came over the VHF radio and the RN helicopter went to assist the RNLI and Coastguard in attending a yacht on fire back towards Salcombe - exciting stuff! The helicopter flew around my yacht just to check me out, before heading off......

The last time I did something for charity in Cornwall was when a team of us from the Survival School cycled to all the RNLI boat houses in Cornwall, raising money for both the RNLI and the local children’s hospice.

Charity bike ride a few years ago.

I seem to remember we did it in a week, including having the RN flying us and our bikes out to the Scilly Isles so we could get to the boat house there. We ate quite a few Cornish pasties that week......no gels or protein bars in sight (Spartans take note), just proper food!