A quiet place to drop the hook in the busy Tamar Estuary

Ken Endean finds a quiet place to drop the hook in the usually busy waters of the Tamar Estuary on the border between Devon and Cornwall

The Tamar Estuary is the largest ria in the West Country, with around 25 navigable miles in the main river and its tributary, the Lynher. Both waterways wind and loop through rich scenery and there are plenty of available anchorages, even in the upper reaches, where drying patches alternate with deeper pools and it is possible to spend a peaceful night cut off from civilisation. However, if civilisation is what you want, perhaps for reprovisioning or simply for eating and drinking, the options are restricted because much of the foreshore and hinterland is private, and wide mud banks mean that some of the public landings are inaccessible at low tide.

To reach the inner estuary, visiting yachts must pass the three Torpoint ferries and the naval dockyard, where police boats are on constant patrol, but activity then decreases abruptly and in the approach to Saltash the main obstacles are numerous moorings – both naval and for private boats. Just inside the entrance to the Lynher, Sand Acre Bay is one of the best spots for dropping the hook, whether for an overnight stop, for access to supplies, or even for sitting out poor weather. There is occasional river traffic to the Royal Navy training establishment at Jupiter Point, on the southern shore, but plenty of space for anchoring in the northern half of the river.

Holding is good, in depths of 2-6m, with the bed shelving up steeply at the edge of the foreshore mud. Tidal streams are fairly weak, with much of the ebb current deflected by the shallow spit on the west side of the bay. Strong west-southwesterly winds can blow along the Lynher valley but wave fetch is limited by the various headlands.

It is possible to land by dinghy in the bay and a path links to local lanes that lead into Saltash, but the shingle beach turns to mud as the tide falls.

Another, firmer landing point is at Wearde Quay, which is privately owned but with public access. For stocking up with provisions and carrying heavy loads, it may be better to take the dinghy for a mile or so to Saltash. Shopping then involves a short walk up a steep hill but the hospitable Saltash Sailing Club has a fresh water tap for filling up containers for your boat.

Last year, on one visit we shared the bay with eight other yachts but there was room for everyone to swing, and after dark a temperature inversion in the valley killed the breeze, so that we were all floating among the stars, on a mirror surface. This pleasant roadstead has not always been so peaceful: in the Civil War, Royalist forces constructed a gun battery at Wearde Quay when they were besieging Plymouth. As Old Plymouth, in the southeast part of the present conurbation, would have been well out of range, the battery must have been intended to dominate the river and bay, suggesting that it was regarded as a valuable anchorage.

Some things don’t change.