Day trips
Start Bay – or NE to Tor Bay


Yachts in Start Bay
  
 
In settled weather, with offshore winds, there are attractive local anchorages within Start Bay. Redlap Cove is just a mile W of the Dartmouth entrance; then Blackpool Sands and Slapton Sands (see beaches page) followed by snug anchorages off Beesands or Hallsands close under Start Point. Do give Combe Rocks a wide berth when leaving Dartmouth entrance; it is wise to go outside the Homestone buoy.


Tides
  Outside Dartmouth harbour, the tide runs NE from about 3 hrs before HW Dartmouth until 3 hrs after, and SW from 3hrs before LW Dartmouth until 3hrs after LW. HW springs is in the morning and evening with HW neaps in the middle of the day.  
 
 
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Bell buoy off the Skerries bank in Start Bay
In the other direction, there are tranquil anchorages along the coast between the Mew Stone and Berry Head – or you can visit Brixham or Torquay in Tor Bay and return within a day. Do pass outside the new (2004) cardinal buoys off the Mew Stone on your way out of the harbour. You can pass inside the Eastern Blackstone, but not too closely. Stay at least ½ mile offshore around Scabbacombe Head to clear the Nimble Rock near LW, and also stay ½ mile off Sharkham Point. Berry Head is steep-to; you can pass close in on your way to either Brixham or Torquay. Note that the passage between Dartmouth and Tor Bay can become some­what uncomfortable in easterlies.