At the end of October Kingsbridge held the 9th and final race in the Stand-up Paddleboard (SUP) National Championships and over 100 competitors made their way south to round a mark in Frogmore Creek. Their struggle back across Widegates to the finishing line at the Crabshell was against a stiff breeze, but in lovely sunshine. Kingsbridge is now well established as a national centre for SUP.
Kingsbridge has also become much more on the boating map since dredging resumed in 2010 and the pontoons were installed in 2013. There are now 65 people on the waiting list for a berth there, half as many again as the current berths. The basin will be re-dredged at the beginning of February. When the tide is high, sailors who always head out for the sea might like to consider instead a picturesque trip up to Kingsbridge for lunch or whatever.
The options are beginning to close down for the Egremont. The Heritage Lottery Fund bid didn’t work out, so it is either a case of a benefactor coming up with £1.5m or she’ll be off to the breakers’ yard in the Spring. Breaking her up may be easier, and cheaper, than originally thought as it appears that all of her asbestos may well have been removed many years ago when she was being commissioned for the ICC.
One well-kept secret is that the Harbour now has a useful new website – www.salcombeharbour.eu . This is still being developed so is currently work in progress but it should become very valuable in time. You can use it to sign up to receiving Harbour Newsletters and Local Notices to Mariners by email. The Latest News section tells us that this year all South Hams beaches met the new, even more stringent, EU bathing water standards, which is good news and brings me, dear reader, to one of the New Year resolutions you should make.
In March, South West Water started nitrate stripping in Gerston and the initial readings suggest that this is already having a significant effect on the nitrate levels in the upper harbour (but we need more readings to confirm this). Our New Year resolution to help this along is to make sure that all of us always use phosphate-free dishwasher powders or tablets, which are cheaply and easily available from Lidl. All best wishes for Christmas and the New Year!
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