There are snowdrops and daffodils in the garden, and a clear blue sky over the Harbour (although big fluffy clouds on the Edinburgh side of Frogmore Bridge). All this heralds a new season which might bring some interesting developments.
Firstly, this looks like being a season without Egremont. The Egremont Trust has d
ecided to do all her refurbishment work in Sharpness, rather that try to do some on her mooring in the Harbour. This means she won’t be ready to return before the Harbour begins to fill up for the season, so will have to wait until October. But nevertheless there are plans to re-open the sailing school, from Egremont’s pontoon, possibly using the Plymouth Princess (currently in Plymouth), but non-residentially of course.
So, no Egremont, but what about the Rivermaid? The observant amongst you will have noticed that she has slipped out of Kingsbridge. She is being refitted in Plymouth so that she can operate once again this season. This is very welcome news: the Salcombe Tourist Office says that by far their most frequently asked question is “where is the ferry to Kingsbridge?”.
Putting questions about the Egremont and the Rivermaid side by side raises the intriguing question whether they could work together. The Egremont should be returning as a boutique hotel, with en-suite bedrooms and a posh restaurant (as well as purpose-built accommodation for young people learning to sail). To make that work – and it will have to work quickly, given the outlay to get her to this point – there will have to be significant footfall on Egremont throughout the day. One way of achieving that would be to have a regular ferry calling from Kingsbridge and Salcombe and, at the moment at least, that means the Rivermaid. Indeed, they could both be each other’s salvation. That used to be called joined-up thinking.
Another piece of good news is Regulation (EU) No 259/2012 under Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 648/2004, which thankfully comes into force before the UK leaves the EU. Annex VIa of this Regulation (we will miss t
his fun after Brexit) strictly limits the use of phosphates in consumer dishwasher detergents from 1 January 2017. Presumably it will take a little time for people to use up their existing supplies but, after that, we should begin to see an exciting change in the Harbour. As it happens, looking at Gerston and other mud flats at low tide recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see so little algae, so perhaps we are already on the way. Who knows?
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