Harbour Captain wanted

The breaking news is, of course, that, after 3½ years, Adam Parnell is leaving Salcombe to become Head of Tor Bay Harbour Authority and Tor Bay Harbour Master. Like Salcombe, Tor Bay is a municipal harbour (Torbay Council is the Harbour Authority) but geographically it is much more open than Salcombe. The harbour covers Brixham, Torquay and Paignton, each with its own Harbour Master, has 22 miles of coastline and 16 square miles of open sea, sheltered from prevailing south westerlies so is a significant anchorage. There is a sizeable fishing fleet in Brixham, cruise ships land by tender at Torquay, and the bay itself hosts national and international championships. For Adam this is an opportunity for professional development as the port functions include pilotage, towage and commercial shipping in addition to the recreational and fishing activities that he has dealt with in Salcombe. We thank him for his time in Salcombe and wish him well.

Back home, there is naturally uncertainty about whether Salcombe will have a Harbour Master in post for next season and (I should admit) I am pressing for the post to be advertised as a Harbour Captain as there are a number of excellent women candidates around. Adam will probably be leaving in the middle of January: after that the three very competent Assistant Harbour Masters will be running the show until someone new has been appointed.

The November Harbour Board meeting dealt, as is usual at this time of year, with budgetary matters. The Harbour is doing fine and, after a few years of reductions, visitor numbers have stabilised. We looked also at the beginnings of a new design for a Harbour Office on Whitestrand which will incorporate a police station (as now), more showers and lavatories and possibly the Tourist Information Centre. However, as everyone recognises, Whitestrand is invariably the centre of fierce controversy so how the final design will end up is anyone’s guess.

We also heard the worrying news that red tides had been observed at Batson for the first time. Red tides are thought to be associated with phosphates and the hope was that Gerston’s new phosphate-stripping plant would reduce or put an end to them, so how and why red tides appear at Batson is therefore a mystery. As the dinoflagellate algae which gives them their colour are poisonous and potentially a genuine threat to public health, people in white coats are looking into it.