Before looking at the week that was
(does that ring a bell with any of you?) may I thank those who have
sent us emails recently but who have not had a reply. We do get a bit
overwhelmed by the numbers that we receive and sometimes it is just
impossible to respond to them all. This does not mean that they are
not appreciated. Writers fall into two groups – brash and over
confident on the one side and needy and under confident on the other.
We fall into the latter group and really do need your input to keep
the fears and insecurities at bay. Keep 'em coming, please.
We have started to look for the
location of the new (to us) book. As you probably know that is not
the book scheduled for publication this October, it is not the book
scheduled for publication in October 2013 (this is beginning to sound
like a skit from a pantomime) but it IS the book scheduled for
publication in October 2014. Whenever we have to go somewhere we turn
it into an exploratory trip if we can and it is in the right area.
Thus, since we had to visit Kingsbridge Hospital so that Marcia could
have her three monthly check up – all clear, I am delighted to say
– and she has been muttering about Dartmouth recently, we came home
via there.
The journey took us over Torcross Line
(where we stopped for ice creams). The weather was not that good but
I thought I would take a shot of the entrance to the River Dart as
the one I usually use was taken back in the 1950's. Not that it
really matters: nothing much has changed.
Dartmouth also has a small hospital.
Both my parents died in that hospital, in beds that looked out over
the River Dart which they both loved so much. I hate it when I hear
that a small hospital is to be closed. They may not have all the mod
cons but they are so much better at providing the basics – proper
care, cleanliness, decent food – than the big multiplex all-singing
and all-dancing complexes so in fashion with our governments in
recent times.
Unlike Torcross, the river is now very
different. There are a number of pontoons just off the Embankment to
make it easier for people to tie up alongside at all stages of the
tide and on both sides of the river marinas have been built. I have
no idea how many boats now use this as their home port but they are
obviously very important for the town's economy.
I had just taken some photographs of
classic sailing craft of the 1920's and 1930's that were moored near
the hospital (you will meet boats like this in The Sea Garden)
when we turned to see a man looking at us with a somewhat quizzical
expression. I suspect our faces carried the same message. It was an
old friend we hadn't seen for many years. David Griffiths is a well
known local figure. For many years he was the River Dart Pilot with
responsibility for the safe navigation of all ships inside the river
and harbour limits. When not acting as a pilot, he would be involved
in the Castle Ferry which plies between Dartmouth Embankment and
Dartmouth Castle. Probably twenty years ago now, when I wrote a
regular column for the magazine 'Yachts and Yachting', I travelled
with David out in the pilot boat to meet an incoming freighter
carrying from Norway to the Baltic Wharf in Totnes and accompanied
him up the river, taking photographs as we went. As well as providing
me with material for an article, it was a fascinating experience best
described as threading cotton through the eyes of a series of needles
stuck randomly into a piece of wood and having only one shot at each.
Will Dartmouth appear in the new book?
We don't yet know the answer but Marcia tells me that while we were
there she had some interesting thoughts.
