On the eastern shore, just before the bridges, is a small boat club and it was clearly a busy day. All the boats were being returned to the water having been on the hard standing during the winter months. A large hire crane slowly swung each boat up and then down into the water whilst an army of hard hatted men motored the boats out onto the narrow trot moorings that lined the eastern bank.
Sailing under the bridges was cool. Orange overalled men swarmed over the scaffolding like an army of ants and a small boat was tied up at the base of one of the massive support pillars. Optimistically called the 'safety boat' I'm not quite sure what that boat and its one man crew were supposed to do. A piece of scaffold dropped from 150 feet will hole a boat! A man falling that height, God forbid, well........no chance really.
Clear of the bridges and we were into the huge expanse of water in the upper Tamar. the public slip at Saltash had queues of small private fishing boats wanting to launch near to high tide at 12.30pm. On the other bank was the jetty where the ammunition barges tie up to be loaded for the Royal Navy. The whole of the hill on the eastern side is hollowed out.......the ammunitions bunker for Devonport Dockyard!
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