Exploring the D’Oyly Cartes’ family cove

Lonely Cove Beach Clean

Members from Dartmouth Yacht Club’s kayaking section organised a beach clean on a remote, sea-accessonly beach between Coleton Fishacre’s Pudcombe Cove and Scabbacombe Sands. Anita Newcombe joins them.

Roger Holroyd and Andy Robinson  rst spotted the remote cove whilst paddling between Brixham and Dartmouth recently. A stunning, lonely spot, it was covered with plastic and rubbish, quite unlike most of the coves on this stretch of coastline.  ey wonder if it just catches the tides in a way that captures any  oating debris in the water and keeps it held fast there.

Either way they are determined to return with their sea kayaks plus a support boat to clean up this isolated beach. Dartmouth Yacht Club’s Tim Freeman has also joined today’s expedition bringing the club’s motorboat ‘Doris’.  e weather is set fair and it takes us an hour and a quarter to paddle round from Dartmouth to the beach. We’ve chosen to approach at low tide to make sure the whole beach is accessible. It’s a rocky landing with a few small waves breaking into the cove as we beach the kayaks. Steep cli s rise up behind allowing no way down to the shore, so all this litter has not come from passing beachgoers. It looks mainly like general litter and  shing debris with old nets, small orange marine buoys plus the rotting remnants of plastic drinks bottles.

Tim Freeman keeps the motorboat a oat on the sea near the cove, as landing here is not an option for ‘Doris’. After a couple of hours of litter picking we’ve  lled 8 large bin bags and Andy volunteers to start paddling them out to the support boat, still hovering quite far out on the water. It takes a couple of trips and now, without its unsightly ‘ otsam and jetsam’ this lovely, isolated cove has taken on a much more cheerful aspect.

Obviously social distancing has been observed throughout our little expedition and we now  nd a

Above: The team get busy! Main picture: Roger taking full bags of waste to the waiting motor boat

fresh water stream running down the beach to wash our hands before tucking into our picnic lunches.  e boys have brought a cold beer each to celebrate success as I lay out my sandwiches and  ask of tea. Before too long we’re heading back to Dartmouth, this time with the current in our favour.  e wind has dropped and it’s swelteringly hot but we’re a jolly party, having achieved our goal.

Well, who else is going to keep the sea-access-only beaches clear if the sea kayaking community don’t?  erefore we’ve decided to keep an eye out and pick other beaches for a paddlers’ beach clean in the near future. It’s been a fun day out and de nitely worth the e ort.   dyc.org.uk

Get involved...

To join Dartmouth Yacht Club’s Kayaking/Canoe section please contact: timfreeman61@googlemail. com 01803 832663