For those of you that don’t already know..........every single snap on this website is taken from one place -

our garden in Above Town, Dartmouth, Devon, England

Bank Holiday Monday 6th May 2024 - 10m-

Five cruise ship visits in eleven days. The folk at Dart Harbour have been very busy.

Do also look inside the January, February and March albums.

TVFTDO is a unique record of life in, on, around and above the wonderful river Dart.

See all of last years albums here.

You can also take a look at The Pick of TVFTDO.

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Well done for getting this far. You now have a choice. Continue on below looking at the previous updates or heading inside to look at  ALL the March photos. For every one here on the front page there are ten more inside. February pix here

PREVIOUS UPDATES

12 April 2024 - 13:45:21

The French like to describe the driver of such things (the thing in the background) as un pilot. Pronounced as un pee...lot.

This is nonsense of course. As everyone in Dartmouth knows, the correct pronunciation is un pee...lock.

18 April 2024 - 11:05:58

BRNC Passing Out parade presented us with a real nice unusual flypast salute....from this Harvard T6.

Built originally in 1954 in Ontario it was derelict by 1989 and sent to Thruxton for renovation.

Nicely rebuilt I would say.

Lots more pix inside the April album, just click the pic.

18 April 2024 - 14:40:58

Later the same afternoon of Passing Out Parade, came a couple of circles from this police helicopter.

Likely it was on a training run, and anyone down at Dartmouth Castle might have seen an extraordinary low flypast.

18 April 2024 - 14:41:53

Here is G-CPAS heading downwards towards the castle.

Obviously there are more pix inside the April album. Once there you can see it crest the flagpole atop Dartmouth Castle.

17 April 2024 - 15:09:03

Other more mundane, but no less important things also happen beneath the Daymark.

Here's 'Jeremy Clarkson' preparing the field.

Regulars will probably spot that a similar pic ran last month, but this goes well with the helicopter shot above.

And......I take lots of pix that you've seen before. Get over it.

11 April 2024 - 17:33:54

Last week this Merlin did a few loops and whirls. Oh, okay, slight exaggeration, so it banked over and circled a bit.

Still good to see and guess what? There are more piccies inside the April album.

13 April 2024 - 16:48:19

Part of a three day railtour extravaganza based in Cornwall, enthusiasts spent an afternoon in Kingswear travelling from, and back to Penzance aboard this Midland Blue Pullman (locos 43047 and 43055 for the number grabbers out there). These are what I used to know as HST 125's.

A lovely sight, shame I only just saw them departing.

16 April 2024 - 10:05:32

One of the largest greenhouses around is opposite us, in Kingswear.

You can now see just why it's called a greenhouse.

11 April 2024 - 18:38:28

The same Royal Navy  Merlin (ZJ135) landed at the college and put on its jimjams for an overnight stay on the parade ground.  

18 April 2024 - 07:32:11

Definitely more seals around this year. The little lads and lasses have yet to be given their own pontoon.

So, in the meantime it's airbeds all round.

12 April 2024 - 13:44:48

A step or two in the wrong direction over on the little Kingswear beach.

15 April 2024 - 11:10:23

All afternoon the Kingswear trots were subjected to winds producing white horses in the harbour. Nowhere else, just around the trots.

16 April 2024 - 16:11:11

Some airbeds might relish a touch of inflation.

16 April 2024 - 08:38:08

Low morning light coming in over the hilltop sometimes highlights important things.

16 April 2024 - 22:15:36

File under: because I wanted to try. A late night run down the river in pitch darkness from a Royal Navy Wildcat.

Incredibly the camera almost took a usable picture. It's identifiable as a helicopter anyway. Not that you could recognise the pilot.

14 April 2024 - 10:06:14

Sunday morning is the normal training day for the RNLI. This Sunday the Dartmouth crews linked up with the big boat from Torbay for some co-ordinated searching. Sadly, atno time did we see Dartmouth and Torbay together, but then we only have our two degree gap to see out to sea.

So you'll have make do with the Torbay craft.

19 April 2024 - 09:48:28

A beached crane, a cement mixer and a wheelbarrow.  Not normal Dart Harbour tools of the trade.

But when the Kingswear public slip needed repair, everything required was cobbled together.

(Do I need to explain that's a joke about the surface of the road?)

04 May 2024 - 08:13:50

Cruise ship bonanza this update. But on Saturday morning things were not looking too good for an appearance in harbour of 142m long Le Boreal arriving from Guernsay. Ten minutes before this picture we couldn't see the river, let alone Kingswear.

Bright sun on top of the mist m,ade for a challenge to snap the moment. Not a great result, but you probaly get the idea.

20 April 2024 - 06:17:32

Red sky in morning, shepherds warning........

And yet, by late afternoon, it looked as though Spring had finally arrived.

20 April 2024 - 08:45:29

Excalibur, a 60m x 32m jack up platform is passing the river mouth whilst being towed by tug Fortitude from Holyhead to Esbjerg in Denmark. The platform is registered in Vanuatu, which is a shade ironic as some of the islands of Vanuatu need jacking up themselves.

If you think the pic looks like an impressionist painting you're not too wrong.

The craft is 22 killometres away and the image is distorted by heat haze. But it was still my impression that I wasn't seeing things.

If you want to see a more sensible view showing the tug and a man watching, click the pic and head inside to the April album.

05 May 2024 - 18:47:06 05 May 2024 - 18:47:06

05 May 2024 - 18:47:05 05 May 2024 - 18:47:05

Happy customers aboard the Silver Endeavour on its second visit of the weekend.

Hopefully most of the passengers felt the same way, even if they didnt want to semaphore their delight.

03 May 2024 - 11:52:44

Meanwhile, life elsewhere around the river Dart continued.

Quite elevated for some.

27 April 2024 - 15:37:24

A wedding at St Petrox, a boat ride and then a reception at RDYC.

Makes for a happy crowd.

20 April 2024 - 18:14:28

The Headof the River SUP race finished way up by the Higher Ferry. A bit too far for TVFTDO to snap anything too clearly.

But clearly these people were cheating. Five on a board? Really?

23 April 2024 - 20:15:55

The unusual thing here is that this is a sunset. Over where the sun rises.

04 May 2024 - 06:45:16

This little robin has sung a welcome to all the cruise ships these past few weeks.

Even when he/she couldn't see them. That's Kingswear behind the chimney. Somewhere. Lost in the mists of time.

25 April 2024 - 07:04:01

Okay, back to the cruise ships. First in was Maud seen here turning round  by the Dart Marina.

There are 23 photos of Maud in the April gallery. Click the pic and head to the 25th April.

29 April 2024 - 07:59:32

Next up was Le Lyrial. 142m long. Masses more pix inside,

63  in fact. To see them click the pic and head for the 29th of April.

03 May 2024 - 18:44:35

The first boat of May was Silver Endeavour.

Loads more to see inside the May album. 43 photos in total.

04 May 2024 - 18:23:40

Le Boreal arrived under a bit of a cloud - the pix are worth seeing. Click this one and head to the 4th May. where there 31 more photos.

As you can see, the passengers felt cloud had lifted with a pre dinner drinks party on the bow.

05 May 2024 - 06:43:03

And finally Silver Endeavour returned with a new haul of passengers. They also got some low cloud treatment, but it did lift and the sun bathed the boat. Lots more pix of the goings on. 51 more pix actually.