Report 1 - Lynher River, Plymouth

The Lynher River flows into the River Tamar between Torpoint and Saltash on the Cornish side. There are a number of anchorages marked on the chart and mentioned in the pilot but they are mostly quite exposed to winds in the west. Beyond the narrow channel the river dries at low water with vast areas of mud. However, the marked anchorage at the Dandy Hole is very protected in all winds with a steep wooded bank to the south and west. This is quite a popular anchorage but has very limited space and ideally needs to be accessed around high water. It can happily accommodate about 5 boats with space to turn on the tide but when we visited in 2024 the deepest section at the east end had a large yacht scuttled in it with just the top of its mast sticking up at high water. There were also two large live-aboard yachts which looked like they were pretty permanently anchored there, leaving little opportunity for others. We tried to anchor in the only available space but were unsuccessful – see picture of chartplotter!- with the anchor dragging on each occasion. What we have learnt since is that the ‘holes’ in which there is sufficient depth to anchor and stay afloat are deeply scoured on the outside of the bend such that the sides are nearly vertical so all that happens is your anchor slides down the side of the ‘hole’ and doesn’t take a grip. The advice we were given was to anchor on the side of the ‘hole’ towards the inside of the bend which has a more gradual gradient and then let your boat swing over the ‘hole’ and hence stay afloat. The tide will turn you over the ‘hole’ and not onto the bank. The alternative for our lift-keel boats is just to take the bottom on the inside of the bend and sit in the mud at low water, which is what we ended up doing. The only gamble here is you could encounter debris that may have been brought down the river on a previous ebb tide. We didn’t have any problems.