This is one of the compensations for cruising these waters. You see all sorts of wonderful old time vessels (and not a few good looking reproductions). As you may infer from the headline, we’ve been boat watching on the Dart River, a practice in place here for at least a couple of thousand years.

We are just sitting at anchor taking it all in, relaxing, and enjoying a slower pace of cruising. We are also going through our end of the season maintenance procedures, catching up with some writing, and of course, working on the continuous stream of details associated with new boat building projects.

It is also Labor Day Weekend in the US and the 70th anniversary of Britain declaring war on Germany for her messing with the helpless Poles.

We were taking boat photos when we heard a roar overhead and looked up in time to see this veteran of the Battle of Britain doing a high G turn.

He then went vertical and into a loop without first diving to build speed. Nothing like a big old turbo charged engine cranking out the horses for acrobatic fun.

The weekend papers are full of history, and some interesting comments on the mood prevailing at the time. It wasn’t long before Hitler turned his attention from the Poles to his western and southern neighbors. After Dunkirk and other fiascos for the British army there were quite a few here who thought they might be living with new masters.

These folks did not reckon on the amazing fight put up by the RAF and their outnumbered Spitfire fighters. Nor did they understand what a powerful influence Winston Churchill would become.

While we were musing about history, almost on cue this steam train chugged by, letting off a hearty toot.

Labor Day weekend is always special in our family as it is when the two of us met the first time, on a boat no less, at exotic Catalina Island. The San Andreas fault quivered, the sun stopped, and it was love at first sight.

With the sun shining we decided to do a bit of river exploration. This has to be coordinated with the tides as a good chunk of the waterway dries out beyond half tide.

Dittisham is a quaint village about three miles upstream from our anchorage.

Lots of dinghies for the locals and a designated space for visitors.

And wonderful gardens ashore.

Interesting roof designs abound.

With the tide ebbing our time ashore here is limited. But we will be back before too long.

The Dart being protected and calm in most conditions, there are a lot of small craft enjoying the weekend.

It is perfect kayak country, but we have not seen many.

Parting shot. The training ship which you saw sailing upriver furled her sails, cranked up the diesel,and did a turn hard to port to berth across the channel from us.