Coastal Cruising

The past week has seen the launch of our summer coastal cruises, including Jurassic Coast Cruises, Mini Coastal Cruises and our every-popular Brixham Pirate Festival Cruise – one of our favourite Special Events of the year and the most fantastic way to celebrate the Spring Bank Holiday! The summer season has now officially begun and we have even been treated to some MUCH needed sunshine to boot!

The Brixham Pirate Festival is one of the biggest pirate gatherings in the world. It takes place over the Early May Bank Holiday weekend in Brixham, Devon, England. The festival began in 2002 when members of the community decided to create an event to liven up one of the quietest bank holidays of the year. Since those humble beginnings, the festival has grown into a major tourist attraction, with thousands of people descending from all over the world for a long weekend of swashbuckling fun and seaside shenanigans set against the authentic backdrop of the historic port.

Stuart Line Cruises operate a day trip to the festival every year – usually the Saturday and Monday. A couple of us took a day off from the office on Monday to go along on the day trip as passengers and to experience the festival for ourselves. We had heard that the Saturday was pretty lively, with much beer and rum being consumed but the Monday is supposedly a little more family-friendly. This was certainly true and with our 2-year-old companion in tow, we had the most wonderful day.

Upon arrival into Brixham all passenger disembarked and we personally headed straight to get some fish and chips with our hungry toddler! We sat on a balcony overlooking Brixham Fish Market where we were treated some some gorgeous fresh seafood and charming views of this ancient fishing port – to be honest, as ‘busman’s holiday’ as this may sound, we truly did feel like we were on holiday ourselves! It was wonderful.

The harbour was bustling with live music, craft stools and street food galore. Some of the costumes were truly out of this world and at one point I actually thought I saw Captain Jack Sparrow – I did a double-take, the likeness was uncanny!

Once we had seen all that we wanted to see in the town, we decided to take a walk along one of our favourite footpaths, out towards Brixham Lighthouse, to escape the hustle and bustle and allow our little one to have his afternoon nap. The sun continued to shine and we had a simply lovely time, before heading back to the boat for our departure back to Exmouth – we decided to wait until we got back on the boat before buying out ice creams – Purbeck ice cream is hard to beat!

Shortly after departing Brixham Harbour, our Captain spotted some splashes in the and sure enough, more followed and before we knew what was happening, the whole boat was surrounded was a huge pod of Common Dolphins (which, by the way, are really not that common at all in these waters)! It was truly a magical experience and the dolphins, including many young, were extremely playful with the bow wake of our boat.

What a jolly day out it was.