30 May 2026 7 min read Trips

One Last Day in Brixham: Airshow, Anchors and Anstey’s Cove

Our final day in Brixham wasn’t spent making miles south. Instead, we spent it watching aircraft roar overhead, sharing wine with friends, and squeezing every last drop out of one of our favourite anchorages before the real journey began.

Saturday, 30th May, was officially departure day.

At least, it was supposed to be.

We woke up knowing it was our last day based in Brixham before beginning our move around to Portishead. Rich was keen to have breakfast on board, but we looked at our freshly stocked galley and decided there was no rush to start working through our provisions before we'd even left the marina. Besides, one of our favourite Brixham traditions is breakfast at the Breakwater Café.

So we headed ashore and grabbed a table overlooking the beach.

Rich went for the full works breakfast while I stuck with a bacon sandwich, a double espresso and a giant Green Reviver smoothie. I was feeling a little off that morning and determined not to spend our final day in Brixham feeling sorry for myself. The combination of coffee, bacon and what felt like several litres of fruit and vegetables in smoothie form was exactly what I needed.

After breakfast, Rich sent me off down the beach on a mission to find some sea glass as a little memento of our time there. I wandered along the shoreline, paddled in the sea, and was surprised by how warm the water already felt. It was one of those glorious early summer mornings where all you really wanted to do was stay exactly where you were.

But we had an airshow to get to.

Leaving Brixham

We needed to be back aboard Cheeky Monkey by midday so we could head out into the bay and watch the day's flying displays from the water.

As we prepared to leave, it struck us that this wasn't just another trip out of the marina. This was our last departure from Brixham before heading away for at least a year. We'd been focused on preparations for so long that the reality of actually leaving hadn't really sunk in.

Suddenly every locker, shelf and storage compartment became a potential source of forgotten items.

Had we left anything behind?

Was there something we'd overlooked?

Would we remember everything?

The usual departure routine suddenly felt a little more significant, this would be the last time we see D32!

The plan was to meet up with our friend Robert aboard Frothy Coffee, along with his daughter Isabella and her partner Sam. They'd already headed out for a sail before the airshow started, so we knew we'd have to find them once we were out in the bay.

As we motored away from the marina, we quickly realised that we weren't the only ones with plans for the day.

I've never seen so many boats leaving Brixham at once.

The bay was filling up rapidly, and in the distance there appeared to be an almost solid wall of boats stretching across the horizon. It looked surreal.

The Best Seat in the House

As we headed towards the gathering fleet, I became convinced we were somehow in the wrong place.

The organisers had established exclusion zones for safety, and despite repeatedly checking the charts and notices, my brain stubbornly refused to reconcile the map with what I was seeing in real life. I spent most of the crossing expecting someone to appear over the radio and tell us we'd wandered somewhere we absolutely shouldn't be.

We hadn't.

We were perfectly fine.

But just as I was still questioning our position, the Red Arrows appeared overhead.

And they were close.

Very close.

Close enough that I immediately became even more convinced we were in the wrong place.

Meanwhile Rich was quite happy to stay exactly where we were because there were hardly any other boats nearby and the view was phenomenal.

In fairness, he was right.

Watching the Red Arrows streak directly overhead from the middle of the bay was spectacular. It felt like a completely different experience from watching an airshow ashore.

Anchoring Among the Fleet

Eventually we carried on towards the main gathering of boats and found Robert on AIS.

Getting anchored proved slightly more entertaining than expected.

For the first time, Rich handed me responsibility for dropping the anchor. Normally I'm at the helm while he deals with anchoring, so this felt like a bit of a milestone.

Of course, I chose to learn surrounded by dozens of other boats.

We initially picked a spot only to have a man on a huge motor yacht enthusiastically waving his arms at us. After some confused interpretation across wind, distance and my less-than-perfect hearing, we concluded he was telling us that our chosen spot was somewhere near his anchor.

Whether it actually was or not remained slightly unclear.

Rather than start a debate, we simply moved elsewhere and found another gap.

Easy life.

Anchor down, boat secure, table out, chilled wine poured.

Perfect.

An Afternoon Aboard Frothy Coffee

Once settled, we launched the dinghy and headed over to Frothy Coffee with a bottle of wine.

Our intention had been to bring our own drinks.

Unfortunately, Isabella and Sam quite understandably assumed we'd brought a gift.

Before we could explain otherwise, our bottle had been opened and glasses were being filled for everyone.

Which was absolutely fine.

We had plenty more wine back on Cheeky Monkey.

The afternoon became less about identifying aircraft and more about chatting with good company while occasionally looking up and admiring whatever was roaring overhead.

The Typhoons were impossible to ignore. You could feel them before you saw them.

Other aircraft were slightly harder to identify from the middle of a floating social gathering, but the atmosphere was fantastic and the displays seemed to go on much longer than we'd expected.

Then, almost instantly, it was over.

The final aircraft passed overhead and hundreds of boats began heading for home.

One Last Evening in Anstey’s Cove

Rather than return to Brixham, both boats headed for one of our favourite anchorages: Anstey's Cove.

We arrived just before 6pm and dropped anchor in the familiar surroundings that have become such a special place for us over the years.

By this point we'd spent most of the day in the sunshine.

I discovered I had a little sunburn.

Rich discovered he had considerably more sunburn.

"Lobster" was probably the most accurate description.

Still, there was no way I was leaving Anstey's Cove without getting in the water.

I pulled on my swimsuit, dropped the swim ladder and jumped straight in.

The sea was lovely.

I was slightly nervous about jellyfish. We'd seen them in Brixham Marina recently, and we've visited Anstey's Cove before when the water was so full of jellyfish that it looked like tapioca pudding.

Thankfully, this wasn't one of those days.

After a swim and a quick shower, Rich fired up the barbecue and cooked steaks while I put together some couscous to go alongside them. The steaks were a success, despite the barbecue's tendency to produce hot spots and cook everything slightly differently.

Dinner finished, I launched the paddleboard and headed off for one final evening exploring the cove.

Nearby, a large motor yacht sat at anchor with someone carving around the bay on an eFoil. Every time we see one, Rich becomes a little more convinced he needs one.

The problem is that eFoils cost several "boat units".

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, one boat unit equals £1,000.

It's amazing how much less painful large numbers sound when measured in boat units.

I paddled over to Frothy Coffee for a chat while they ate dinner, and before long Rich appeared in the dinghy suffering from a severe case of paddleboard-related FOMO. We spent a while exploring the cove together, me on the paddleboard and Rich in the dinghy, with a couple of glasses of wine along for the ride.

As the sun dropped lower, the temperature quickly followed. We retreated below decks, watched a little television and made plans for the next day.

The weather window had lined up.

Salcombe was next.

Although we'd technically already begun our journey by leaving Brixham that morning, it still felt as though the real adventure was waiting for us the following day.

And looking back, we're glad we spent this day exactly as we did.

Yes, we could have started making progress south.

But we'd have spent the day battling the wind and rushing away from somewhere we love.

Instead, we enjoyed the sunshine, watched an airshow from the water, shared an afternoon with friends and spent one final evening anchored in Anstey's Cove.

For us, that was the right choice.