Two years after Captain Cook first laid eyes on Australia, a bunch of sailors at Starcross staged their debut regatta. On Sunday, with the aid of 300 scones and a mountain of jam and cream, the Starcross Yacht Club celebrated its 250th anniversary.

“That makes us one of the kingdom’s oldest clubs,” said Commodore Ian Purvis. “The river has been a gift for two and a half centuries and we still treasure it. Sailors are forever at the mercy of the winds and the tide but the gods of the weather have never been kinder.”

Club members, supporters, families and sailors descended on Powderham Point to butter a scone and bask in two and a half centuries of waterborne revels. Joining them were four crews from Exmouth Rowing Club, who pay the club regular visits on their midweek outings.

“We’ve been rowing up here for nearly a decade,” said ERC Chair Richard Robinson. “It’s the perfect distance from our own club house, and the views in the morning sunshine are sensational.”

Starcross Yacht Club have always made the rowers welcome, and on Sunday ERC offered congratulations of their own in the shape of a brand-new bench, a thank you for a decade of hospitality extended to fellow water folk.

“What’s so fabulous about this relationship is the pleasure we all get from the river and the estuary,” said ERC Vice-Chair Suzanne Isaacs. “We celebrated only weeks ago with a special solstice launch on the longest day of the year. We were joined by paddle boarders, and a handful of kayakers as the sun came up.”

Every community, large or small, is shaped by its geography and in this respect, communities up and down the river couldn’t be luckier.

Last word should go to SYC’s Commodore. “We’re the current keepers of the flame,” said Purvis. “And it’s good to know that the club is in rude health. Two hundred and fifty years is a lot of history but given our fabulous membership I know it lies in safe hands.”

The bench, incidentally, has been christened ‘Henley’. Hands across the water. And no scones left.