Falmouth amusement

A few days on the upriver pontoon meant the normal RIB ride up to Truro for shopping was needed. It also meant doing the Trelissick woodland walk a couple of times as the Fitbit wearing crew is turning into the step counting police.....

The walks were as lovely as always though and for some reason the captain seemed to be pointing out something in thin air:

After seeing some soggy and blowier days in the forecast, we headed down to Falmouth itself and picked up one of the big buoy moorings off the town. Andrew and Linda did the same (first time they had attached Zephyros to a buoy) and did it beautifully. Until the line got wrapped around the chain riser attached to the buoy that is. So, we launched our RIB to help and Andrew complete with diving mask went for a swim to disentangle their line:

He becomes more and more like Crocodile Dundee. This was confirmed a few days later when he put on his full diving gear, bottle etc and went underneath Zephyros to clean out a bunged up genset water intake. Useful guy to have nearby!

Once firmly attached to the buoy, Linda got busy with the washing machine. We think that this shot is unlikely to be used by the Nordhavn Europe guys as an advertising picture somehow:

Amazingly, Falmouth was really having a little Nordhavn rally. There were three of us, very rare. A 57, Jura was alongside the pontoon in Port Pendennis (the posh and wildly expensive bit) so we had to pop over in the RIB to see if anyone was around. She looked very "shut up":

Later on we saw some hired hands giving her a wash then she headed over to the fuel barge for diesel. Think they missed a trick not going to Guernsey!

The RIB was pressed into service as a water taxi for both crews and also brought out the hooligan in us from time to time. As there is a low speed limit and we are, naturally, very law abiding, we had to resort to lots of doughnuts and rings around Zephyros instead:

So, having treated Falmouth to a trio of Nordhavns (is there a collective noun for them we wonder? A pride? A greyness? A lot of fibreglass?) we felt quite settled in. There were some nasty wet and windy days forecast but nonetheless managed to find two spaces on the pontoons at the visitors haven. This let us top up with water and not get too wet when heading ashore either. As the forecast was not great for a run around Land's End, we rented a car from Truro and went exploring.

Lunch at the Cornish Arms on a very soggy day with Norman and Julie was great as always. An afternoon in St Ives was overcrowded, wet but still lovely. We even managed to revisit the tearooms which we had been to in 2013. This place got our accolade for the all time best carrot cake. Despite having to sit outside hiding under a little canopy as the place was rammed, we forced ourselves to try the cake. It is still good:

And delivered in huge portions too as you can see.

Amanda told us that St Just church was a must do place. She was so right (as always). The setting is stunning:

and the church itself almost ethereal inside and outside:

It had been decorated for a wedding that afternoon and so we saw it in full glory. The locals really look after the area and church. Someone had been busy making kneelers:

reminding the captain of those his mother used to make (although she never went to church.)

They also hang personalised labels with their thoughts and wishes in a tree:

Equally good was the little tea hut thing opposite. Wonderful cake, nice staff and a picture perfect setting. On the "must visit again" list - very firmly! Thanks for the idea Amanda.

Andrew's father used to visit Mevagissey as a child and so a sort of pilgrimage to there seemed appropriate. We remembered it as a place we visited during summer holidays when the weather was not good enough to be out to sea with some down market pubs and dodgy lunchtime food. Wow, what a transformation. OK, the sun was shining which helps but the place really has smartened itself up. There was some sort of festival going on and plenty of strange flags were flying:

and the harbour area looked great too:

Our opinion of the place has gone up considerably. There again, if it had gone down, it would have been vying with Gosport and Ardrossan for bottom position.

On the way back we found that there had been a cycle race going on with lots of yellow signs, obviously run by a dyslexic organiser:

Why they have to be careful being decent is beyond us....

We visited Mylor yacht harbour to check it out and liked the place a lot, especially the walk around Restronguet creek area. Finally, we had to take Andrew and Linda to Helford. An old favourite of ours that we hadn't visited for many years:

Falmouth itself was plagued by a couple of liners including the elderly sad looking Black Watch- we went out on those days luckily. There was also a little "superyacht" arrival that turned heads. Not because the craft was huge or opulent, more because it proved that having money does not automatically confer taste on you as well:

In real life "Ruwenzori" is even more yellow than the picture suggests and even less appealing....

To round off our stay in Falmouth and the surrounding area, Stephen and Alison (he of the trolley shopper and 911 fame) arrived in their Nauticat yacht. An entertaining evening at a local restaurant was had, enduring the slowest service ever witnessed and enjoying a middle aged restaurant manager telling Stephen that he was "just like her dad". (A Yorkshire folks living down south thing was going on). His ego survived, just.

Maintenance news:

Whilst on the Fal river, the main engine starter battery alternator was checked out - sure enough, no wiring issues, just no output. So, the connections to it were isolated and the drive belts removed to avoid overheating it. The unit is a small case 24v 40A Leece-Neville device.

The word from the Leece-Neville / Prestolite dealers was pretty much as expected. 1) an overhaul is often more expensive than a new unit and is slow as the parts for these come from the USA. 2) A new unit is pretty cheap but isn't stocked in Europe so would have to come from the USA.

As this little cheapo thing isn't at all mission critical and it had already run for 2,800 hours or so, it was a simple decision to order a new one. Until it arrives, we will just parallel in the start battery to the domestics after firing up the main engine. Must remember to break that link when switching off though unless we want to drain the start battery when at anchor or "off grid".

So, the old alternator was removed from the engine leaving a grubby little gap instead - time to clean out all the belt dust and prepare for the arrival of the new one. 4 to 6 weeks was quoted, good that it isn't important! The large domestic alternator (24v 175A) is a next day supply in the UK:

Comforting as that really would disable the main engine - it runs off the same serpentine belt as the water pump so if the alternator bearings went.... As the big guy was also sensibly priced the captain went mad and ordered one as a spare. The idea is to put that into service this winter and get the original checked over just in case bearing in mind its age. The original one seems fine though, no bearing noise, end float etc but it could probably benefit from a good clean out before it goes into stock as a "good used spare".