Plymouth and the area get explored - part 2

What else to do in Plymouth and the area? Well, a walk around to the west of Mayflower marina let us admire the local naval tugs (who seem to enjoy kicking up a huge wash as they pass the marina):

Probably because they can and no one will tell them off as their big brothers have guns and lots of them.....

There are great views back across the sound and Mayflower Marina too - for the committed Nordhavn spotters, we are hidden around the corner so no point in exploding the picture and hunting us down:

The row of Princess yachts on the inside of the breakwater are all new boats having their final checks and tests before shipment from the factory. Watching the daily procession of Princess staff and contractors to and fro, it has to be one of the most labour intensive operations going. If they need anything they walk back to their "hut" in the marina yard, slowly of course. Each trip has to burn a good 15 minutes. If anyone is buying a Princess, then you know where a chunk of the cash goes.

Since Dartmoor is so close and walking is supposed to be good for you (10,000 steps per day?) we "did" the Fingal Bridge walk. "Where is that?" we hear you cry. Well, see if this helps:

If not look at BBC walk information. You have to start with lunch at the Fingal Bridge Inn of course to fortify you for the stresses ahead:

Sitting outside in the glorious spring sunshine is compulsory as is admiring the views whilst waiting, waiting and waiting even longer for the food to arrive:

Now, you are meant to be admiring the bridge and river Teign, not the girls on the nearby table (but if you wish, you can admire the ears of their gorgeous husky dog which are just visible). The walk is truly beautiful with just enough "up and down" stuff to challenge the half  Dutch crewmember and a Norfolk boy.

The Defender looked very much at home, just muddy enough and parked amongst the trees too:

Apparently it is one of the famous classic Dartmoor walks. We figured out why and its fame is well deserved.


Maintenance news:

Of course, you can only have so much fun per week and so we broke it up by doing some outboard maintenance. The Yamaha 20HP on the RIB that was recently treated to a new battery had its carburettor dismantled and cleaned out. It had started to be unhappy when coming off the choke from a cold start, sometimes cutting out and sometimes coughing a bit before settling into a proper fast idle. So, the obvious first thing to do was clean out the jets and automatic choke assembly in case they were gummed up. Here is a naked Yamaha carb float chamber area with both jets removed:

And the jets having a little bath too:

Using all the stuff learned many many years ago about carburettors whilst working as a service regional manager for Ford and BMW felt good. The old style car stuff is still valid with low tech outboards. Mind you, it might not fix the issue but it still felt good to use knowledge from the past. Must be another mid-life crisis coming on....

Talking of crises, you folks really need to get out more. There are still about 900 reads per month of the junk that we write. Why someone from the United Arab Emirates regularly reads this is beyond us. If you are from the UAE surely you can afford an enormous Nordhavn 120, not a little 47 and you certainly would not be dismembering a carburettor yourself.