More pre Xmas pottering....

After the house and hound sitting excursion "up north" life in Penarth continued on its usual enjoyable course for a few days, until we headed to the wilds of Cornwall for more house and hound stuff. Norman and Julie were also off to a wedding so we spent a happy few days in the lovely Cornish countryside, amusing and being amused by the two labradors and the less grumpy than usual Jack Russell.

You just have to take the labs to the beach as they enjoy it so much:

After beach time for them, it was fun time for the adults, the Watergate Bay.Beach Hut is rather good. Click on the link to see why it is not quite a hut. They also make some impressive patterns on coffee  that seem to last right to the end of the drink:

Not quite like the Lanzarote happy faces though, a little more traditional in keeping with the setting in a classically beautiful bay.

Waking up to this sight is a little different to waking up on the boat:

Two hopeful animals waiting at the bedroom door who know they are not allowed in but being dogs, live in hope. Amazingly well trained Julie!

We also had a trip to see Amanda and Chris in St Austell with a guided tour of their splendid B and B / house and a wander along the cliffs to Charlestown harbour (Poldark setting for the TV addicts). On the drive back we enjoyed a beautiful Cornish sunset too:

Yes, we know, it could have been taken anywhere. Little to prove the Cornish identity and amazingly clear considering it was taken from a Defender on the move through a dirty windscreen.

Back at base, the boat needed a run to warm up all the mechanicals and electronics. Our track around the bay, in mist / fog, looks a bit strange:

We blame that on Steve the waterbus man who was at the helm. Please don't let you put this off going on his boat, he normally finds the landing stages at each end with no trouble. With the main and wing engine nice and warm, on oil change seemed sensible too.

Maintenance news:

The raw water pump on the genset is the original one and has now started to weep a little. A new one from the Northern Lights dealer is stupidly expensive as is an overhaul kit. We've used a kit that we bought from the USA before to reseal and put new bearings into the wing engine pump and the even better news was that the supplier agreed to cut down the contents to remove the wear items (wear plate, cam, faceplate) and hence reduce the cost of one significantly.

Our "spare" rebuilt pump will be fitted to the genset and the leaky one fixed using the kit. For any folks who have the Northern Lights genset or Lugger wing engine have a look at item number 112658598938 on eBay. I will get around to measuring the bearing etc sizes one day to source them locally.