A social whirl, of sorts and a summer storm

Enjoying our unexpected extra  time in Plymouth, we dug out the little Brompton bikes and headed into the City. A stop at the rather good coffee stall that also sells good cannoli was a must:

spoiled only by a woman on the next table sucking away at a cigarette and making clouds of noxious smoke. The sooner it is banned outside as well as inside the better.....

We met up with Michael, the owner of Coracle a Nordhavn 40, chatted about the ever lengthening list of things to do on a boat and had an excellent lunch together in the Barbican area, going to a restaurant that isn't dog friendly. Sorry Izzy, sometimes we do frequent places that don't like you.

On a (rare) totally dry day, we cycled to Saltram house, a National Trust property outside the city. The route involved some nice waterside paths and the odd bit of unpleasant local road. Only around 15 miles but most enjoyable. The house is pretty impressive:

but the queue for the tea room was less so. After an eternity, (the National Trust really need to look at how they organise such places!) we enjoyed our coffee and scones as far as the local wasp colony would allow. Kind of a half successful trip. Good exercise though. Overtaking a "proper road bike" on the way back when climbing a steep hill impressed / amazed the other cyclist. He didn't spot the electrical assistance we enjoyed on our tiny Bromptons. 

Excursions got curtailed a little thanks to storm Antoni. Rather unseasonal to have a named storm in August and forecasts like these:

and even before it arrived, stuff like this:

Since the weather wanted us to stay locally, we decided to take the train to Exeter. We've visited before and really like the city and area, plenty to see and do and some lovely old buildings like these:

It still seemed suitably "prosperous" despite having the usual smattering of closed shops and restaurants. 

The arrival of the storm meant a day staying on board. Plenty of baking and tinkering and not much more. The wind gusts at Berry head were measured at 78 mph. Berry Head is only 25 miles away from our mooring so you can imagine that it was a "bit fruity". Plenty of little waves and the boat rolled a bit in the bigger gusts. Apart from the creaky rope noises, all was well though. The following day was rather a relief - a relatively tame force 5 to begin with which felt like a calm day in comparison, despite being officially a "fresh breeze"

We continued our local exploration on foot and by bike and were delighted to finally see a nicer weather window for a trip around Land's End coming up. Not a long one and more strong winds afterwards but maybe there would be three days of relatively (yes, everything is relative) calm winds, allowing the seas to decrease and a more pleasant trip to be undertaken. Of course, forecasts can be wrong and based on this year so far....

So, we had  a last "day out" on the train to Dawlish, a proper old school seaside town resort. It reminded the Captain of how Great Yarmouth used to be in his childhood,  Yarmouth is rather different today and not in a better way. Great walk around the seafront promenade and along the river, In the older part of the town we just felt that this place was not a good advert for the company that inhabited it:

Yes, the sign does say builder and decorator. We don't think that corporate identity and advertising are their strong points somehow.

After some final weather checks, boat checks and a supermarket raid, we felt that the time had come to officially give up on the pretty grim summer of 2023 (way too windy) and head back to Penarth.