Hedonism in Plymouth (hard to believe we know)

Oh yes, a good time was had by all. Izzy got plenty of exercise, sticks, balls etc thrown for her, cuddles from many many people, treats from most places that we visited including the marina office and permanent attention. We are creating a monster to give back to Anne soon. Sorry Anne.

The Hoe is always good for a walk (or a game of bowls if you are a proper old seafarer according to the history books).  The monuments to the loss of life in various conflicts:
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are made very real when you walk through the grim city centre which was a rebuild after the bombing in World War II. Pity they did it with ugly square soulless concrete monstrosities though.

Izzy was having a good run off the lead on the Hoe until she decided that an ugly little black puppy with what seemed to be no legs was not allowed to nip and bark at her. Izzy promptly went into mummy dog mode, flattened the puppy and held her by the scruff of her neck. Lead time for Izzy again after she tried the "I am so cute that butter would not melt in my mouth" look:

Saltash and the coffee come bistro come wine bar stop known as Just Be is always a good trip. We enjoyed a gentle and very tasty lunch there helped down by some equally nice wine. You get good views of Brunel's last engineering feat from the window seats too - the Tamar rail bridge:

Back on board, Izzy had fun showing off her bits and playing with her new toy. Playing means gently removing the stuffing and distributing it all around the boat it seems.

To save her blushes, we have used the picture with a strategically placed hind paw in it.

Then we went into being sociable mode. Robert and Deborah (The Nauticat yacht "Crazy Diamond" owners and sloe gin experts who you've met in here before) came to the marina, joined us for a most enjoyable lunch ashore and then kindly took us shopping by car. That is such a treat. No need to drag loads of heavy stuff back in smaller amounts over many trips (yes we know, a trolley shopper would help but we are STILL not old enough for one!)

Malaspina, another Nordhavn 47 owned by Martin and Inge the pilot folks who have also been in this diatribe before arrived in Plymouth after a run from Guernsey and we met them in the city for dinner. More lovely people - must be the boating thing that attracts nice, interesting types.

Talking of interesting people, we could stretch a point and report that Captain Rae is no longer titled, having hung up his Boeing 787 keys for the last time and joined us in the world known as not working. We might even get to say hello to plain old Mr Rae during the summer as he will not be quite as time constrained as before.

There was no rush to leave Plymouth as you can see:

The entire UK coast shown in red means force 6 or above everywhere. The old phrase "nowhere to hide" springs to mind.

Kingswear to Plymouth

Something strange is going on in Plymouth. We called our usual "backup plan" place to ask for a berth for a few days (the Yacht Haven which is out of the city over in Mount Batten and huge) to be told that they were full. Never before. Are we becoming too well known as troublesome types who write nasty things about some marina operators (MDL senior management / Dunstaffnage Marina spring to mind) from time to time? We've never been nasty about the Yacht Haven group, just the opposite in fact.

It would have been an ideal spot with Izzy on board, plenty of grass nearby for her to run on and for the evening pee trip. Instead we managed to find a slot in Mayflower, another friendly spot.

Things were pretty calm out to sea after the blowy few days we'd had. So much so that we could could run relatively close to Start Point where sometimes wind over tide and overfalls push you well out - hence the waypoint you can see on the plotter:

Why did we have a z shape in our track? A small inshore fishing boat decided to turn around near us and then shoot his nets and proceed to the west so we needed to go astern of him. We were not drunk, had not turned the autopilot off by mistake or put something large and magnetic near to the fluxgate compass.

Passing the entrance to Salcombe, we saw how the RNLI can spend our annual subscription in around 10 minutes:

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it had to be taken through the glass as it was too chilly to venture outside and it was our lunchtime too. This lifeboat was heading for Poole and we guess refit time which makes our contribution seem even more infinitesimal. Sorry RNLI, we are "no income" people so you get what you get.

Plenty of pot markers to avoid crossing the bay towards Plymouth and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship announcing live gunnery firing practice nearby too, but luckily not in our direction.

As usual, the crew took the off watch role most seriously:

sporting slippers that have demented penguin faces on them. Patrick was not amused and ignored this spectacle totally. Smart penguin that one.

There were some more grey hulled things anchored just inside the breakwater at Plymouth:

and they make our boat cleaning challenges look so simple.

Mayflower Marina gave us our "normal" hammerhead on B pontoon rather than tucking us inside the breakwater which is even less well sheltered and quite a walk to the land. Because of this we opted to have a week here. A chance to do all the nice things locally that have amused us over the years. You will have to wait for the next update to know what they are but it is a fair bet that they will involve cake.

Maintenance news:

Nothing really. We gave the wing engine a good run on the approach to Plymouth and the prop must be nice and clean still as it pulled just over the expected maximum RPM. The boat was pretty heavy too - still lots of fuel on board and almost full of water thanks to the crew's permanent concern of finding a drought wherever we go.