Dartmouth blossoms in May

Crossing the lower ferry today from Kingswear Helen and me enjoy a lazy jaunt along this favourite home patch of Devon, unhindered by much traffic en-route, apart from along Paignton ring road, skirting Paignton Zoo.
After Coffee and snacks at the pannier market I spied a tempting accessory for the Morgan in the form of one brass and bulb air horn which made a wonderfully deep honk. Sadly my idea for some extrovert posing was immediately thwarted by Helen, with a succinct and very final: "NO" !
What a glorious time of year this is to be sure; with trees in blossom and parks in floods of colour.
Tor Cross Inn was our next stop, for fish and chips plus ice cream, enjoyed by the sea wall today. Now being surveyed for storm damage following severe recent gales.
Returning by the same way we are home by 3 pm ...

The inner harbour at low tide

Almost Mediterranean today 

Lower Ferry

At full steam in mid channel

Little traffic in the harbour 

The powerful little ferry tug

Childrens portions Quite enough

An onshore wind whipped up some choppy seas onto the beach in hot sun. Perfect for a pootle down the coast in the Morgan via Dartmouth and Totnes.

The Start Bay Inn car park was rapidly filling up at 12.45pm and the fish restaurant busy taking orders. Helen and me settled for the childrens portion of cod and chips again today.

After a stretch of legs along the shoreline it was off to Dartmouth where The London registered tug "Goliath" was re-fueling alongside the promenade with diesel oil.  Length: 29.6 m - Beam: 7.65 m - Draught 3.8m -  Gross Registered Tonnage 167 - Fuel Bunker Capacity 56,000 litres.

The Kingswear Castle paddle steamer filled up with passengers ready for a short cruise up the river.

Summer arrives late

Torcross Inn Menu

Fresh onshore wind at Torcross

Torcross

Goliath