Lost and found at Beer

Mariners, seafarers, navigators, adventurers and the like, have many ways to find their way about the wide open ocean.

A weighted plumb on the end of a long line, charged with a mass of sticky tallow. Deployed over the side into the sea, was soon retrieved with a sample from the ocean bed. With their knowledge of earlier passages the route could be re-traced by feeling and seeing what this primitive probe held at the foot. 

A leisurely walk along the tideline of Beer in Devon, revealed these few clues to my location. Nodules of flint, a scallop shell, a whelk and a sensor of some sort off a BMW engine.

The black plastic moulding is scuffed and smoothed all round its edges from the abrasion since being washed off the container ship Napoli, beached near here in January 2007. 

To remove this item from the beach at that time was soon to be made a criminal offence, but many took advantage of the opportunity regardless and items of far greater value than this were recovered from the shoreline.

The receiver of wrecks was nowhere to be seen yesterday, nine years after the hull of that stricken ship was cut up for scrap.

One of the divers engaged on the task of salvage operations was my nephew Jonathon. 

The seabed between Portland and Plymouth today remains littered with plenty more BMW motor parts. 

Anniversary Run to Beer

Married 43 years and still smiling - No! not at the Morgan - To the Misses of course.

(The Morgan makes me smile too).

What a journey up hill and down dale its been.

Early morning duty as  flag officer saw me hooting the hooter and setting a course in the Teign Estuary with the Yacht Club.

Home again by midday and then off we go together in the Morgan for fish and chips on the beach at Beer. A pootle along the coast with autumn leaves blowing in the wind.

Most visitors have left for home, but the Indian summer a very real trade-booster.

Briefly to Beer

What a day for a joyride!  Up the A30 turn off at Honiton and follow onto the Sidmouth road and with Beer as our destination in the warm sun.
Tea and coffee cake at Kennos Beach cafe but we are called away on a rescue mission to Exeter via Higher Ashton. A quite unexpected but minor detour that soon proved to be a delightful drive along the narrow back lanes of Haldon. 

On the way I noticed a slightly raised engine temperature and checked the coolant level. On returning home the bottom radiator hose clip was found to have  loosened but fortunately fluid loss was minimal.

All the toilets in Beer are of the fixed down variety, unlike some of those in Newlyn !

 ( See BBC news report) :  Women gets moved in Portaloo

Ten days later and here we are again in Beer for a toasted sandwich at Kennows. Much warmer onshore breeze from the east.

Visitors enjoying the sun - Tomorrows forecast is for rain

Devonshire grumbles - Beer re-visited

Mogging along leafy lanes early in the morning starts from Greater Haldon. A mystery tour to follow colours of autumn but "tales of the unexpected" spill into a box marked "grumbles". 

We have HS2 and HS3 but no Devon HS4.   Seven million tons of beach sand and shingle are required to replace that which has been lost since 1841 at Dawlish.

"Swamped" by EU migrants, "Under Siege",  "Under Pressure".  Recent words from Downing Street.

Under attack from the EU - I say follow the Nordic peoples - Vote UKIP and we might get our independance back.

Bleeding the UK taxpayer, the EU penalty for our improved economy (including drugs prostitution and smuggling) seems to suggest we promote this degenerate group of high earners. Now the idiots are definitely in charge of the asylum.

I had to get that off my chest to continue my drive. Apologies for the digression. 

But wait there's more!....the MMC seems en-route to self destruction.

Futuristic design ventures, exotic materials, racing campaigns and electric power. Adventures quite laudable for a manufacturer with excess funds to gamble but for a compact niche market company with less than two hundred employees simply reckless.
At the heart of the matter, Morgan is blessed by a loyal following of enthusiastic owners happy to accept a few irritating flaws in its beautiful product. Perhaps some of us enjoy putting them to rights.

1. See viewpoints aired at http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/230870/1 - the thread titled "Tomorrows Traditional Owners".
2. Now ousted from the MMC, Mr Charles Morgan may feel free to set up a rival company. I am sure that many an entrepreneur would leap at the chance to back such a venture.
3. A three wheeler powered by Moto-Guzzi?  The 4/4 powered by Volvo?

Now where was I,  Oh yes at Beer with a toasted cheese sandwich and tea on the beach.

Pasties, chocolate cake and Coke at Beer.

A brief pootle up the A30 to Honiton, then down the Fairmile Straight towards Beer for a morning snack. Nobody told us it is Carnival Week at Beer but the park is not too full and Hurricane Bertha has blown out its rain overnight.

We find a hole and witness a car being bumped in the car park, then leave a note while the culprits drive off without stopping!

Bacon butties, or a hot pasty, flap jack and tea or coffee at Keno’s’ beach-hut café and a relaxing hour in the hot sun; later a stroll through the craft market and a gander in Beer Gallery. Pricey artwork here for sale with small pictures £500, larger ones upwards of £1,500!  To raid or not to raid my pension pot next April, that is the question!

Methinks Helen would prefer an Aran knitwear jumper for her birthday. Lovely hand knitted garments at the craft fair; 1/3 the price of the equivalent shop article.

We carry home a nice fillet of Plaice from the beachside fish shop for tea. 
This seaside gem remains our favourite watering hole of all those in Devon. Wooden fishing boats to be seen hauled up the pebble beach across slippery poles drenched in cooking oil. Beach huts for hire and deck chairs if you prefers not to sit on pebbles.
The cove is sheltered beneath the cream coloured cliffs of Beer stone. 

A few miles further along begins the Jurassic fossil coastline.