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.

Dawn minus one hour at Cockwood

A calm scene at Cockwood Harbour as the sun is coming up and the dew still falling. The clocks go back one hour but sunrise is on time.
The drone of a fishing boat engine is heard across the water going to sea and the only other sounds are cries from a squabble of  gulls.

At The Warren House Inn

Yesterday Helen and me took ourselves over Dartmoor from the direction of Exeter, Longdown and Moretonhampstead. Hoping to see some autumn colours, Stopping off at the Warren House Inn for a light snack. We sat down beside the open log fire which was well alight and throwing off a warm glow. At the bench table was a couple there before us, but making moves to leave. I began to make some polite conversation. He responded in a broad local accent, saying he was up from near Bodmin, Cornwall, and on his way to see his mother in hospital, "She is 101 ;  and me I am 81", he added. I asked if he had been a miner, thinking of the Cornish clay industry, but no, he had been in the army, an infantry man. He said he used to be a good shot and his mates would send him up ahead. I asked if he had been shot at or shot anyone. "Yes". he said "many, many times"; to both these questions. "I used to drive tankers as well, and been a boxer". Opening his mouth wide with a great gnarled grin, he showed off his last three remaining front gnashers.

I asked if he would do the same over again. "Oh no - Not again". He replied. "I don't think I could be brave enough another time".
Now the conversation was getting somewhere and all the while his sweet wife had been in the ladies room, but suddenly she re-appeared ready to go on their way. She listened in for a moment or two and added: "His father died at 21"...

"Hit on the head with a cricket ball", he confirmed. At which point his wife piped up once more. "He was brought up by his Grandmother".

Then off they went together, out through the front door of the Inn, proud of each other for having reached this place, quite happy and still well together for the journey ahead.
Oh for my camera! 

He and his dear wife (even all four of us) would have all been happy to sit for a photo call, adding a thousand words to this page.

Coombestone Tor

Hawthorne loaded with red berries

The twisted trunk exposed to the four winds

Morgan has radiator transfusion

Revived in the cooling department ready for the road and slightly lighter at the front end, my preferred conveyance is sporting a nice new aluminium radiator. Mulfab are to be saluted for producing a superior quality piece of kit that arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday as promised, very carefully parcelled up, complete with all necessary nuts, bolts, brackets and hoses.
Re-filled with the red, anti-corrosion coolant, newly greased up sliding pillars and a wash and brush up. With the forecast set fair I feel a gentle drive across Dartmoor the best option after an initial warm up over Haldon Moor.
Not a difficult task, with a rating of about two spanners.

Fan shroud no longer required

Uprated radiator has about 15% greater area

No mesh added behind grill as yet

All up and running again - Road tested -  Jubilee clips tighted - Anti-freeze topped up.

Taking temperature reading from top to bottom of the radiator after a run, the bottom 1/4 is quite cold indicating the thermostat is sipping  coolant through well within the capacity of the radiator to supply. The  metal return tube across and behind the radiator also stays cold.

Them and Us

The common man has common ideas and the clever man has clever ideas.
http://www.lawyersrefugeeinitiative.org/
This group of academics and representatives of the legal profession suggests that Britain ought to make welcome, substantially more refugees than the 20,000 Government figure already proposed . Accommodate a greater, but as yet unspecified number onto our shores. Without actually saying where they might be housed, who would gainfully employ them, by what means some of their number inclined to terrorism, may be singled out.

These people know little of the outside world

Their high and mighty society of the priviledged few, better able to secure their own future and good health, seem to think that by making politically correct, grandious charitable notions known in The Times Newspaper and the Guardian Newspaper, it will somehow alter the minds of the common people.
Ignorant of the hardship the lesser classes endure. Out of touch with public opinion. Unable to imagine what work is like outside chambers, cloysters, grand halls and offices; this highbrow minority needs to speak to the man in the street, try a job that has risks attached, gets the hands dirty, leads to stress, depression, anxiety, or self harm.
I would ask this Legal Community of elite, misguided seekers of urgent action, to consider for a moment the consequences of their call; should it ever be realised.  I suggest that their intrusion onto the political scene is more to do with lining their own pockets, many or most of their number being human rights lawyers.

Cartoon credit to The Times Newspaper:  (13 Oct. 2015)

Replacing the radiator - Update to follow.

Very few nuts and bolts hold the assemblage in place. As simple as a Meccano.

Three hoses held by one jubillee clip each

Grill assembly & radiator removed

Four nuts hold frame with two U bolts -  Lower two brackets held by rack and pinion bolts.  Removed and discarded.

Mounting bracket shown, holds radiator down into rubber bushed slots at the top. Old radiator to be discarded. Side tanks and shroud of plastic which appears to have gone brittle. Mounting lugs had sheered as well as the top hose inlet.

Fan slots onto radiator and held by two screws. The cooling air has to pass through the fan shroud even when fan is not running.   The Mulfab replacement discards the shroud allowing unrestricted airflow 

Plastic and rubber shrouds slot into place. The fan is ok and to be re-used.

Bonnett held by two screws at each end of hinge

So that's the broken radiator out of the way. Lets hope the new one goes into place as easily, later in the week.

Omar Khayyam - my favourite few verses

Arise! For Morning through the dome of Night

Has flung the shafts that put the Stars to flight

And, lo! The Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's turret in a noose of light

Since you nor made nor moulded humankind

Let not yourself be uselessly inclined

To shape them on your heart, as if it were

An anvil, beneath the hammer of your mind

It is a sorry lack of finer sense

To place in others boundless confidence

To count too much on them would undermine

The strength you need to be your own defence

Into this Universe, and why not knowing

Nor whence, like water willy-nilly flowing

And out of it, like wind along the waste

We know not whither, willy-nilly blowing

Morgan 4/4 Radiator failure

Heading towards Newton Abbot yesterday and on the way home from Coombe Cellars the coolant temperature suddenly began to rise cresting the hill by Centrax. A quick inspection revealed the top hose into the radiator had become detached. Fortunately an emergency lash up was possible and water top-up made at the garage, only a short distance down the hill.

The gentle drive home made to keep water temperature as low as possible so as not to raise pressure. The filler cap was also left loose so as not to allow pressure to blow off the temporary lashing. 

Reason for the fracture occuring in the first place seems to be the fact that the radiator is part moulded in plastic. A part prone to vibration, heat and pressure should be of more robust material but others have also reported radiator failures in their Morgans. An issue of quality control perhaps.

Lashed up radiator inlet hoze

Top left inlet pipe fractured.

A new aluminium radiator from Mulfab will hopefully be fitted next week in time for more motoring while the weather is still kind.   

Stub end as removed from inside of inlet hoze

Mog in the Fog

Clear up here at 700 feet on Teignmouth Golf Course but down at sea level mist blocks out the sun.

At sea level all is veiled in fog this chill October morning.

Looking west towards Dartmoor

No balls and no buggies

Looking east out over the sea