Monday sees a completely different river and the early(ish) morning colours and sunshine put us in the mood to tackle the recalcitrant outboard.

The problem we discover is a jelly like residue in the carburettor and the fuel tank. This is a relatively common problem with the more recent E10 and even E5 petrol especially in older engines. We get the tank and carb clean and she runs like a dream finally on the old petrol we have in Heydays. We’ll try to source something better in Salcombe…

We actually make it to the slip in style this time and can’t resist a few pictures of the old girl through the trees as she lies gently to the mooring…

There is a glorious walk around the headland which starts off through sun-dappled woods and gradually climbs up to some stunning views over the Yealm Estuary and the Mewstone Rock.

The skylarks chatter irritatedly at us and a raptor of some description (could it be a Red Kite?) circles lazily below us above the rocks. Oddly the walk ends up back at the Ship for a late lunch ….pint of prawns, fishy nibbles and the odd pint or two.

Back on Heydays the late afternoon sunny snooze is disturbed by a boat coming up river looking for a mooring. They are not exactly steady and seem to be doing everything at too much speed. All our fingers are crossed that they don’t decide to come along side us and we keep our heads well down. The first attempt at coming alongside a catamaran just up stream is both down wind and down tide….followed by panicky shouts of “Woa!” and “Back back!”. He goes back and nearly takes out a pretty boat not far away from us. There is much revving of engine, lots of whining bow-thruster and some shouted directions from the catamaran. They wisely decide to put out every single fender they have (and probably wish they could have borrowed more). Eventually everything is secure, and peace descends once more on the river.

We make Mojitos with lemon juice and lime cordial which work surprisingly well, and dine on prawn risotto washed down with some Picpoul and the odd rum or two with chocolate. The sun sets on what must be one of the prettiest rivers in Devon.