"Dont go in the pub...Dont go in the pub" was today's Mantra...today is going to be a long one as our Ferry has been delayed by 5 hours....which means originally we'd have been casting off at 4.45 pm....now it's going to be 10.30 pm......so we're going to have to pace ourselves....we check out from the Hotel at 11.00 am and make an effort to walk around Plymouth Hoe which takes us about 1.5 hours.....our little walk then takes us back outside The Dolphin pub......so yes, in the pub we go.....we stand by the bar and get greeted by 2 local fishermen who grill us about what we are up to so explain the travel plan....funnily enough we dont get the usual banter about coming from Wales...it's a sailing port after all, so they're probably used to seeing all sorts here. They ask us if we've been here before and we tell them yes a few times and tell them that we'd just been to pay our respects to The Fallen at The Citadel which names those lost in the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxillary.....one of the fishermen pipes up, "Did you see the 3 small crosses up on the Hoe?"....we hadnt...he then tells us that during the first World War, all the sailors ashore were marched up to the Hoe to watch the hanging of 3 deserters...they were all 14 year olds...and his Grandfather had been there to witness the event. "Baastaards" he said....which shows the Noyal Navy was not held in the same esteem back then as it is today. After walking round Plymouth you see loads of little alleyways which must have been prime hunting grounds for the press gangs in search of "Volunteers" for the Spanish Expeditions of yore.

Barnacle Bill

Next up to accost us is a stout fellow who gives off a grizzled vibe....he starts talking in a northern accent, so I assume he's one of the Middlesborough fottball fans we came across yesterday and ask him if he is....."I'm a Geordie, you cheeky b******."..and then rants on for another 5 minutes about how the folk of Middlesborough were a bunch not fit to clean the s*** off his boots...so we let him rant on and once calmed I ask him what brought him to Plymouth, turn out he lives there and one bloke behind the bar salutes him..."Finally, some bloody respect .." he says..and then tells us he was a Captain for 40 years in the Royal Fleet auxillary....I ask him what did he consider to be the best port he'd visited...he then tells me that I'm a land lubber and wouldnt know any of them....but he says "Port Madras....not that you'd know it..." so I pipe up that actually Richard...I do indeed know it....as I was taken there during my Royal Enfield days back in India....we'd gone there to see how the logistics of shipping the motorbikes worked......result....after this Barnacle Bill eases up on us and asks us where else we'd been.....so he lightens up and introduces himself as Captain John Mount at your service.....he turns out to be a right laugh and tells us a few tales of time spent on the African and south American coasts....he's also interested in other places we'd been and praises Grant for being a young lad who'd got off his arse and seen a bit of the World...so we've had a couple of pints and say we'd better head towards the port as otherwise we'd never leave the Dolphin and would end up stuck in Plymouth for the next week. The pub was packed with locals by the way and a 10 piece band were in one corner playing sea shanties...this was no touristy thing...it was all genuine stuff...Captain Haddock suggested we head to The West Hoe boozer as it's only a five minute walk to the ferry....again we impress him as we know the pub and have been there before.....Hands are shaken and we depart from The Dolphin...Captain John Mount was great as was everyone else in there and I'm glad we met the good Captain. We then walk the mile or so to the next port of call...we've still got time to kill but take it easy in the west Hoe...the locals are again a really friendly bunch asking us what we're up to etc. We like the good folk of Plymouth.

Terminal Boredom

With a couple more hours killed, we head off to the Ferry Terminal...there's a restaurant place before you enter the port so we have some grub and a coffee there.....more time slowly passes and we head into the port...it's a bit of a long walk, but you get to see how many cars are waiting to get loaded up......we get told to go upstairs and wait......time goes by and by 9.30pm we get told we can start to get moving....we dont get it as we've havent been given our boarding cards...so Grant heads off to this office place and gets told we should have checked in when we came in...no one told us and apparently we were lucky to have been checked in as the time for last checking in had passed.....nice one Brittany Ferries...anyway...finally we can get moving....it's quite interesting watching how a big logistics project works....with all the lorries and cars being tied down.....the hold of the ship stinks.....maybe the sewerage system is broken...it's that bad...luckily the odour fades as you head to the higher decks.......we've got a cabin on deck 6 and do the time honored ritual of slinging the bags in and heading to the bar.....