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Torquay

Torquay from the water in July 2012: the Livermead seafront, a rainbow of beach huts, a breakwater lighthouse, one rusty trawler and a bird in the ropes.

The day after the Eden Project we took to the water in Torbay. July 2012, an English summer sky doing its best, and the whole coastline laid out from the deck of the boat.

The red-brick Livermead Cliff Hotel on the Torquay seafront with its name painted along the sea wall and houses climbing the wooded hill behind
Torquay from the water, with the Livermead Cliff Hotel helpfully labelling itself along the sea wall.
A long row of pastel-coloured beach huts along a sea wall with white seafront houses and a hillside of rooftops behind
Beach huts in every colour the catalogue offers, lined up along the promenade like a paint chart.
Small white lighthouse at the end of a stone breakwater with a sailing boat passing and figures walking on the pier
A little white lighthouse, a passing sailboat, and a painted reminder to keep it under 5 knots.
A rusting blue and yellow trawler at anchor with seagulls perched on the rigging and a stone breakwater behind
Every harbour needs one honest workboat. The seagulls have clearly taken ownership of this one.
A small speckled brown bird perched among thick coils of weathered mooring rope
A stowaway in the mooring ropes, entirely unbothered by the paparazzi.

Devon by boat beats Devon by traffic. If the sea is calm, take every trip on offer and argue about lighthouses later.