Hey Pete, good news. I found my problem. I was running an old ES8266 core. Updated to the latest and its works well. Thanks again for helping me with this.
When I start or close the blynk App the esp gets a notification within secs.
If I disconnect the internet connection from the device running the blynk app I get a disconnected message about 30-40 secs later. Would be nice if this interval could be made shorter, but at least now I have way to track state end to end for my real time control.
Mark