Well hello again, just a little bit to add to Rowena's adventures. We have finally been up the Beulieu River! For those who don't know we had a bit of trouble there when taking our motorboating test, so much trouble the instructor had to take the helm!! Any way with no trouble at all we negotiated all the green and red marks and had a lovely berth in the little marina, it was very peaceful and quiet up there, only one blot, we had to buy all our provisions before we went in the dreaded Tesco in Lymington, Paul got a 'bargain' 3 bottles of red for £6.00! He comes to drink the red and its so bad even he can't drink it, so off he goes to the pub for a proper bottle, £14.99 and a pint in the pub later he is happy, but I am not!

So all we have to do now is go to Newtown Creek, another disaster from the motorboat test, but that will have to wait, even I agreed it was far too windy when we were down there 2 weeks ago.

All the summer clothes are now off Rowena, and it will soon be time to cover her up for the winter, ah, still we have had a marvelous summer and are now looking forward to 2010!! Bookings being taken now!

Well Rowena is back in her home berth. We had two good days and went from Dartmouth to Weymouth, the tide was with us all the way, even around Portland Bill which was a bit scary! Phil drove to Weymouth, but where was he when we were mooring up, sitting on the sea front reading! So we had to manage by ourselves. Up at 5.30 again the next day to leave for Portsmouth, poor Phil has to get up then too and go to the car to carry on sleeping! The tide was even better 12 knots going up the Solent a record this holiday! It was very strange leaving Rowena after 8 weeks of adventures, but I'm sure we will be back soon.

Well here we are still in Dartmouth due to some force 8 gales that have been around, hoping to move on Saturday to Weymouth, then Sunday to Portsmouth, but all that may change if the wind does not die down.

Phil is a wanted man in Dartmouth after accidentally (he says) going into the ladies for a shower at the marina! He was a bit worried to start with because we told him to act natural as really he should not be using those showers, in his haste to get out of sight of the marina man he went into the ladies, used the loo and was heading for the shower when a lady came in. Who would be more surprised, we are not sure, so Phil pulled his cap right down and legged it! He came back in the little dinghy almost on the plane!

We have also had to ask him not to treat the little dinghy as a trampoline, he jumps in from Rowena, all 18 stone, and the poor dinghy not too mention us wobbles all over the place, gently does it we said.

Well here is Phil enjoying his hols, after taking 9 hours to do a 31/2 hour journey, we think he got lost around Birmingham! The life and soul of Rowena! The first day he arrived it was raining, I don't think he had thought about wet weather, because in a few moments his jeans and trainers and anorak were soaking, they have been lying around Rowena drying since. In fact it is very hard to get him to do anything, we went for a walk yesterday to Dittisham and he moaned, when we said we were going for a walk to Dartmouth Castle today he didn't want to come, but we persuaded him, other wise he would see nothing of Dartmouth. And now I have to feed him and that is a mammoth task! Happy days.

We had some awful weather whilst in Dartmouth, the tail end of a hurricane which meant that all water taxis stopped running, there where waves on the river and we had to go in Venture, it was too rough for the little dinghy, to rescue Nige and Sharron from the land, where they were soaked to the skin. Despite this we managed to enjoy ourselves, we went to Torquay on the rib, Jake went crabbing and Lara went to the pub with the men! We also tried some diving just out of Dartmouth.

Well here are all the 'Beestonts' enjoying themselves in Dartmouth, we had a lovely regatta, the red arrows have to be seen to be believed the tricks they get up to, the helicopters displays were marvelous even if we did get a bit wet, and the fireworks out of this world. Dartmouth was so busy we were glad to get back to our little oasis of calm, Rowena. We said goodbye to them on Sunday and hello to Phil Lance.

We are now in Dartmouth for the Regatta. Nigel and Sharron, Jake and Lara joined us in Salcombe bringing Venture with them and a whole load of bags! Nigel drove Venture around to Dartmouth having a good fast ride, we followed more sedately in Rowena. We are rafted against a steel boat in the midst of renovation in the middle of the River Dart, the man on board is very concerned about our ropes, we go out and he keeps tightening them, he goes out and we keep loosening them. He had them so tight he cracked the back of Rowena! Paul showed him and he's been a bit better about them, until they started to creak and make a noise which his wife didn't like! The fact that the tail end of hurricane Bill was at the time wreaking havoc in the river was neither here nor there! The air show of the lancaster, spitfire and hurricane had to be cancelled because of the wind and rain, but the air sea rescue helicopter turned up and along with the lifeboat gave us a demonstration.

Today is much better we all went in Venture to Torquay for fish and chips. We have dressed Rowena with all her flags and she looks very nice, today there is a different sort of helicopter routine for us to watch, and fireworks at 9pm, tomorrow the navy ships arrives in port, the red arrows and parachutists, busy, busy, busy!
Phil is coming to join us on Saturday and then we will have to start heading back to Portsmouth.

Well we are now back in Salcombe, from where we departed for all our french adventures. We are on mooring buoy no. 1. We have a fine view of all the harbour goings on and there have been some I can tell you. A very large 76ft boat almost ramming the harbour master out of his dinghy, then going on to prang two yachts all very exciting. The Salcombe sailing club is now out and using us as a turning point, Paul is leaping around in and out of each door as they pass by each side a cats whisker away Rowena's paint. We are waiting the arrival of Venture with the Beeston's, hopefully a bit of diving will be done before we head off to Dartmouth on Monday. Sorry there are no pictures, but now we are back in Britain the Internet is not working so well, but the CD and video will be available later this year!!!

We left Guernsey at 3pm after yet another cooked breakfast! The trip to Alderney was lovely, flat calm and we arrived there at 7pm enjoying the evening sun. All the moorings in the shelter of the harbour wall were taken, so we had to go on a mooring buoy under the fort right in the entrance of the harbour. We put our watches back 200 years and had a quick walk around then to the Divers pub for a drink, we sat outside overlooking the bay looking at Rowena, it was very peaceful, when we got back to Rowena we sat out side up top and looked at the stars, there were hardly any lights around and I'm sure we saw the milky way, but not being astronomers we weren't sure. The evening, however, went down hill from there on, the swell coming in bounced us around all over the place, so not much sleep and we had to leave at 5am anyway.

Crossing the channel was bliss compared to the night before, flat calm, saw two dolphins but they didn't stay and play with us. We arrived at Salcombe at 2pm and are all moored up outside the yacht club on a mooring buoy.

We put Sian, Dave and Josh on the seacat this morning bound for Poole, they are catching the train to Portsmouth and then driving home. We went for a walk to Fermaine Bay and when we got back as they had closed the road by the marina we listened to a band playing all Beatles music, it was all very civilised.

Tomorrow we leave for Alderney, another first for us, we can only stay overnight as the weather is looking good for crossing the channel on Tuesday, so it will be a quick route march around the island!

Nigel, Sharron, Jake and Lara are joining us wherever we end up on the South Coast so watch this space!

P.S Sandra a bottle of rose lasts me three days now!!!!

Five Go Wild in Guernsey! If you can name who was representing each character, a free drink at Trevor House!!!!

Whilst in Jersey we discovered it was the 'Battle of the Flowers' day. Dave and Josh cycled to Corbiere, Sian and I enjoyed a girly coffee and shop in St Helier and Paul cleaned, and planned the next days route. In the afternoon we watched all the decorated floats pass by, they must of taken weeks to do.

We left Jersey, over the sill when the depth gauge said 1.8m! we wouldn't of done that last year. We had the calmest sea we have had! No matter how hard he tried Paul could not make Josh sick, even though he had eaten 4 tangerines, a bar of chocolate and a bag of cashews! Three sea cats passed us and we caught a glimpse of dolphins playing in our wake. We went straight into Guernsey marina, it was so quiet there was plenty of room.

Paul had his first cooked breakfast in five weeks at the outdoor cafe overlooking the marina, he said it was the best he had ever tasted!

Josh 'enjoying' the trip to Jersey!

After Isle Chausey we headed for Granville, there was plenty of room and we explored the old town and had our dinner up top as the weather was really warm.

We left at 9 in the morning, 3 minutes late as we had to wait for Sian. The sea was quite 'sloppy', another under statement from Jersey coastguard, anyway we finally arrived in Jersey and are rafted off a yacht on the visitors pontoon. Dave is cooking tea and I am trying to keep out of the way!

We left St Malo after two days giving Sian and Dave a taste of french living, we swam in the sea pool, some more reluctantly than others. Paul was still suffering swine flu and drinking red wine to get over it. We went into the lock with the most enormous tanker ever, just room for some boats and yachts up the side of it, Binic had nothing on the scramble to get into the lock.

We headed for Paul's nemesis ISLE CHAUSEY. It was busy and the only buoy free said prive, but we went on it anyway, it turned out to be the custom buoy, so some one had to stay on board at all times in case the custom boat turned up, which it didn't, so Sian Dave and Josh rowed ashore to explore whilst we watched the tide recede and rocks appear! It was a very special place, quiet dark and peaceful. Next morning Paul and Josh and I went ashore for a walk around then we had to leave for Granville.

On Saturday Pete and Sandra caught the ferry home, after visiting 10 ports in 14 days, not bad going guys!!

Sian, Dave and Josh joined us in St Malo, we have given them a couple of days to see St Malo and get used to 'Rowena living', but tomorrow we off at 9.30am to Ilse Chausey, a group of islands off Granville, we will be mooring to a buoy, so long as one is free for the night, the weather is looking good so we have to make the attempt, if no buoy free then its into Granville in the dark! Help! lets hope a buoy is free. Paul has already said things may get stressed!! watch this space.

We left Paimpol early on Thursday morning, and saw lots more old wooden sailing ships heading for the festival, we called at St Quay for fuel and coffee then set off for St Malo For the first time in the holiday we were all inside due to cold, miserable weather. We reached St Malo in pouring rain and had to lock through and moor up, all the time getting soaking wet which did not do the 2 crew suffering from swine flu any good. The next day the weather was better and Pete and Sandra enjoyed revisiting St Malo, for old times sake we had a bar b que on the beach. Believing Pete's interpretation of the tide tables we set up our bar b que, only to have to move it very quickly when the tide came in!

We are now in Paimpol, its hard to believe but the photo on the left is the channell we have to come up, its all mud in the photo, as soon as the tide comes in it looks like the sea. There is a big music festival on this weekend, and they expect over 300 old sailing yachts here, we have sat up top today and watched some of them arrive, it will be quite a spectacle I should imagine when they all arrive. We leave here tomorrow about 7.30 am and head for St Malo so that Sandra and Pete can catch the ferry home and we can meet Sian, Dave and Josh for the next set of adventures.

Sacre Bleu we are invaded by the french!!

Well here we are in Ploumanach, we left Treguir which was a lovely medieval town after two days stay. The trip to Ploumanach was fairly uneventful, Pete showed off by catching 7 mackerel which we are going to have for tea tonight. We are moored on 'trots' which consist of a buoy at the back and one at the front, as you can imagine trying to get ropes around these was fun, in the end Pete went in the dinghy with the ropes to secure them to the skippers exacting requirements. This is the furthest west we have been and a new port for Rowena, the scenery when we came in was really out of this world, great huge boulders all over the place. After two days here we will have to start heading back to St Malo to change the crew, hope the new crew will be as obedient as the one we have now!

Pauls OCD gets the better of him as he has Pete and Sandra clean their toilet.

Monday morning we met Pete and Sandra off the Brittany Ferry, after a quick cup of coffee we left St Malo through the lock and headed for Dahouet. Due to Rowena's speed - slow- and the tides we had to anchor off in a bay for 6 hours to wait for enough tide to get into Dahouet. We had our lunch and all sat up top in lovely sunshine, checking the GPS every 5 seconds to ensure we did not drift! At 8pm we upped anchor and set off, all with very red faces from the sun! We could not get into Dahouet until 9.30pm so just pootled along until we reached the harbour, over the sill and into our very tight berth, with Sandra doing a sterling job as a human fender, saving us from the boat in the next berth! We had our meal at night at 11.30pm and then bed by which time Pete and Sandra thought they had been on holiday for about a week.

The next day we walked over the headland to Val Andre a lovely sea side resort, we had a picnic of french baguettes and wine over looking the little boats and watching the tide go out. We got back to Dahouet just in time for low tide and we were amazed to see all the rocks and the way we had come in.

Today we left Dahouet as soon as the tide over the sill was high enough for Rowena's draft and headed to Binic, again in lovely sunshine. We have to leave here tomorrow as it is now neap tides and the lock will not open again until Tuesday, and we have many more ports to call in.

After two days of being a 'holidaymaker' Paul has had enough, so yesterday he decided to wire two more little lights outside on Rowena's bow, won't take me long he said!! Six hours later, 90m of anchor chain on the deck and all the front cabin a right tip the job is done! Also yesterday we had to get a french translation of ' there is a dead cat in the water between Rowena and the quay wall' I think someone had thrown it in the water to drown. The marina man had to come with a big net and fish it out - horrible.

To treat himself after the fraught rewiring job Paul decided he needed a new clock. He got a bargain radio controlled one, as soon as he put the battery in it the hands whirred around like something possessed until it reached the right (french) time, very clever, but will it know when it gets to the UK what the time is?

So that was yesterday, whats going on today Sat, well a glutton for punishment Paul has decided to replace the outside lights that do not work, is the job going any better than yesterday NO! the sun is shining and we should be on the beach. Peter and Sandra arrive in the morning maybe they will be able to stop him doing all these ' little jobs'

We have been swimming every morning before breakfast then calling for a strong hot coffee after, which has been very welcome, and we have had a meal out, we had the moules, well you have to in St Malo.

We shall be moving tomorrow, not sure where yet Dahouet we think but watch this space

Bon jour from french France! Yes here we are moored up on the wall outside St Malo! The crossing was ok, a bit rough to start with but calmed down no end as we reached St Malo, but the rain, we got soaked coming through the lock and it rained all night. We had the usual problems at the lock, just missed one then waited around for the next only to be told 'ze next lock in 1 hour' so we had to catch a mooring buoy and wait. The very nice marina man (who recognised Rowena and said ' back again, you come for many years!' ) siad out of five lock pumps only two were working, so they had cancelled alternative hour openings, lets hope they don't breakdown and leave us stranded.

We are here till the Craggs arrive on Sunday then, weather permitting we will be off cruising. While we wait for them we are going for a walk tomorrow, we go over the River Rance electrobarrage then on around to Dinard and back to St Malo on the ferry, it takes most of the day to walk around. On thursday we thought we might catch the bus to Dinan which is a lovely french town.

The repairs to the new engine have done the job apparently, not a drop of oil leaking and they sound as sweet as a nut, Pauls words not mine!

Here is Jonny wakeboarding!

Well here we are in Jersey, as you can see my mum and dad are getting into the boating mood with a little drink, they did say they not drunk so much for 20 years, but everyone says that that knows Paul! The weather was very windy whilst we were there, but we did not want to move anywhere luckily. Paul did a few jobs on Rowena, wiring a plug upstairs, varnishing the bathing platform, obviously when I did it in Feb it wasn't good enough, wiring up a special plug so we can play the i pod out of the radio, then he decided to have a look at the oil leak on the new engine, he takes it apart and finds a spacer has been left out, phone calls later the required part is being TNT'd to us, but will it arrive in time for him to do the job before we leave on Sunday, despite being told that the parcel is trackable it does not seem to be. On Friday we are told it is in a depot in Leicester, having been sent there from Portsmouth, there seems to be no chance of it arriving before Sunday, but a chance phone call to TNT Jersey and behold the parcel has arrived! As were shopping in St Helier at the time it was a route march back to the boat, Paul got his parcel, with the right bits in and spent all afternoon putting the bits back together (we never had this trouble with the old engine) my mum and dad spent all afternoon reading instructions to him and staring down into the engine room! As we left on Sunday my mum said she had seen another side to her son in law, the OCD one I think. Anyway whilst Paul was 'fiddling' with things, the rest of us got the bus and did some sightseeing of Jersey. As I write this we are getting ready to go back to Jersey ready for some french cruising, so watch this space and hopefully we will be able to get some photos on the blog as well as our adventures.

We took Venture to Dover to dive with Kingsdown Divers, as usual it was a very busy weekend with them, we launched the boat down a very narrow slip and put it in the marina, this after getting up at 4.30am to drive to Chertsey to see Jonny working in the wakeboarding school, that was really interesting, by the by he got 2.1 pass and is chuffed to bits, well we all are. Chelsey was there too really excited about seeing Take That at Wembley, what a lovely life they have. Anyway back to my life, yes up at 4.30 drive to Chertsey, then leave there at 1pm drive to Dover, launch rib, evening meal and bed at 9.30pm. Up at 5am to be ready for leaving the marina at 6, this means lugging all diving kit from car to boat getting it ready, not an easy task when its been ages since we had to be that organised. Dive the Monarch, Kingsdown divers bringing up portholes, we found zilch, back to marina, up to Clive and Maggies for bottle filling and breakfast in the garden, the weather was lovely all weekend, back to the marina, lugging all the kit again, for afternoon dive, thick fog, so could only dive near the shore, Tina found some lovely goodies, the capitaine sign from the captains loo (the ship was foreign) and some tablecloth holders, all brass, we found zilch! the fog did lift as we were on our way back in. In the evening we went up to Clive and Maggies for takeway Chinese, there must of been about 20 of us there. Sunday we had a lie in till 6.30! Dived the Louanda, very dark thank goodness we had little torches, Paul found a little glass jar, the other divers found, gin bottles, clay pipes, beads, our little offering was very paltry. At 11am we got Venture out of the water, she had behaved very well with 7 divers and all their kit on board, the first time she's been really loaded up since the new engines. Then we drove home. On Monday we got up at 6am to fly to Jersey - more of that next.

Since we got back we have also been busy with Venture, we went to Pwllhelli nad launched there and went to Bardsey, we had a dive on the corner of Bardsey, me in my wet suit as my dry suit is on Rowena!, then we went for a picnic and walk on Bardsey, we had with us Sian, Dave and Josh, Sians dad was born on Bardsey so she gave us an insight to life there. Nigel and Ray also came with us and Phil. The weather was lovely and we had fish and chips in Pwllhelli before heading home.

Then last Sunday Paul, me and Craig went to Anglesey, we launched at Holyhead and dived the Missouri, about 20 years after we had last dived it! Craig was boat man, forgot to put any suncream on and went home really burnt! The weather was unbelievable - hot - no wind, calm seas. The photo is of Venture by South Stack.

This weekend coming we are, weather permitting, off to Dover to dive.

Here are some highlights of Pauls holiday!

Rowena on a mooring buoy off St Mawes

Paul and dogs going for walkies!

I expect you have all been wondering what has been happening to the blog, well due to an unpaid bill, BT in all its wisdom cut us off and its taken till now to get back a phone line! Unbelievable hassle but now I can 'Carry on Boating'!

Phil and Nigel who came for the weekend in Salcombe before we left for Guernsey.

Rowena is in Jersey in a berth, we caught the Commodre Clipper home from there on Wed 10th June and arrived Portsmouth early morning 11th June, then drove home. We are due to fly out on 6th July, for a week, to check she is ok and maybe move her. Then we fly out on 18th July ready for Peter and Sandra to join us. Now they seem to think they are coming for a holiday! No chance Pete, we will be up at daft o clock in the morning to move, probably on an 'insignificant sea', then there will be washing down of the boat on arrival, stainless steel to polish, (got to have her looking good for the french) food to shop for, more plans to make for the next move, anchor watches, skipper says that with 4 on board, we can anchor instead of using the marinas, you will be lucky if your bum touches the new seats!

We woke to a much brighter day in Guernsey, we caught the bus to Samureuz Park where the Antiques Road Show was being filmed! We saw all the experts and Fiona Bruce the presenter, so watch out in the winter for the programme you might see us lurking in the background, I told Paul to smile so that we do not have a repeat of the 'rugby photo' (if you don't know about that I'l show you when we get home). We left Guernsey about 2 in sunny weather and (hurray) flat calm sea, we sat up top and managed at last to read the sunday papers! On arrival in Jersey we got some fuel (57p per litre) and got hit by a frenchman trying to get to the fuel berth. Do you think he understood f***off if you can't drive a boat shouted by a red faced welsh man? There's a couple of scratches down the side, but luckily I had some buoys down the side. As we speak Paul is in cleaning heaven, for the first time in ages he has got a hosepipe handy and is washing everything he can find, plus filling our water tanks, previously we had to lug 10 gallon plastic containers in the dinghy to fill up the tanks, goodness knows how much water he thought we were using.

Well here we are in Guernsey, before I tell you about that journey I will report on our stay in Salcombe. We arrived there on Friday and moored up on a buoy in the estuary not far from the town, Nigel and Phil drove down Friday night and arrived about 11, we picked them up in the little dinghy, much to Phil's disgust, for some reason he didn't trust Paul and Nigel not to get him wet. Saturday was miserable and raining, we had a big cooked breakfast on shore, then Paul and Nigel went exploring in the little dinghy, I went to the launderette and Phil went for a sleep! Saturday night, after showers and a drink in the yacht club we eat out in a pub. Sunday was a better day, we went for a walk along the cliff to see the sea then back again along the beach, lunch out then Phil and Nigel took Tizzy and Sammy home, its very strange without them, not having to take them off the boat every couple of hours.

We left Salcombe at 5 this morning and arrived Guernsey at 2.30pm. The sea was lumpy to say the least, but did not get any worse through the day, we arrived in pouring rain and are moored up on the pontoon outside the marina. We are not going into the marina, which you can only access 3hrs each side of high tide, as it would mean getting up at 6 in the morning just to move out again. We are planning to go to Jersey tomorrow the weather is looking ok for that move, then we leave Rowena, all being well there, come back to Portsmouth on Commodore Clipper wednesday night, drive home on Thursday and the holiday is over for a while.

Well back on line now Absolutely no service in Fowey for computers. We left St Mawes after a lovely stay. We left on Monday and went up the Helford River and moored on a buoy, there we explored Trebah gardens and the nearest pub, it was £25 to moor on the buoy with absolutely no facilities ashore, it was only £15 in St Mawes, and there was a nice quay to get ashore, so we won't be going to Helford again. We left the next day and came to Fowey, first of all we were moored on the pontoon, but after being on a buoy we found it noisy and no privacy so the next morning when a buoy became free we moved there quickly, it was lovely, an uninterupted view of Fowey, peace and quiet. As it was so hot in the day, we had to get up about 7ish to take the dogs for a walk in the cool, the first day we walked the coast path and had breakfast of coffee and croissant on a bench over looking the sea, it was perfect. The next day we walked to Golant and had our breakfast in a buttercup field! Today, yes, we were up at 7 walked to Polruan and the coast path, got some shopping in for the expected visitors, set off at 11 and arrived at Salcombe at 4, moored on a buoy, with a lovely allround view of Salcombe, had a meal out in the pub, made the beds for Nigel and Phil who are on their way here for the weekend and to take the dogs home, we are hoping to go to Guernsey on Monday. So ready for a holiday!

We left Penzance at 7am this morning, in the wet dock was the old fishing trawler that we rafted against in Paimpol (Pete and Sandra will know the one) apparently 'Mad Jim' has to sign on every now and again and thats why he is over here! Also Paul has a new project in mind, not the WW2 torpedo boat that I want, no his is a partly built little ship the man who owns it has gone into receivership having spent 10 million on it, it still needs 10 million spending on it too, so I had to get us out of Penzance double quick!

We are in St Mawes now, a new harbour for us, we are on a buoy, but it is very calm, compared to the Scillies. St Mawes is a lovely little fishing village opposite Falmouth. We are here for about 3 nights I think, pay for 2 get the 3rd free so thats what we are doing, its the cheapest place so far with Dartmouth still the dearest.

The water is so clear here, on the way we caught a glimpse of a dolphin, puffins and just below the surface I saw the biggest dogfish ever, well it must of been about 5ft long! we were sitting up top and I looked over the side and it was swimming alongside, then turned away quite shark like! No basking sharks though to make our depth meter go mad! Or was it a submarine the last time we were here the depth went from 60m to 0m! very strange. Paul is thinking of diving under Rowena just to get in the water!

Well here we are back in Penzance after our brief trip to the Scillies. We got to St Mary's on Saturday afternoon after a long trip from Falmouth. Sammy was sick as we rounded the Lizard, it was like being on a roller coaster, not rough just big swells. We picked up a buoy in St Mary's pool by the lifeboat. It was how shall we say quite 'sloppy' there, we were bobbing about, the water was splashing the side of Rowena so we did not get much sleep, too busy trying to stay in the bed with all the rolling around (caused by the sea conditions)!! Sunday was a beautiful day which we spent on the beach sunbathing, Sunday night was better and on Monday we left at 9 for Penzance as a force 6 was forecast. We are moored up in commercial dock here, the big boats for the Scillies use it and fishermen too, but it is interesting, in the corner I am sure there is a ww2 gun boat, but it looks very sorry for itself, would be a lovely project to do up! Today, Tuesday, we are off on the bus to St Ives for the day. I think we are leaving here Thursday for the Helston River all being well, if the wind is wrong it will probably have to be Falmouth, then Fowey and Salcombe, then we need somebody to come and fetch Tizzy and Sammy, any offers?

We arrived in Falmouth yesterday about 3pm, fuelled up and are now berthed in Pendennis Marina with some absolutely fabulous boats, I think they should be in Monaco or St Tropez, there is a yacht Adix which must be 50m long, all wood cabins, 3 masts which must be 100m high, also a 'little ship', Steel, the chandalier in the cabin I can see into is bigger than the one we have got at home! The sky domes on each boat are making Paul feel very inadequate! There must be something on the internet about them. Talking of sky it does seem to be working now, unfortunately we seem to fall asleep in front of it after all the walking and sea air we are getting. I think the reason I can't download photos is something to do with the phone internet connection that 'cheapskate paul' is using. Anyway weather is looking good and all being well we will be off to the Scillies in the morning 6am, but not before all the stainless has been cleaned.

This should be called walking adventures not boating adventures, we have been stuck here in Dartmouth since last Friday, two force 8 gales later we are hoping to leave early tomorrow (thurs) for Falmouth. Also unable, for some reason, to download photos onto the blog, which is a shame because we have some good ones of Dartmouth, and Torquay. We have spent our time walking while we have been here, the only trouble being its very hilly and we know that when we are going downhill we will have to go up! We are going to watch the Royal Marines beating the retreat in a minute, thats Dartmouth life for you. Will try again in Falmouth to download photos and let you know what the sea is like, at the moment it looks 'insignificant' to me! (Craggs will know how bad that is).

Sorry guys can't download photos at the moment will try this evening

Weymouth to Dartmouth

The wind finally died down, but not before it had deposited half of Weymouth beach all over Rowena, of course this gave Paul a good excuse to CLEAN, the brushes came out, the dusters, hosepipe and everything had a good scrub, I took Tizzy and Sammy out of the way before he started on them. We set off at about 1pm past Portland Bill, which we could hardly see for the mist then onto Torquay. Lyme Bay was the calmest we had ever known, how strange after a force 9! We moored up in Torquay on the town quay, only us there, no water or electric but thats no problem to us, water always kept topped up by the skipper. It was so quiet after Weymouth, no fenders squeaking, no wind whistling, no fishing boats zooming past, it was bliss.
But all good things come to an end and we set off about 4pm for Dartmouth, on the way, we had to polish all the fenders as they were covered in dust, rain marks and paint from out stay in Weymouth, they certainly took some hammering. So we arrived in Dartmouth shining like a new pin! Even Paul was happy!

We are moored up on the town quay, in the most expensive berth that Dart Harbour has! Off to walk to Dittisham in a minute. We are here until at least Sunday, more wind forecast.

We left Portsmouth on Saturday 9th May for Weymouth, it was calm and sunny for most of the way, though we did meet a big sea at St Annes Head, however, taking all his courage in his hands the skipper went the nearest yet to the land, as recommended in the almanac, and we were only in the overfalls for a very short time. We reached Weymouth after 6 1/2 hours with the engines being revved to no more than 1800 all they way. What happened to the 2000 I was promised. Its very windy now, Monday, force 9, a yacht did go out, but came back again, everyone else had the sense to stay tied up. We walked to Portland and the new Olympic marina which you can see in the photo. The weather is looking better for Wed/Thur and we will try to get to Dartmouth then.

Well another busy weekend, this time with Dave, Sian and Josh, they arrived Friday night and on Sat morning we set off to the Hamble on Rowena, the weather was cloudy but calm and we sat up top all the way. When we got to the Hamble there was room on the town quay for us, so giving all the on lookers a treat we moored up and had our lunch there. A couple we had met in Paimpol last year recognised Rowena and came to say hello which was very nice. We had a four hour stay and then came back to Portsmouth, Russell and Jon came to see us on Venture and took some good photos, they had been wakeboarding and looked a bit cold! We got back to Portsmouth at 5 and by 6 were speeding along the solent on Venture for our tea in Cowes, Josh and Dave did the driving, we came back in the dark which is an adventure and lovely to see all the lights of Portsmouth. Sunday, after we had managed to drag Paul away from his cleaning, we went to the submarine museum, it was very good, we had a good look on and around the submarine well worth the visit.

Then the nightmare started, we had to get Venture out of the water and onto the new trailer, it did not fit! Paul and Dave had to get socket sets and goodness knows what else to move the rollers and winch about, thank goodness Dave was there or you would be reading about my divorce. Any way after about 2 1/2 hours it was deemed safe enough to go, we could not go over 50mph as the car and trailer started to snake really badly, so it was a long journey home. When we eventually arrived and were taking the trailer off the car the trailer shot into the air, all the weight was on the back, hence the snaking. Monday, and Paul, Nige and John Hough all had to come and help move chassis' etc. Paul took it for a run down the by pass and its ok now, but what a palaver.

Back from a busy Easter weekend, on Good Friday we went to Brighton on Rowena with Nigel, Sharron, Jake and Lara. The weather was grey and miserable but very calm. Before we had been going an hour, half the crew were asleep! The new engine performed very well, in fact we knocked half an hour off our usual 6 hours to get to Brighton. Nigel was pleased to see all the new engines on both Rowena and Venture, hence his big grin! Saturday was spent in Brighton with lunch in the Ha Ha bar and then a walk to the beach. Takeaway chinese for tea. Sunday was a bit brighter but not much, after refuelling we headed off back to Portsmouth again with very calm seas, but no sun. We arrived in Portsmouth at 4 and by 6 where heading off on Venture to Cowes for our tea! It was going dark as we set off back to Portsmouth, but very calm, good job too as we had Jake and Lara aboard! On Easter Monday we thought we would go to Bembridge for breakfast, the sun by now had come out and it was a lovely day. On the way we saw the tall ship Tenacious looking very stately as it made its way up the Solent, and also the coastguard helicopter practising lowering a man onto a boat, all very exciting. We arrived in Bembridge at 11.30 on Venture beached her and climbed off, Tizzy and Sammy had to swim ashore, I think everyone else on the Isle of Wight had thought of going there for breakfast too, the place was heaving, no more breakfasts were being served, in fact no food at all was being served and it called itself a cafe! we ended up with a scone and coffee better than nothing I suppose. We then gave all the watching public something to look at by getting back on Venture, with dogs, kids and pushchair, and set off for Ryde to see the little marina there. Back to Rowena to tidy her up and come home, Venture is still in Portsmouth, but we will be bringing her back next weekend.

Here are Rowena's lovely new seat covers, too good to sit on. Our first trip out after all the work was to Cowes, the weather was lovely, a bit cool but sunny, it was very quiet when we got there, in fact we had a choice of berths and that doesn't happen very often. By saturday the place had filled up with yachts and it was someone else, for a change, yelling at them at 3am in the morning to be quiet! We left on sunday and arrived back in Gosport at 2pm and at 4pm the fog came down so suddenly it caused mayhem for the harbour. The engines worked well though still got hot at over 2000 revs, so Paul just pootled along as he likes to do.

Sammy's had enough!






New Navy destroyer out for sea trials too!