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.