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!