Well they say things get worse before they get better, check out these new photos of Rowena. There is not much to say is there what a mess.

We have not actually seen her looking like this, saving that for the new year. I beleive there is no bed in the back cabin now, the exhausts are rusting away and full of holes, and they also taken away all the plywood from the topsides photos of that next time.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Taking up the rear deck






So you want to see poor old Rowena, its very sad, I only hope they can put her back together again in time for next years cruising, looking at her it doesn't seem possible. All the teak deck is up even the back deck had to come up, new ply is down along the sidewalk, but the sides have to be re built up layer upon layer as was done in 1968. The back cabin is in quite a state with rotten wood so all that is being replaced, the hand rails are on the floor and will be put back straight as they had flexed with the rotten deck! We may even be able to open the door without all that pushing and shoving it past the rail. The rubbing stakes on the side of the boat are off and having to be 'reknitted' into the hull. She looked so nice when we took her in now shes a sad old lady.

We had a good trip to Lymington, the tide was with us so we got about 10 knots, wizzing along, we arrived about 3 in the afternoon and a steady stream of men came aboard! Curly the carpenter, bald as a coot, Kevin the painter, Keith the planner, the man from the crane and so it went on. We had to go out for tea as there was nowhere to sit and nothing to cook with! And anyway we needed a drink.



|Next morning at 8.30 we were in position and lifted out by 9am, sent to have our breakfast and when we got back she was in the shed. Another man came and bought us a ladder, locking it onto Rowena with a bicycle chain so it could not disappear and we carried on emptying.

Russ took all the stuff in the landrover up to Trevor and we caught the train back to Portsmouth, the flat was full of all the other stuff we had previously emptied so that had to be tidied up. Yet another drink was needed.

So that's where she is now and will be until March 2011, whilst she has new decks, is painted and has the gearbox and rudders and propellers checked over.

We had to almost empty Rowena before she went to Lymington to get her new decks. Not an easy task with 10 years worth of junk in her! As you can see from the photo the waterline moved up about an inch, the shame of it having that much stuff on her, we must try harder when she is back in the water not to load her up so much.

We finally got around to mending poor old Rowena's 'by pass' and just look what we found. All this gunk was stuck in the t piece, actually I spotted it and asked what was stuck up there, I'll make an engineer yet.

Paul replaced the t piece and all the plastic piping and every looks good, we ran the engines and they were fine.

Keep watching this blog because Rowena is about to go to Lymington in the big sheds and have new decks! I will be taking plenty of photos and moaning about the cost probably.

Can you spot what is different about Venture?

Hi bloggers, I expect you thought there would be no more boating adventures, wrong! This is just to show you the boat Jon has been working on all summer, we flew to Nice, after a security scare at Manchester Airport when 3 people were removed from an Abu Dhabi flight (say no more)anyway, we arrived st Nice not too delayed and Johnny met us and we took the train to Juan les Pins where our hotel was, and very posh it was too. The next day, after a quick dip in the med, much warmer than St Malo, we had a conducted tour of Dilbar. Absolutely amazing. 110m long, it was the biggest yacht in the harbour, everything gleamed on it. We went right from the helicopter landing pad, through the control room, don't know what else you would call it, the bit where the boat is steered from anyway, it looked like the starship enterprise, to the engine room, it took over 3 hours! Better not put all my interior photos on the blog in case Jon gets into trouble!

After that we walked around the marina grandbanks spotting, there were loads there! Some as old as Rowena, but of course not in such good condition at least that's what Paul told me.

We moved to Gosport on Friday, that being the first day that was not too windy! We had a good trip in Rowena, John and Nigel caught up with us after about 3 hours, too busy having a big fry up to leave! When we arrived there was a boat in Rowena's berth, even though we had told the marina we would be back Fri or Sat, so we had to go into a different berth.

Saturday the weather was lovely so we decided to go on Venture to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, we needed petrol, the marina's fuel pump was not working so we had to go to Southsea marina for some, good thing we had a bit left over from the trip from Brighton to Portsmouth, so with Rowena not being in her berth and no fuel Premier marina was not the flavour of the month.

We got to Ryde about 12 to be greeted by about 5000, yes thousand, scooters! Their annual rally! There was music on the prom and loads of people, the music and the scooters quite took me back to my youth!! We only had about 3 hours in Ryde as the harbour dries and we had to leave whilst there was still some water in the harbour, to be honest we were all glad to go because the noise and fumes were terrible.John, however found time to sit in a deck chair!!

After Paul had a word in the marina office, the boat in Rowena's berth was soon moved and we are now all tied up in our rightful place.

This is the last blog for now, we have had some lovely adventures, roll on next year!

Now we are in Brighton, wind force 7 all the time! Nigel, Sharron plus children, and John came down on Monday with the rib, we were supposed to be going diving, all we have managed to do is wander around Brighton! The weather is not looking any good all week, so we might move on Saturday to Portsmouth, with Nige and John driving the RIB there, us taking Rowena and Sharron bringing the trailer, but that all depends on the wind dying down.

Rowena in Deauville and Utah Beach

We had a lovely time in St Vaast, we went on a bike ride along a sandy track by the beach to Utah beach and a war memorial.

The next day we left St Vaast and headed for Deauville, we got there too early for the lock so anchored in the bay, went for a swim around Rowena and ended up with a scrubbing brush in hand and had to scrub the waterline!

Deauville was lovely, so hot, we were sitting out up top on Rowena at 10.30pm with no need for any jumpers on!

We left Deauville at 9am on Sunday for our channel crossing. We rang the coastguard to let him know and he asked if we had heard the forecast and that there was a force 8-9 forecast later! We decided that we had plenty of time to cross before it came in and set off. It was very calm, we got to the shipping lanes and the fog came down! We could see the ships on AIS but not out of the window! Very scary. Then the coastguard called us up Rowena, Rowena this is Solent Coastguard, we didn't half jump, he wanted to know just where we were and how long until we got to Brighton! We told him an hour and half, by then we were even more worried, even though there was absolutely no wind, the calm before the storm we thought. We got into Brighton at 8pm, (12 hours it took) in pouring rain. The storm arrived at 1am and its been so bad we are really glad we did not get caught in it.

Galley window is the magnificent harbour station in Cherbourg

We left Cherbourg this morning, thank goodness the sea was calm and got to St Vaast at midday, we had to hang around for an hour till the lock gates opened and we could get into the marina, its drizzling and raining now, but we are all tied up and going to go ashore for a little look around. Better weather hopefully tomorrow. We are staying here tomorrow then the next day going on to Deauville, a couple of days there because it is so nice, then to Fecamp then await a weather window to go across the channel to Brighton.

We arrived safely into Guernsey with Rowena's 'by pass' working well. We had a lovely cooked breakfast in the outdoor cafe, and then it was time to leave to go to Cherbourg. Before this Paul had been talking to a sailor on the boat moored next to us in Jersey, and he told him that he should be at Cap de la Hague for slack water. Previously we have always gone with the tide to wizz us round, as taught to us by Tom of the MBM. So Paul decides that what we have we been doing is wrong, even though we got around, and we take the sailors advise. What a bum steer, overfalls in the Little Russell before we have even lost sight of the marina, overfalls by Alderney, even bigger overfalls by the Cap, and and then down to 3 inots, we nearly went backwards! More overfalls on the way to Cherbourg, wait till you see the video! And poor Rowena is doing all this on a 'by pass'. Needless to say it was a cup of tea we needed when we finally got into Cherbourg.

We decided to leave Jersey for Guernsey on Friday 13th, wrong decision, Rowena broke down just outside the harbour, well one engine did, we came back in one the good engine, Paul thought he had fixed it an out we went again, just outside the harbour off the engine went again, so back in we came.

Air was getting into the fuel somewhere, but where? After 12 hours in the engine room still no joy, but we changed filters, lift pumps, pumped air in, sucked fuel out still no joy. Luckily Paul had every spare you could of think of somewhere on the boat, my very important job was to fetch and carry and provide paper towels to mop up!

Next day we bypassed all the copper fuel pipe with plastic and hey presto it worked no air in the fuel, so fingers crossed we are off to Guernsey today, however, we still do not know where the air is getting into the system, that will be the big job when we get home, which will probably be sooner rather than later now!

Bretagne chasing us out of St Malo!

High and low tide in Jersey marina!

Hidden St Malo

We left St Malo yesterday, with wind against the tide so it was a good thing we did not have Irene with us, even I felt like taking a stugeron! The sea was certainly 'significant'. Anyway we arrived in St Helier with about 100 other boats, all wanting a berth in the marina, so now we are rafted 3 deep on the pontoon, I think you could walk from one pontoon to another across the boats its so busy.

We leave tomorrow for Guernsey, then all being well Cherbourg and the northern coast of France then across to Brighton in time for the bank holiday, hopefully we will be able to do some diving there. Any one interested let us know.

Internet connection is not very good here so can't post any pictures will try in Guernsey.

We bought a new lamp for Rowena but before it could be used it had to brasso'd!

Still here in St Malo, the weather is great! We swim before breakfast, have coffee, look at the shops and then go to the beach in the afternoon, swim a bit more, have a drink on the way back to Rowena, then tea, then bed, its a hard life But it will all be changing soon and we will be back on the high sea to Jersey.

We or rather the skipper decided against Isle Chausey when he realised that on Thursday the tide is the second biggest this year, a coefficient of 112 if any one is interested, basically the difference between low and high tide is 12m, so if we have to anchor we would have to put an extra 12m of chain out on top of the 3 times whatever depth we are anchored in, so too much stress I think, and too much chain!

Yesterday a man came and said he needed to take on water and the marina people had told him to come along side us to do it. Ok we said. It turns out his boat, from Guernsey, is a boat he designed himself based on grandbanks because that is what he used to own, but this boat is made of steel in Holland, inside it looks very like a grandbanks, but outside, even though he has got the top deck and rear deck something looks a bit funny, not quite right, the boat weighs 45 tonne!

He used to live in Hong Kong and saw grandbanks being built there! Apparently they made 1400 wooden grandbanks then changed to fibreglass, Rowena is number 46!.

Here we are bbq on the beach at St Malo, at least this year the tide did not come in and force us to retreat with hot bbq and food!

Irene and Mike have been used and abused and went home today, I hope they enjoyed themselves in spite of Mr Jones!

We are staying a few more days in St Malo then trying to get to Isle Chausey to anchor, weather is looking good apparently.

Galley window of the week is of St Malo

Two lighthouses we passed close to!

In St Malo now, we had to by pass St Cast as a force 5 -6 was forecast, so we headed from Dahouet straight here, the lock gate was open as we arrived so we motored straight in, how jammy was that!

We are now moored up on the wall with everyone walking past and admiring us!

We have been swimming every morning in the sea pool, yesterday with about 30 lifeguards, Irene and I were very cold when we got out having been there so long watching them!

Today is our last evening with Mike and Irene so are going to show them the dolls pub, this is a bar which is absolutely chock a block full of all sorts of different dolls, very different.

Poor Irene is being wound up by Paul all the time, as you know Irene does not like waste so when she found a button on Rowena she asked what it was off, Paul said it was off his shorts so she said give them to me and I'll sew it on, he said he had thrown them away because the button was missing! Well her face, we couldn't keep our faces straight! It took some convincing that he still had the shorts.

We are now in Dahouet, the photo is of course at low tide! Today we are off to walk along the sea front, have a picnic and a swim.

Tomorrow we leave for St Cast, then to St Malo for Wednesday, holiday is nearly over.

After leaving Treguier we arrived at Paimpol, through the lock and rafted on to another old boat, this one a gentlemans cruiser built in 1964 so Paul and the man had a lot to talk about!

The day we arrived we showed Mike and Irene around Paimpol, went to the beach for a swim in the sea pool, got back to the boat and decided to go for a 7 mile walk to the end of the peninsula for a picnic tea, we got there at 8 had our picnic overlooking the sea and Isles of Brehat, it was very peaceful and beautiful, then walked back, arriving at 10.30pm!

On Saturday we caught the steam train to Pontrieux, wich is a lovely village, full of flowers and lavoirs, washing places, these are all on the little river so you go in an electric boat to view them.

We left Paimpol at 9pm, yes pm at night! to get to St Quay with thre tide, of course it was light when we set off, but dark when we arrived, luckily the marina has a big entrance so we couldn't miss it and there was plenty of space to tie up, we arrived at 11.15, had a little drink and went to bed at 1.30!

Up at 7, well some of us, Irene drugged to eyeballs by now on stugeron stayed in bed! Not getting up till we had arrived! We left at 8, did some more fishing and got 6 mackerel just like that, and arrived at Dahouet at 11. By now worn out, so we just read and relaxed up top in the sun for the afternoon, well 3 of us did, OCD Paul had to clean his stainless steel!

On passage today we did a bit of mackerel fishing, and I mean a bit! Paul lost his tackle! and Mike managed one fishy for his little dishy! We ended up with 4 mackerel which was enough for tea, and very nice it was too.

Low tide and high tide!

The intrepid travellers on the dinghy!

We left Ploumanach at 5.30am, saw the sun rise and were in Treguire by 9am for breakfast, not sure what the Hayes' made of it all!

Today we left Treguire after a very pleasant stay. Yesterday was market day there and in the evening there was another music festival, so much going on.

This morning we got up at 7.30 to go in the little dinghy up the river to La Roche Derrien, we had to go with the tide, had an hour to look around and back with the tide, we had our breakfast on the way and it was very pleasant and peaceful little trip.

We are now in Paimpol discussing where to go next probably St Quay then Dahout, but time is going on and we have so much to do.

Hi guys, well someone is watching the blog and wants to know what the skipper is up to. Well the answer is his precious rocna anchor is hitting his precious Rowena, and there are chunks taken out of the front so hence the 'cushion' for the anchor to hit!

Irene and Mike had to wash feet and boots after putting the dinghy in the water, we had to walk ankle deep in mud to reach any water, no wonder there is no one here, and we paid 70 euros for the privilege.