Hello from Fowey, we have had some rough weather here on the mooring buoy, but today it has calmed down and we have forgotten all about the wind. We went on a lovely walk today (see picture). As you can see the local yachters are using Rowena as some sort of marker! The 'skipper' is of course paranoid that they are going to hit us and is up and down like a cat on hot bricks, 'ooh he was close wasn't he' no one has hit us so far. We had planned on going to Plymouth tomorrow but its given force 5 so we are staying another day, getting up early on Wed and going straight to Salcombe where we are expecting Phil, Nigel and John to come down and pick up the dogs for us, then we hope to head to Guernsey then Jersey.

Galley window of the week - St Mawes. Well is it me? I decide to buy some bread from the little bread shop in St Mawes, the cost is £1.30 I give the lady (and I'm being polite here) £1.29 and am looking for the other penny when she says there is only £1.29 here, quite abruptly, I say I know and am looking for the penny, I can only find 2p so I give her that and she says I haven't got a penny to give you change sorry! And put all the money in the till! Surely she should of said don't worry about the penny or is it me?

Any way after a wonderful stay in St Mawes, on the beach, in the water a little, and walking we leave for Fowey, the sun is shining and the sea is a little lumpy, but not too bad, we are now on a large visiting buoy in Fowey, with lovely views all around, photos next time.

However I now have a confession to make, we have to use the little dinghy obviously, and its my job to jump off and make it fast. Well today it was not fast enough and started to drift off down the Fowey, it was a shall we shall we shan't moment whether to jump in, in the end Paul had to swallow his pride get on the radio and ask the harbour master to go after it for us. When he appeared with it Paul disappeared and left me, red faced, to apologise.

Well its been a while since I blogged so here goes again! Nigel and Sharron drove down to Falmouth to join us for a long weekend, without the children, so they were hoping for a rest! Wrong! They arrive and find that the Paul Jones they know has had a brain transplant and has Rowena at anchor in Falmouth harbour and he's not even on her!! Then they find they have to sleep the night at anchor! It all goes well though and the next morning we move to the Helford River and pick up a buoy, another first for the Beestons, and on top of that we make them visit a garden, Trebah Garden, not a normal day out for them!

After that we set off for Penzance and the power boat racing that is on for the weekend. We can not get into Penzance Harbour until 10pm so anchor off Mullion for the afternoon. There is a lovely little beach we can see so set off in the little dinghy with all the barbecue stuff. As we get nearer we can see a few waves and end up surfing onto the beach! Only a few things get wet, Nigel, the barbecue and Sammy. As we are waiting for the barbecue to heat up we start counting the waves to ensure we get it right when we leave. After an hour and half the barbecue is still cold and we are worrying about the waves that are coming from all directions onto the beach so we decide to leave. We forget all about counting the waves and set off, the first wave breaks right on the little dinghy and Sharron and I get soaked, the dogs get soaked and the men get soaked, the dinghy rides the second wave right up in the air, Sharron and I are rowing like mad, but not getting very far and Nigel is trying to start the engine, everything in the dinghy is floating! We end up cooking the barbecue food on Rowena as we motor to Penzance, the sea is like a mirror, all the waves must be in our little bay!

Penzance Harbour is a revalation for the Beestons as well. We walk along the prom to see the racing out to sea and all the great unwashed british public are there, we all wonder what the world is coming to when we see some of the states walking around. We then move onto the pitstops to see the boats being craned out of the water, one team, The Fuel Girls, gives rise to a number of discussions!

We leave Penzance at 12 on Sunday with an east wind blowing, a word of advice never go around the Lizard with an east wind. Any way we are stuck up top on Rowena unable to get down the ladder for 4 hours until we get into Falmouth. Nigel and Sharron get into their car and drive home! They need another holiday now!

After the Beestons had left us we decided to go across to St Mawes, shock horror one engine refused to start, Paul had been admiring some Nordhavens that where moored by us, and I think she knew! After an hour Paul found a little switch that he did not know about, pressed it and lo and behold the engine started!

We are now on a buoy the weather is glorious, the sea is calm and the views are wonderful, we spend the day on the beach and have a lovely relaxing day!

Trebah Gardens



Sammy enjoying his holiday!

WELL WE DID IT! Anchored I mean, admittedly only off Mousehole, but it was practice for us and it worked perfectly the new Rocna anchor, we did not even move when 2 boats full of fishermen passed close by at great speed, making the little dinghy crash against the bathing platform and rip the rubber off. Paul then spent an hour putting it back on. So the shout now is 'the rocna's in!'

The build up to this was 'shall we shall we shan't' go to St Helens pool on the Isles of scilly and anchor there, we decided not to because we had not practised and to practise in the Scillies seems a bit daft, knowing how many rocks are out there. Before we left St Mary's a basking shark was in the harbour it never came quite close enough to Rowena to take a decent photo.

We left the Scillies at 6.30am yesterday and set off for Penzance, we were joined on the way by 4 dolphins riding the bow wave, it was lovely 3 big ones and a baby.

We are safely in Penzance harbour now, and it is so lovely to be still, it was so rocky on the buoy in St Mary's.

Here we are in the Scillies when it was calm yesterday, too rough to take the camera out today!

Well here we are bobbing up and down in the Scillies in St Marys Harbour, the wind is blowing right in, there's white water and any minute now we have to take to the little dinghy to go ashore. We will have to wear full wet gear or will be soaked by the time we get to land.

Before we got here we had a lovely one day stay in Falmouth, not in the marina, but on the visitors yacht haven, it was lovely, not hemmed in by other boats and with a lovely view, in fact we have decided to have a new feature on the blog ' galley view of the week' (|Harry Hill style)! This photo is from the Falmouth yacht haven. Watch out for the next one, even I don't know where that will be.

The idea of coming to the Scillies was to anchor in a different place, St Helens Pool, but I don't think it is going to happen. Skipper has checked his ropes(notice the plural) twice in the night and we are tied to a very big buoy! He's not going to trust a single pin (which he has showed me) that holds the anchor to the chain is he?

Well how peaceful is it in Dartmouth now that Paul has had to go back to work? Well in a word 'very'! Dartmouth has recorded a rise in retail shopping now that I'm here! And today I went to a National Trust property, something I am not allowed to do with Paul (that's for when we get old apparently). The lady tried to interest me in a membership, but I had to refuse, as I just wouldn't get my moneys worth, last time I went inside a National Trust property was when I was dragged there by my mum and dad! Anyway this one was Greenway, Agatha Christies holiday home, and what a holiday home, a lovely Georgian manor house! The gardens where all in flower and looked lovely. I went by boat up the dart so it was all very peaceful and no hassle, coffee in the courtyard cafe and a mooch around the shop as well - very nice.

Tomorrow back down to earth and going to the launderette! Paul should be back on Sat and weather permitting we will be moving on though I don't know where till he who must be obeyed arrives! I must admit I have not looked at the weather forecast once since being here on my own. I am just enjoying my holiday home in Dartmouth too.