I should not of mentioned Glastonbury because on Saturday the heavens opened at dinnertime and did not stop till midnight! We were watching someone, can't remember who, on the stage and got soaked, so came back to the boat and put on all our wet weather gear, wellies, waterproof trousers and anoracks, then back to the concert, the group were very good, well we thought so.

We are just about to leave Paimpol now, for St Quay, we won't get there till about 10 and it will be getting dark, not our favourite thing to do, boating in the dark, but it needs to be done, then we will go to Dahouet tomorrow morning, that's a nice place and hopefully much quieter than Paimpol has been.

The photo is the lock gates into Paimpol, you can see why the skipper is out now looking to see hou much water is in the lock!

First of all congratulations to Peter and Sandra who had their maiden voyage on their boat, up the River Dee, the photos look as if they are having fun! Perhaps they would like to try going to the place on this photo next! Its the Isles de Brehat at low tide, we caught the bus to the end of the peninsular and walked back to Paimpol.

Glastonbury eat your heart out! Here we are at the Paimpol festival, got our wristbands which we have to show if we need to leave the arena, which we are in the middle of with Rowena.

There is a lot of irish jigging music around, men singing sea shanties and bagpipes, perhaps not quite Glastonbury. Last night we had the Chieftans and Simple Minds! It was so noisy that even Rowena was vibrating with the bass.

The 300 wooden boats that came in on Thursday were a sight to see, and now with all their flags up they look wonderful.

It was so noisy last night we didn't get to sleep until about 3am, we are thinking of going off to the beach for a bar b que for some peace and quiet, but then it will still be noisy when we get back. On top of all that we had a rope stolen yesterday, we were only away about 3/4hr, the boats around us said their were some kids on the pontoon, so it must of been them. No sign of any rope when Paul went to have a good look this morning.

We were hoping to leave on Monday, but I should imagine all these wooden boats will want to go as well, and as they are so big I would not want to get tangled up in the lock with them.

This was taken in Guingamp, on our inland tour, 2 teas and cupcakes 10 euros!

When we got back to Paimpol a boat had rafted alongside us, much to the skippers disgust they had put their springs running along his new deck, well he had them out of their cabin in an instant to make them do their ropes properly and get them off his new deck! They also had not put on any ropes to the pontoon so Rowena was taking all their weight, that soon changed and fore and aft ropes were put on. They do not seem to speak to us now, I wonder why!

Oh yes and the man on the yacht in front of us is Peter Snow the newsreader!! He did everything properly, its just an ordinary yacht nothing showy.

We left Binic on Saturday quite early and came to Paimpol, we got in the first lock, 1.4m under Rowena, usually we have to wait until high tide, the skipper has a lot more confidence now!

Paimpol is very very busy, and the festival of boats does not start until the weekend, we may of had enough by then and leave for somewhere quiet.

We hired a car to get Irene and Mike back to St Malo on Sunday so they could catch the sea cat to Jersey then their plane. It was a nice change to see something of the countryside, though if anyone can tell why all these bones are kept in a building by the churchgate I would love to know.

We had a lovely time with Mike and Irene, we left St Malo last Monday and anchored off Val Andre, had a swim off Rowena and lunch up top. Then we motored for an hour to Binic and stayed there until Friday, it was lovely, very quiet, hardly any visiting boats, we swam everyday in the sea, luckily it was high tide in the morning and we could just go down the steps into the sea, so no sand on us that may have then been transported to Rowena. Thats a big no no!!

When the tide does go out there it goes out about a mile, so a long way to walk holding your stomach in!

We went for a walk around Binic and got a bit lost, only Mike knew the way but he was over ruled by the rest of us, so we wandered in a circle, took a short cut and eventually got back to the boat.

Well hello again, still in St Malo, Anne Lloyd came out for a few days last week, she bought the sun with her so we have been swimming and on the beach and drinking wine, that about sums up the week I think!

I went on the sea cat to Jersey to meet her, we did some shopping then came back to St Malo.


Now on their way here are Paul, bringing with him man flu, and Mike and Irene, they are here for a week, what the plan is I don't know so watch this space.


I think it is to get to Paimpol, there are a couple of fete de mer's on then back across to Dartmouth for the regatta maybe, we'll see.

Bonjour mon ami! At last at 7 in the evening the sun is shining, just seen tomorrows forecast, thundery showers, and we know what those are like don't we Craggs

All the boats have left, its very quiet here, one I was glad to see the back of, Mr and Mrs Boring, Paul invited them in for a drink hoping to learn about new harbours, all we got was his life story! Every time I passed he popped out of his yacht like a jack in the box and told me a bit more! I asked when he was going and he said Wednesday, force 4, quarter jib and mainsail! As if I know what he was on about!

Today I have been reconnoitering the Rance. I took a bus to Dinan, cost 2 euros for an hours journey, this shames Britain, as in the Isle of Wight we had a 10min journey from Cowes to Newport and it was £3.50 each - unbelievable. Anyway a grand cafe creme in Dinan, a trip to the market and down the hill to the river, a boat was there going to St Malo, this bit is embarrassing, but done in a good cause, 24 euros!

I have taken loads of photos for Paul so he can see there is nothing to be afraid of going up the Rance with Rowena, well marked and very wide, not sure of the depth though! Actually now I have been its not that exciting, so will be stop going on about going up there. Think I prefer Paimpol.

Time is not going too bad here on my own, hopefully someone will visit next week, waiting to see, tomorrow a long walk along the beach was planned, but if its going to rain, it may have to be shopping!

Rowena needs a good wash down, all the dust is still running off the new decks, a seagull has made a home on the front, and keeps bringing his moules here to eat, then, well doing what seagulls usually do. I have a bucket and keep washing the muck off, but its full of tiny shells and they need a good hosepipe to get rid of them.

Tizzy and Sammy in the tent!

New stainless posts.

Well where shall I begin, at the beginning I suppose, We pack the trailer with all the stuff we took out of Rowena 8 long months ago, in the car we put all the cushions, mattress's and things that could not get wet, along with camping gear as we were going to stay about a week to help get Rowena ready for the water, how naive we were, 5 long weeks later we put her in the water! All that time we worked from 8 till 5 7 days a week, lived in the tent in between with 2 dogs and terrible weather. Must be mad.

We had a list of jobs to do, but the list never seemed to get any shorter, we antifouled, cleaned the bilges, painted every space that could be painted, cleaned up after workmen the list goes on.

One question I asked myself as I was anti fouling, why am I using a 6" roller on a
42' boat apparently that's what Phil was told to use by some old sailor years ago, myself I think he must be laughing his socks now. 84ft I antifouled with a 6" roller, there must be a better way.

Anyway the great day arrived Rowena was in the water, 4 pumps pumping the river that was running through her out, 24 hours later we were down to one pump occasionally helped out by another one, not bad, now 14 days later all is almost back to normal, just a little seeping here and there. Isn't that marvelous. We had a sea trial in a force 7, this after she had to be lifted out again because the engineer had left a plastic bit on the shaft and the water could not cool the bearings!

We went up to Cowes with Craig and Karen, stayed there one night, then back to Lymington via the Needles, the shafts and bearing were checked and off we set for Guernsey!

There was fog in the shipping lanes, again, but no where else why is that? We arrived Guernsey and stayed for 2 days then set off for St Malo which is where we are now. Well I am Paul had to go back to work.

Today I walked to a different shops, and when I got there they were all closed, because it was Monday and they don't open then apparently. Unbelievable.

Before Paul left we swam in the sea pool, lovely it was once you were in, it was just the getting in, today I went for a swim, but the tide was in so no pool just the sea, and it was rough, so played in the waves instead.

Here they are swimming off Bembridge!!

Some of the ships in the Solent

Of course the trip on Venture to the Channel Isles was cancelled, thank goodness, it was rough enough in the Solent. In the end, just Ray and Tina, John Hough and me and Paul ended up in Portsmouth for the bank holiday weekend. On Saturday we went across to Bembridge for our breakfast, see photo! Then we thought we would go to Cowes and go for a walk up the Medina River, it was really rough, and we began to smell petrol, so had to go back to Portsmouth to sort that out, it turned out to be leaking from the front red tanks, because it was so rough. The petrol was trickling out of the cap and down the boat, we then ran to Cowes on the front tanks to empty them. It was so rough Ray thought we had gone 25 miles, its about 8!! Not so bad coming back, wind was with the tide, but did we sleep well that night.

On Sunday there was no boating just walking!

By Monday the wind had eased so off we went to Bembridge for another breakfast, Paul and Ray swam!! mad fools. We called in at the Clarence Marina and saw all the Motor Boat Monthly boats waiting to go on their cruise across the Channel, we had a chat with one of the guys we know, Richard from Guernsey, then it was back to get the boat out of water, Venture is now home in Wales.

On a brighter note just look how lovely Rowena's stern looks. I'm sure that the rest of her will be as nice when she is finished.

Keep looking at the blog we are off on a RIB cruise to the Channel Isles for May bank holiday. Should be plenty to write about then.

This photo shows the cracks in Rowena's hull that are worrying Paul, he is quite convinced that when she goes back into the water she is going to leak alarmingly.

Well here are some photos you never thought you would see, me scrubbing Rowenas bottom! I'm the one with the leopard print wellies, you have to keep up appearances even when you have royal navy overalls on!

Yes we had to scrape off all the loose antifouling with a scraper and wire brush, my arms ached, my back ached and I was covered in black dust and looked like a coal miner. That took all of one day, the next day we had to prime all bits that we had scraped off. Once our arms have unstiffened we have to paint on the anti fouling that may be next week when Rowena is out of the paintshop.

Well hello again, just a quick update, Rowena is being put back together again, the new decks are down, the bulwarks have been built up, the rear deck is also back in place with new water tanks underneath. Next week she should go into the paintshop for a touch up of all the new wood, she is not going to have a proper paint job until the end of the year when everything has settled down. Though how the captain will cope with an 'imperfect' paint job I don't know, even more cleaning and polishing I should think. We have to think about getting all the stuff back to Rowena now, hiring a van is my idea as there is that much and I don't fancy endless trips up and down the motorway. All being well she should be back in the water end of April, she will take a bit of 'swelling up' though she is very dry and there are gaps between the planks in the hull, so we will have to watch her very carefully.

More news Rowena has a 'sister'! Well the Craggs have gone mad and purchased a boat! Unfortunately at the moment the boat is broken down on the M6, well the trailer is. Welcome to the world of boating. Can't wait for a trip on her, especially as Captain Pete will be in charge and Jonesey will have to do as he is told! Wonderful.

All photos are on Pauls phone not yet downloaded so will do that another time.

Have been to see Rowena today at Lymington. The water tanks are out and other trouble has been found underneath them! The blocks the rudders sit on were rusted away so had to be replaced and on the side of the boat some old fixings to do with the old chain steering had rotted the wood away so that had to be made good. Hopefully the new water tanks will be going in next week and then the new back deck can go down. All the new wood can be seen in this photo of the lazarette.

One of the new water tanks with the other in the background.

Up top new seats have had to be built as the others were all rotten, its never ending.
The photo shows the top deck with no seats, all the fibreglass that was under the seats had to be removed as it had been put down on paint and was not even stuck to the floor and all the water was going underneath.

On a lighter note we used Venture a lot over the New Year, we went to The Hamble, up the Beulie River and to Cowes for tea. It was calm but very cold!

 

 

Well Happy New Year everyone!

After stripping nearly everything out of Rowena, including the water tanks, one of which apparently was leaking, things are finally being built back up.

The back deck was in a right state, very damp, and we had to have a lot of new beams fitted. The transom was completely stripped back, some of the wood was rotten and had to replaced. We have to wait for new water tanks to be built so that will delay getting the back deck down.

As well as all the decks being done, on the top deck wood has had to be replaced as it was mostly ply and rotten.

When the time comes we are just going to have the paintwork touched up where it needs it instead of a full paint job, maybe next year she will be painted.

All being well she should be ready to go back into the water in April.