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.