Monday, August 28, 2006

In France!!!

ha ha, liked the comments. Hope to do a proper update soon but we are in France! Need some decent internet connection though....

Friday, August 18, 2006

Food Entry

Probably my favourite pastime apart from "bumsen" is eating, so I'm dedicating this entry to food!

First there was the top-notch fruitcake which my mum baked for Susi and I. I enjoyed it, as did Jackie but I think Susi was less impressed: She found a cat hair in her small slice and mentioned this to me. I explained that this is a staple ingredient in most of my mothers culinary creations and not to worry as, once accumualated in sufficient quantities, the hairs would work their own way out by way of coughing up a furball.

Next foody incedent was in Dartmouth (we weren't planning to stop there but we were glad the weather determined this 3-day stop for us as it was a lovely place): So we were on a pontoon in the river and the skipper of yacht Johna explained to us that he needed to leave his yacht for a week and thus needed a berth next to the pontoon and not rafted up to someone else who may have to leave before his return. Allways willing to help, we agreed to let them have our berth and then raft outside of them & this we duely did. After a fair amount of faffing around with lines and springs we completed the move &, as thanks, were rewarded with 4 beers - nice! Then the skip proceeded to give us all the perishables which would not keep untill his return. This amounted to:
- 2 yoghurts (strawberry)
- 1 tub coleslaw (nearly full)
- 1 salad
- 1 tomato
- Parmesan cheese
- Apple pie (3/4)
- Cherry pie (1/2)
- Mini bakewells (9)
- Milk
- Juice
- 2 Newspapers
- biscuits

Not a bad little tally!

Finally, in Plymouth (expensive marina, lots of cheap people) we met up with my cus Robin. Before watching the fireworks world championships (my cats Parsley & Cinnamon would not have approved) Robin was kind enough to drive us to Asda so I could pay homage at my fave supermarket and stock up on cheap tinned stuff such as custard, rice pud, beans, tinned choc cake, etc, etc - cheers cus!

Friday, August 11, 2006


Me on the way to Weymouth! Extracts from a movie shot by J.

Dinghy

Still no time to update this properly as trying to sort out insurance, somewhere to stay for the winter and other stuff.

But we have used the Dinghy! We are in Dartmouth, which is really nice, and it is, of course, cheaper to use our dinghy than the ferry or taxi. Tides a bit strong though, what with no outboard!

To follow: Pictures of "Fat Susi" and "Good-looking Chris" in Dartmouth (think she ate too much in Germany!).

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Lymington, Weymouth, Brixham

Thanks Jackie for being a brill crew on 1494s journey to Weymth & Brixham (immortalised, of course by the Clash song "Guns of Brixham"!).

This stage of the trip needs to be written up properly, of course, but time is running out on this internet connection. Will do this voyage justice at a later date.

Stay tuned....

Friday, August 04, 2006

Back to the here and now...

From Portsmth, we sailed out into the Solent and a strong head-wind. There were a hell of a lot of boats around racing, and they didn't seem keen to obey the rules of the road either. We did our best to keep out of their way but, on one or two occaisons, I would have liked to have seen them give way while we were on starboard tack and they were on port.

So we had a few good tacks in the blustery conditions but, with time getting on, the Skipper decided to motor the rest of the way into Lymington. Motoring was very uncomfortable with the wind over tide but we were making a decent speed over ground.

To cut a short story even shorter, the engine overheated! We then successfully sailed into the river and started the outboard. We made it with no problem really, but it was a bit worrying.

Jacky was a bit of a hero & did most of the steering & didn't seem bothered at all that the engine had overheated "What a lovely sail we've had today", she said (or something like it).

Anyway, Vega1494's engine seems to be ok now after much scrabbling around in the bilges by the skipper (touch wood,touch wood,touch wood).

Oh, and we later found out why there were so many yachts about: Apparently it was Cowes Week!

photo



Thought I would show this photo cos I reckon it sums up all that is cool about Holland (from a boaty p-o-v): Quiet corners tucked away in the countryside, a swim, a beer, then watch the sun go down.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Pompey

Quick scoot round to Portsmouth in a fresh breeze which gave us a nice reach out around no-mans land fort. Haslar marina is a terrible, wicked place (at least on the end of our pontoon it was): exposed to the wind, a little swell from passing vessels and 22 squid for the privelage - the most expensive to date!
Didn't mind, didn't care, Jackie was on her way to visit & we were fresh and ready to ppparty.

We had a nice meal (too hot though), and some wine and beer and rum. A success, it's fair to say.

Next time: Our eventfull next-leg with guest sailor Jackie Brown!

Announcement

Check out the photo link (if you're lucky enough to have the password (everyone who knows me should have it)). New piccies have been added!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Chichester

Was our next stop. We knew we would have to fight the tide along the way, but this was necessary as we wanted to arrive at the top half of the tide and, with the tidal stream atlas giving a maximum tide of 1.9 knots against us (then less than one knot) we figured it wouldn't be a problem. However, at one stage we were doing 6 knots thru the water and only 3 over the ground so something didn't quite add up. Anyways, it wasn't really a problem but it meant that we had to motor-sail for a while which was a shame as the wind was quite nice.

Pilotage at the entrance looked to be quite tricky from the pilot book and, indeed, the entrance markers were difficult to spot but thereafter it was well-marked and fairly straightforward to find our chosen anchorage in the lee of Pilsey Island. And what an anchorage!

As the tide drained away we became more and more sheltered from the wind as Vega1494 sank (bad choice of word!) lower behind the island. We cracked open a beer, read, watched the commings and goings, Susi was spying on some bloke with the binoculars, cracked open more beers, I swam to shore with a camera in a dry-bag to take a snap, watched the sun go down, chatted, read etc. etc. Absolutely brilliant!

The skipper slept well untill about 0200 and then was worried that the anchor was dragging. He stayed up for an hour, let out a little more line and went back to bed. We had dragged, but only a little. We awoke to another sunny day and the sight of the hottish chick next to us going for a morning swim. Nice!
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