Back to Guernsey.. and onto Spain

Back in the protected St. Peter Port harbour, it was suddenly 10 degC warmer with blue skies.

It was lovely to catch up with Fi and Conall, some old friends from Oz.

Children: Toy Story. Grown-up's: a quiet beer in the cockpit!

Followed by a great visit from Brenda and Tom.

Si. & Am. loved all the attention.

We made a few upgrades to the boat, adding a HF radio, a watermaker and a self steering windvane. Thanks to Silas for explaining the intricacies of the watermaker drive pulley system to me, and thanks also to Steph who did a valiant job entertaining the kids while I pulled the boat apart.

The finished watermaker HP pump, belted off the engine alongside the 2nd alternator, produces 70+ litres per hour whenever the engine is running. We still marvel how drinking water can be made from seawater.

Here are the membranes and valves installed in the aft heads. We went for a extremely simple setup: no solenoids, sensors, metering, electronics, fancy plumbing or feed pump. Just a simple HP pump and easily accessed plumbing - hopefully not to much maintenance. Also doubles as an elegant loo-roll holder!

We also insalled a 'Windpilot' Self steering windvane. This compliments the autopilot, but requires no electricity, using the wind and water flowing past the hull to generate huge but sensitive steering forces. Excellent service from Windpilot, who even supplied all tools and bits required for installation.

All too soon, it was time to move south again, across the Bay of Biscay to get to Spain. As this can get a bit rough at this time of year, we decided Steph would take the kids to see their other grandparents, while I do the trip with some help. Luckily, Peter, a very experienced sailor who taught me lots, joined us with..

...Chris, who led us to many excellent bars and restaurants using inbuilt magical powers...

...and Adam, who entertained us with fantastic cooking, and more fantastic (but true) stories.

Unfortunately passage was mostly against headwinds, we motored a fair bit. But we did get a good few blasts of sailing in. We had to dive into La Coruna to avoid a gale for two nights. But we safely rounded the corner of Ushant and made a safe landfall into Bayona, Spain. Thanks guys for a great trip! I really enjoyed the company.

England dear England...

We made landfall in England at Dartmouth, the narrow, picturesque entrance to the river soon gave way to beautiful green rolling countryside. After a celebratory beer in a real pub in Dartmouth and berthing next to the steam train, we decided to push the limits of the Dart river, all the way up the the inland market town of Totnes. It felt a bit odd gliding along the quiet waters overtaking people in canoes, but this river has seen many ships much bigger than our in its time.

This was our home berth for a few days. Totnes was great, interesting residents growing some great fresh food.

But a large tidal range can also be a minor inconvenience!

Onwards to Plymouth, we found a great anchorage nearby and had our first wilderness BBQ, I'm just demonstrating the finer points of Bushcraft to the boys...

But sometimes there is just nothing you can do with a 2 year old...!

Then again, he can be sometimes good too...

Playtime...

Onwards to Fowey, a small river inlet, we sat out a storm on a floating pontoon, visiting the town in our dinghy each day via a lovely collection of pilot cutters.

Keeping the kids happy with regular visits to the beach... even though its only 7 deg C...

One day can we live in a house with chickens pleeeeaase?

Plymouth, lots of Naval activity.

At the multihull centre at Millbrook, near Plymouth, we tied up at the old floating jetty. Only catermarans and really shallow draft boats can reach this far upriver, I think we dredged a channel for ourselves getting this far.



On the way to the town, we found a very interesting project...

It's always worth knocking on the hull...

And we ran into Pete Goss and his brother Andy... check out http://www.petegoss.com/ for his latest adventure, onboard the Spirit of Mystery. Famous for his 1996/7 Vendee Globe race, where Pete rescued a fellow competitor in the Southern Ocean, we honoured this great act of seamanship by donating a spare marlin spike to their boat, hopefully it will come in useful during their voyage to Australia.

We returned a week or two later to see 'Spirit of Mystery' being launched. However the old Cornish bloke standing next to us was unimpressed. "Our Pet-ur dont have much luck, what with awl that capsising an carrin' on.."

Onwards to Falmouth, we spent some time on a mooring buoy, visiting the towns attractions via our dinghy. Here Silas earnt his stripes as dinghy skipper.

But travel by dinghy isnt that easy, just look at all the gear you need for a day out, and don't forget the 2 x kids car seats... (Thanks Aunty Trisha for lending us the car too).

At the very impressive Falmouth Maritime Museum, we were privaliged to see the actual string vest that Shackleton wore in the Antartic.

But ultimately, the summer in England was rapidly deteriorating, continual gales prevented us from heading up to the West coast of Scotland. On a whim we decided to head back to warmer climes - off we set back to Guernsey. In hindsight a good decision as the British summer never really happened.

We had a cracking downwind sail as we approached Guernsey. Keel raised, genoa poled out, preventer on the main and the autopilot doing all the hard work.

Although we did have to dodge some other shipping halfway across the channel..!