30th July 2008 - Birmingham, UK

At 1120 this morning, after 7 hours in labour, Natalie gave birth to a happy and healthy little 8lbs 0oz boy Liam Sam Halford. Both are doing well and after a nights rest will be coming home tomorrow. Congratulations Natalie and Sam on the birth of your lovely boy - the photo did arrive so here it is for all to see:

24th July to 4th August 2008 - Back in the UK for a visit

We travelled to St Malo via 3 of the excellent bus routes - just 2 Euros per leg - on 24th July, caught the ferry to Portsmouth then a taxi to Southampton. We are now in Birmingham, having visited lots of friends in Southampton and taken advantage of berths and beds!! We then saw Natalie in Swindon yesterday (28th) on our way up, and today she has started labour. Liam should be born in the next day or so and we will then drop down to Swindon again to see them both. Then it's London for our final session to arrange our winter work before visiting friends in Portsmouth and getting the overnight ferry home on 3rd August.

21st to 23rd July 2008 - Paimpol, France

Write up to follow when we get back!!

20th July 2008 - St Quay Portrieux, France

Well done Lewis Hamilton!!! Another victory and a 4 point gap on 2nd place in the drivers championship, plus Raikonnen was down the pan again so a widening gap there!!! Roll on Hungary in 2 weeks time.....3 days to go for Natalie, so we have bitten the bullet and booked our ferry back to the UK. We will be travelling on Thursday 24th, arriving in Portsmouth at 1830 to rent a car and make our way to Shamrock Quay to see our mates there, staying with Roy on Due South that night. Sharon is in the midst of making calls to our friends begging for beds for the other nights we intend to spend here and then we will be off to Swindon if Natalie has delivered Liam, otherwise we will head to Brum first and then drop back down to Swindon when the happy event does occur.....

Some pictures of St Quay then:

19th July 2008 - Dahouet to St Quay Portrieux, France

We left Dahouet at 1000 and enjoyed another good sail - upwind of course - to St Quay Portrieux, a port we last visited in 2006 with our friends Angela and Phil (Den) on "Just So". St Quay isn't exactly picturesque, but isn't a bad place to spend a couple of days. As I now have a solid internet connection, we will give you a massive update for the time since we left St Malo on 3rd July heading up the Rance, then back to St Malo, round to Erquy & Dahouet to reach here, St Quay Portrieux. Firstly, the last few days:

17th July 2008 - St Malo to Dahouet via Erquy

We left Bas Sablons at 1100 and headed West towards Cap Frehel in a rising NW force 5 to 6, giving us a great sail, if a bit wet and lumpy at times!! Paul said it was just what he needed after 4 weeks of harbour or river sailing!! Rounding Cap Frehel an hour and a half later we were able to free off and enjoy a 9 knot blast towards Car D'Erquy and our intended lunchtime stop at anchor. As we closed Cap D'Erquy the wind eased and we took the inshore passage a few metres away from some very impressive pink granite rocks that give this coast it's name the Cote de Granit Rose - the Coast of Pink Granite.

Rounding Cap D'Erquy and dropping the sails, the wind dropped as well, just as Erquy hove into view. A pretty granite roofed village with a bustling drying harbour which looked like it needed exploring. We sounded in and anchored in 2m around 100m off the inner harbour wall and watched the children enjoying their sailing and windsurfing lessons in the bay before making and enjoying a lazy lunch.

When we next looked at the depth sounder it had risen enough for us to get into Dahouet on a rising tide, so never did get to dinghy ashore and explore Erquy!

As we started to lift the anchor the wind came up strongly from the NW again, so it's just as well we didn't leave the boat and go ashore. In no time at all it was blowing 30 knots straight onto a lee shore a couple of hundred metres away!! Anchor up, we motored round the next headland into the bay of Pleneuf San Andre and tried to locate the approach buoy for Dahouet, which is entered through a narrow gap in steep granite cliffs. In the conditions this little red buoy half a mile offshore was invisible, but we found the starboard hand mark - a 23m tall green and white lighthouse surrounded by breaking surf!! We lined the boat up and followed the instructions in the pilot book and as we entered the narrow rocky inlet all calmed down around us and we felt like we had entered the womb! Passing by the monument to lost sailors (!!) and the fish quay, we were met at the equally narrow entrance to the marina by the Chef du Port in his RIB and escorted to the visitor's pontoon, where he helped us berth. There were a couple of other visitors from France and one from England when we got there, but they all left next day and we were the only visitors there - we had washed, really!! After a dinner aboard we explored the town and sat at a quayside bar for a pitcher of wine. All of a sudden there was a strange noise and almost everyone got up and ran to the quayside. Turns out a lady had accidentally put her car into forward rather than reverse and poked the front wheels out over the harbour wall and was hanging in mid air!! We all helped to get a rope round her rear axle and attached it to a 4WD which was able to pull her out, and the car was able to drive away with minor underneath damage and a trashed rear bumper. Lucky lady - but kept us entertained. Memo to self - don't moor on harbour walls underneath car parks!!

Next day (18th) we cycled up and over the headland into Pleneuf St Andre and enjoyed a days exploring and shopping. Turns out this was the first day of the French National Beach Volleyball Championships, so the beach had volleyball courts every 5m and there was a bevy of fit young ladies (and blokes says Sharon) pushing balls up over a net, wearing very little.......nuff said - no pictures as I wasn't allowed to :-( Later on we took a long walk along the little stream that flows into the harbour, which was great apart from me getting stung by something and now having a 3" diameter bite mark on my calf! Some pictures then:

16th July 2008 - St Malo

After our Bastille Day period in Bassin Vauban, we aimed to leave and go straight to Erquy, but the tides were wrong, so the lock wouldn't open at the right time, so we slipped out on the late afternoon of 16th July aiming to anchor off Solidor. However when we got there it was blowing old boots and the anchorage was not tenable, and after trying Dinard and the supposedly sheltered bay near the barrage, we ended up back in Bas Sablons for a night.

Here is the update for the previous period starting on 2nd July - St Malo.

We decided to stay another day to let the tides get a bit later so we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn - we leave that to Pete!!! We took a ferry across to Dinard and became grockles for the day, seeing the old Victorian resort in brilliant sunshine but finding nowhere we could realistically moor Isosceles for a longer stay. One picture for this time - liam's cake at Natalie's baby shower:

3rd July - St Malo to the River Rance and up as far as Lyvet.

We left St Malo at 1030 on 3rd July and headed for the lock at the western end of the Rance barrage. This is a dam that holds the water in the river until the hydro-electric people decide to let it out again to generate electricity for St Malo and a lot of it's surrounding environment - they provide 6% of the total French needs from this one dam!! They also hold it back on the flood so they get better spin on the turbines on the way in, so both depths and flows are haphazard on the Rance itself giving challenging decisions on navigation and anchoring!! However, we got it right and had a great sail up river to the Ecluse de Chatelier (the lock at Chatelier) and then into a berth at the pretty marina at Lyvet. Below are some general pictures of our progress through the lock(s), up the Rance and our time at Lyvet. One special thing to mention - in 1998 Paul did the Royal Torbay Yacht Club's Triangle Race from Torquay to Cork to Treguier and back to Torquay with Ed Holton on Shades of Blue. On that race we met many people and formed some great friendships. As we were watching the Tour de France come through Lyvet on our last day there, I noticed the bloke next to me looking at me sideways, and I also thought to myself "I know you from somewhere".... We got chatting and it turns out his name is Ian and he did the same race on PLC with Peter Howe!! Well that was that, we were invited back to Ian and Kay's lovely wide bodied barge "Bergerac" and royally entertained for the rest of the afternoon. Such a small world, and even more, they were due to have travelled home to Guernsey but the ferry was cancelled due to bad weather so decided to stay an extra day!! Things like this and people are what help to make cruising so special.

7th July - The Tour de France comes through Lyvet. A 30 float procession came through first, then the first 4 riders, followed by the support teams and then the actual racers, who took all of 30 seconds to come through.

While in Dinan we also dinghied and cycled along the river to Dinan, about 3 miles away. This is an old fortified town, set on a steep hill and full of Breton character - and characters!! Despite being in the back of beyond we managed to watch the F1 British Grand Prix and see Lewis win in big style in the rain. Our mate from the local bar at Lyvet Mr Hunt (we never did find out his first name) knew we wanted to watch the race and knew we were going to Dinan. Dawn the Prawn had been texting us with updates of the early laps, but as we walked past a bar on the quay at Dinan, Mr Hunt came running out and told us the race was on inside - sorted!!! Here are a few shots of Dinan:

8th July - Lyvet to Plouer. Leaving Lyvet at 1100 for the short sail down river to Plouer, we managed to run aground just outside the lock (see previous pictures) and frighten Sharon pooless!! She had visions of being stranded and leaning over on our side as we did in Fishbourne with Bob & Irena!! I knew it was a rising tide so there was never an issue, we just ploughed our very own path through the soft mud until we found some slightly deeper water!! Our echo sounder had read zero all the time we were in Lyvet but we thought this was due to the cloudy water - now we knew it was telling the truth..... Plouer was a lovely quiet place, but had a supermarket, so we cycled to it and topped up with fresh supplies, but the effort meant we ate out for both lunch and dinner that day!!

10th July - we slipped our berth at Plouer and headed down river to a little town called St Suliac. No marina here but we managed to find a free buoy and spent a free night here. Dinghied ashore to sample the simple delights of a Breton village.

11th July - we left St Suliac and headed down river to the barrage and got an early lock through to the sea again, then went in through the big sea lock to berth in Bassin Vauban for the Bastille Day celebrations.

12th to 17th July - We are now back to where we last logged some words in Bassin Vauban at St Malo, but now you get the pictures as well!! First off, here is Steve's p3n1s extension "Footsy":

A great boat and a pair of great guys - it was our pleasure to meet you both. I'm now in touch with Brian by email and Skype so no doubt we shall share some more drinks before the summer is over!!

As part of the Bastille Day celebrations there is always a warship or large fishing boat on display in the harbour. This year it was the French destroyer La Motte Picquet and we had a tour round it, with not many areas left out.

17th July 2008 - St Malo but heading west today!!

Haven't managed to get much of an internet connection lately, so just a brief update and we will upload more when we get a solid connection and some time.

We enjoyed the Bastille Day fireworks - it's so busy in St Malo for their National Day but everyone has a good time and no yobbish behaviour...apart from the British visitors!! This year they were set off at 23:00 from one of the small islands off St Malo, so the ramparts were the place to be - we had a superb view of the floodlighting of the castle and all the fireworks, culminating in a massive explosion of colour and noise at 23:30. Then we had to find our way back to a bar of course and help the nationals celebrate!!

We met a couple of Guernsey guys, cruising on a rather nice Sunseeker Predator 52 - Steve the owner and Brian his crew - who we ended up spending a bit of time with in various bars. Steve could be Jack Rolfe from Howards Way and played the part well!! It was great to meet you guys and be invited aboard your p3n1s extension for drinks!! Hope to catch up with you again during the summer.

Today we are off to anchor at Erquy for lunch, then on to Dahouet for a couple of nights. From there it's Binic, St Quay Portieux and finally Paimpol. We will leave the boat there and pop home via train to St Malo and a ferry to see everyone, but especially Natalie and her son Liam, who should have popped his head out by then......

If we get an internet connection during the next week we will put up the photos of the last 3 weeks - promise!! Take care all x

11th July 2008 - Bassin Vauban, St Malo, France

Well, our 10 days up the River Rance have ended and what a lovely time that was. It is just so picturesque and laid back, with pretty little villages of granite built houses tumbling down narrow flower lined streets, cozy bars with real French people in them, time just stood still while we took it all in and enjoyed ourselves exploring.

Today we returned to St Malo so we could get a good berth in Bassin Vauban for the Bastille Day fireworks on 14th. There is a folk festival going on all week so plenty to see and do. If I get bored I will upload the words and pictures from the last 10 days!!

We are still getting the odd showers of warm rain, interspersed with longer periods of sunshine, but at least we haven't seen the extremes you have in the UK.

Important news:

Sadie had her 22nd birthday and her 20 week scan a few days ago and all is OK. We are really happy for you Sadie x

Liam's head is engaged, so Natalie is on her countdown now, 23rd is looking good.... We plan to come to UK on 25th and see you all on 27th, but will amend this if you drop early!! Do text me when you start.....

Lisa passed her Certificate of School Business Management exams and has secured a new job in September where she will be no 3 in the school and a Governor. Well done Sis x

Good luck to Mick & Jean and Jeni & Clive who embark on a cruise to Zebrugge on a cruise liner today - lets hope the weather is kind to you - or the drinks are free if it blows up!!

Happy birthday to Jeni and Clive for last week - must be nearing a century between you now.....

Happy birthday to Alison Tandy on 14th x x

1st July 2008 - St Malo, France

Decided to archive June's logbook page as it is getting rather long!! You can find updates from the last few days and the rest of our June stories via the link on the left.

Today was sunny as you like, despite a forecast for being overcast with a chance of showers. We took advantage of this to visit the market at San Servan, both in the market square and under cover. This was a wonderful place, with many different stalls selling just about anything you could think of. Locals were obviously loyal to stallholders, queuing up for vegetables, meat and bread from their favourites!! Thinking this meant the longest queues were for the best produce at the best prices, we also joined the queues and bought some fresh langoustines for a starter tonight and a couple of fillets of a white, round fish similar looking to Pollack for the main event. With a selection of fresh vegetables and salad plkus some fresh french bread we are in for a treat!!

The rest of the day has been spent relaxing around the boat and harbour, with a long, lazy lunch at the beach cafe watching the local children enjoying the weather. Here is a view of the Intra Muros from our walk up to the market, looking over the marina:

Tomorrow we have an early start to get through the barrage across the River Rance  at the 10:00 opening. We will then carry the flood tide up to the Chatelier lock and moor the boat there for a few days, exploring further up river as far as Dinan by dinghy as our air draft is too much to get under some power lines just beyond Chatelier. When we leave Chatelier later in the week (or early next week, who knows!!) we will cruise slowly back towards the barrage - a whole 8.3 miles - anchoring wherever takes our fancy. Our outline plan is to be back in St Malo around 10th or 11th so we get a decent berth in the Bassin Vauban right next to the Intra Muros for the Bastille Day celebrations on the 14th July. We hope to see some familiar faces there when the JOG race comes in on 13th...

As we won't be able to get any Internet connection for a week or so, some early mentions for important people:

Today - happy birthday La La La Lacomber (Helen as some may know her, loopy La La to others!!). Hope you have a fab day and continue to look younger than your tender years!! Also today is Kelly Payne's birthday, mother of our grandaughter Grace. Happy birthday to you Kelly, hope it's a good one. Give our best wishes and love to Grace x

4th July - Mum and Dad Fullick will have been married for (I think) 55 years on this day - happy anniversary Mum & Dad, hope your holiday was a good one and look forward to seeing you soon. Wll give you a call one day to catch up.

8th July - Happy 22nd birthday Sadie!! The cards in the post, we drank your present for you as your pregnancy means you couldn't drink it yourself!!! Hope all is well with baby Flump and see you at the end of July x x x x x x

Time to start cooking the seafood extravaganza now, so that's all from Planet Isosceles for a while. Keep 'em peeled for future updates!!

30th June 2008 - St Malo, France

Decided to stay on for another couple of days so we can go to the market on Tuesday for fresh provisions. We spent the day wandering around the Intra Muros and shopping. Sharon is very proud of her new handbag... Some pic's as we wandered:

29th June 2008 - St Malo, France

A quiet day for us following our first real arguement - well, more of a non-arguement and steely silence!! Sharon stayed in bed all day, I went cycling round St Malo, Solidor and San Servan. All OK again later on - we both need to try harder at times!!!

28th June 2008 - St Malo, France

Happy 65th wedding anniversary Mom & Pop Baker - we hear that a well deserved letter from the Queen arrived today to recognise this significant event. Sorry we can't be at today's party, but we will be there in about 4 weeks so you will just have to do it all again!! We will raise a glass to you at an appropriate time later on. Hope you have a lovely day with the family - tell them all that we miss them and are looking forward to seeing them all at the end of July.

Take a look at our Contact Us page for details of our new SIM4Travel number - cheap calling and texting for you, free reception for us!! No multimedia capabilities yet though :-(

It's Saturday (or Samedi as we now know it) and St Malo is starting to come alive. There is a celebration of the velocipede in the marina car park today - bikes from the very beginning up to modern day bikes are being exhibited, demonstrated and then ridden by volunteers from the audience. Look what we saw as we walked round Solidor for lunch:

In Solidor itself there was a day called "Solidor en Peinture" where all the local artists have gathered and are painting scenes of Solidor to be judged in various categories later on today and tomorrow. Wandering amongst the artists it was apparant that there were some very talented people here, and some very different interpretations of the scenery in terms of genre, materials, style etc, resulting in a mixture of formal scenes, splattered canvasses with no immediately apparant reasoning and all works inbetween.

In the evening we went into the Intra Muros to eat some moules et frites, washed down with local Chardonnay & followed by a Calvados and a Grand Cafe. The clouds finally lifted and it became sunny again, and a pleasant evening resulted. Gravitating to our usual bar "Le Shamrock" - typical really considering all the time we wqere moored at Shamrock Quay!!! - we met a lady called Fran and her husband. Turns out she is a skipper of the Condor fast ferry from Poole!!! Only 31 and she was promoted to this position of quite some responsibility 18 months ago - well done Fran for showing what the girls can do!!

27th June 2008 - St Malo, France

A welcome shower started our first full day in St Malo. This was followed by a more intensive exploration of San Servan, where we found the Commerces - shops - and made full use of them to stock up with food and the ever necessary wine!! I hadn't explored this far when I have been to St Malo before, so it was good for us both to be seeing things for the first time for a change. Lunch in a Mexican restaurant (very French - NOT!!) and then back to the boat for a bit of a clean up (it and us) and some dinner before wandering into the old city for the evening.

Dinner today was a home made Tartiflette - a Haute-Savoie dish of potatoes layered with onions, garlic, cream, white wine and a wonderful cheese called Reblochon which comes from the mountains where we will be working this winter. Shove it in the oven for an hour, make up a simple salad using the fresh salad ingredients from the French market, slice the baguette and life doesn't get much better than that!!! How about these for spring onions - and less than £1.00...

The day had been overcast and now we had something that was not exactly rain, just some warm water being gently sprinkled at us for a short while as we walked into town.

Angela & Phil - we found the pub with the dolls this time!! This bar has been decorated by it's family owners since 1642 and is a museum of old dolls. Even the beer pump handles are legs or arms from dolls!! The photo's aren't up to much but should give you a flavour....

From there we managed to find the other bar we normally frequent in the tangled backstreets of St Malo and made new friends yet again, as it seems to attract ex-pat UK people - something to do with serving the best pint of Guinness in St Malo I think.... After exchanging stories and drinking one or two glasses of Pastis we headed back to Isosceles for a good nights sleep, ferries permitting!!

26th June 2008 - St Helier to St Malo, France

An early start today, with the cill opening at 09:15 and we need all the tide we can get in our favour for the 5-7 hour trip to St Malo. We left as planned and were the second boat out of the marina, but a steady stream of boats behind us all seemed to have the same idea and set identical courses for the St Malo area!!

The wind was fair for a change to start with so we were able to enjoy a good sail until around 14:00 when it turned with the tide and started to head us a bit, so we ended up motorsailing yet again - seems to be our luck so far!! However this pailed into insignificance when we had 2 dolphins appear and start riding our bow wave. I even managed to get pictures of them this time. Sharon cried as it was so touching for her - the first time of many she will witness this behaviour on our travels.

Passing between Maitress Isle on The Minquiers (complete with the most southerly toilet in the UK) and Grand Isle of the Iles Chaussey was an amazing experience - in the middle of nowhere we were surrounded by jagged granite with tiny houses perched on top of them, formerly home to granite workers but now fishermens cottages or holiday homes for Channel Islands people.

We arrived at St Malo at 16:45 so the trip was a bit slower than anticipated, mainly because we kept sailing for an hour at just 2.9 knots to see if the wind would come back before accepting defeat and motorsailing. We moored in the Bas Sablons marina which is a mile or so walk away from the Intra Muros or Old City of St Malo, with our berth on the end of B pontoon being right next to the ferry terminal providing us with entertainment day and night - and noise & wash!!

After a lovely meal of chicken breast, marinated in a special blend of spices and wrapped in smoked bacon, served on a bed of coriander pesto flavoured tagliatell (another Fat Buoy success...) the evening was spent walking around San Servain and Solidor which are the local parts of St Malo this side of town, as we were too knackered to walk to the Intra Muros tonight!! That can wait until tomorrow.

25th June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

Thanks for a great evening yesterday Rupert, Sue and Greg (aka Rupert II). We were made to feel like part of your family rather than visitors to Shadingfield and are looking forward to coffee and twirly cakes soon.... From L to R - Paul, Sue, Rupert & Sharon, Greg was behind the camera!! The lasagne was to die for and cream & ice cream with the fresh fruit salad was my idea of heaven!

Unfortunately that work thing got in the way for Rupert today, so no coffe and twirly things, but he brought our bag of washing down to us, washed, dried and folded to perfection. Thanks Rupert & Sue - what stars you have been!!

A day spent shopping, relaxing and preparing for our voyage to St Malo tomorrow. We have decided to pass between the Iles Chaussey and The Minquiers and head straight for St Malo rather than Granville, as there wouldn't be enough water at Granville to get inside over the cill, and with Westerly winds forecast an anchorage outside is not recommended. We hope to get to Granville as a short trip from St Malo in due course as it's not far away from there. We went to the cinema again in the evening and watched the new Angelina Jolie film "Wanted" - a superb film highly recommended if you haven't seen it. I won't spoil it.....

We hope very much to see you again at some stage.

24th June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

An early start for us today to take the bus to Bonne Nuit Bay for lunch, then a further bus round to Bouley Bay. When we got to Bonne Nuit we found it was pretty (if a bit smelly with the water treatment plant) but had just one cafe for eating lunch - so we decided to walk the 3.5 mile cliff path round to Bouley Bay rather than wait 1.5 hours for the next bus!! The scenery on the walk was amazing, including a falcon circling upwards on the thermals. As it happens, we arrived at Bouley Bay just after the bus, having taken just under 2 hours on the walk. A decent pub at Bouley meant a slightly later than planned lunch was enjoyed before getting the bus back to St Helier to get showered ready for dinner with Rupert & Sue tonight.

More mail arrived today thanks Rob & Di. And my pension has finally been bought, so the tax free lump sum hit the bank account today!! Secure funds for our trip!!

Here are some sights from the walk:

23rd June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

Today was our day for visiting the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (formerly Jersey Zoo) set up by the late Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) almost 50 years ago. Rather than being a zoo as such, it is a place where they maintain captive stocks of endangered species, breeding wherever possible and re-introducing them into their endemic environments. Visit www.durrell.org for more info, but Gerald's words from his mission statement say it all:

"We hope that there will still be fireflies and glow-worms at night to guide you and butterflies in the hedges and forests to greet you.

We hope that your dawns will have an orchestra of bird song and that the sound of their wings and the opalescence of their colouring will dazzle you.

We hope that there will still be the extraordinary varieties of creatures sharing the land of the planet with you to enchant you and enrich your lives as they have done for us.

We hope that you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world."

Enough sentiment for one day, here are the pictures!!

Now for a walk and something to eat. Laters all x

22nd June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

Think I missed reporting on a couple of very important events recently. Firstly Daniel has proposed to Michelle, who has accepted, so they are now engaged to be married. Congratulations to you both - we hope you will be very happy together. Then Sadie had a scan the other day and all is well with baby flump, who we can now confirm is a boy - great news for her football mad dad Owen. No names yet but the thought processes are in full flow. We are well pleased for you guys too and looking forward to seing him in late November.

French Grand Prix today - come on Lewis you can do it!!! We have identified a pub where the race will be on so are off soon to watch it. Everything is crossed - lets hope the forecast rain comes true and the front 10 have a smash at the first corner, leaving Lewis an easy win from 13th on the grid.....

Alison & Paul Tandy and their children Ross and Shaun are coming round to see us later on which we are looking forward to as we missed them last year when we came over.

We have decided to stay here until Thursday so we can see the north coast on Wednesday - Rozel Bay, Bouley Bay, Bonne Nuit Bay, Greve de Lecq and Plemont Bay shouldn't be missed. After that we will probably head for Granville via the Iles Chausey where we will se the most southerly toilet in the United Kingdom!!

Had lunch, seen the grand prix - our man mucked it up again finishing in 10th and moving down to 4th in the drivers championship. Still a lot of races to go but he has just made his job a lot harder. Lets hope the British GP in 2 weeks is his next win.........and the red cars crash out.....

Alison, Paul and the boys came round and we sat in the cockpit and caught up on the last 3 years. Paul did the ILEX walk yesterday - a 48.1 mile walk around the island starting at 03:00! To say the least he did well, but felt it today - well done mate!! During our chewing of the cud we realised that Sue (of Rupert & Sue fame) was Ross's first teacher at his primary school, where he is now head boy, shortly moving up to secondary school. What a very small world we live in. He says Sue is great and she says he is the best ever head boy so looks like they get on well to me! It was sunny again so here's a couple of pictures:

We had a great time guys, hope you did too. See you in Antigua for Xmas in a few years time....

21st June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

We caught the bus to the airport to meet up with Rupert & Sue and their son Greg to watch the qualifying - well done Lewis for 3rd but a nett 13th for the race tomorrow after the penalty for hitting Raikonnen 2 weeks ago. You have a real hard job to do tomorrow!! Almost as hard as the job the Cuddon-Large's have in clearing their front garden to create 2 parking spaces for Greg and Laura!!

Sue let us do our washing and fed us lunch then ran us back to the bay so we could watch the beach racing - thanks again Sue & Rupert - see you Tuesday evening for dinner! Various categories of bike from youngsters of 5 on 50cc bikes up to adults on big bikes, speedway bikes and cars without silencers on them race round oval circuits on the beach. This was a great spectacle but I forgot to take my camera :-( Unfortunately one of the bike riders hurt his leg and ended up in hospital, then one of the sppedway bikers had a bad fall and was stretchered off to the ambulance and taken away, so it ended 30 mins early, apart from that the event was well worth watching.

In teh evening we took a long walk and then ate at Pizza Express using a voucher I had for a free bottle of wine - a nice ending to a very nice day.

20th June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

More mail - this time letters posted yesterday by Victor - aka Uncle Robert!! - thank you very much!! Our new SIM4Travel card was in this lot, so we will put the new incoming number on the "Contact Us" page. This is cheaper for both us and you to call on, so feel free to call us on it at any time - only trouble is they don't have a partner on Jersey yet so it doesn't work here!! France is fully supported so it will be OK from Thursday onwards.

We bought a 5 day bus pass each so we can travel round the island at leisure and see the sights. Today we went to Gorey and looked at Mont Orgueil castle - probably the best preserved castle in the UK. We plan to visit the Jersey Zoo (Gerald Durrell's zoo saving endangered species from all round the world) on Monday and the north coast on Wednesday.

Later on we caught the bus round to St Aubins to meet up with Rupert & Sue for a meal at the Boat House, which was excellent. We were anxious to identify a venue that would have the qualifying on for the French Grand Prix this weekend, so when Rupert & Sue said to come to their house and watch it on their rather super Bang & Olufsen TV we gratefully accepted their offer!! And they gave us a lift back to the marina - what great friends they are!!

19th June 2008 - St Helier, Jersey

Lo and behold - the new parts for FiFi have arrived, less than 24 hours after being posted from the UK!!! Many thanks to the guys at A S Bikes for that - they fitted in minutes and FiFi is now a happy folder again!! After an enforced 7 day rest, she was raring to go, so Bob came off the back of the boat and all 4 of us headed round the vast sweep of St Aubins Bay to the drying harbour of St Aubin for a well earned rest stop with refreshments of the alcoholic type at the infamous "Old Court House Inn" made famous by John Nettles in his role of Bergerac which was filmed on the island and used the pub as his local. Sharon still prefers Howards Way but while in Jersey we won't admit to that in public...

After all this exercise we cooked a curry aboard then went to the pictures to see the latest Indianna Jones movie - well worth the time and I won't spoil it for you by telling you too much...just don't get bitten by the small scorpions!

We also arranged to meet Rupert & Sue for dinner tomorrow which will be nice - we are their official stalkers as we keep turning up after they emigrated from the UK 22 years ago.

18th June 2008 - St Peter Port to Jersey

We left Guernsey this morning and had a lively motorsail (yep - wind on the nose again!!) down to Jersey, passing by Sark for perhaps the last time - Au Revoir Sark. The conditions were lumpy to say the least, with spring tides running into a SW wind, producing a swell of around 2-3 metres with wind generated waves at a different angle on top. Many white horses due to the 18-27 knots of wind and we swallowed a fair few even hiding under the sprayhood!! However it was quite a fast passage and when we turned the corner at La Corbiere lighthouse everything calmed down and we enjoyed the final 5 miles into St Helier.

On arrival we had to wait outside for around 2 hours for the tide to come up enough for the cill to open, and it was a bit packed inside with a rally of a dozen boats from Parkeston Yacht Club in Poole, but we managed to raft alongside a Dufour 41 Magic Moments for the night. The harbourmaster told us that a lot of the rally were leaving tomorrow so we plan to move to an alongside berth tomorrow. At least we have electricity and the internet is available for free at the bus station!!

 We made contact with Allison & Paul and have made plans to meet up with them on Sunday. We also spoke with Sue Cuddon-Large and will be meeting up with her and Rupert at some stage in the next few days. A good long hot shower, some excellent chinese food and a couple of beers in a pub listening to live jazz rounded off a good day. Night night x.

17th June 2008 - St Peter Port, Guernsey

Our second parcel of mail arrived to day (thanks again Di)  but still no sign of the spare parts for FiFi the Folder. I have now asked for a second set to be sent on to Jersey and hope these ones arrive, otherwise it costs us £22 a night to wait here for them. We will be off to Jersey tomorrow for a week to 10 days.

Today is a frustrating one as we are moored outside the marina so without mains both laptop batteries went down quickly, so we ran the generator for 90 mins to give us some charge in the ships batteries and allow us to use the mains for the laptops. Unfortunately the wifi service was still not playing ball until just after we stopped the generator, so the batteries went flat again!

A trip ashore means I am sat in a restaurant called Riva typing this update, with the laptop plugged into their mains and using their free wifi service, having enjoyed some scallops on a bed of risotto and some local Rocquette cider - yum yum.

The rest of the day has been spent shopping, reading, watching the mayhem when the cill covered, doing weekly engine checks and working on this blog. Dinner tonight has been prepared and just needs warming through while the spaghetti cooks, so time to chill out and watch life go on.

Just walking up to the Guernsey Yacht Club for a few beers after dinner and a text message from Steph and Pete arrives - where are you we've just arrived!! We met up at the club and swapped experiences so far - they set off from Ramsgate a few days ago for a summer of cruising the Channel as far as Ushant then across to Falmouth and back by the end of August for a wedding in Scotland. Apart from some engine issues which should get sorted in Guernsey they are enjoying it so far! Good to see you guys, sorry we couldn't hang around any longer to share more time with you, but at least your hangovers will be of your own doing, not ours!!

16th June 2008 - St Peter Port

We left Sark early and motored back to St Peter Port to see if any mail had arrived..... Our first envelope of mail did (thanks Di) but no bits for FiFi. Another night in Guernsey then! En route we saw a puffin fly past with a fish in it's beak, plus a pair of bottle nosed dolphins only 20 feet away from us. Too slow to get pictures - next time I will ensure the camera is on deck before we set off.

After chilling and walking for most of the day, we met up with Steven and took ownership of the painted square of polished granite. You decide whether it is a picture of a man's head or something else....

After a few beers together with Steven and his daughter Emma swapping yarns and putting the world to rights, we had some really fresh fish and chips, said our goodbyes & thank yous  and retired to the boat for a nightcap from the vintage Calvados provided by Derek - thanks mate it's superb!!!

15th June 2008 - Derrible Bay, Sark

After a well deserved night's sleep, we started early and moved round to Derrible Bay and anchored. This bay is beautiful, with numerous caves surrounding it which are only accessible from the sea. We saw young seagulls on their nests, multi-coloured rocks, granite boulders the size of houses and fish swimming under us in the clear water as we explored by dinghy. Landing was a bit dodgy, but we managed to achieve it without getting wet and followed the zig zag path up the cliff to the top again. From here we had superb views of the bay and the local flora:

A stroll into town to make sure the rumour that Sark is still dry on a Sunday was true confirmed our worst suspicions, but a chance chat with a barman at a restaurant meant as long as we had some thing to eat we could also drink - they had stopped serving but 2 plates of nacho's & dips and we were in! After a couple we hjad a pleasant stroll back down the cliff and spent a quiet evening aboard listening to music, reading and just watching the world go by. An early night brought another fine day to an end.

14th June 2008 - Greve de la Ville, Sark

Pete and Dawn had a very early start - in fact their neighbours were outside arguing at 0130 so it was earlier than they anticipated!! Getting from Southampton to Weymouth in time for the 0630 ferry, they enjoyed a calm crossing to reach Guernsey at 0910 and we bought them a well deserved breakfast at the Boathouse cafe. We joined Sharon aboard Isosceles at 1000 where Dawn presented her with 2 litres of duty free gin - thanks Dawn & Pete!!! - and set off soon after for Sark. Rather than going all the way round Herm we decided to take the scenic route through the Percee Passage between Herm and Jethou - this is very rocky on both sides within 25 metres in places and we were at mid tide with a strong cross current - keeps the navigator on his toes!! Well worth the effort though as the views were great and Dawn got to see a lot more of the Channel Islands on her first visit here.

After rounding the north of Sark we lined up for Greve de la Ville and picked up a Sark Mooring buoy for the night - not bad value at £14 but absolutely no facilities.

The dinghy ride to the shore almost ended up in farce when the engine suddenly stopped and we slewed sideways into the swell and took aboard a bit of water - I had forgotten to turn on the fuel tap on the engine!! With the engine restarted we landed on the beach and compared wet feet and bottoms!! There is a long zig zag path up the cliffs to the plateau for the walk into town and this certainly took it's toll on us, so we were pleased that our first watering hole, the Mermaid Inn, was more or less at the top of the climb. Suitably refreshed we then toured the island having drinks and food at a few places and buying souveniers to take home.

Later on we gravitated to the Bel Air Inn for a second visit as it's at the top of the walk down to the small locals harbour of Le Creux and the commercial harbour at La Maseleine where Dawn & Pete's 1800 ferry would be departing from. We chatted with locals, who are all so friendly, and enjoyed the local beers but all too soon the time had come to walk down the path and see Dawn & Pete off.

Thanks for coming over guys, great to see you and you are welcome anytime you like. We won't mention the status of chief stalkers again....

After their ferry left Sharon's eyes were leaking and she felt deflated, so we wandered back up the hill to the Bel Air Inn again. Here we got talking to a group of 3 Guernsey people and a Sark man. Steven from Guernsey is a stone mason and makes all the headstones on Sark (plus most on Guernsey and Alderney), while his mate Colin is the Sark undertaker - you can imagine the conversation. Another local appeared wearing a T-shirt with an unusual design on it - from one perspective it was a man's head but from another it was a naked lady reclining on a rock. Steven said he had painted the original around 30 years ago on a square of polished granite which was in his workshop. Generous to a fault, he gave us his number and told us to call him on Monday and he would meet us in town and give us the tile!! A few more beers after the party had left for the theatre in the brand new Town Hall and we staggered down the zig zag again and made our way back to the boat for a quiet evening watching nature going on around us.

13th June 2008 - St Peter Port

A quiet day for us, shopping, checking for mail (no luck yet) and just chilling - well someone has to!!

12th June 2008 - St Peter Port, Guernsey

Another gloriously sunny day, but with a nice cooling breeze today. We are still waiting for our post to arrive, so if it's not here tomorrow we will have to pop back next week after spending the weekend on Sark - not exactly a hardship!!

Dawn & Pete have booked themselves onto the Weymouth - Guernsey ferry on Saturday to come and see us and sail across to Sark for the day. They are then getting the local ferry back to Guernsey and then the fast ferry to Weymouth so they can be home for Fathers Day - what stars!! Our first visitors.....

Here are a few shots of St Peter Port:

11th June 2008 - St Peter Port, Guernsey

Well I did eventually get some photo's uploaded - look a bit further down the page. Here is one of Natalie's 21st birthday at work:

Mayhem today when the cill covered with loads of new arrivals and some very close calls - quite normal for St Peter Port!! So far we still are not rafted and are enjoying the sun and meeting new people. A Moody 36 has just arrived on the other side of the pontoon so we are getting to know our new neighbours. Turns out their previous boat was a Moody 37 like Isosceles and it too was struck by lightening some while back - too spooky for words....

A lazy day today I suspect, perhaps a cycle ride later on if FiFi's new shock absorber has arrived in today's post. Otherwise I feel a walk coming on and perhaps lunch on the beach. It's hard, but someone's got to do it!!

We downloaded Skype today and bought a headset, so if you have Skype available we can now talk to you for free whenever we are online. Let me know your Skype ID or Skype me on paulonisosceles and lets talk - you know it makes sense!!!

Roast pork is ready now so back to the galley for the gravy and vegetables - no rest for the retired.....

10th June 2008 - St Peter Port, Guernsey

Another cloudless sunny day and free WiFi in the harbour!!! Catching up with email and this site, buying and fitting the new battery terminals, collecting some mail - what a busy day - we will have earned them sun-downers. Sharon even met someone who was a freehold tenant of the Calthorpe Estate where she used to be PA to the head honcho, so swapped stories with him in her Brummie twanggg.

Happy birthday Pudsey for tomorrow mate x And also Kath Jupp-Shurrock xx

9th June 2008 - Alderney to St Peter Port, Guernsey

Woke up today to get ready for our sail to Guernsey only to find that the batteries were not holding their charge. This wasn't totally unexpected as we had taken a gamble by keeping 2 of the 3 originals when they went down before, so 3 new batteries was the order of the day. We went ashore to do the washing and have an early lunch, and then £300 later we were the proud owners of 3 new leisure batteries which were also delivered to the boat by the very nice man from Mainbrayce Chandlery. I then had 3 very heavy batteries to disconnect & remove from underneath our bed, and 3 equally heavy new batteries to install, all in temperatures reaching into the late 20's. A lot of sweating and swearing ensued, especially when 2 of the 3 positive terminal connectors sheared off! These were bought from a motor factors in Southampton and are built out of horrible soft sh*t - so don't use them!! Unfortunately Mainbrayce had run out so I had to drill holes in the broken ones and use a nut and bolt temporarily to hold the various terminal cables on until we get to Guernsey.

Only an hour later than planned we set sail down the Swinge taking full advantage of the tide to shove us South West towards Guernsey. The strategy worked wonderfuly, but the wind at 1.9 to 2.6 knots refused to play ball, so sunbathing while our trusty autopilot "Ray Theon" helmed the boat under engine was undertaken. We arrived in St Peter Port at the same time as 8 or 10 other boats, most of whom we had met in Cherbourg. It was low tide there so a meal on board and some reading occupied the 2 hours we had to wait until there was sufficient water to get over the cill into Victoria Marina for our planned 5 day stay. A well executed (even tho I say so myself) handbrake turn saw us berthed alongside on our preferred port side to (what did happen to port side 1????) with no-one rafted on us - quite a rarity in Victoria Marina for those of you who know the place! That''s the benefit of mid week cruising and our plan is to be as far from marinas at weekends as we can be.

A stroll, a couple of nightcaps and a non-rolly night was enjoyed........

7th & 8th June - Alderney

We moved the boat in a fair bit after some racers left, then cycled around the Northern half of the island on Saturday in brilliant susnhine (and watched the Canadian F1 Grand Prix qualifying in the pub!!) and cycled the Southern half on Sunday (and watched the race in the pub - what on earth was Lewis thinking of??) so rather than bore you with words, here are some pictures:

Our main battery bank failed on us today - when we woke up the voltage was down from 12V to 10V and despite running the generator (no shore power here you know!!) for an hour and a half we didn't know if they would go down again. The fridge was even turned off for the night - no cold beer for breakfast tomorrow!!

Poor FiFi the folder also has a problem - her fat bottomed rider has managed to snap her rear shock absorber in half. A quick call to A. S. Bikes who made her and a new one FOC is on it's way to Guernsey for when we get there. That's what I call service - if you want a folding bike with front and rear suspension go here.

6th June 2008 - Cherbourg to Alderney

After a lazy breakfast and an early lunch we set sail from Cherbourg into strong headwinds from the NW - and of course our initial 11 miles was NW, so a bit of motorsailing and a bit of that zig zag stuff saw us through the first 2 hours. When we rounded Cap Brefort and turned West we hoped the wind would stay where it was - but oh no, it went W too so we continued to tack/motorsail all the way to Alderney!! At least it was sunny and dry...

Braye was quite full with 2 separate yacht races having turned up, so we ended up on a buoy near the end of the breakwater and as a result rolled like bitches that first night. We pumped up Obtuse (as our  dinghy has been christened) and went ashore for a few celebratory drinks with our old mates Graham and Pat Ball, ending up in the First and Last for a super meal with Rita. Even the persistant rolling couldn't stop us from faling asleep after that lot, although the dawn did come a lot earlier than it has for a few days!

5th June 2008 - Cherbourg

Would have been Andrew Needham's 49th birthday today - you were in our thoughts mate and a drink was dedicated to you at the yacht club, rest in peace.

Another day of doing little jobs, such as visiting the supermarket for some shopping including a new rear tyre for Bob the bike whose current one is rotting away in the sunshine and salt water atmosphere. With a new tyre and all his moving bits cleaned and greased he is back to full health and looking forward to cycling round Alderney with FiFi over the weekend. It was meant to be cloudy today but started off really sunny. Some clouds did set in but at 2030 BST as I type this it's still sunny outside and warm.

We plan to leave Friday morning and be in Alderney for lunchtime, spending 3 days there. Internet access on Alderney is a bit behind but they do have 4 places where it is possible to get on line, so we hope to keep the updates coming.

Another early night for us both tonight I think.

Also happy birthday Debs M-C for today x

4th June 2008 - Cherbourg

A wierd nights sleep for us both, with vivid dreams and many an early hours awakening, followed by bouts of deep snoring sleep. We did finally get up and tried to pay the Capitainerie but they were closed for the infamous French lunch hour (2 hours long) so when in France...... A large plate of moules and frites later the office was open, we completed arrival proceedures and booked ourselves in for 3 nights - plus got some jetons (tokens) for the douche (shower) so we could rinse the salt off ourselves.

A walk in the afternoon followed by a long cycle ride around to Octeville Plage rounded off lovely sunny arrival day. Sharon used some of our illegally imported meat, eggs and cheese to cook up "Leftovers a la Shazza" and another walk into town for a sundowner saw us heading back to the boat for an early night. Initial attempts at getting Internet access through the Netabord service were frustrating and I gave up and surprised myself by going to bed at Den & Ang time - 2130 BST - and not surfacing again until 0900 next day! Sharon tried to get into French TV but gave up and read until the glass was empty...

Happy anniversary Dave & Jayne x x x

3rd June 2008 - Yarmouth to Cherbourg

Well the day dawned as predicted - with horizontal rain and minimal visibility - but we had decided this was the day to go across to Cherbourg, so at 10:15 we untied and pointed Isosceles West towards the Needles. Phone calls and text enquiries both told us that Cherbourg was open after the recent blockades by French fishermen, but we still thought we may get there and not be able to go in, leaving an uphill battle to get to Alderney against the tide, but the sighs were all positive and in agreement, so at 11:15 we turned Isosceles South and set course 180 degrees for Cherbourg.

We had a full tide under us and made really good time, with sailing speeds of 6.5 to 8.9 knots, but as a result my tidal calculations appeared to be out - we had arrived too early and the East going tide hadn't taken effect yet! Hardening up increased the apparant wind and gave us the extra few knots required to get inshore as the tide turned and sluiced us straight into the West entrance at exactly the predicted arrival time of 21:00! Despite an "Andy Powell Moment" mid channel when a wet one swept our decks and I realised (due to waking up wearing a gallon or 2 of cold, wet English Channel) that the saloon hatch wasn't closed properly, the crossing was uneventful, with a few ships and yachts but no close calls. The wind held until we were 2 hours out and then filled in again with a sea breeze, so overall it was a good crossing, although neither of us had our sealegs due to too many weeks of hard partying....

Best news of all came as we lined up for our berth - they have changed those short, sinkable pontoon fingers with proper ones, all of 10m long too!! They still have loops on the end but at least the midships line ties off to a cleat now, so all arrival nightmares have been fixed!! Well done our French mates!!

20 minutes after tying up we were heading for a brasserie for some French food and 1.5 litres of wine. Bed followed very soon afterwards. Night Night all.

2nd June 2008 - Yarmouth

After a good night's sleep we decided to have a day off and recover... Phil & Ashley came round on their RIB after a charter, and we also saw Ben & Suzie James on Goldcrest, still here after entertaining their 7 grandchildren during the Yarmouth Old Gaffers weekend! Sharon took advantage of the launderette facilities so we set of tomorrow with no dirty washing. I took the dinghy for a spin up the river to develop my grockle-ness as a sightseer. Lunch defeated us so we are relaxing and off for a walk soon.

We are both totally overwhelmed with our own emotions at having finally done it, but even more so at the wonderful friends and family we have experienced in recent days. Everyone has done us proud and we love you all. July can't come quick enough so we can meet up and swap stories. Nats Pee won the prize for the best card!!

That's enough for today - Sharon's making my sleeve wet with her tears of joy again!!

1st June 2008

Well the day has finally dawned and it is time for us to set sail into the wild blue yonder. Our friends are all here to wave us off and there are 4 very wet eyes on Isosceles. 1100 and the ropes came off and we motored down river, accompanied by Ian on Caro.

Arms waving everywhere and best wishes abounded. Just down the river was Roy, Dave & Chrissy at Ocean Quay, then Sheila & Tony at Ocean Village. A large banner on the sewage jetty pronounced "Bon Voyage The Fullicks" from Dawn, Pete, Helen and Will - the paint was only applied at 0015 this morning!! They had shot round after we left the marina and got ahead of us to put the banner up. Don't know if the police car in the background was coming to remove them......

Text messages were coming and going like fury, but one was from Jeni & Clive who had managed to moor at the Cowes Corinthian jetty and invited us alongside for a beer. Would have been rude to refuse, so we pointed Isosceles towards Cowes and joined them (after checking Osbourne Bay for the Aussies - AKA Ben & FiFi on Silk Sheets. A strange call from Pete (AKA Dancing Dossett) was explained around 3 pints later when Dawn, Pete, Helen and Will turned up!! They had caught the ferry across and tried every pub down the High Street looking for us...... Thanks guys for all the effort you put in for us.

It was finally time to leave the party and get to Yarmouth, where we enjoyed a superb meal at "On The Rocks" with Sam, Phil & Ashley - thanks guys for a great evening. I'm sure I was snoring before my head even hit the pillow.

31st May 2008

Hangover or what!! A very slow start to the day but then it was time to do the "what made you bad can make you good" thing so the beer barrel was filled up, the BBQs lit and the next party started!! Around 30 of us enjoyed an open air shindig and then moved on to the Waterfront again to see Steeley Scam playing. Then again it was back to Isosceles for some more....... Thanks to all who came and helped us enjoy a real good sending off party.

Special mention for Ed and Karen (also known as Judith......) Essery. Some while ago Edward Lear wrote these famous words at the start of a poem "The owl and the pussy cat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat. They took some honey and plenty of money, wrapped up in a £5 note". Well Ed sent us an email recently with a modified version of the poem with Isosceles and our trip in mind, then today they turned up with a present for us - a jar of honey (Tesco Finest no less), with a bag of money and all wrapped up in a £5 note!!! Thanks a lot guys, we will treasure it! Here is a picture - hope you can make it out:

30th May 2008

Back in Southampton for our leaving party tonight in the Waterfront Bar. 40 code flags joined together in the correct order to dress the boat overall, with flashing lights for night time. Sharon is decorating the bar as I write this and our first arrivals are imminent. Here's looking forward to the hangover tomorrow.....

Well what a party that was!! Andy & Andy did us proud with the music, Bernie & Kath spoilt us rotten with the food and everyone had a great time. Jeni even wrote a song for us and performed it live! 5 of our Visually Impaired friends turned up with Sheila to make the evening even more special - thanks guys!! The hard core moved back to our boat around 0130 and partied on with more music courtesy of Andy & Clive until 0430......