Category: England (Page 1 of 2)

Trips in England

Battleships to Salcombe, via the pub

October 28, 2024 / fiandadrian

Last time we had been engine testing and exploring some of the Cornish coast. The time had come to use the remainder of the season to head south to France. First we wanted to visit the Channel Islands. We had ‘visited’ Sark, one of the Channel Islands, during Covid, but had not been able to go ashore or visit any of the other islands.

Tides are everything in this area and we could only leave Penryn around high tide (given that Away sits in the mud here until the high water comes in) which wasn’t the best time to head along the coast as the current would be pushing against us. Therefore, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to visit the often recommended Pandora Inn for dinner before catching the tide along the coast the next morning.

Bernie was so popular at the pub, while Adrian was ordering at the bar, a fellow asked Fi if he could breed with him. After a pause, Fi realised he was wanting puppies with his own springer spaniel, who incidentally was a boy. So after Fi explained that despite his feminine looks, he’s a boy as well, but has had the chop chop, we all had a laugh about spaniel antics, and he was on his way, perhaps to harass other pretty springer owners.

The next day, sailing along the coast, we passed Plymouth which has a big naval presence and a live firing range just offshore. A German warship announced it was about to start firing as we passed but we didn’t see any explosions.

Lots of big grey boats in this area using their serious voices on the radio. This is the HMS St Albans.

It had been suggested that ‘If you want to visit Plymouth, go the the River Yealm and take a taxi’. Indeed the Yealm was another delightfully protected river along this stretch of coast. Strong tidal currents and range meant mooring buoys and mid stream pontoons are the normal fare. There was even a sand bar across the river entrance to remind us of home. The channel is so hidden in the plethora of moored boats, we were motoring slowly along following the “water” behind a row boat who was looking quizzically at us as we edged closer and closer to the shallows. Realising, Fi pointed out the port marker, and a quick turn, and a laugh and head shake from the rower, Away was back on the correct track. I guess they see that a lot here.

Away tied up to the visitors pontoon. We missed the note about which way to point.

We take the dinghy over to the harbour office pontoon, for our little wander through town and to give Bernie a much needed walk. Before we knew it we were at the first pub the “Dolphin Inn” eating yet another pub meal with a pint.

Not content that we had properly “earned” our pub meal and pint, we walked the long way around, to yet another pub, called “The Swan Inn” where we felt perhaps we could earn another pint.

Hmm, we walked across there only ten minutes ago.

And then finally, we felt we better earn that pint and walk to the third pub the “Ship Inn” for the final pint of the day before we then earned that pint, walking the long way back around because by this time the tide had come in and we were cut off – from walking. Not beer.

They even put cocktail umbrellas in our pints at this pub…

Bernie found a woodland area that was looked after by locals and tried to make us chase squirrels. We wandered through the streets. Many of the cottages had been replaced with modern glass boxes that would look at home in Sydney’s harbour suburbs. Like many of the Cornish seaside villages we’d visited, so many properties are now holidays homes or holiday lets. It seemed like every second property had a key box outside.

Feeling a little more confident as to where the channel is in the River Yealm, and also about how the tide flows, we left at a reasonable time in the morning after a couple of days enjoying the serenity. The Yealm is so packed with moored boats, and the tide runs so fast, they have some tips and tricks in their cruising guide as to how to avoid collisions.

Next stop along the coast was Salcombe. From Salcombe it would be a doable day hop across the channel to the Channel Islands.

We sailed the 4 or so hours over to Salcombe, and came through the tight channel that denotes the “deep” water to the west of yet another giant sandbar that crosses the harbour entrance, and were promptly met with the harbour master who just said “how can we help you?” – whilst this greeting was not what we expected, we simply said we needed water and a mooring place, and were helpfully guided to both.

Pina Colada in the sun in Salcombe. Almost like we had made it to the Mediterranean after all

Houses in Salcombe are coloured his/hers for simplicity.

Salcombe is a very pretty place, and after a few days, which included taking the bus to the vets for Bernie’s annual shots, we were looking at a good weather window to make the channel crossing.

We all got some R & R before the big crossing

We were up well before sunrise to make sure we used all the daylight for the trip across the Channel.

Next time we finally get to visit the Channel Islands!

A better kind of normal

September 15, 2024 / fiandadrian

If you managed to read to the end of the previous blog, you would have noted that the kind Volvo people told us not to start our engine, and that they would come and tow us from the Helford River where we were anchored just south from Falmouth. Something was dreadfully wrong with our engine again.

We spent another couple of days on anchor in Helford, enjoying the area, waiting for our lift.

On the Monday (22nd July) they came, and we tried out our still in original packaging tow line, lifted anchor and were towed from Helford up to Penryn, which is up the river from Falmouth. It was a strange feeling. Obviously to all observing, we were being towed, to be honest it was a little embarrassing, but I guess it happens.

The fellows from FYB Marine here to help us.

And here in our berth. This is low tide, we came in at high tide when there was actual water.

Towed up to Penryn, we settled into our berth which I found out later is the “very broken boat” berth. We discussed the ins and outs of what would happen, and agreed that getting a whole new engine was the best way to go. We had to get a new gearbox anyway as Volvo had recalled ours, and clearly our engine was pretty upset given the oil level was now about 20cm above max and looking like a lovely mixture of coolant, oil and seawater – and we hadn’t even switched it on. For peace of mind, new engine.

Begin the cardboarding of the interal structures in Away for protection, discussing how to get the old one out, ordering of new lifts and things for the yard, discussions about aluminium boats and insulating electricity, discussions with Garcia, and eventually, the fateful day where we leave the yard and have some time in a hotel in town. Feeling confident, its best we leave the experts to do what they do. I know I would be bothering them asking a million questions, so I’m happy to let them get on with it.

We took a trip one day down to Porthleven which was beautiful.

We spot our shining new engine on the test bed.

And go for a walk with Falmouth uncovered for an evening of ghost stories.

From the local pub we can see Away in the mud.

We decided to try our hand at some art while we waited for the new engine to be installed.

A few days later, we are invited back to Away, happily humming with the sound of her new Volvo Penta D275. Complete with an extra temperature sensor.

Off we go to commission the new engine which involves monitoring speed and revs, getting it up to the highest revs and checking temperatures and for leaks etc.

Going back to our berth from trying out the engine all day was a gorgeous and relaxing afternoon.

All seems well. We do some more sea trials and the optimism starts to creep in again. We are all feeling a lot more comfortable, the engine sounds brilliant and the new gearbox is a lot quieter.

So we went sailing on someone elses boat… Actually we were invited to go out racing for Falmouth Week in the Champagne Race. We came third in that, and our friends came second overall for the week. It was a fun day in the sun!

Here we are with the captain. We were being serious racers I promise.

The previous 2 days racing for the team had been a bit sporty, but happily when we went, it was perfect.

As our confidence grows, we take a trip over to Fowey in Away (pronounced “Foy“) and enjoy the local sights and sounds.

Pretty place, and some great summer weather!

And as I type this, we are finalising the collection of various packages, planning a good clean of Away, and looking at weather windows to finally get on and do what we do.

We want to find out what happened to the old engine. No one seems to know. Not the 5 engineers we have spoken to, not Volvo, not us. There are many theories being banded about, but none of them quite fit. What we do know is we are very happy with this better kind of normal we find ourselves in. The engine does sound overall better.

From Guinnessland to Cream Teas

July 30, 2024 / fiandadrian

We arrived in Guninessland and did some touring around Belfast. We were waiting for a half decent weather window to head south, but apparently this time of year everyone heads north, according to the wind anyway. After Glenarm we sailed south to Bangor, which is an excellent and safe marina to visit Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was all big ships, big cities and black cabs.

Bernie checking out the dry dock in the middle of Belfast. We need antifoul soon right mum?

Finding cute laneways and historic pubs in Belfast was fun.

And what is not to love about live Irish music?

We have our own Titanic “King of the World” moment at the Titanic museum.

And it was so cool to think that the Titanic was launched from just here. Amazing.

While we were waiting for the wind to be our friend, we decided to hire a car and head to Derry where we would have liked to have sailed to, but… sailing timings don’t always work.

We saw the murals accidentally. I’d wanted to go to the cemetery to see if I could find relatives, and to walk back to town, we walked back right through the middle of Bogside which is where a lot of the “Troubles” occurred.

The cemetery where I looked for McCarron’s (my birth name). I think I found some relations but only my Aunty Jean will know for sure.

We went on a walking tour of Derry and now I’m keen to watch the rest of Derry Girls for sure. What a beautiful place full of history. I’d go back.

We tried to see the Giant’s Causeway after we left Derry, but it was absolutely packed with tourists, so we saw this castle instead. Bernie was intrigued.

Finally, we get the weather to head on down to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery) which is right near Dublin and where we would pick up our guest Ryan, Adrian’s son!

The lifeboat had a shout to help someone with a lobster pot wrapped around their prop.

The sun is shining and we are sailing along.

The sleepiest of sailors. Someone better tell him to turn his blanket over to the plain blue side as we are heading out of the UK now. Arriving near Dublin very soon!

We had to wait outside in the harbour for a while to let 2 big ships cross our path before getting in. This is Dublin from the bay.

And then, Ryan arrives! No jet lag here, nope!

So, again the weather decided to favour those heading north, but no matter as it meant we could explore the Guinness Factory, Temple Bar, general Dubliness etc.

We visit the Guinness Factory and I guess I look like a nice person who should take a photo of a million German football fans.

Guinness is mostly water I learned. Its also DELICIOUS.

And I made the boys come out to see Riverdance. I cried almost the entire time. It was so fantastic – I used to do a little Irish Dancing and I just love it.

Whilst the winds were more favourable for heading north, we did have some nice weather and decided to take Ryan out for a test sail. He did an excellent job helming upwind for a while, getting his sea legs.

Test sail check! Look at that confidence.

Adrian and Ryan take a trip north to show Ryan a bit of Northern Ireland.

The Dark Hedges from Game of Thrones fame.

And Adrian finally gets to see the Giant’s Causeway!

The perfect day for it. I stayed at home as I have been there before, and I could just do… at home things.

The next day, the winds decided to turn, and we could head south, stopping overnight in Arklow, then on to Kilmore Quay for a few days.

A very early start was required to get the right tides from Arklow so I think we were there for like 10 hours.

But alas, whilst we got the tides, the winds died to less than predicted so we had to motor for a little while.

We found great coffee in Kilmore Quay right near the marina.

And a most excellent beach. Although I felt compelled to pick up the ridiculous amount of rubbish (to the left of me). Also, Bernie forgot who his owner was and ran off to another lady so there was a lot of running and shouting at the deaf spaniel. Quite an exciting beach in the end.

After all this beautiful weather and beach walking, we decided England was calling and we should push off and do a decent passage down to the Scilly Isles. I had been to the islands previously on the ferry, and I had also tacked up and down near them when I did the Fastnet last year, but had never sailed here so it was a real treat to get into the islands and anchor up. Not so much of a treat tacking for about 10 hours though. We called it, and put the big metal sail on to get in before Adrian and I passed out.

A very very bumpy start to a 24 hour passage.

But we’re all good and sailing along nicely.

We lost the wind a bit, and it shifted around, so after a lot of tacking, our morning arrival turned into an afternoon arrival. But here we are, safe and sound in the Scilly Islands.

A few days on the Scillys were brilliant and felt like we were almost on a tropical holiday, except that we enjoyed cream teas.

Looking pretty in the anchorage on St Martins Island.

Some confusion about brunch pints. They come in half pints, even though you say pint.

The weather was due to come in, and whilst we would have been fine at the Scilly’s, our passenger was due to get back to France to fly back home so we chose a fabulous day to sail across from the Scilly’s to Falmouth in Cornwall.

Looks almost tropical! Good bye Scilly’s for now!

Happy to be sailing in the sunshine. Last year this would have been snow.

Tied up on the “Super Yacht” dock in Falmouth. Awwww yeah. Ok, we moved the next day.

Burgers and beers after a passage are a good tonic.

It was here, we decided that whilst we are seasoned sailors, expecting someone who has never sailed before to do ocean passages with us was unreasonable, and perhaps some land based activities were in order. So off we went to London, and on to Paris.

And a big old bus randomly at the back of a pub that used to be the Bank of England. What a town, I love London so much.

And a big pyramid, with some of the worlds biggest artists.

Its in Paris where we wave goodbye to Ryan as he heads home to Australia. Thanks Ryan for coming!

Back on Away in Falmouth, again the weather decided we shouldn’t leave the south of England unless we wanted to motor everywhere, so we explored Falmouth, until the fateful day, we realised we could do the quick little 5 mile sail into the Helford River, just south from town. Its a beautiful place.

But… The engine was hard to start.

It started and we sailed, and enjoyed a few beautiful days in the Helford. What an absolute gem of a place.

I must admit, all the photos in this blog are sunny. I think we just took photos when it was sunny.

Sunny. This was the path down to the ferry. We just wandered down to look, but we had the dinghy.

CANNOT have enough thatched cottages. Ok, I may have heard Kylie Minogue used to come here, or had a house here. And also various famous rockers from the 70s have houses here, but I don’t know who they are and Adrian is asleep now as I write this, so you’ll just have to google.

Anchored up here safely in the Helford river. 5 miles from Falmouth.

Our plan was to head to Fowey (pronounced Foy) next. Engine checks done, oil looks funny and for some reason is really really high – way above max. Darn it… We should call the Volvo people in Falmouth. Call made. Advice, “yeeeeeaaaah don’t start that engine, we’ll come and get you”. Stay tuned.

Fi left… twice

August 8, 2023 / fiandadrian

An honest account of my experiences of going totally out of my comfort zone. The photos in this blog are a combination from me, Marie, Clothilde, Sean, Kate, Rebecca and Sylvia. Thank you.

If you had told me a year ago, I’d be ticking off a bucket list item of completing the Fastnet race in one of the hardest years of the Fastnet, breaking halyards, doing night watches and spending a week in a small space with 5 other beautiful strangers I would have laughed. But this I did.

Before I start, a little about Emma. She is a 52 foot aluminium cruising vessel with a lifting centreboard. She has a large sail at the front called a “solent”, a smaller sail just behind that called the “staysail”, a main sail that can be made smaller by reefing, and it has 3 possible reefs, each making the sail smaller – so this means we can change the sails around for the different conditions. She also has a light wind sail called an asymmetrical spinnaker which is a pretty pink and red colour and is really powerful. Inside she has 6 berths, plus the central table that can be converted into a giant bed for pyjama parties. 2 bathrooms, a generator, 2 fridges and a large freezer.

Right – Fi did some racing. Here we go.

One grey afternoon, we walked to the airport in Brønnøysund to say goodbye to Fi (me) who was leaving for some new adventures.

A few months ago, I was asked by our lovely contact at Garcia (who built Away) if I wanted to do the Fastnet (one of the worlds biggest sailing races with 500 boats in this years race). As I picked myself up off the floor, and stuttered some words at Adrian about it in no discernible order, Fi and Adrian Sailing decided to become “Fi Racing and Adrian on Dog Sitting Duty” for a short time. I said “yes” having no idea about ocean racing, but that’s what I do – say yes to opportunities. Why not? I’ve sailed Away for 2 years in ocean swells and gale force winds, around tiny islands in Sweden and Norway, around massive ships in the Kiel and the standing mast route in the Netherlands. Plus we’d done the south coast of England, the Solent and the channel, and the north coast of France – plus all the other stuff. All good training for what was coming.

First up was the La Trinite/Cowes by Actual race, which would enable us to qualify as a team to race in the Fastnet.

I left Brønnøysund bound for an evening in Paris, then on to La Trinite sur mer the next day to meet up with the mighty 52 foot Garcia Exploration, named Emma which was to be my home for the next week. I met the wonderful team, Clothilde (skipper and the lovely person who invited me), Marie, Kate, Sean, Sylvia, Rebecca and Mark (owners of Emma).

From left, Clothilde (skipper), Marie (co-skipper), Sylvia, Me, Kate. Rebecca arrived a few hours after this was taken. Don’t worry we’ll see her.

After a big day of getting to know each other and prepping, I suddenly found myself untying lines, and in the La Trinite/Cowes boat race. Sitting on the windward side of Emma I pondered my life decisions as I reached out to some super massive sail boats for a high five.

We pass the start line and headed west to get out from the harbour and its islands and into the sea. Then, heading north, we did lots of tacking as the wind was on the nose. It was hard to learn tacking on what is basically the same boat, but entirely different, whilst at the same time figuring out where I fit in this new group. My experience with groups of people over the last few years has been… Adrian – and being the borderline painfully introverted, unconfident but capable type that I am, I was suddenly thrust into a group team situation and found myself calling on resources I hadn’t called upon since my working days (team work, communication etc etc) and crikey I’m rusty. Adding to that, my life consists of picking nice weather windows to travel in our home to exotic places, spending time with Adrian and my beautiful dog. Its all quite relaxed and enjoyable, and ocean racing is… well… challenging! My first watch was from 12 midnight to 4:30AM and so I learned a lot in the dark on a new to me boat, with new to me people. To say my poor little brain was overloaded is an understatement, and to be fair, I think I did okay.

Helming upwind. The autopilot had decided not to work so there was a lot of manual helming on this race.

The next few days were a blur of night watches, dealing with no wind at all, dolphins, storms with a fully reefed Emma and shouting at ships at the same time, before we finally found ourselves gybing up the English coast, and navigating the tides through the Solent before finally getting to Cowes and the finish line, and that much anticipated glass of French wine. 3 days, 7 hours sailing and 411 nautical miles.

Whoo upwind! Still smiling even though the autopilot was out.

Yep, dodging ships at 03:30 in the morning. I shouted at one… But they moved for us.

Marie and Kate hoping we’re going to hit the tide correctly for the Solent passage.

Passing Hurst Castle through the north channel.

Clothilde calling up race control on the VHF. We arrived at 12:37 at night. No one was particularly interested as we were last.

I think I didn’t eat a hot meal for 3 days, as I was just putting food in for fuel, sleeping, trying to keep clean, and sailing. Huge challenge. I think as a team this was so great. We learned by the end of the race how to really mesh as a team and we nailed the finish. Oh my gosh, we have qualified to do the Fastnet race.

After a great sleep, we enjoyed the next day in Cowes, went to the awards ceremony and dinner, and planned to leave that night at 2am, or was it 12:30…? French time (boat time) or local time? We were all so tired, but we got the right tide to get out of the Solent, and back into the channel to get to Cherbourg for some more training and sorting out of Emma.

In Cherbourg, we were really fortunate that Mark (one of the owners of Emma) had organised for sailing great, Pete Goss, to come and mentor us for a few hours on Emma. We learned a lot from him, and these lessons we are taking into the Fastnet.

Good chats with Pete Goss! We took notes for sure! Loads of lessons to be learned and a growing to do list to prepare Emma for the Fastnet!

I get back to my home on Away, and my lovely little family a few days later, and we enjoy settling back in. It felt so good to be back in my comfort zone, Away, our home that we know how to sail without even thinking about it, that is set up exactly how we like it for sailing ease and safety. All the things I take for granted are here with me and I am oh so grateful for our world here.

We head south to Lervik in Norway and meet some wonderful new friends on the dock. Ahhh to be back cruising. It really is bliss, and whilst I know I can complete the Fastnet with Emma and her wonderful crew, Ocean racing is probably not going to be something I’m doing on a regular basis. I like chill out cruising too much – which comes with its own challenges of course! But at least I can turn on the motor in no winds, and pick the best weather window to leave, or change destinations on the fly.

Ah cruising again. Beautiful Norway with the wild flowers.

We have a reasonably leisurely trip down the Norwegian coast a day or so after I get back. Huge thanks to Norway, for demonstrating to Adrian what the La Trinite race was like – no winds, 35 knots and triple reefed etc all in just one 30 mile passage. Once in Trondheim, I had a flight booked back to Paris, and then to Cherbourg to meet back up with lovely Emma and the crew to prepare Emma for the Fastnet. Whilst I am away from Emma and the team, there is a flurry of activity at the boat to get things done, and I study tide charts, autopilot settings and spinnaker pole setups in preparation. Oh yes, and I get some tricky sailing under my belt. Good practice. Thank you Norway.

After a day in Trondheim, I pack up my backpack again and head off to Cherbourg and the lovely Emma to prepare for the Fastnet. As I write this (post Fastnet) it is actually hard to remember what happened exactly, but I’ll give it a go.

The Fastnet.

I arrived in Cherbourg and went straight to Marie’s for a night of planning and cooking. My contribution would be to drink the wine and provide the entertainment whilst Clothilde and Marie created yummy smelling french dishes to be frozen for our race. After a good nights sleep after my big day of travel we were off to Emma to do some prep work – which mainly consisted of turning Emma the cruising boat into Emma “the kind of more like a race boat”, boat – i.e taking off all the non racing gear like kayaks and extra tins of food, and much to my dismay the stash of whisky and wine.

With Emma a lot lighter, and the team feeling pretty ready, we had our “photoshoot” with Garcia so they could social media the crap out of us (provided we were successful of course) and then we were off to Yarmouth where we had a berth booked for the night before the race. Oh I didn’t mention the cool jackets – how cool are the jackets!!!!! Matchy matchy!

Naturally we sent the photographer up the mast.

Clothilde and Marie at the skippers presentation.

We had some good practice coming across the channel. We picked perfect wind against tide to come into the Solent near the needles which, as we would find out, was excellent training. The forecast for the start of the race the next afternoon was looking more and more bleak.

Braids are mandatory. It may seem trivial, but it keeps the hair out of ones face.

We squeezed into Yarmouth, then squeezed through the bridge leading to the creek at Yarmouth, then squeezed up the creek, then we all held our breath as Clothilde professionally squeezed the 52 foot Emma into a space that I would not even have attempted to put Away into (Away being a full 7 feet smaller). PHEW, we were in! A night of planning, weather routing and sleeping is to be had. Oh yes, and we had to figure out how in the world to get out of the tiniest berth possible, without breaking the boat, breaking other boats, going aground or hurting ourselves.

The next morning, we have a chat again with Pete Goss who gave us some great last minute strategies and a good pep talk, then we were off, fortunately with enough water under us not to go aground, and enough people on board to shout when other boats were too close. We were so happy to get out of Yarmouth and into the 25 knots in the Solent.

Sufficiently unsqueezed in order to take a smiling photo.

Sailing downwind, we headed for the start line area, put up our storm sails up and passed the “identity gate” – right, we were ready for the start. The wind was building and building so a reefed main was up, and the staysail. Tacking towards the start line, we were 5 minutes from starting, and made our final tack to point for the line. All excited faces! And bang.

Storm sails up and passing through the identity gates.

What happened? The staysail is suddenly flapping weirdly. Shit, the halyard has broken. Kate and I run to the bow and pull down the sail, and strap it in. What to do? We can’t put out the solent, there is far too much wind and it is forecast to build and build – right storm jib it is. Finally we cross the start line and begin tacking up the Solent behind the fleet, with the storm jib. We quickly learn that the storm jib does not tack very well, and we do complicated tacking by pulling out a little solent, then tacking, then pulling the solent back in. So hard.

After a while of this the mayday calls started pouring in. People were going overboard at the needles, one boat was sinking, others had broken masts. Pip Hare passed behind us with her Imoca, with apparently the same problem as us, they had broken their staysail halyard I think… Carnage. Marie in her wisdom popped her head out from her bunk and suggested we anchor and let this system go through – Oh yeah – we can do that! And so we spent the night where we started. Yarmouth.

After an evening of anchor watch, we put a new halyard on the staysail (which by now also had a broken furler) and got going out of the Solent and into the channel. I was off watch at this time, and was sleeping. When I woke we had taken the north channel at the Solent exit, and we were passing Swanage and still tacking. As the days went on, we tacked the coast of England, choosing to go straight through the Portland race with strong wind against tide at dinner time which made for a wild ride. Happily no Beef Bourgogne was spilled.

Night watch as the sun just starts to light things up!

Probs should reef if my bunk window looks like this.

We chose to stay out in the channel at Salcombe which at the time seemed a silly idea as we lost all the wind. But we sent Clothilde up the mast to see if she could fix the staysail halyard anyways. As she was up there the wind came back, and we quickly brought her down as the wind built up to over 20 knots again. Turns out that the boats near us that stayed close to shore when we went out got smashed by this squall that came in and they retired due to weather, whereas by the time the squall got to us, it has lost some of its power and so we just enjoyed the ride out to lands end. Fortunately it was also at this time we realised that our autopilot (now named Charlie) didn’t have the right sized fuses, so with them changed we had a solid autopilot again! Phew!

At the Scilly Islands, we lost the wind again and were doing Christmas tree tacking backwards and forwards saying hello the Scilly’s a few times. We took the opportunity to update our families and of course social media. We also took the opportunity to rest a little, as we knew a new weather system was coming and it was going to be over 30 knots whilst we crossed the Irish Sea. And sure enough, I awoke the next day to a triple reefed main, staysail and a heeling over boat. And rain. We sailed in this until the fastnet rock, where it was shrouded in cloud. We saw a blob.

Trying to warm up in the PJ party. I was freezing after this watch.

After tacking around the rock, Emma suddenly came to a screeching halt. The team was looking around everywhere… What’s happened??? There were no fishing pots around. Centreboard was quickly raised. Nothing, then lowered again and suddenly we were off again. PHEW and thank goodness for our centreboard. We believe we hit a drifting fishing net and we heard another report of someone else hitting it too. It was kind of fortuitous, as because of this dramatic turn of events, we did actually get to see more of the Fastnet as the clouds cleared slightly.

A little bit more. Thank you weird fishing net.

Heading back to the Scilly islands, we enjoyed the feeling of being over halfway – although it was about this time I was a little down and thinking that this was my life now and I was never going to get back home. Its funny what the mind does. It was this evening that Marie brought out her beautiful quiche which frankly lifted my mood to no end as I had been there when she cooked it prior to the race and it looked so delicious I was looking forward to it all week! So with a full tummy, and a brighter frame of mind, I went off watch and hit my bunk, falling asleep listening to delightful giggling upstairs on deck and feeling really safe.

The next day I awoke to stories of the spinnaker falling in the water as we had broken another halyard – so no spinnaker for now – also when it was brought back on board it had a 3m tear in it. I used my now honed pole skills and got us going wing on wing for a while until we could change course and the solent did its job.

As I woke up for my next night watch, we were in the shipping lanes and we had a fun night of calling ships, dodging fishing boats, and racing to the Alderney race. The Alderney race was the final hurdle for us before the finish line, but alas, the wind didn’t want to come, so we missed it by about 30 minutes. For those of you who don’t know, the Alderney race is a tidal stream north of Alderney and it can run at over 9 knots, and if we got stuck there, we’d literally be stuck going no where. So the watch at the time made the decision to go north of the race, costing us more time, but meaning we were safe from the currents.

Arriving in Cherboug, we had the solent, the staysail AND the storm jib up to get us speed to finish. Our friends on Voyager (another Garcia) came out to meet us with all the available husbands (alas Adrian was on dog sitting duty in Norway) and cheer us on as we finished the line! We were so so so excited to see them and cross the line! Whoo hooooooo! Cheering and maybe some tears from little old me! Sails down, motor on and some choice tunes to head into harbour. My favourite was blaring Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” as we came into harbour. YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Yeah crossing the line! Whooooooooooooo!

We had fans on the headland who took this cool pic of us crossing the line. As much sail as we had up!

Once docked, it was celebrations!!! All the families were there, friends and partners. It was mad! Even the press came down and interviewed us. As I was the only loner, I was either on the phone or asking everyone when could we please pop the champagne???????? FINALLY, photos done, kisses, cuddles and congratulations all round were done, there was a glass of bubbles in my hand.

Emma safely docked in the best spot in the marina.

Wow, what a ride. Would I do another – yes probably, but it would have to be the same amazing team I just did it with.

There was about 450 boats that started, and about 200 retired. We finished because we are TENACIOUS!

The best part of a week of my life was spent on some amazing type 3 fun. What a ride.

To Rebecca – thank you for lending us your boat for this adventure and thank you for your endless positivity and support. And especially for cooking going through some of the roughest water I’ve ever been in!

To Sylvia – I loved falling asleep in my bunk listening to you and Kate laughing and competently sailing and keeping us safe. Thank you for your tenacity and your wind dancing.

To Kate – Thanks for the great night watches and story sharing. Thanks for supporting me when I wasn’t feeling super confident. I so appreciate you!

To Marie – Thank you for your friendship and support, your clear head and good decisions. Thank you for keeping us safe, and making me laugh. You’ve taught me a lot.

To Clothilde – thank you for being the skipper and bringing such a positive attitude to everything you do. You kept morale high, kept us racing, laughing and safe the whole time. What a legend.

And we were in the press! You can read on the RORC website.

Please enjoy some of these little clips too.

Keep rollin. Going through the Portland Race wind against tide.

Winter barging, on “The Squire”

February 7, 2023 / fiandadrian

Perhaps you remember from our last blog, we arrived in England and welcomed to the Fi and Adrian Sailing family a narrowboat called “The Squire”. This was to be our home for the 2 months over December 2022 and January 2023. Last year we spent the same time period on another narrowboat called “The Earl” and Bernie loved it so much, we wanted to give him the same experience again. Plus for us, its a nice break from sailing, but still presents lots of opportunities for adventures.

We began our trip unpacking and settling in to the boat, getting to know the ins and outs and making friends with it. We started at a stretch of canal near Fenny Compton in the middle of England.

Good thing we brought the cold weather gear and boots for muddy tow paths

Time to push off! We have to reverse up to the winding hole (a large space dotted along the canals where these long boats can turn around) which presented its own challenges as the first maneuver of the trip. All done though and we were on our way north. Quickly reaching Napton on the Hill, we make a left turn on to the Grand Union Canal bound for Birmingham. The Grand Union links Birmingham and London and was a busy canal in its day, shipping all manner of goods and fuel between these two cities.

We are reminded fairly quickly that this section of the Grand Union has been built to accommodate wide beam boats, and therefore have double width locks. Our skills from the previous year were quickly brought to the fore, and Adrian was navigating into the large locks with me only needing to open 1 of the gates on either side. Phew! The lock doors can be upwards of 3 tonnes so I was happy to not have to open 4 doors every time. We navigate towards Long Itchington, and enjoy the scenery, locks and the local watering holes.

After a few days of this pattern, we find ourselves in Royal Leamington Spa. I used to have to go to work here on occasion so it was nice to see it from a different perspective, and also discover some fantastic places to provision, and enjoy a hearty English breakfast.

By this time we had completed the Calcutt locks (3 locks), the Stockton lock flight (8 locks), the Bascote locks and a number of others, totaling 25. We had achieved this over the best part of a week, and were feeling prepared to tackle the famous (infamous) Hatton Lock flight. The Hatton Lock flight rises narrowboats up 45m in less than 2 miles and consists of 21 locks. Its grueling work, and was not made easy for us as we buddied up with a single handed narrowboater (so it was a little slower) and every single lock was set against us. Plus we started at about 2pm.

These double locks were some of the last built on the canals. They fill and empty quickly but lack some of the clunky charm of the earlier locks

Into the afternoon we went, setting the locks, driving the boats in, closing gates, filling up the locks, on to the next. The snow had settled on the ground and so the towpath and lock gates were slippery to walk on, the dog enjoyed running away from time to time and the night rolled on in. Granted the night time here is about 4PM. Onwards we went, up and up and up and the hours passed by. Every time we finished a lock, it seemed another came out of the gloom. It felt like it was never going to end. They call this flight the stairway to heaven as it is so arduous. Eventually, after running backwards and forwards, setting and resetting locks, grinding paddles, opening and closing closing 3 tonne gates, we reached the top at about 7:30pm. It was dark, we were exhausted, and we closed up the Squire, stoked up the fireplace and settled in for a beer, and a pre made meal heated up in the oven. We’d made in total about 2.5 miles that day and expended all our energy! We planned to explore the area the following day, rather than go and tackle another section of canal.

We weren’t disappointed! The area around the locks is gorgeous, and there is a cute cafe and a pub. Happy.

Onwards towards Birmingham however, and we find ourselves cracking through ice all of a sudden. Arriving in the area of Solihull, we find a few more wonderful English pubs, some good places to provision and stunning countryside.

Locks require good balance on narrow icy gates above a long drop into icy water

The ice is beginning to form, but just round the corner is free of ice where trees overhang the water

Leaving the bank is getting more difficult

The ice seemed to be getting thicker. The day we left to head into Birmingham, we were cracking through inch thick plates of ice. It is loud and it is hard to steer as the ice pushes the boat around to wherever it has split. We manage this by having 1 person steer, and the other person at the front running from side to side getting the boat to rock to crack the ice relatively evenly. Soon we find the stunning English countryside being replaced by industrial buildings, graffiti, and a lot of litter that speaks to the nightly recreational activities in this less than salubrious area of outer Birmingham.

The lock is on the right in the colourful Birmingham suburbs

The canals passes through many of the old industrial areas that they were integral in creating

Dog safely locked inside so he didn’t accidentally get stabbed with a syringe, or eat some human poo, we navigated through the 25 locks that would get us to the centre of Birmingham. This was not without a stop in a VERY brightly lit (read safe) area next to one of the universities here for a sleep overnight one evening.

Everyone is fascinated by ice. Some throw rocks to see if breaks, others beer bottles, and even full rubbish bins

The locks into Birmingham took us under huge bridges and under buildings and certainly had the air of Peaky Blinders. We saw deals being done, smelled the local relief points, and skipped over broken glass and drug paraphernalia. Eventually, the muck and darkness made way to more gentrified buildings and a cute towpath leading to the top of the locks and the centre. Gas Street Basin is the famous centre of canals in Birmingham, and would be our stop over for a few days. And then a few more days, as the ice got thicker and thicker.

A building has been constructed over a set of locks on the canal. The yellow rails are gantries to allow the lock gates to be maintained as cranes can no longer access the locks.

The final set of locks into the Gas Street Basin. They were covered in ice in coming days.

Strange that nobody is going boating today…

The solar panels weren’t providing much power at this time of year

After about a week, the temperatures has risen enough for the ice to again be navigable, and we said goodbye to Birmingham, keen to have some “field” time. For Christmas, we are heading for Stratford Upon Avon to explore, restock, and appreciate the countryside after so much city time.

These ones are supposed to resemble ears

Heading south, we find ourselves on the Stratford Upon Avon canal. A beautiful stretch of canal winding its way through the countryside, dotted with locks here and there, but nothing as massive as those Hatton Locks. We enjoy time moored in fields, and eventually end up just outside Stratford Upon Avon.

It is Christmas eve, so we quickly find ourselves a lovely pub for lunch, and also head to Waitrose for our turkey and Christmas trimmings. We stop off at Will’s birthplace and have a great wander around town. It would be great to spend a little more time here outside of the holiday season, however we need to get going back towards where we started as the winter closures would mean we would be stuck here, so Christmas day comes, we cast off the mooring lines and head out of Stratford.

Christmas dinner is cooked while moored up in a quiet field, and we plan how to get out and through the Hatton Locks again before the closures in a few days.

Christmas was a chance to relax and stay warm

Back to the locks on Christmas day. Not many boaters out today.

We didn’t get too far before we found the canal was empty making it hard to navigate. Some investigation showed the paddles at both ends of the lock were slightly open allowing the water to drain. It took a couple of hours to let enough water through from a large pound a few locks above and we were on our way again.

Not much water in the canal when we arrived

After redistributing some water we were on our way again

*The canal to Stratford Upon Avon crosses an aqueduct*. There is a fence on the tow path side

But don’t step off the boat on the other side

Retracing our steps, we find ourselves at our turn off point. Adrian navigates the Squire through a 7ft hole in someone’s garden, which leads out of the Stratford Upon Avon Canal to the Grand Union Canal and eventually, that huge Hatton Lock flight. Would I have come up the Hatton Lock flight if I knew what it was like, and that we would have to also come back down it, yes probably. Its a great workout. This time however, we mean business and start the locks at a reasonable time in the morning, and even manage to enlist the help of one of our local friends who came along and opened the last 5 or so locks for us (of 21). We felt like professionals at this point! We were done and dusted mid afternoon, and enjoyed a little wander around Warwick with our friend, and naturally had a few beers at the pub.

BUT – we are still not past the closures. We are on track though, and the next day after a bit of a sleep in, we head on through the next dozen or so locks towards Royal Leamington Spa and past the closures. Phew! We have avoided making the same mistake that we made last year where we got stuck behind the winter closures and had to organise to have the boat trucked over to another canal. Oops.

It is just outside Leamington that we have organised to have guests! Friends from the US have organised to join us and experience what is means to live the canal boat life. And we have some fun plans to show them what it is all about! First stop, 8 locks! Followed by a pub meal. It was so much easier having 4 people on the boat with 3 people able to work the locks. A lot quicker too, and so we found ourselves quite quickly at our designated pub for dinner, and predinner drinks.

Our friends were keen to experience more, and we wanted to take them on a journey through the countryside to Braunston, a cute town that includes a haunted tunnel. We spend New Years quietly, in a field of course, and plan to complete the tunnel on New Years day.

The tunnel is interesting as it is a little wobbly. The construction teams started at each end, then realised they were off by a few feet and had to put some bends in it. When we are a kilometre underground we hope their construction is more solid than their direction finding. No ghosts this time.

Once through the tunnel, we enjoy catching up over cards and boat cooked meals (there is only so many pubs one can visit before you can literally predict every menu), and travel along the canal towards the Watford lock flight. This is a flight that is so steep it has permanent volunteers on hand to assist boats up and down the flight. We pull up at the bottom, and I ran up the hill to the lock keepers hut to register our intention to navigate the locks. Registration complete, we were advised to begin the flight. “Red before white, and you’ll be right” the lock keeper said to me, and following his instructions, we let the boat in the lock, wound the red paddles, then wound the white paddles, and we were indeed, “right” making it to the top of the flight quickly. The flight consists of 7 locks, 4 of which are in a staircase configuration. This means you go up one lock, straight into another, and so ensuring you do the paddles in the correct order is important as to not get stuck.

A further way along the canal, and our friends said thank you and good bye, and again, we were just the 3 of us. In a field.

Unfortunately, the UK flu hit us at this point. We found out later that this has been the worst flu season in the UK for 65 years. The country is basically out of cough medicine and paracetamol, so I raided my handbag stash for paracetamol and we learned quickly how to make cough medicine at home.

Good pour of whiskey in a mug

A squeeze of honey

Good squeeze of lemon juice

Boiling water to the top

Slice of lemon floating around

Sip…

Repeat.
Thank you google

So we take it easy. The boating stops for a few days, we rest, drink our cough medicine, try to placate the neurotic spaniel who is getting increasingly more neurotic the longer we need to recover. Eventually we both feel okay to get our boating again, and decide we will slowly boat up to a small town called Welford.

We manage a lovely walk through the countryside in Welford. I am still coughing a lot, and unfortunately in my frustration with this I decide to cough purposely really hard. “CLICK” something goes in my ribs, and the next day I wake up with very very very sore ribs.

The winter light means its hard to take a bad photo. At least we think so.

Bernie as always wanting to make new friends.

By the time we get to Market Harborough, I need to go to the urgent care at the hospital to get some proper pain killers. Opioids in hand, I do start to get a lot better. PHEW! So most of January at this point has been a little – in the wars to put it mildly. But its okay, as we have our lovely fire, and our fields.

Market Harborough featured the usual muddy towpath, until it froze.

We went for a walk to the shops and it proper snowed

After some exploring around Market Harborough, we fill up with water and leave to head south towards our drop off point in about 10 days. The forecast indicates a couple of sub zero nights and it looks there might be some light ice. By the time we re climbing the Foxton locks the ice was becoming harder to navigate.

We found a parking spot with a view and enjoyed an end of day stout on the roof. The next morning a canal trust boat had come the opposite direction breaking the ice by the time The Squire ventured out for the day.

The day was spent ice breaking until we arrived at Kilworth marina the site of our lorry ride 12 months earlier. With coal and fuel on board we were prepared just in case the ice returned with vengeance and we couldn’t move.

The next morning arrived with the welcome sight of the The Duke and The Duchess, our sister ships, breaking the ice as they passed us. The Duchess in particular had great ice breaking capabilities that we appreciated over the coming days. It’s quite easy to follow another boat that is breaking the ice, but the lead boat works very hard.

We tried breaking ice ouselves but The Squire doesn’t do it that well at all.

Whilst many boaters thanked us for breaking the ice so they could move to get water and coal, this day we encountered the nutty fringe who were convinced the ice was damaging their boats, and probably crop circles are created by aliens and chemtrails are poisoning them. They shouted, swore, threatened and threw things. Who knew narrow boaters could get so excited?

This guy threated our friends with a boat hook, and threw stuff, and threw a bunch of colourful language our way. We’ve scoured social media to find his photos, but nothing. Nutters.

Over the next few days the canal defied the forecast and the ice thickened. The Duke and The Duchess did most of the ice breaking, placating the shouty boaters and getting cheered on by those short of supplies. We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Crick with the American couples aboard the Duke and Duchess and got used to people telling us tails of those determined Americans breaking the ice ahead of us.

Ice breaking, Note how much harder the lead boat is working.

Despite our best efforts the ice was slowing our progress enough that we were not going to reach The Squires home at Heyford. We agreed to take it as far as Fenny Compton where our first canal trip had begun a year earlier. It seemed to fitting to end our trip in the same pub it had started.

With bags packed we left The Squire and started the long trip home to Away. Please enjoy these little snaps from the trip.

You can turn anything into a canal home. This is an old lifeboat

Can you have too many steak and ale pies? Yes, yes you can…

What do we do if we meet another boat coming the other way?

Entering the Bosworth tunnel it suggests keeping to the right. Surely boats can’t pass in the tunnel?

Many bridges just carry pedestrians and farm traffic

And others were constructed to frame a beautiful canal scene

Leaving Welford the sun brought out the colour

We encountered lots of wildlife. This robin was particularly friendly.

We often saw this bird fishing along the canal

Look carefully. Yes its a fox sunning itself.

We can’t keep still…

December 2, 2022 / fiandadrian

By Fi

My family tells me that even when I was little, I never kept still. I was always doing something, going somewhere, making plans. Well, it seems that this is still true and true for both of us. Plans have been made for winter, and it does not involve staying in one place.

We aren’t keen to sail in winter at the moment as there is quite a lot of ice and regular storms. And we do need to leave the Schengen area to reset our visa, and also apply for some other permits so that next year we can sail in Scandinavia some more.

So while we were hiking in the woods around Norheimsund, plans were afoot.

When we last left you, we were driving into the snowy Norwegian night, for our next adventure.

We have winter tyres, but we were still pretty careful.

We drove for 3 hours in the snow, in our little front wheel drive Corolla. Holding our breath on the corners and hills, we were happy to arrive in our little ski chalet for the night. This is no where near our final destination, simply a stop for a rest from the intense driving conditions.

We meet a lot of taxidermy at this little chalet. Bernie was quite bemused at the wolf.

Bernie has his first taste of proper snow.

We enjoy a fireplace, pizza and a good sleep in our doggy friendly room, and head off early the next morning, back into the snow for a 4 hour drive to the south coast of Norway – to Kristiansand.

At this point we’re wondering why we have to leave. So intensely beautiful.

From there, we drop off our hire car and take the overnight ferry to Eemshaven in the Netherlands. Surely winter in the Netherlands would be nice! But alas, this is not for us.

Bernie found his bed straight away in our doggy friendly cabin. Settling in, Adrian and I have some dinner in the restaurant and Bernie has a sleep. He also wakes up multiple times during the night to tell everyone very loudly not to worry about the rolly waves.

It was actually nice having someone else drive.

We need to leave Schengen to reset our visas, so 3 trains later, we find ourselves in Hoek van Holland which is the opposite end of the country from Eemshaven. We’ve been travelling for 24 hours so far. Bernie is over it, poor guy.

He’s so bored at this point and wants to go talk to everyone else.

At Hoek van Holland, we board another overnight ferry, have a good sleep this time (thank you Bernie) and wake up in Harwich, England. Passing through passport control, we board another train bound for London. Arriving in Liverpool Street Station, we tube it to Lancaster gate, and our doggy friendly hotel opposite Hyde Park.

So over trains and travelling right now.

Bernie’s first tube experience after getting off at Liverpool Street train station.

After 3 days travelling, PHEW, we have made it to England where our new adventures start! We are utterly exhausted, and quickly find a pub for breakfast beers while waiting for our room to be ready. Once it is, we are all afternoon naps and takeaway food.

Bernie getting his English pub bearings again.

We have 1 full day in London to show Bernie everything the city has to offer. Ever since I first arrived here in 2014, I have wanted to take Bernie to Hyde Park for his walkies and show him London stuff. His focus is mainly cleaning up the streets of London of its wayward food stuffs.

We had some walks in Hyde Park, then we decide to take him to Tower Bridge to look at the sights. He sniffed the sights good.

Yay finally did the bridge after all these years!

We find London’s friendliest pub for dogs and have a nice meal and Bernie enjoys one of their signature “dog tails”.

Ok, to be fair, he was totally disinterested in the “dogtail” until I put peanuts in it, preferring to stare at the corridor where he quickly figured out the lovely wait staff were coming with food.

The next day, we board a train to Bristol, grab yet another hire car and visit friends in Langford. We’ve been here a number of times and love the local pub, and it is always wonderful to see our friends and their little ginger biscuits (read, ginger cats).

All the ginger biscuit love from Al and Billy.

Al and Adrian having some thinking time.

After a couple of days enjoying Langford hospitality, off we go again. This time we are taking our hire car north east, to the middle of the country near Banbury.

You may remember last year, we hired a canal boat for 2 months over December and January. Well we decided Bernie loved it so much, we had better do it again! So, we are very pleased to introduce our new temporary member of Fi and Adrian Sailing (or should I say Fi and Adrian narrow-boating) “The Squire”! The Squire is a 55ft cruiser stern narrowboat, complete with central heating, a coal fireplace, double bed and walkthrough bathroom.

The Squire! Painted up the same as The Earl from last year as we are using the same excellent company – longtermnarrowboathire.co.uk. They have a fleet of about 10 narrowboats on hire all year round for calendar months (i.e, you hire it for the whole of December, or December and January, or July etc – you get the idea).

At 55ft long, The Squire is a little shorter than The Earl from last year, but we like the layout better.

Our new swan friends on the left were already tapping on the side of the boat when we arrived asking for treats.

I can’t wait to be running around with Bernie, doing locks and navigating these beautiful waterways. We plan to head towards Birmingham and possibly south from there, taking in the sights of the countryside, hiking and enjoying the local watering holes. Hopefully we’ll see some snow, but I don’t think so. We’ll save the snow for next year when we are back home, Away.

My face when I realise the Grand Union canal is wide beam and therefore double width locks. Means loads of running around and pushing enormous five tonne gates, four times per lock.

Copenhagen, Paris, Copenhagen, London. The team splits up and conquers all.

September 22, 2022 / fiandadrian

Fi’s in Copenhagen

By Fi – Once we got to Copenhagen, Adrian and I were keen to go touring with Tara through some of our favourite cities. Adrian was first up to go and meet Tara in Paris. So after 2 nights of decent sleep, off he went leaving me with Bernie and the delights of Copenhagen. First stop for me, friends! We had some friends who arrived just after us and who were keen to catchup and see some of the sights. I met them in the street food market, Reffen for a spot of lunch. It was so great to catch up and hear about their cruising adventures since we left them on the Kiel.

So good to catch up with fantastic people!

That evening I also caught up with our friend Morten and went back to Reffen for dinner. I swear they know me there now!

2 days were spent washing, which sounds boring but it meant the boat was lovely and fresh and Bernie’s bedding was all clean and smelling great. Very cathartic.

Copenhagen for me and Bernie was social, with some boat work and walks thrown in, but Paris for Adrian was… well… Paris.

Adrian’s in Paris

By Adrian – Its always lovely to visit Paris. We started with a bit of orientation: Louvre, Seine, Arc de Triomphe, and a stroll down the Champs Elysees.

We climbed up the arch and enjoyed watching the traffic for a while.

Of course the Jardin de Luxemborg is mandatory when one is in Paris. Even better with fresh macarons.

A walk in the park. Just like an Australian park, except totally different.

We found this tower all lit up at night with about three million people walking around it taking pictures

We try to tick off all the Paris must do’s, but alas, as we are there on a Sunday and Monday, many things are closed – however, this is Paris – there is much to see!

Found some art. Were all the chairs art?

Ate the required amount of fancy French food

and enjoyed the warm summers evenings with a dose of french onion soup, escargot and a glass of red.

Adrian’s in Copenhagen

By Adrian – Fi and I had one evening to catch up on things, before she headed off to London and I found myself alone with a fur shedding slightly neurotic spaniel.

Bernie and I went on long walks, studied industrial architecture, tackled some boat jobs

Fi’s in London

By Fi- Donning my suitably colour coordinated outfit for the cabbie, I toddled off to Copenhagen airport to fly over to my second home, London. Getting in around dinner time, I thought the most English-y thing to do would be to take Tara to the pub for a pint and a feed of proper stodge. We are staying in Notting Hill.

So matchy matchy… Bernie clearly wants to come too.

For our first full day in London, we decided to get our walking shoes on and go exploring. We looked at Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, then Covent Garden and then on to Camden Markets, finishing with a lovely dinner at a local Notting Hill restaurant called Beach Blanket Babylon.

Beautiful tribute to Diana from her sons.

We weren’t sure which country we were in here…

Inside Camden Markets has been really cleaned up.

The next day was a breakfast wander down Portabello Road to look at the markets, followed by lunch with some friends at South Bank, and also chilling out for the afternoon so we had the energy to dance the night away in Soho! We had a great lunch, and spent the evening at the Scotch in Soho, and moved on to another club later, but by that point I didn’t take note of its name. It was somewhere near Leicester square…

Girls looking slightly less sharp in the early hours.

On my final full day in London with Tara, I managed to drag my exhausted self out of bed to accompany Ta to a cool immersive art piece called Dopamine land. That night we decided to stop in our accomodation for dinner and ordered takeaway.

The next day, Tara and I parted ways. Me to get on to a plane at Stanstead Airport back to Copenhagen, and Tara to begin her long journey back home.

Arriving home to Away, as I walked down the path towards the boat, a little spaniel head popped up, jumped off the boat and ran towards me like a scene out of chariots of fire. Needless to say he was happy to see me! As was Adrian – its great to be home, and I had a great time!

Back together in Copenhagen

Once the band was back together, we took the opportunity to have some time in the amazing restaurants in Copenhagen. Naturally we went to Reffern the street food markets, but we also visited 56 degrees, Oens Have and Empircal, all the while enjoying bread and breakfast at Lille Bakery.

Copenhagen is a little like a black hole for us. We love it here and get comfortable very quickly. We do however have to move on, but the weather has been conspiring against us and is on the nose (i.e coming from the north, which is the direction we want to go). We are watching closely for a weather window to head across the north sea to Scotland where Away will spend winter. It will happen, and we are currently working on a plan to ensure we are in the right place at the right time to tick off this bucket list passage across the north sea.

Eastbourne to Boulogne

April 7, 2022 / fiandadrian

It was finally time to shake off our winter inertia and venture out into a world beyond Eastbourne.

The passage to Boulogne is 50 miles in a straight line. But the tide goes from 0 up to 3 knots sideways so a straight line is a curved line. And then there are shipping channels that you must cross at 90 degrees. But you must point across at 90 degrees so with the tide it might be 75 degrees or 105 degrees. And the shipping channels change direction so 90 degrees might point you East and a few miles away 90 degrees might point you East North East. But at least we are sure about our boat speed because it is dependent on the wind and the forecasted direction and strength is always right.

So we started with a plan, and then we changed it, and changed it again as the conditions changed.

Eastbourne marina had been a friendly sheltered harbour for Away over winter. Dinner at the Grand Hotel and catching up with friends were highlights. But Bernie never quite fell in love with pebble beaches and the local Harvester never felt like our local. It was time to return to the land of baguettes and fine wine. At 5 am the alarm reminded us sailing in tidal areas is not always on our preferred timetable.

The Eastbourne lock dropped us a disconcerting distance into the exit channel.

We slowly made our way out with the center board raised for extra clearance.

The wind was behind us and our recent practice with the pole was put to good use. This used to be one of our favorite ways to sail on Addictive and Away seems equally happy with this configuration.

We managed to get further along the coast than we expected before picking our moment to dodge the big ships in the shipping channel. Our path successfully avoided 5 of them but the last looked a little close.

A couple of minutes later Fi appeared on deck looking suitably chuffed and announced she had chatted to the ship and it was changing direction for us!

The wind and waves built to 20 knots and 1-2 meters as we scooted across the no-mans-land between the east and west shipping channel. We experimented with some reefs and different sail configurations. It was looking as if we might sail a straight line to Boulogne if the wind continued and we hit the shipping channel far enough north.

Bernie was flat out helping with everything.

There was one ship that was on a collision course with us, but Fi jumped on the radio and soon had him sorted out.

I was just commenting that we had 30 minutes till the edge of the shipping channel and then we would need a close look out for crab pots, when a crab pot whistled past a few meters to starboard. We were back in French waters.

Approaching the French coast the waves started reflecting off the shore and it became more and more confused. Away handled it with ease but we were extra careful when going forward on deck.

We had made the crossing faster than expected, and once safely docked we did perform arrival formalities: wee on the dock (Bernie), buy baguettes and red wine (Fi & Adrian).

We also did the other more boring arrival formalities, such as filling in forms, and getting a visit from the lovely police officers from Calais who drove down to visit us especially and give us the much coveted stamp in our passports.

The next day the entrance to the harbour looked slightly different with gusts into the 50s! We might stay here a few days till it calms down. Boulogne is the biggest fishing port in France, so there is plenty of food to keep us interested.

Following The Canals South

February 3, 2022 / fiandadrian

Now past the canal closure we took a slower pace. We found a great pub (The Malt) at Aston-on-Trent and stayed for a few days. Bernie enjoyed the walks and chasing squirrels. After enjoying this idyllic spot, we meandered a few miles east to a town called Shardlow.

Historic Shardlow was once a thriving canal port and many of the original buildings are still there. Most are Grade 2 listed and the town has an other worldly feel about it, They still cover it in mist to give it that genuine industrial age feel (think Peaky Blinders without all the gangsters).

We stayed one evening in Shardlow as we had some plans to meet up with friends in a few days.

After a few large locks (the locks in this part of the country are designed for 2 narrowboats or 1 wide narrowboat), the canal soon turned into the River Trent and we were rushing along at 15 knots (?) propelled by a vigorous current and pondering the return trip against the current. Just before Nottingham a barrier across the river appeared out of the mist. Its designed to catch stray canal boats that miss the ‘All routes turn left’ sign, before they plunge headlong over the weir. We pulled hard on the handbrake and spun to the left just in time.

Nottingham was our first big city for a while and we planned to meet friends and have a quick look around. A friendly local boater said it was safe enough in the city center if you didn’t mind people banging on the boat or jumping aboard at night. He was heading to the River Trent where there was a more peaceful mooring and better pubs. A quick discussion together ensued, and we agreed to awkwardly stalk the nice old mate with the good advice. The Trent turned out to be an enjoyable stop for us too.

We parked outside the council chambers, and again, pub life called, as well as some provisioning, and some bike riding. After a couple of quiet evenings, we retraced our steps through Nottingham stopping in the city centre to visit the limestone caves that are under much of the city. They have been used for everything from shelter, fresh water, cellars, toilets, tanneries and secret meeting places, although not usually at the same time.

The return trip up the river was somewhat slower, but we made way against the rushing torrent and avoided being sucked back over the weir. The countryside changed from industrial megaliths to impossibly charming country manors in the time it takes to fill a lock.

Swans visited the boat looking for handouts. Bernie soon realized these big hissing beasts were not scared by his big dog bark. One in particular notified us of his presence by tapping on the boat, to which Fi responded with the requisite amount of swan treats out the window.

As we headed south the days turned colder. The fields took on a white morning tinge, the canals iced over and knots in the ropes barely unraveled. Its surprisingly hard to open the lock doors even with a thin sheet of ice on the water.

But by now we had acclimatised and the cold still conditions often led to beautiful sunsets on the sun deck. When people warned us about English winters, we knew it would be like this.

We found a few tunnels, which, not as exciting as the Harecastle experience still made interesting navigation. These are apparently big enough for two vessels to pass , although we didn’t have the opportunity to prove this rather optimistic proposition.

At Foxton the canal headed up a hill in a series of locks all joined to each other. They even have friendly volunteers to ensure you empty and fill the locks in the right order…red first and then white, or was it white then red? Next to the locks are the remains of a hill side lift that reduced the lock time of 45 minutes to 8 minutes in an effort to compete with the pressures from the developing rail network. There are plans, but not funds, to restore it to its former glory.

Unexpectedly we ran out of canal. The locks ahead were closed for maintenance so we took to the road for a quick jump to another canal. There are no tides, currents, shipping lanes or channel markers, but perhaps canal navigation was more complex than we had given it credit for.

We were soon safely landed in a new and more open canal. A few miles further on we reached our final destination and after two enjoyable months we left The Earl for new adventures.

What did we learn?

Bernie loves loves loves canal boating.
Locks are hard work and lightweight coats would have been better than offshore gear.
The user interface on the canal app could use some work to make stoppages clearer – oops.
Mud is okay.
Winter is okay.
We think we prefer a “reverse layout” style of canal boat with the bedroom at the front. The Earl was traditional layout.
We need to go further north for snow.
That the people that treat lock goings on as a spectator sport are called “Gongoozlers”.
That Bernie is the best behaved Springer Spaniel in the land. He got just so many compliments on his nature.

Peak District for Christmas

January 10, 2022 / fiandadrian

South of the Harecastle tunnel was industrial Stoke-on-Trent, but to the north we turned on to the Macclesfield Canal and the buildings gave way to fields and little towns and eventually the Peak District hills. Our first climb was the Bosley Locks, a series of 12 locks. There were so few boats travelling at this time of year that we found a boat stopped for lunch in one of the locks which saves the need to tie up.

With Christmas approaching we decided stock up with plenty of coal and Christmas goodies for a quiet Christmas on the boat.

Alas there was no snow on Christmas day. On boxing day we enjoyed a quick walk up to the Lyme estate, the 1300 acre estate and deer park that is Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice. It didn’t snow but felt like it could have done.

At Marple we made a sharp right hand turn and headed into the Peaks and for the first time ran out of canal at historic Bugsworth Basin. Much of the infrastructure where lime and gritstone were loaded onto canal boats can still be seen.

With no more canal, we continued on foot into the hills, although many of the tracks were wet enough to take a canal boat. We came across old mine workings in the side of the hill and even the remains of the crane for lowering material to the valley floor.

New Year was fast approaching so we climbed another hill. We decided to stay in Bugsworth and share the midnight revelry with other boaters. Although we misjudged the profile of your average canal boater most of whom were off to bed at 8pm with a cuppa.

Now half way through our trip we reluctantly turned south and retraced our steps toward the Harecastle tunnel, considering whether to turn right and go through Birmingham or left and head towards Nottingham.

We booked to go through the tunnel at 8am, shortly after dawn, although this still required a pre dawn departure from our overnight stop. We were, perhaps unsurprisingly, the only boat going through the tunnel at this time of day. Maybe we would be visited by the tunnel ghost!

We entered the tunnel in drizzle and half light, but came out to bright sunshine. It amazing how the climate changes from one end to the other. To our amusement there was only one boat waiting to head north through the tunnel and they were a Tasmanian crew. Its mostly mad aussies on the canals this time of year.

With the worsening covid resurgence we decided to head towards Nottingham and the more rural route south, leaving Birmingham for another trip. A planned closure on the canal meant we needed to ‘rush’ as much as one can on a canal. We disappeared into deep locks and passed the old pottery kilns in Stoke, fed the swans in Rugely, and braved the snow in Stone.