I was going to post this in the forum, but it got a little long for a post....
 

Today Charlie and I went on a little expedition across the river to Kingswear to look at boats and steam trains:
 
 

 
 
Here is Charlie on the passenger ferry, clutching the pennies for the tickets.
 
 

 
Here is the Segelschulschiff Gork Foch - great baggywrinkles, a fantastic pair of anchors (a bloke was lowered on a line and sat on the flukes of the port hand one with a pot of black paint and a brush yesterday) but an absolute sod to pronounce after a couple of beers.
 

...

[ Show full text and comments (12) ]

It's a bit late after the event, what with one thing and another. But a little look at some of the recent journals has me agreeing wholeheartedly with B'dog - we need some music and dancing before we all go back to work. B's done the dance, sadly I can only do pictures of music, but I'm sure you'll get the vibe from this great evening...


So here are Callum and friends - 'Makeral Sky' in their first gig (of many I hope) at The Windjammer

My many apologies for the frankly dire quality of my photos, I'm hoping that some more artistically inclined 'peeps might help me out next time!















Guess who drank all the ...


[ Show full text and comments (21) ]

It's a lovely quiet starlit evening here, we've just come back from Mr Shahars most excellent curry emporium wherein Charlie had his first curry; or rather crunched poppadoms, chewed some naan and went off to play with the waiters while Nancy ploughed through a murgh passanda, rice and Peshwari naan. Makes her dad proud, she does.

Meanwhile, out over the Atlantic trouble is brewing:



BTW, the chart is from the US Airforce in Europe, and extremely good forecasts they are too. But I can't help thinking that one of their bases in Southern Spain has already been renamed in honour of their out-going Commander-In-Chief.

Which has led the The Met Office to issue the ...


[ Show full text and comments (20) ]

This journal of a day out might be of interest to fans of Art Deco, English crime writers, unusual amphibious vehicles, Hollywood moguls, beaches, treasure hunting and etymological trivia. I reckon I can kick Bun'rabs arse into the middle of next week with the number of replies I get with this one!

The weather was unseasonably lovely last week, and as Nancy was just getting over a bout of Chicken Pox and the associated 'Cabin Fever' She and I decided on a day out. Where to go was settled democratically on the traditional 'One Person, One Vote' principle. Nancy was that person, and her vote was for 'The Beach'.

So after a quick pitstop for elevenses at Grandmas we trundled off to Bigbury On Sea to walk across the causeway to Burgh Island:



The island is cut off at high tide, but can be reached on foot at other times by walking across a lovely sandy causeway. When the tide is ...


[ Show full text and comments (16) ]

Nancy models JFW gifts

Dad, Nancy and Charlie and gifts

Here, at last, are pictures of the very cool gifts that winged their way all the way from Wyoming, across The Atlantic to England, whereupon they were immediately appropriated by my kids!

Nancy loves the Yellowstone meetup tee-shirt so much that she often uses it as a nightie, and Charlie often toddles around the house da 'hood with the Yellowstone baseball cap on the wrong way ...


[ Show full text and comments (9) ]

I posted this in the forum, but figured that it was an achievement of such magnitude that it needs more *bump*, and to put it into some kind of context on his way back up the Atlantic, having circumnavigated the globe, Francis passed the Azores on his way home, and whereas Tony and I took 10 days to get from the Azores to home, M. Joyon knocked that little stretch off in two days.


Jesus H Christ on a Trimaran Around the world single handed in 57 days 13 hours.

An absolutely staggering achievement, he singlehandedly beat the late Steve Fossets' record, and he had a full crew of some 10-12 guys aboard Playstation/Cheyanne

Sadly it meant that he beat Ellen Macarthurs record, an extraordinary achievement in itself, but he beat her record ...


[ Show full text and comments (3) ]

As we are such a disparate community, then I would very much appreciate a little something that reflects the character of where you are.

I know - tricky thing to ask.

On the otherhand, being a fair way away from most 'peeps and all the post and shipping hassles this entails, I would be more than happy for a card to put on the mantlepiece, and the rest of the loot to go to Amnesty International or Greenpeace.

Bit slow in coming I'm afraid, but here's the final installment!

AZAB Part The Third - Sailing Home

After a week of wonderful hospitality, it was soon time to prepare for the race home. We'd made our repairs - the windvane self-steering gear was stripped down with the kind help of our competitors, and the bent steel shaft whizzed off to a foundry for it to be straightened - for which we were charged a whopping 7 euros! Sadly it never worked on the trip back - the engineering was too precise to repair on a dockside, but we had an electronic/motorised autopilot as back-up, which against all expectations, worked continuously for nearly ten days, and got us home safely - the idea of having to handsteer 1,250 miles was pretty daunting.

Last minute shopping done (loads of yummy Azorean fruit to counter all the rough weather powdered food rations), it was soon time to say our farewells and cast ...


[ Show full text and comments (9) ]

Part The Second - Exploring the island of Sao Miguel and Azorean Hospitality

One of the great features of the AZAB Race is that we had a stopover in the Azores before returning to the UK for rest, repairs and recreation.

Once we had cleared immigration and customs, which was a little hazy after the previous 36 hours and a couple of dawn pints, we got the boat tucked up in a snug berth:



Once rested we had a good crack at recreation in the bar of the Club Naval, a fantastic institution that treated us like royalty:



We had a fair bit of work to do on the boat, which was just as well as the weather was a bit dreck for the first few days, then we hired a minibus for a group of friends and family who had flown out to meet us to explore the island. On the Saturday we headed North and West, this is ...


[ Show full text and comments (9) ]

I've split the journal into three, mainly to avoid boring the pants off you all. Parts 2 & 3 to follow later.

Part The First - Falmouth to Punta Delgado

It's over a month since the start of the race on June 2nd, it's quite hard to remember too much detail, and we were far to busy to take pictures. Saying goodbye to family and friends was emotional, I was going to miss my boys first birthday (and he'd taken his first steps by the time I got back). The start itself was hectic, there were 50 yachts entered, divided into four classes. We were in class 1, the slowest boats in the race, so we were started last to avoid getting run over by faster boats. Everyone treated the start like the start of an afternoon race, very competitively with a bit of cut-and-thrust, but by the evening we had certainly settled into a more measured pace. The first night set the tone of the race, with uncomfortable seas and visibility that dropped at times to as little as ...


[ Show full text and comments (10) ]

Crossed finish line 20.01 and 38 seconds BST, 28th June. 9 Days, 5 hours and 31 mins. The Capt. & I had couple of pints and a curry in Falmouth last night. The old girl needs a couple of things sorting, so we've left her in Falmouth and Mrs Capt. and Chester drove down to rescue us.

Came home to find my Charlie can walk now and Nancy, well what can you say about a girl like Nancy?

Went down to the pub to thank our supporters - especially our tame amateur meteorologists (don't ask me about the inadequacies of Iridium satphones and Windows effing don't recognise any effing driver vista). Stayed up far too late, so am going to bed now - thank god its not going to be leaping up and down or trying to throw me across the cabin. Thanks for your support guys, more news when I've got my sh*t together.

Well we made it - 9 days 13 hours and 23 minutes in the early hours of Monday morning after two gales, four whales, two swallows, a very knackered pigeon and hundreds of dolphins/porpoises accompanied us across the ocean. We came 5th in our class and are 28th overall (click here) in spite of having one of the smallest boats, which means we are a pair of very chuffed chaps, and have been celebrating almost as hard as the sailing.

The welcome we've received has been extraordinary, the Azoreans are the most hospitable people I've ever come across - we crossed the finish line at 2.40am local time, and two guys in a launch appeared out of the darkness to guide us to a berth, where other guys took our lines, and then pointed us to the yacht club where there were hot showers, cold beer and hot food, 24hrs a day while we are here. We've had receptions, site-seeing excursions and more drinks - I think I need to get back to sea to give my liver a ...


[ Show full text and comments (8) ]

Here's a few pictures from my day yesterday, including some pictures of interest to RPs' large body of keen and knowledgeable lighthouse and navigation aid enthusiasts ( Hi Laozilover!)

We - Tony The Skipper and I had to get his yacht to Falmouth (Cornwall, not Cape Cod!), for the start of a race we are doing next month - more details on this later. We had to leave Dartmouth at 4am Saturday, a day earlier than planned due to a nasty little storm moving in from the Atlantic on Sunday. Followed a few revellers on their way home as I walked down to the river at 3.30am, they clutching bottles of booze, me with oilskins and seaboots. Made me feel very virtuous (normally the other way around, of course).

The darkness lifted as we motored down the river, and streaks of high cirrus were taking on a rosy tinge as we set sail in a nice but chilly NW3-4.

By the time we reached Start Point, the sun was up after a glorious dawn (sorry, no ...


[ Show full text and comments (14) ]