On Land

We arrived in Portugal (Luz near Lagos) a week ago, having left the boat in Carentan for the winter. We will return to her in late March and resume our travels. There are worse places to be grounded - Scruffbag  is in shorts and the days are still quite warm, though fleeces go on once the sun goes down,

The apartment has everything we need and there are some good clifftop walks. The town is quite empty and lots of restaurants and bars are closed but there are enough to suit our needs and we prefer this season as the place is probably full of tourists in summer. We are told that February is beautiful as all the flowers are in bloom. Currently the place seems to have an over- abundance of pensioners, of the Daily Mail reading type but this may just be my inner cynic coming out.

Winter Home

So we are finally here and getting ready to leave Erica for the cold winter months!! The anchorage from hell was a changed place this Tuesday - flat calm and gently rocking us to sleep. Up at 5-30 and a flat calm sea greeted us - perfect - or so we thought  until dense fog descended after 1 hour. We decided to press on but did not see the entrance buoy until 100 yards away. It was gong to be difficult negotiating the  channel in the canal. Fortunately fate was kind and, as quickly as it had descended, the fog lifted just as we passed the entrance buoy and we had a great sail down the 8 miles of scenic canal.

Carentan is very pretty and sheltered - though at present we are busy putting the boat to bed as we are leaving for UK then Portugal on 9th November to spend winter in the sun before resuming our journey in April.

We cannot use the electricity here as it is dodgy and our system is sensitive to dodgy as it is not good for aluminium. We are learning to use the generator - good practice for the voyage to come. We hope to explore the beaches here as the battle for Normandy took place here and there are lots of interesting museums and monuments. We have also bought more walking maps. Scruffbag has lost shedloads of weight but wine and cheese are having the opposite effect on me.

It's Only Rock and Roll

And last night on an anchor outside Saint Vaast it was rock and roll all night long and I certainly did not like it. Cupboards were stuffed with towels to stop tins, pans etc. from banging but then other things decided to join the choir and the rolling went on and on and on ... Sleep was not on the menu.

We had to anchor as we can only get through the lock here at high tide and then we have to await the next daytime tide to enter the river at Carentan 2 hours before high tide - even though the entrance is only 11 miles away. Anyway this morning Scruff bag got some fine blisters on his hand hauling up 45 metres of chain and off we set. It was always a close call as the winds had been blowing quite strongly  from the north all week and the pilot book advice is not to enter the river in onshore winds above force 5 due to the swell. The forecast today had been force 4 but as we pounded through the big waves and watched the pointer on  wind instrument climb to over 20 knots - with gusts of 25 we began to consider. that old adage "If in doubt abort the mission"
When Scruffbag pointed out that if we turned back we would be able to catch the open lock at Saint Vaast but if we carried on and then found the entrance untenable we would have to spend another night at anchor that was it.

Mission aborted - back in Saint Vaast - can't go again till next weekend as we need springish tides to get enough water in the river.

Car- Boat-Car

Actually not a cormorant that broke the wind hawk the other day - in fact it was a gannet. As you can see I have been amusing myself by reading up on bird identification in the wet weather we are having. We have both cormorants and gannets here apparently and they all seem to be great friends.

Saint Vaast is actually a very pretty place and we do plan some exploring as soon as this rain has  gone, It has an island just offshore, Tatihou, which is a world heritage site with museums , forts etc.so we decided to go there today on the strange craft in the photo. Is it a boat? Is it a car? Is it a boar? Is it a coat?

Anyway apparently you can get there every day on the hour from April until 4th October, when it all closes so we have missed our chance and are reduced to sheltering onboard reading novels and writing blogs, C'est la vie.

Cormorant City

Now in Cormorant City - otherwise known as Saint Vaast La Hougue, Woke up this morning and had to hose down our finger pontoon to prevent trailing  the contents of what appears to be a communal cormorant toilet into the boat. Came back from a walk to find one s(h)itting on the top of the mast.  Scruffbag tripped over a cleat and almost fell into the water in his haste to chase it off, We then discovered it had sat on the windhawk and destroyed it.
Not our favourite birds!!!

Round The Corner

Been in Cherbourg 2 weeks and most of them with strong easterlies, which prevented us from going to Alderney as planned, since the anchorage becomes untenable in strong easterlies. We have had a great time, chilling and doing some walking, visiting museums, chateau etc. but with the easterlies no longer in force, we are heading east round the corner tomorrow to Saint Vaast La Hougue,

Now in France

Finally left UK at 6am Saturday, Very little wind so motor sailed as we wanted to get there before it got dark and cold - which is a problem (along with condensation at night) at this time of year.

Had a close dance with a huge ship which was a bit scary but lessons were learned. We had right of way but the ship was getting very close and the AIS indicated that we were on a collision course so we altered course. The ship altered course at the same time, putting us on another collision course. I went down to call him but he called me and asked why I had altered course - I responded - in a somewhat higher pitched voice than normal - that I would return to my original course if he would stay on the current course please, He should have altered course well before he did but we should have called him earlier before we altered course in order to determine his intentions. Phew....

And then came the dolphins - at least 20, and probably more, playing round the boat for a good 15 minutes, swimming under and around us and leaping about. It was brilliant - never seen more than the odd one before in the channel. Scruffbag and I were grinning from ear to ear the whole time,

So - now in Cherbourg for a week - wall to wall sunshine at present - moules frites tomorrow and maybe Alderney at the weekend, It's a hard life ...

Escape From Neptune Marina

Finally broke free on 8th September and are now underway. Scruffbag is, at last, sound in body. We  are currently in Poole Harbour with a force 9 gale howling outside the boat. We travelled here in 2 legs, stopping at Brighton for 1 night after a 24 hour trip before getting up at 2am for the sail here. We were very fortunate in having the sailing expertise and excellent company of Mr. T (or should I say Mr G & T) on the  trip to Brighton. Fortunately the Tesco's opposite the harbour here does sell Gordons.

The autohelm  (George)'s pin was shaken loose in the disturbed seas en route to Poole but fortunately the wind vane, Nat, was on hand to take over so minimal steering was required. We had hoped to be able to add a picture of me grinning inanely whilst scanning the confused waves for lobster pots off the Isle of Wight  which lurk in wait for unsuspecting propellers but the camera battery was having none of it.

Next stop Cherbourg when wind abates - so maybe photos then.

Spain is lovely
 Spain is lovely at this time of year - shame we are still in Ipswich! Scruffbag has had his operation but it was more complex than expected and he needs another op to remove a stint  next week. We have given up planning a date of departure - though rest assured that we will depart as soon as ever we can. We are just going with the flow and hoping the flow speeds up soon.

Still here.......

We were expecting to be chilling out  on the Spanish coast by now and here we are still in sunny Ipswich. Scruffbag has got a date for his operation - 30th July and has been told he can leave 2 weeks later if (fingers crossed) all goes smoothly. Only 2. 5 months delay!!!!! We have even been to Genesis and bought pushbikes to keep ourselves fit and amused. Still, it beats work and we are sailing around the local rivers using all the new sails and equipment. Hopefully the next post will see us en route/

forecast

Hands free for beer - things to come in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

Still here

As many of you know, we have, reluctantly, had to postpone our leaving for a few weeks so that Scruffbag can pass his medical MOT and avoid engine failure at sea, Will update when we leave.

Almost there

Mark now finished work. I have 3 days to go. Planning to set sail on 24th May - weather permitting.