We have three cabins between four of us (I share with my crewmate Jane), a miniature toilet with wash basin and a large living area with fridge, oven, sink, cupboards, table and seats which convert into a bed if you have extra people. You perfect the ‘galley dance’ which involves three people preparing a meal without bumping into each other in a confined space. We’ve eaten very well so far, because we’ve been able to shop almost every day and keep stuff cold in the fridge which has been permanently switched on as we have shore power each night. If there is no shore power to charge up the boat’s batteries you can’t really use the fridge because it drains the batteries
There is hot and cold running water from water tanks which need to be topped up whenever you’re in a marina – if you’re not visiting a marina for a few days you have to be very sparse with water. You get used to not having a shower for two or three days and you get used to pumping the toilet empty each time you use it ......
Entertainment is provided by the VHF radio, listening in on other people’s conversations and on the coastguard talking to other boats. In the marina you take the piss out of the silly names people give their boats.
If it weren’t for the sailing, it would be just like camping - but on water.
This is home for now.
The sun setting behind the lighthouse on Berry Head.
The lighthouse on the end of Brixham harbour wall.
Since last Friday in Brixham we have done a VHF radio course (Mayday, Mayday, Mayday) a radar course (fuzzy green blips on a screen) a sea survival course (jumping fully clothed into a swimming pool) and a chart based navigation course (if boat A is travelling at 256o from the Dartmouth church spire at a speed of 5 knots and boat B is travelling at 67o from the Kingsweir church spire at a speed of 7 knots, at which position will they collide?)......
We switched on the radio in the middle of the Dart river today to hear the news about the Olympics – the good news didn’t help with my mooring up skills and I fluffed three attempts with the wind blowing me off the pontoon each time. Secretly however, I wanted Paris to win – despite Chirac’s spectacularly tactless comments about the UK....
The sea survival course has convinced me that I never want to get myself into a situation where I need to launch a life raft – the most difficult thing is getting into the bloody thing in the first place. I’m sure life rafts are designed by 6ft men with bulging biceps who have no concept of how difficult it is to pull yourself into it if you are shorter than average with no muscle strength. When our instructor started talking about goggle eyed fish being a good source of fresh water (you gouge their eyes out and drink the water contained in the eye sockets) I began to wonder what on earth I was doing......
In the evenings we have been walking the cliffs and the breakwater.
A pretty sunset over Torbay.
Fishing off the harbour at Brixham
A view from Berry Head at Brixham
I went home (to Exeter) on Friday evening, after a tour of inspection of the boat by my Mum. Then yesterday, my sister, brother in law and my two nieces came down too and we all ate loads of food and made cooing noises at the babies.
I rejoined the good ship Endeavour today at Salcombe and we are now moored up on a buoy at Fowey in Cornwall. We made a pitstop in Polperro on the way - this is it. A tiny higgledy piggledy fishing village.
This is us moored up between the scarily rocky shores of Polperro harbour.
This is a tall ship which has just come into Fowey.
We will now be sailing into unfamiliar waters for me, down the coast of Cornwall and on to the Scilly Isles. Tomorrow we are having a touristy day off and going to visit the Eden project, I've never been - I could be described as an Eden virgin............
I'm having problems loading my photos onto my blog, so this entry is picture-less.
We are now in Padstow - we went from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly, pottered around the islands for a day or two and then came over to Padstow yesterday.
Impressive parking in Padstow harbour.
I missed the journey over to the Isles of Scilly as I was back home in Exeter for my Grandad's funeral. It was a humanist funeral which I liked a great deal, a very fitting way to say goodbye to him. I wore posh shoes which hurt my toes. I got the train back to Penzance on Friday and got the helicopter over to the Isles of Scilly - oooh get me, a ride on a helicopter!
Anchorage off Tresco in the Isles of Scilly.
Last Monday was like a day in the Mediterranean, including a real live swim in the sea... however once again there was no wind, so we chugged along the coast to a place called Charlestown where we anchored up and got the bus to the Eden project. It was a scorching hot day and the humid biome was like a sauna. The Mediterranean biome was more bearable, and even made me feel slightly homesick for France .... ok, I know Paris is hardly the Mediterranean but at least it is in a country with a Mediterranean coast.
The Eden project
More motoring on Tuesday, around Lizard Point and to St Michael’s Mount. We moored up in St Michael’s Mount harbour for dinner – you can quite often walk to St Michael’s Mount along the causeway at low tide, so we had to time it carefully to arrive when there was enough tide.
We stayed in Penzance harbour on Tuesday night, there was no ladder to help us up the harbour wall and I managed to tear a huge great hole in my jeans when I clambered off the boat on Wednesday morning.
Now I'm going to try and sort out this photo problem.
Yesterday we planned to leave Padstow to cross the Irish sea to Waterford. It would have been a 24 hour crossing. A few hours out of Padstow, battling mighty seas (!) well, the waves were about 3 metres high, we decided the wind was in the wrong direction and it would have taken too long to get to Ireland, so we changed course and headed for Milford Haven. It was hard work and I was seasick, but not too badly. The best cure for seasickness is to take the helm, and while I was helming I felt fine. The wind got up to force 6 at times and there were loads of big waves crashing over the bow.
We got into Milford Haven at about 5 in the morning, anchored and went straight to bed, fully clothed with my hat on..... so apart from a bad case of 'hat hair' and mild dehydration, I had no other after effects of the epic passage.
We are now moored up in a marina at a place called Neyland, along the estuary from all the oil refineries in Milford Haven.
When you are out on a dark sea, with a howling wind and waves crashing over the boat, there is nothing more comforting than the flashing light of a lighthouse telling you that you're heading in the right direction and that land is in sight.
Caernarvon castle looks lovely tonight with the setting sun making the walls glow like honey.
It was a long trip over from Dublin, postponed because of gale warnings, and then when we did set off, the wind was in the wrong direction and we had to go quite a way off course - travelling 100 miles when the trip is only 73 miles as the albatross flies..... We arrived in the early hours of the morning and anchored just outside the castle walls, staying on anchor watch throughout the night to make sure the anchor didn't drag and we didn't end up running aground.
We anchored just out of swinging distance of these sand banks at Caernarvon.
So I'm very sleepy.
Earlier in the week we crossed over to Ireland from Milford Haven. The Wicklow hills loomed with wind turbines outlined against the setting sun.
We stayed in Arklow for a couple of nights - I'm sure it must be the town with one of the highest birth rates in Europe - everyone on the high street had at least 3 kids in tow. We went to see 'the War of the Worlds' in a cinema which smelt of burnt cheese. An exhausting film.
Then a short hop up the coast to Dublin where we berthed opposite some humungous cruise liners. Dublin was teeming with groups of foreign language students - I'm not sure they were learning much English. I resisted the temptation to buy a tacky 'Guinness' t-shirt for Mr L who is far too classy for such tat......
Getting hosed down in Dublin harbour
Today in Caernarvon I've had visitors, two sets of friends whom I haven't seen for ages, so that made the long trip over worth it all.
Tomorrow we set sail for the Isle of Man.