Just to say we hope to get away tomorrow around lunch time. It looks like November looking at the gale force wind and rain out of the British Legion window but it is SUPPOSED to calm down tomorrow so we will probably make for Camaret (near Brest) which is around a 26 hour sail. Weather for Friday looking bad in the Biscay area which is why we are not heading straight for La Corruna in Spain. Just Keith and me now as said a sad goodbye to Pete on Sunday(he was sad cos he was leaving his boat!)

First passage to Falmouth

Here is a clip of the lovely weather we had on the way down to Falmouth!

Still in Falmouth (in the rain still) waiting for a weather window. It looks good for Wednesday and Thursday but gales are forcast in all areas for Friday. That would be when we will be down in the lower part of the Bay of Biscay. So we may amend the plan and go down to somewhere in the area of Brest then wait there for a weather window to make for Spain after the gales have gone through.

Keith wondering which way to go after a few Guiness! Me taking notes for..... not sure really, and Phil, Nick and Pete enjoying themselves.

We are now in Falmouth trying to get things sorted in the never ending rain.
Had a really bumpy ride down from Yarmouth on Wednesday and Thursday. The wind was coming right from the direction we wanted to go so decided to motor sail rather than go miles off the course by tacking round the wind. But then on Wednesday evening the engine just died on us so we had no choice but to sail miles off course while Pete spent 3 hours trying to fix it, only for it to die again an hour later. We hand- steered around the wind all night as the battery power had gone down so we couldn’t use the autopilot and we didn’t want to set up the wind vain in the dark while we are still quite unfamiliar with it. Anyway, things had calmed down a bit by the morning and Pete managed to get the engine going again so we could head in the direction we wanted to go.
We were all ravishingly hungry by lunch time as we had hardly eaten the day before as none of us were feeling too good in the washing machine conditions of the boat on Wednesday. So we gingerly had something to eat then realised we were all now OK and really enjoyed tucking into the chilli that Jacquie had made us before we left....thank you Jacquie, we all thought it was the best thing we had ever tasted we were so hungry. We even managed the promised sundowners at 6pm which will be a ritual when we are at sea in the future. Sundowners is where we all get together and have one drink at 6pm every evening, this is where we can discuss the day, or whatever takes your fancy and it gives us all something to look forward to! (a bit sad I hear you say...but it works!)
We had other problems with the electrics on the way down so we arranged for Nick Thomas (our electrician who is also doing the actual Atlantic crossing with us) to come down to Falmouth for the weekend and sort these problems out. The lads also sorted out the engine problems while in Falmouth (something technical which I can’t go in to here even if I wanted to!) My mate Phil Greet who works in Falmouth kindly got us a buoy to use from Culdrose Sailing club which will save us a few bobs worth of mooring fees while we are here. We also had to go into a marina for a couple of days so we could have power to sort out the repairs. We bought a new battery as one of the batteries has had it. We left it on the deck yesterday evening in the marina when we all went ashore for something to eat. Today we can’t find the battery, obviously someone has swiped it. We can’t believe that this has happened, must have maybe got it from the water side as we are rafted up against another boat so they would have had to climb over that one first to take it from the pontoon.

Must go now as I have been summoned to go up the mast and put up the radar ref

Well we are off tomorrow, have small hangover today which will hopefully clear by tomorrow. Still loads to do, but guess we will never really be ready to go. Must get on.

Just set up this blog, hav'nt got a bloody clue what I am doing, but as this is a year long thing hopefully I will get the hang of it.

Friday night and only 3 days to go, never realised how much there was still to do until I gave up work last week. Still trying to get the house packed, emptied and cleaned and can't wait for it to all be done now so we can get on with the business of remembering that this is supposed to be a fun adventure!

Wasted loads of time trying to get songs from my CD collection onto my new iPod, although the new computer recognises the iPod, it does not seem to want to transfer the songs to it. Have searched the web high and low looking a peoples suggestions for this but nothing seems to do the trick. My old computer will transfer them but wont find the song titles, then seems to randomly put on some songs and not others! How can this be so hard!! Looks like we will have to sing to our selves while we are away.

Anyway, don't give up after this page, I hope it will get better and more interesting (so do you I suppose!)