Wild & Woolley in June

Oops. Missed a day, again. So, yesterday ...

Got up late after excellent Dave Hankin Big Band concert the night before. Shame about the singing and the small audience but the 16 piece band was crisp and clean with great solos esp drummer and saxophone. 

Went for a walk, despite the on/off rain, up to Berry Head (pics). Great views and handy cafe. This is June and we were wearing coats, hats, hoods up and gloves, and leaning into the wind to make progress. On the way back we had a look at the seawater pool just up from the marina; waves breaking over it and full of seaweed. Madness.

Afternoon was a few jobs and Nic prepping for another ROS strategy meeting. Evening saw us staggering out into the rain and wind again. 10 minutes down the side of the harbour to the first restaurant. Really good food, comfortable and soft house music at just the right volume. Splendid. Back on the boat early enough to watch 2 episodes of The Crown (just started series 4) on our ancient portable DVD player.

Then today ...

After Nic finished his ROS prep and Lesley did the planning for sailing to Salcombe tomorrow, we got the No 12 bus to Paignton to see a film! It's sunny today but still blowing a Force 5, and we've really wanted to see Top Gun: Maverick. We have been to Paignton before, on the steam train from Kingswear, but we had forgotten how low-rent the town is. Despite that, L found a bargain in a charity shop. We had chips on the sea front, what else! The film was brilliant macho nonsense - we both loved it.

Then to round off the day we took the steam train to Kingswear and back, just for the ride (pics). It doesnt go to Brixham. Planes, trains, and automobiles ... well, autobus cos we then had the bus back to Brixham. All good 👍 

Back on the boat, the weather has reverted to blue skies and light cool easterly winds, which should stay for our last 3 days. Maybe. If we're lucky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guernsey in blue skies

Image
Last night's Rally dinner at the Guernsey Yacht Club was a noisy affair, not because anyone drank too much, just the effect of 37 people talking. (pic) The food was excellent, and went down quickly. The panorama from their balcony is splendid. (pic) We slept in past 9am. Shocking. After a porridge breakfast we went in search of a pharmacy for Lesley's sunburnt face and a map for Nic - he does like a map. We then caught the No 91 bus that goes clockwise round the edge of the whole island. Fixed fare is £1.25 however far you go, so that was a very good value tour. We ate our sandwiches on board, naturally. The whole island is just lovely, although there's hardly any of the road without houses, mostly bungalows, along it. So it feels like one long village. Also we saw none of the Guernsey cows, famous for their milk. Probably they and their green fields are in the centre where we did not go. After the obligatory ice cream (we are on hols), we got down to passage planning for t...
Read more

The early Return

Oh dear, we never finished the story – rather overtaken by events.   So, last Tuesday, 21 June, we went to Salcombe as planned, early morning to get the favourable tide around Start Point. Unfortunately the lighter easterlies were too light and dead behind (which doesn’t suit Sirena IV), so it was motor-sailing. So often in our cruising life there is either too much wind or too little or the wrong direction. It’s quite a surprise when we can sail a leg, as did happen a couple of times earlier in this cruise.   It was pleasant when met by the harbour dory on entering Salcombe to say with confidence “yes, we’ve been before, we’d like to go on the pontoon in The Bag” and have the man tell us there should be space on the inside. Lesley put her gently alongside. Before long the dory came round for his £22. High tide was at 12:30, meaning slack water and L was keen for a swim. N was ambivalent, feeling a bit tired and achy (blaming it on the...
Read more