Postscript - long shadows on the way home

Summer's over and the boat is back in Plymouth. We (my father and I) had a great sail home, through the channel islands and back across to Plymouth last week. It was cold, but sunny (albeit not at 3 am Tuesday morning when we crept into a sleepy Plymouth) but reminiscent of lots of trips we did together 20 odd years ago now. Fidelio seemed reluctant to go home and the wind seemed to be forever in our face, but some cultured tacking (and use of the engine) got us in eventually. Until next year...in the meantime the beard's days are numbered.

Guernsey and France

We are now back at home and finally, after the flurry of activity getting the girls ready for school, have the opportunity to update everyone on the last part of our cruise.

We left Alderney and had a great sail to Guernsey, staying in the marina at St Peter Port for a couple of days. It was good to stock up on supplies and enjoy some great food before moving on. We also had a lovely day on Cobo beach (pics above).

Next stop was St Quay Portrieux, a town on the North coast of Brittany. By chance we already knew it well, having stayed there for the last three summer holidays in a cottage nearby. Little did we know that we would be visiting again quite so soon, and this time by sea. We had a good, if slightly bouncy sail there from Guernsey and settled into the very modern and typically efficient French marina. We returned to old haunts – our favourite beach, seafood restaurant and boulangerie. Simon returned to the UK for a few days, leaving the girls and I to explore local towns and markets using the very efficient bus service. Ellie started to gain some confidence in using some French phrases and Flora even managed the odd “merci” here and there.
On Simon’s return we started planning the sail back to Plymouth, but the legacy of hurricane Danny was forecast to sweep the channel throughout the week with very strong winds, making it unlikely that we would be able to get back in time for the start of school. So we made the decision to return on the ferry, leaving the boat in France. Simon is returning this week with his father to sail the boat back to Plymouth.

More Islands

Hello everyone. Apologies that it has been a while since our last update, but we have been without a reliable internet connection for some weeks. Our last update came from New Grimsby harbour, where we were moored, between Tresco and Bryher in the Isles of Scilly. After several nights of rolling and rolling, we had had enough and decided to capitalize on one of the Ovni’s greatest assets – the ability to dry out. This we did (photos above for all the sailing enthusiasts) and in the company of another Ovni and various other boats we dried out successfully (after a few stressful moments for Simon, watching what was coming up from below as the tide went out, from a vantage point half way up the mast). It was a great place to anchor as the weather continued to be unsettled and we spent the next week or so enjoying the beaches and quiet lanes of both the islands. We particularly liked Bryher, which is unspoilt and very quiet.

The next quest was to find a window in the weather to head for Arklow in Ireland. Unfortunately at the end of July it was just westerly gales one after another. We waited for as long as we could but the weather did not abate. Eventually we decided that the Irish sea was not going to be an option this year and went for plan B. We headed back to Falmouth – a beautiful sail leaving Green Bay at dawn and sailing round the north side of the Scillies and coming into Falmouth in the evening (pictures of using the shute – 9.5 knots for Pistachio Pete and pals to try and beat - and poling out the foresail above). We spent a day there, catching up on washing and shopping and then did another fantastic sail, this time 22 hours to Alderney in the Channel Islands and a first ever sail through the night for Katy and the girls. We have been here all week, soaking up some beautiful sunshine and blue sea as summer seems finally to have arrived. The plan from here is Guernsey and then the coast of Brittany. We are all keen to return by sea to the coastal town of St Quay Portrieux where we have been on holiday before, but this, as always, will depend on favourable weather.

Being on the boat brings back many happy memories of sailing (as well as motorbiking) with my friend and cousin, Alex Woods, a key member of Fidelio’s delivery crews both last year in France and on the return trip to Plymouth in May (as pictured in these pages). Tragically, Alex died suddenly last week aged 28. Words can hardly describe the quiet strength his presence always provided, his rich sense of humour or the warmth of his smile. Alex was a great companion through many adventures and the news has been hard to take in. Whilst I knew him recently as a grown, strong man, perhaps my fondest memory of Alex’s spirit is the 11 year old boy, clinging to the back end of my old XJ750 Yamaha when (as a “responsible” 22 year old) I demonstrated the mixed delights of old-style heavy Japanese motorcycle handling at speed in the rain. So much time has passed, but the uninhibited, joyous, shriek of laughter in my ear is how I will remember him along with a photo I have of him taken when we returned (intact) where his huge grin is visible despite my spare crash helmet being several sizes too big for him.

Whilst enjoying the last few weeks of our trip, our thoughts are with Martin, Jean and their family at this sad time. Simon will be leaving us for a few days next week to attend the funeral in England before returning to sail back to Plymouth and the end of our cruise.

Isles of Scilly (part 1)

Well, we're in the Isles of Scilly. An interesting sail here when Simon spotted a weather window to get here before a strong gale arrived and we managed to get in, with a few hours to spare but below a steadily more glowering sky. The weather has been so bad that the islands are very quiet, lots of spare moorings and space everywhere, which is nice for us, albeit the first day here it was so windy that we didn't fancy a dinghy ride and stayed nice and snug on the boat all day out in the harbour!

The weather continues to be very windy but it is so lovely here that waiting for a window to head for Ireland is no hardship. We're probably about a week behind schedule but Simon has a plan to reel off two long sails (here to the Dublin area and thence to Campbeltown for about 10th August) to recover some ground. We hope then to head up the west coast of Scotland and through the Caledonian canal but it really depends on the weather in the next two weeks. Unfortunately the weather forecast for this week seems to be very windy until Friday and to get to Arklow (170 miles) or Dublin (about 210) we need a reasonably settled spell (albeit Milford Haven remains an option en route).

We spent about a week based in St Mary's (the principal island) doing boat trips out to some of the smaller ones, and hiring bikes to explore St Mary's itself. Simon was last here properly in 1982, and then (briefly) on a later sailing trip in the early 90's, Katy had a week here about 15 years ago so whilst the islands familiar in places we have all enjoyed exploring the islands (and in Flora's case their multitude of gift shops). Faqvourite so far is probably St Agnes, which has a great pub, and some lovely unspoilt scenery and beaches.

We have now moved to New Grimsby harbour (between Tresco and Bryher) to explore the northern islands. Tresco seems very very commercialised, with lots of timeshare apartments and a spectaculalry expensive deli dispensing sun-dried tomatoes (etc) but does have a nice and wireless enabled pub which is where we are writing this on a wet afternoon as nowhere else on the Islands have we found a good internet connection (hence the delay since our last post).

Next update likely from Ireland in a week or so.

Penzance and St Ives

In the end we stayed 6 days in Penzance, again waiting for favourable winds to sail to Scilly. We spent several lovely days in St. Ives, travelling there by train and enjoying the beautiful beaches. We all had a lovely time body boarding - Flora's first attempt ended in a spectacular somersault through the waves, but undaunted, she managed to continue and caught some great waves. We also visited the Tate in St Ives and admired the Alfred Wallis and Barbara Hepworth exhibits. We had a day at St Michael's Mount and also a day in Penzance - the latter a place we would definitely return to by sea.

However, throughout this week we were anxiously monitoring the weather. There was a brief 8 hour respite in the strong westerly winds and we decided to go for it, although we knew that the window was tight and a NE gale was foecast to follow right behind. Luckily the BBC forecast was spot on and we got into Hughtown in St Mary's just before the gale struck.