(no names mentioned - I was talking about a drinking session, honest!!!!)
Following a pretty straight forward nights cruising from Brighton to Southampton we set out for the Alex Pub (the best pub that I have been in in Southampton) to meet up with Kiren and Ali. We had the added bonus of connecting with my little brother Ian, Fiona, Fluffy the cat and Fluffy's mate Eddie. Also along was Tim (who doesn't get out much) another lovely chap who worked wonders with our watermaker and who seemed to magic primary filters out of thin air - MANY THANKS TIM!!!!!!!!
As usual we were the last to leave the pub sent on our way with a couple of bags full of beer. Back on Oceana Fluffy fell asleep almost as soon as we were aboard, but we always knew he was a lightweight, both bags of beer were consumed and Todd had to sleep on deck with the jerry cans as fluffy had stolen his bunk. Next day dawned with a few sore heads, an emotional send off from the dockside and the Biggest Ponce in the World making off with Christina's sunglasses (No disputing it now Fluffy!)
By now Todd had become a salty old seadog and the sail to Plymouth passed quite uneventfully except for the sleep deprived halucinations - trees mid ocean, lights moving at high speeds etc.
Picked up a new cabin boy in Plymouth and Kit joined us for the sail to Falmouth. Plymouth was notable for our inane ability to impede shipping. As we arrived we were escorted by a Police launch as we had sailed across a powerboat race track, more satisfying however was when the Ark Royal was forced to go full astern - Steam gives way to sail after all. We were mid pasty at the time so altering course was out of the question.
Falmouth Bound
Finally we have fulfilled a long held ambition of dropping anchor in Falmouth Harbour. We are here for the next week or so to provision for the trip across Biscay to Bayona. We said farewell to Todd our most able crewmember in a very fond farewell. In the week that he spent with us he managed to keep us entertained with stories of his life without having to repeat himself once. If you ever see him ask him about the time he kicked a hedgehog and it landed on his mates head!!
Had a visit from Joe, Pam, Ashley, Sal, Russ and Nats wishing us Bon Voyage and bearing gifts of a pressure cooker and ice creams. Our new oven has been installed by me and we had our first brew on it this morning. The Murphy's have just arrived so I'd better go and meet them. More later as we prepare for the big push south.
That is of course, providing they survived the night. As Christina and Andy are unable to get to a computer at the moment I have been volunteered to provide an update.
I caught the number 7 bus last night down to the Marina to wish our intrepid travelers bon voyage as they plan to leave today for Cornwall. I found them in a rather merry state in the Master Mariner pub and spent the next few hours playing catch-up and succeeding rather well. I have a very sore head this morning and can only imagine how they feel as they had a six hour head-start on me. I have texted them this morning but no response so far - so they are either comatose, ignoring me or Christina's phone has gone for a burton after she took an unexpected and rather sudden dunk in the brine on her way home from the pub.
.........or is it just a train coming in the other direction?????
Well today we have made a bit of progress. Mick the friendly engineer has given the heat exchanger a dip in acid to freshen it up (something we would thoroughly recommend!) and the engine is back in one piece again. Roger has sorted out the battery bank and solar panel with a mixture of sparky skills and optomistic singing and now all we are waiting for is a new battery to arrive on Tuesday and a following wind and we will finally get the chance to escape Brighton!
Had to go back to Anton and Anthea's house to collect Christina's bag which she had left last night and were introduced as "the mad people who came back last night" to the other house mates. To which we replied "We thought you were the mad ones - inviting strangers off the bus back to your house." Anyhow we still got an invite to their party on Saturday so madness must all be relative.
So then, nearly ready to go, looking forward to being joined by Todd on the first leg of our journey down to Falmouth. It actually feels like we are going to start our Big Adventure so watch this space for news of our South West cruise to Cornwall and the inevitable Murphy/Doidge mayhem that will ensue.
Oh my goodness. Whilst on the way home met some strange men on the no.7 bus and they turned out not to be so strange after all, just a bit like us really!!! Man one is called Anton, man two is called Syed Mohammed Ahkbar Younus Raffait Wafaquani. Got invited back to a lovely house with the most wonderful bathroom and are being coerced back on Saturday for a party before we leave Brighton. Is everything conspiring to keep us in Sussex forever or is it all part of the grander scheme?
By the way thanks to Bob and Celia for a wonderful day and to Zoe again for being our web Guru. Not foregetting Hunn in Singapore for being our first hit.
Ok you guys. At least we know that there are people watching our progress, all the way from Brighton to Singapore. Unfortunately we have not made much progress as we have had further problems with the boat. Still hoping to be on our way by the weekend even though Christina feels like she is living in the film Groundhog Day as each day we wake up, someone comes along and fixes something on the boat then says "Oh, but your alternator has fallen off" or " I don't like the look of your heat exchanger". But then again there are whole sections of society who don't even know what a heat exchanger is (- just ask Fred Dibner). It's getting to the point where we are starting to wonder if the dream will become reality. So back to the title of this section- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! which is exactly how we feel at the moment. Got to sign off now as we still have to find our American oven and a heat exchanger and a wind generator and a rich patron or elderly millionaire (preferably with senility so that they can be easily persuaded to sign over their inheritance to us!!).
Keep on watching this space to see if it is really possible to sail around the world in the style of Nancy Sinatra rather than Harold Steptoe. Lots of love Andy and Christina.
Just when we thought it was all going smoothly for the start of our big adventure we hit a small problem. As Christina had predicted Andy had not got his arse into gear and all the jobs which should have been done months ago piled up into last minute nightmares. Anybody out there who has a spare American oven for our yacht would become a friend for life (any donations towards the potential bill of £1400 will be greatly accepted). Anyhow we are nearly there at our goal of setting off on a journey that will most probably leave us penniless but hopefully leave us wiser, happier and full of great tales to tell anyone who will listen. We have packed up our home, packed in our jobs and packed ourselves off in a 38' yacht to sail over the horizon on our Big Adventure. We hope to see you on the way at somepoint to join in the fun so just remember 'To do whatever you can get away with!!'.
