Havana - Rørvig

 

 

Startside   

                                                             Holland 2006       

England 2006

To Good Friends

La Belle France-the canals

The Seine Paris & Rouen

The Countryside

Champagne & Beer Money

Indland - how it works

Wrapping up

2007

 

 

 

 

 

Rule Britannia
On 06 July, Christian (Dad!), our third crew member joined us in Dover from Denmark.

On the way back from Stansted, we took a half day river tour of London up the Thames from Grenwich to Westminster and back- by far the best way to get an impression of the ever changing skyline. For those of you who haven´t been there in awhile, the changes are many and dramatic. Here ´s just a glimpse of the old and the new. Locals call it the "Gherkin" (syltet agurk!)- actually the Swiss Rey Building (Bank). Other startling architecture include the new round City Hall and BA Eye Millenium Wheel.

One of our favourite stops along the south coast- Weymouth, a beautifully kept English seaside town of yesteryear....complete with a magnificent Georgian seafront, striped deck chairs, candy floss and seaside rock (you eat it), punch and judy (puppet) shows and even donkey rides....things that disappeared 40 years ago in most places.

Absolutely charming and full of life. Not surprisingly, with 30C the beaches were packed! Extremely quaint inner harbour where we tied up along the walls. Here we enjoy fish and chips, (sadly, the fish comes from Scotland nowadays and all local crab is immediately exported to France!).

Fabulous views, and great quayside pubs. The only things that have changed are the prices....harbour dues are expensive!!! Budget has gone out the window this month. Here we also welcomed our first visitors - Willie and Lee from the States. So good to see them again.

 

 

Home again....in Torquay, where I grew up. "The English Riviera" as it is known- one of the country´s leading seaside resorts. Quite big with around 60,000 permanent inhabitants and double that in the summer.

 

It´s a good summer and it´s busy! Here most of our time is spent visiting friends....picnics on the beach, a pint together in the pub. Sadly, it has become far too expensive for us in the marina (500 dkr per night!) but we have much more fun anchoring in a tiny cove off a local beach and rowing in to our "local" (pub that is!). We´re getting good at anchoring!
 

After Torquay, Devon we continued on down the coast to Plymouth, visiting the impressive aquarium who research marine life and environments all over the world. A huge Naval base with masssive fortifications and many impressive marinas, it was the spot from which Sir Francis Drake sailed and the Mayflower (Pilgrim Fathers) set sail for the New World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not the white cliffs of Dover, (shrouded in heavy mist for much of the time even though sunshine was only metres away!). Instead we enjoyed this beautiful coastline while sailing from Dover to the Isle of Wight, past Portsmouth and Poole and down to "Old Harry" and on to Weymouth.

 Jan swears this formation is a hippo leading an elephant... Our first attempts at anchoring after a hard day´s sail led to some sleepless hours but the new anchor held like a dream and we are old hands now.

We awoke to brilliant sunshine, calm blue waters and a military exercise going on all around us complete with parachutists landing only 100 metres away. As we hadn´t seen the news for awhile, we were wondering if a war had started but they al seemed quite friendly so we just watched the show!

Anchored close in among dozens of boats of all sizes. In the evening we were entertained by the local, beautifully restored Cornish oyster boats that glided by us (one waived and shouted "Goddag!") on their way out to race in the bay.

A rare sight and one we are lucky to see. This is a difficult coastline. many of the small places we would have liked to see are in small harbours that dry out or are too shallow for Havana to enter as we have a deep keel and the prevailing winds often make it impossible to anchor offshore.

However, we´ve seen some lovely spots and that will have to do. We´ve had nearly 2 months of near perfect weather. Simply unbelievable!

Here Dad and Jan enjoy Cornish pasties (not to be confused with pastries) sitting on the seafront. These are pastry (dej) filled with meat and potatoes which farmers used to take to the fields with them for lunch. And see, we really do have palm trees in Devon!

Further south, we´ve enjoyed some beautiful days in the small old Cornish fishing villages (now big tourist spots!) of Fowey (actually pronounced føj!) , Falmouth and St. Mawes. St. Mawes was a real gem - thatched roof cottages along the seawall road, King Henry VIII´s summer castle on the headland and a lovely beach. Genteel and refined!

At the moment ( 29/07) we´re back in Plymouth, tied to a mooring just outside the harbour on a buoy due to heavy winds on an exposed coastline with no shelter. 220 dkr per night- no facilities...just a rope! "Værsågod" and row in!

We have a bow propeller problem that has to be fixed and we had a nasty shock a week ago when we discovered that a new generator we bought in France didn´t fit properly and sheered off the mounting. wrecked the whole engine. A really great guy sorted out a new one for us ....6000 dkr later....But we were lucky, it stayed on till we got to harbour. It could have wrecked the whole engine.

 In a couple of days time our friends Clair & Andrew and 3 kids join us in Dartmouth which will be fun and full house....after that on to France via Alderney, Channel Islands.
Thanks for joining us again...thanks for all your messages and e-mails...stay tuned..!

 

Senest opdateret: 14. February 2007