Day 14 - Seaside rendez vous....

Brighton isn't a pretty place, nor is it the cultural capital of the UK - but when the sun shines and you spend time with good friends it is a lovely place to be.

Mungo & Claire (new friends introduced to me by Andrew) arrived at the marina at about midday and gave me a very good reason to stop route planning and get some fresh air.... We drove to their new house (very close to the marina) and spent the afternoon eating, drinking and chatting in their sunny walled garden. I was introduced to Claire's dog 'me me' and we spent a few hours putting the world to rights...

We walked from the house back down to the marina, via a house frequented by Lewis Carroll and the tunnel which is purported as being his inspiration for the rabbit hole in Alice In Wonderland.

Stray Cat was the venue for a few afternoon drinks before we set off to find some food. We were intent on Thai food - but the restaurant wasn't open... we settled for a Chinese and set about putting the world to rights for a second time....

Tomorrow I am expecting Shaun to arrive and we will set off as soon as we can heading for either Cowes (if we leave tomorrow) or Weymouth (if we leave on Tuesday morning.)

Roll on tomorrow and the open sea....

Day 13 - Sunshine @ last...

Having spent the best part of the last fortnight wearing all the clothes I own, it was with suprise and relief that Brighton turned up the wick and gave us 25 degrees of unbroken sunshine and a clear blue skies today.... Where had I stowed my shorts? Didn't think I'd be needing them on this trip !

We had a slow start this morning, as we were late eating last night and subsequently very late writing the blog and uploading photos to the Photo Album (which you can check out @ the very bottom of the blog page). It was so late in fact - I didn't phone Carol and boy did I get some stick today... oh, yes.

Col and I did a rough calculation last night after several vodkas and we realised we had travelled over 1050 nautical miles since a week last Monday... that will explain the tiredness and irritability.

Very sad day today..... Farklin (Col) went home - boo hoo !! Colin has been with me from the start and has been a stalwart from Day 1... To use Colin's own terminology -" He's a real star !! ... he's really FANTASTIC "

I helped Colin to his taxi at about 14.00 hrs and set about tidying, cleaning and doing a few minor repairs to the boat, ready for our next crew... Shaun (Production Director, Dairi-Pak) is arriving on Monday to do the next few legs with me.... So I have some time to do washing, drying and provisioning before we leave on Tuesday.

Haven't left the marina today and unlikely to venture far tonight...

Hope you are all well, and enjoying our blog...

Same time tomorrow ?

Tim