My 5th Birthday !!

Dad and 2CV Llew take off for a bit more sailing. It's a lovely day and there's a nice warm breeze which is in a reasonably firmly fixed direction so perfect for Dad to get some more practice in at being 'skipper'. Watch that foresail 'luff' (leading edge) in case it starts to shiver - then bear away, keep and eye on the wind indicator vane on the mast head, heeling is good, keep red buoys to your left and green to your right when heading 'upstream' into the Creek, keep and eye on the depth sounder, stay focused when going about or you'll end up doing a 180 (or more!). There's a lot to remember, most of which is coming back to Dad from his student Lark-dinghy gravel-pit sailing days. One last lesson which neither of these would be salty sea dogs remembered was that if you buy shiny new life jackets, meaning to look a bit more professional and be a bit safer, they don't do a lot of good still left in their pristine packets down on the ship's bunk. Whoops.

I am 5 today. Hasn't the time flown by? Happy Birthday to me. I dare say there will be raw pork rib 'Birthday Cake' in the picture somewhere today although Mum is deserting us, off for a wee holiday with Diamond (Yeah, I know, I'm phoning the RSPCA right now).

Project Erroll is now in a rather bizarre state. Mum and Dad have signed all the legal docs for the UK end of the thing and handed them in to the Solicitor in Ashford but have not heard anything definite about having "exchanged" per se. They are assuming they will get a 'congratulations' email or phone call from said legal beagle to say "You have now exchanged with a completion date of xxx". Either way, they have now felt safe enough to risk the booking deposit on the purchase in Ireland and to have selected and engaged a solicitor over there, so that the ball has started rolling with a possible completion date over there of early December. The 2nd is being talked about. They just wish the English side would set a bit more firmly to take away the nagging fear that it might still all go Pete Tong.

Happy but Trepidatious Birthday to me?

Deefer (5)

Post 999 - one more to go!

Another day of Garden assessing for Dad, one of which is Whitstable Castle, no less. On our dog walk we call by Cambria and go aboard so that Dad can have a cup of coffee. The barge is all open and the kitchen is now all set up for making coffees and teas. You could actually nip aboard and knock up a full roast dinner if you had the ingredients with you handy.

Later Dad goes off sailing on the Swale with 2CV Llew, on his 20 foot motor-sailer (mini-yacht) "Kestrel". They motor down Oare Creek and out through Faversham Creek into the Swale in a decent breeze but as soon as they kill the engine and haul up a few sails it goes dead calm. They sit around for a while and then breeze starts to come in fits and spurts from random directions (a "flukey" wind, as we salty sailor-dogs call it).

Eventually it decides to blow from one direction for more than a few minutes and they can get a bit of sailing in, Llew helming and handling the mainsail, Dad nipping about the cockpit winching in the 'Genoa' (big fore-sail) sheets as they tacked a few times. It's not a very big tide today, and Llew's is a mud-berth, so they have to head back home (Dad at the helm now) before the water all drains away, but they are sailing from about 15:30 to 17:00, so Dad is happy. Mum instructs him to come home via the wine shop and the "chicken to spatchcock" shop.

Post 1000 tomorrow!

Have a great weekend

Deefs

Sailing

Some nice pics tonight. First up, we get abandoned again as Dad goes off sailing in the Swale with 2CV Llew and his buddy Derek who owns a slightly tired looking 30-foot sailing boat called Bonzer. This was Dad's first time sailing (except for barge trips) since he used to sail dinghies (Larks) on gravel pits while at University, so he was a bit rusty (and the Larks never had all this posh coffee-grinder winch technology!) but they let him steer for ages and play with a few sheets (ropes) and it all came back to him.

The Swale was a good bit breezy and spotting in the wind, so it was a bit chilly, but he's home now, back in the warm and Mum is cooking his supper. The 2nd pic is of his posh new car, which he's only had a week at this stage.

Have a great weekend

Deefski