We are taking the train to Vannes (Brittany) meeting up with Pierre the skipper and joining Sailing yacht Marie for a 17 day voyage down to Rabat in Morocco! Pierre and his wife live a couple of minutes around the corner from our house in Indre, and purely by chance we got talking about 3 weeks ago. The upshot is we're helping them sail their 14m Formosa Ketch (two sticks) down to its winter home!
All's going ok here - preparations for the cottage sale are moving slowly as France is virtually closed for the whole of August, that's why we reckoned we'd be safe enough to slip away! We're hoping to make our way back via Gibralter - do some radio training, and Barcelona - look at a junk rigged boat.
We'll keep you posted here!
By the way, if you want to track our voyage - email me and I'll add you to our mailing list!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How could I forget???
Public thank you to Peter, Gerry, Margaret and Bob for braving the snow on the 6th February, to get themselves to Tournon St Martin and Rene's 60th Birthday Celebration. managed to keep it a complete surprise from him, which was a close run thing at times, and certainly worth all the machinations to get it organised!!
Shame Mike and Anna didn't remember his birthday, but hey, what's new?
Shame Mike and Anna didn't remember his birthday, but hey, what's new?
Quick update!
As you can see, not a lot of posts since Singapore!!! So very briefly... We sailed on to Tioman Island, had a meal, sailed across the south china sea anchoring off a couple of Islands in the Indonesian Anambas Archipelago, then across to Borneo. Up the Batang River to Sibu the capital of Sarawak (saw lots of sawmills) and then back the 80miles to sea, up the coast through the oil/gas fields of Malaysia and Brunei to the Capital of Sabah.... where we jumped ship. Stayed about 6 weeks in and around the capital Kota Kinabaloo. Met some wonderful people who took us into their hearts and their homes. Finally flew to Kuala Lumpur mid July and back to the UK for the last week in July.
Did the rounds of the family, all pleased to see us back in one piece, and then we joined our friends Brian and Vicky for a week in Cornwall.... to see the Eden centre. Now that was a bit weird having just returned from the real rainforest!!! Have to admit that although it's a great project and I'm sure enjoyed by many, I found the tropical biome a bit sad in places. The vegetation is not as lush and looks a bit stressed in places. That said, if you're never going to get to the real thing, it's worth a visit!
Then we got back to La Boutinais, to find our garden overgrown - I cried. On hot days in Borneo, I used to close my eyes and imagine walking in the morning dew of our garden. I didn't visualise having to clear a jungle first. So, what was to have been a quick couple of weeks sorting out a few things, turned into a major graft session lasting until Mid November, as we tacked on one project after another. We've now finished the landscaping at the back of the barn and around the well, done a little decorating, emptied the barn and finished roofing the oven of the Boulangerie.
Mid November then we set off to continue the renovation of the house in Tournon St Martin - about 4 hours south of Normandie in the departement of L'Indre. Just on the southern edge of the Touraine wine region. Architecture is very medieval, red rooves and golden yellow stonework. There are many fortified towns and hamlets, -the area was in the middle of the boundaries of the two sides in the 100 years war. Between battles, the unemployed mercenaries would loot the locals so they built up defenses which are still here today. Lots of birdlife too, as we're on the edge of the Brenne, an area known as 'mille etangs' or 1000 lakes.
Not that we've seen much of it... heads down, overalls on, we've worked hard to turn the place around in the coldest part of the year! Happy to report that we now have an INSIDE loo, HOT water from a tap and a SHOWER!!!! Also have a fully functioning 'Salon' (lounge) with woodburner, insulated walls, laminate floor, downlighters.... ah bliss!! Only got that far just before my parents arrived on January 19th for a week!
It has been hard, dirty, grotty work, with the reward of a bath in a plastic tub at the end of the day and the use of an outside loo in the courtyard. So 'relieved' to have put that stage behind us!!
Having got this far, we're now closing up to return to La Boutinais at the end of the week. Both sad to be leaving, but happy to be returning to La B where we'll do a bit of cleaning up of the apple trees and see our friends. I'm spending a few days in the UK with Tony and Rene will hold the fort (and get all the jobs done?!)
End of march we both fly to Dublin, to join a boat at present in Newry, which is sailing to Langkawi via Gibraltar, North Africa, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, possibly the Maldives and Sri Lanka. But more of that next time...
Did the rounds of the family, all pleased to see us back in one piece, and then we joined our friends Brian and Vicky for a week in Cornwall.... to see the Eden centre. Now that was a bit weird having just returned from the real rainforest!!! Have to admit that although it's a great project and I'm sure enjoyed by many, I found the tropical biome a bit sad in places. The vegetation is not as lush and looks a bit stressed in places. That said, if you're never going to get to the real thing, it's worth a visit!
Then we got back to La Boutinais, to find our garden overgrown - I cried. On hot days in Borneo, I used to close my eyes and imagine walking in the morning dew of our garden. I didn't visualise having to clear a jungle first. So, what was to have been a quick couple of weeks sorting out a few things, turned into a major graft session lasting until Mid November, as we tacked on one project after another. We've now finished the landscaping at the back of the barn and around the well, done a little decorating, emptied the barn and finished roofing the oven of the Boulangerie.
Mid November then we set off to continue the renovation of the house in Tournon St Martin - about 4 hours south of Normandie in the departement of L'Indre. Just on the southern edge of the Touraine wine region. Architecture is very medieval, red rooves and golden yellow stonework. There are many fortified towns and hamlets, -the area was in the middle of the boundaries of the two sides in the 100 years war. Between battles, the unemployed mercenaries would loot the locals so they built up defenses which are still here today. Lots of birdlife too, as we're on the edge of the Brenne, an area known as 'mille etangs' or 1000 lakes.
Not that we've seen much of it... heads down, overalls on, we've worked hard to turn the place around in the coldest part of the year! Happy to report that we now have an INSIDE loo, HOT water from a tap and a SHOWER!!!! Also have a fully functioning 'Salon' (lounge) with woodburner, insulated walls, laminate floor, downlighters.... ah bliss!! Only got that far just before my parents arrived on January 19th for a week!
It has been hard, dirty, grotty work, with the reward of a bath in a plastic tub at the end of the day and the use of an outside loo in the courtyard. So 'relieved' to have put that stage behind us!!
Having got this far, we're now closing up to return to La Boutinais at the end of the week. Both sad to be leaving, but happy to be returning to La B where we'll do a bit of cleaning up of the apple trees and see our friends. I'm spending a few days in the UK with Tony and Rene will hold the fort (and get all the jobs done?!)
End of march we both fly to Dublin, to join a boat at present in Newry, which is sailing to Langkawi via Gibraltar, North Africa, Malta, Alexandria, Suez, possibly the Maldives and Sri Lanka. But more of that next time...
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