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3rd Jun 2007
Sunderland, United Kingdom - Why Eye! - 468.5 eng. hrs.
Y I man, we're in Sunderland!
5th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Blyth - 473 eng. Hrs
A bit further north today....It must be my birthday! Oh...it is!
Thanks for the birthday messages.
Will catch up with the diary as soon as possible.
X
6th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Winter timewarp!
It's absolutely freezing. It only reached 10 degrees yesterday and we're having to wear winter clothes. I'm beginning to wonder if we've actually warped ourselves to Iceland or something. But hey, we're not feeling sorry for ourselves and it's SO nice to get so many messages from everyone telling us how lovely and warm it is where they are! Hmm! :-)
I'm feeling a bit worse for wear this morning. I'm not sure if the pizza I ate was a bit off but I think it more likely that the combination of rum, Guinness and larger I drank yesterday has something to do with it. You see, it went like this - we've met a guy called Bjorn (cool as you like) from Denmark. He's got a great trip planned! He left Denmark last week, sailed 2.5 days over to Sunderland where we met him. Now he's going around Scotland, down the Irish coast, across the Bay of Biscay, along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, across to the Canaries and then! Across the Atlantic to spend 6 months in the Caribbean! It's a hard life but someone has to do it!
Anyway, Bjorn had taken on so many supplies that he no longer had room for this bottle of Rum. So yesterday he asked us if we would help drink it (with it being my birthday and that). Well you know us -always there to help....now Bjorn has more room on his boat 'Chilli' and I have a thick head! Conny doesn't seem any different so maybe it was the pizza. :-)
Making progress up the North Sea coast has been painfully slow and at times very uncomfortable. Since the end of our first week we've been plagued by this easterly or north easterly airflow. Even though recently the winds haven't been strong, we still face a 2 mtrs swell on the nose (that apparently is still a handover from the storms 10 days ago), winds that only make this swell more confused and fog!
Hartlepool to Sunderland the other day was a bumpy ride but we had a visit from Fiona to look forward to. Our friend Fiona from Redhill was on her way back from Scotland and dropped in for a few hours. It was great to see her, a familiar face and our first visitor. Apart from meeting Bjorn and having some great conversation (and strong bitter spirits), the rest of our time at Sunderland was spent trying to leave. This meant walking to the beach every few hours to survey the conditions and led to Scamp getting completely knackered.
Back to yesterday - another bumpy ride against the head on swell to Blyth. Blyth harbour is an interesting place, apparently a submarine base in days gone by. After a 3 hour walk along the beach with Bjorn, we spent last night in the Blyth Yacht Club which is based in a fantastic old boat originally built as a light vessel. The members of the club were really friendly and welcoming and made us feel like we had arrived at home. Conny got talking to a very interesting guy called Peter Nicholson who has spent many years as a ski instructor in Switzerland. When working there he often stays with the famous skier Zurbriggen (Stray Cat Tim, we wonder if you know him?) Peter seemed to be a fountain of knowledge on almost every subject and was very interesting and funny to spend time with.
We're going nowhere today and we're staying in our sleeping bags until the weather improves!
Hope you're all well. Bye for now....
8th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Sunny Blyth!
The suns come out...... HORRAY!
Still in Blyth waiting for a period of settled weather before we set off for the Farne Islands.
We're enjoying being in Blyth. One of the great things about the trip is the people we're meeting on the way. We're spending about our fifth day now with Bjorn and having a real laugh with him and the other Blyth yacht club members we've met (up until 3.30 this morning on different boats)
Changing the subject completely.....In 2004 I had an accident and hurt my back. The injury eventually led to me changing job and it still troubles me now. I've been told by doctors not to expect a full recovery and sometimes I feel really sorry for myself and fall into the 'cup half empty' trap.
The reason for mentioning this is that it's strange how life teaches us some very powerful lessons at times. A couple of things have happened in the past 24 hours along those lines..
The first instance was a boat pulling into harbour the day before yesterday. It was a 34 foot yacht with three sails that would be a handful for any 2 man crew. Well this boat was crewed by a guy called Alan Cawthorne (86 years) and his wife Rhoda (83).Since retiring 20 years ago they've sailed over 40,000 miles visiting just about everywhere. Even though Alan has a de-generative eye disease (which led to him running around with his shoes on the wrong feet when they arrived) they still sail everywhere together. On talking to him later he told me about a very important lesson he had been given at the age of 19 years old whilst fighting in world war two. He said quite bluntly "I got shot in the arm whilst at the same time my comrade next to me got shot between the eyes!" He went on to say that after that he always made the most of every minute and refused to be restrained by his age or ailments. He did ask us not to mention their age to the coastguard because, he said jokingly, if they new, they'd probably have all the lifeboats on the east coast on standby.
Within hours of being told this story by Alan I heard the terrible news that a school friend of my Son's since they were 4 years old had been killed outright in a car accident. He was only 18 years old!...............
9th Jun 2007
Holy Island, United Kingdom - Pressing North! - 481 eng. Hrs.
Hey! 37 miles further north....
We're at Holy Island next to the Farne Islands and surrounded by seals....Wow!
We travelled north with 2 other boats today. Having an end of trip drink at the moment (seems to be compulsory!) Hello from Co (from Holland), Bjorn and ourselves. X
Sunderland, United Kingdom - Why Eye! - 468.5 eng. hrs.
Y I man, we're in Sunderland!
5th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Blyth - 473 eng. Hrs
A bit further north today....It must be my birthday! Oh...it is!
Thanks for the birthday messages.
Will catch up with the diary as soon as possible.
X
6th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Winter timewarp!
It's absolutely freezing. It only reached 10 degrees yesterday and we're having to wear winter clothes. I'm beginning to wonder if we've actually warped ourselves to Iceland or something. But hey, we're not feeling sorry for ourselves and it's SO nice to get so many messages from everyone telling us how lovely and warm it is where they are! Hmm! :-)
I'm feeling a bit worse for wear this morning. I'm not sure if the pizza I ate was a bit off but I think it more likely that the combination of rum, Guinness and larger I drank yesterday has something to do with it. You see, it went like this - we've met a guy called Bjorn (cool as you like) from Denmark. He's got a great trip planned! He left Denmark last week, sailed 2.5 days over to Sunderland where we met him. Now he's going around Scotland, down the Irish coast, across the Bay of Biscay, along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, across to the Canaries and then! Across the Atlantic to spend 6 months in the Caribbean! It's a hard life but someone has to do it!
Anyway, Bjorn had taken on so many supplies that he no longer had room for this bottle of Rum. So yesterday he asked us if we would help drink it (with it being my birthday and that). Well you know us -always there to help....now Bjorn has more room on his boat 'Chilli' and I have a thick head! Conny doesn't seem any different so maybe it was the pizza. :-)
Making progress up the North Sea coast has been painfully slow and at times very uncomfortable. Since the end of our first week we've been plagued by this easterly or north easterly airflow. Even though recently the winds haven't been strong, we still face a 2 mtrs swell on the nose (that apparently is still a handover from the storms 10 days ago), winds that only make this swell more confused and fog!
Hartlepool to Sunderland the other day was a bumpy ride but we had a visit from Fiona to look forward to. Our friend Fiona from Redhill was on her way back from Scotland and dropped in for a few hours. It was great to see her, a familiar face and our first visitor. Apart from meeting Bjorn and having some great conversation (and strong bitter spirits), the rest of our time at Sunderland was spent trying to leave. This meant walking to the beach every few hours to survey the conditions and led to Scamp getting completely knackered.
Back to yesterday - another bumpy ride against the head on swell to Blyth. Blyth harbour is an interesting place, apparently a submarine base in days gone by. After a 3 hour walk along the beach with Bjorn, we spent last night in the Blyth Yacht Club which is based in a fantastic old boat originally built as a light vessel. The members of the club were really friendly and welcoming and made us feel like we had arrived at home. Conny got talking to a very interesting guy called Peter Nicholson who has spent many years as a ski instructor in Switzerland. When working there he often stays with the famous skier Zurbriggen (Stray Cat Tim, we wonder if you know him?) Peter seemed to be a fountain of knowledge on almost every subject and was very interesting and funny to spend time with.
We're going nowhere today and we're staying in our sleeping bags until the weather improves!
Hope you're all well. Bye for now....
8th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Sunny Blyth!
The suns come out...... HORRAY!
Still in Blyth waiting for a period of settled weather before we set off for the Farne Islands.
We're enjoying being in Blyth. One of the great things about the trip is the people we're meeting on the way. We're spending about our fifth day now with Bjorn and having a real laugh with him and the other Blyth yacht club members we've met (up until 3.30 this morning on different boats)
Changing the subject completely.....In 2004 I had an accident and hurt my back. The injury eventually led to me changing job and it still troubles me now. I've been told by doctors not to expect a full recovery and sometimes I feel really sorry for myself and fall into the 'cup half empty' trap.
The reason for mentioning this is that it's strange how life teaches us some very powerful lessons at times. A couple of things have happened in the past 24 hours along those lines..
The first instance was a boat pulling into harbour the day before yesterday. It was a 34 foot yacht with three sails that would be a handful for any 2 man crew. Well this boat was crewed by a guy called Alan Cawthorne (86 years) and his wife Rhoda (83).Since retiring 20 years ago they've sailed over 40,000 miles visiting just about everywhere. Even though Alan has a de-generative eye disease (which led to him running around with his shoes on the wrong feet when they arrived) they still sail everywhere together. On talking to him later he told me about a very important lesson he had been given at the age of 19 years old whilst fighting in world war two. He said quite bluntly "I got shot in the arm whilst at the same time my comrade next to me got shot between the eyes!" He went on to say that after that he always made the most of every minute and refused to be restrained by his age or ailments. He did ask us not to mention their age to the coastguard because, he said jokingly, if they new, they'd probably have all the lifeboats on the east coast on standby.
Within hours of being told this story by Alan I heard the terrible news that a school friend of my Son's since they were 4 years old had been killed outright in a car accident. He was only 18 years old!...............
9th Jun 2007
Holy Island, United Kingdom - Pressing North! - 481 eng. Hrs.
Hey! 37 miles further north....
We're at Holy Island next to the Farne Islands and surrounded by seals....Wow!
We travelled north with 2 other boats today. Having an end of trip drink at the moment (seems to be compulsory!) Hello from Co (from Holland), Bjorn and ourselves. X
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