At the end of May we joined a friend on his boat and sailed off for five weeks, exploring the Channel Islands and the North coast of Brittany. We were lucky with the weather and managed to keep ahead of the strong winds etc that plagued so much of the Channel coasts at that time. We crossed to St Peter Port from Dartmouth in nine and a half hours, our best time yet. After a few days there we continued to Lezardrieux before heading upriver to Pontrieux. Our visit here was fortunate enough to coincide with a weekend of ‘ Musique Mechanical’ or to you and I a Barrel Organ fest. It was really quite enjoyable and the weather was superb.
From here we headed East and spent some time in Paimpol where our friend had to fly home to deal with a lack of water supply to his home, his wife was not amused. From here (after a stop of several days but a nice town to spend time in) we visited St Quay Portrieux then St Cast before heading up the River Rance to visit Taden and Dinan. Coming down river from these lovely places we met some friends in St Malo and after a few days accompanied them back to St Cast for a night before sailing off to St Helier on Jersey.
A stop of a few days here saw us heading off to Sark where we moored for a night before going back to St Peter Port where we waited for good weather to allow our return to the UK. At least while we waited we were able to visit Herm by ferry as it was an island that the wether had not permitted us to visit in our own boat this time. We arrived back in Torquay at the beginning of July, completing our circuit nicely.
Arriving home we unpacked quickly as we had an important date to keep. On the morning of the day we had left for the Channel Islands we had bought ourselves a Motorhome. 22ft of motorised living accommodation and we were going to collect it from near Barnstaple the day after getting back. After driving around in a Renault Clio this is a little bit larger but visibility is so good it isn’t too much of a challenge although it does take longer to stop three tons of vehicle I soon discovered.
We have spent our first weekend on it, just outside Ilfracombe where we had to take it back to a caravan workshop to get a problem with the fridge sorted out under warranty. Sue found us a lovely quiet site that had a pub within half a mile in each direction of the entrance. We fell asleep the first night listening to owls hooting in the trees surrounding us, bliss.
Because our boat is called Half Time our motorhome has been nicknamed More Time, I think it will stick.
We are now at home again for a short while before heading off, hopefully in Half Time but as always that is down to the weather.
Further updates as time allows.
