Back home

It's strange to be back in the UK when in our heads we are still away sailing. The strangest thing is when one of us says "Where's the xxxxxx? Oh, it's on the boat...." and then remember that the boat is 173.6 miles away. (According to Google Earth).

The journey went well, with the slight snag that the ticket machines at Enkhuizen wouldn't accept any of our cards or cash. On the recommendation of a helpful ticket inspector we leapt off the train at Hoorn, where there is a proper ticket office, rushed off and got some tickets, and managed to get back on the same train. The change at Amsterdam was confusing and we had to change again at Schiedam, but in the end we made the ferry with plenty of time to spare, and the crossing was calm and clear.

We spent this morning being slightly boaty though. The inflatable kayak is of course on the boat :-) but we went down to Bungay and hired a canoe from the nice people at Outney Meadow, then paddled up the Waveney for an hour or so. I managed to drag both Ben and Sam out of bed early enough to get a bit of sunshine, and it was very delightful and peaceful. We timed it perfectly too - as we dragged the canoe out of the water it started to rain, and two hours later it's still drizzling.

On the the recommendation of Libby Purves in Yachting Monthly we have acquired a Wichard Gyb'Easy. This small and expensively engineered piece of metal should allow us to sail safely downwind without having to run around all over the boat rigging preventers, and without the mainsail slamming around in light airs. I do hope it's worth it.

We just had to stop all work in order to admire a very pretty muntjac deer nibbling a vast climbing rose in the garden. We're very lucky with the wildlife we see here...