We arrived back in Ipswich on the 12th September. An Indian summer, which is spoken of in legend, but is rarely seen, arrived in earnest and carried on all the way to early October. Beautiful blue sky days that demanded us to walk the streets and Parks of Ipswich. The next 3 weeks passed quickly cleaning, maintaining, walking and socialising.
After 5 months at sea Fleur was due a good cleaning and pampering for her sterling service to our maritime endeavours.
Our prominent position on the pontoon meant that we caught the eye of Liz and John from Rascal who we had met the winter before. We had a good chat and put the world to rights over Pizza.
Yvonne and Patrick from Holland appeared on Rambling Rose, again people we met last year who have the same boat as ours. Patrick regaled us with his tales of Irish adventures and Yvonne treat us to lovely Dutch coffee. It was Patricks birthday so cake was involved. Hopefully we will meet up next year if we are lucky enough to head North.
It takes a traveller to understand the sheer joy of washing machines that work and do not fleece you into the bargain.
I managed to find a new small trolley in the Hospice shop which Mick will use for purchasing cans of diesel. We are again a fully functioning 2 trolley family.
A revisit to Christchurch Mansions was a must to view the latest display in the gallery and a visit to the Art Gallery to see their summer exhibition, which filled a good day.
Mick went up the mast to inspect the rigging
The distance view
Close Up at the top
Inspecting the Spreaders
He has a device called a Mast Climber which enables him to shin up the mast with me tightening the safety ropes as he goes up and then gently releasing them to bring him down. A perfect weather day is a must.
Another day was passed at Suffolk University, which is located on the harbour-side. They were holding a Family History open day with the lecture from a leading light in Ancestry DNA circles. It does appear a little marginal in some areas with degradation of the DNA halving with each generation, so it is only any use for about 6 generations. We had access to ancestry databases and had a good root through our family lines. The grandfather who was always called Rennie was found to be called Rendel which was a discovery making the day worthwhile.
A few days were spent catching up on the blogs of our sailing friends. We had a great skype call with Louise and Gordon on Camira in Sicily (who we met in our first year 2014), it is good to talk to people who are living their sailing dreams. It is not all plain sailing and it is fascinating to compare notes with people who tell it like it is.
We had a last meal out in Ipswich with Jane and Adrian who we met in France and again in Holland. They had recommended a Chinese buffet and so we went and enjoyed it together. They brought their boat Colne Rose to Ipswich for what turned out to be a beautiful sunny weekend. We swapped stories about our summers and plans for next year.
We spent Monday the 3rd October rationalising the Kitchen cupboards and wardrobes. We packed a summers worth of bear making into Agnes the trolley
Class of 2016 minus three who are sailing the seas and one a Guernsey resident.
4th October – Tuesday
We had a final big breakfast at Jack’s Cafe (best fried slice anywhere). Then spent the rest of the day racking our brains as to what we may have forgotten to pack.
5th October – Wednesday
Mick had again successfully trawled the internet to reduce our train tickets from £315 each to £40 each! The 7 hour journey whizzed by compared to our 5 knot summer saunter. When you are used to 14 hour, slow, meditative journeys, a high speed train is quite exciting.
After 4 trains, with 3 changes, irritating commuters with our trolley, 2 rucksacks and a ukulele we arrived home to a warm welcome and a lovely meal with Annette and Julian.
Summary for 2016
1450 miles and 33 destinations. Brexit, Attrocities on the French People, two months of overcast skies and big seas, two months of beautiful blue sky days. Fascinating new cities, towns and villages, meeting friends old and new. The sailing has been much harder as we went East to West along the North coast of France, West to East is a much better option.
Phew, time to put the feet up and plan for next year.
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