A holiday in England!
We have flown back to England for a packed few weeks. Arriving in Hammersmith on a glorious evening, we started our UK trip with a party to celebrate our friend Ros’ 60th birthday party , held in a boat club on the river, and complete with a live band playing all our favourite tracks. After a couple of days visiting family, we drove down to the South coast – first stop the river Hamble to meet my brother and spend the night on his newly bought Beneteau 30 yacht. The next day we traipsed around the Southampton boat show, ogling boats and buying a few essentials for our own boat.
After the boat show we drove up to Winchester and met up with our friend Suzie – catching her between trips to Budapest and to Antarctica, no less! We then headed west for a tour of Cornwall, starting with a couple of nights staying with Beth and John in their lovely home in Feock. It was a chance to discuss future sailing plans, as John has kindly (or perhaps, crazily) agreed to crew on Merryn next Summer when we plan a West to East passage across the Atlantic back to Europe. By day we also took the opportunity to wander round Falmouth, revisiting old haunts and meeting Cate’s old medical school friend Cathy.
Moving on from Falmouth, our next stop was further west still, walking between Zennor and Gurnard’s head on the North coast in beautiful early Autumn weather, then on to St Ives for a night, with yet more walks (around St Ives and Gwithian). In town we also browsed the art galleries – by chance we had arrived in St Ives in the middle of their annual arts festival and many of the artists’ studios were open. Inspired by the paintings, we even bought one – and now need to get it out to France!
Our last stop in Cornwall was to stay with our good friends and colleagues from our hospital days, Ray and Claire. Ray even organised a get-together with many of our colleagues from work – most of whom we had not seen since returning to work during the Covid pandemic. It was great to catch up. On top of that, Claire took us on a lovely walk from their house along Jericho valley to Trevellas beach, and Ray took us for a sail in his Saddler 32, Fifty-Fifty (although he did try and get us to help sort out a problem with the boat’s holding tank!)
On our last day in Cornwall we visited our former neighbours, Barry and Margaret, in Idless. Although well into their 80s, both were well and it was a delight to see them again. So much so, that Cate started to talk about returning to live in Cornwall – one day…
We are now back in London, but tomorrow we head off again, this time to Ireland for a tour of Dublin, the West and Cate’s family.