Coach Tour of the UK with Mum

I met up with the tour at Manchester airport, then straight onto the coach to Glasgow, which was our base for the first few days.


The first stop on this tour was a distillery!  Scotland is famous for it's whisky and here we are sampling some of it.
A great start to the day, the guide must have decided we needed a bit of a kick start I reckon.

Lake Katrine
Here we all boarded the good ship 'Sir Walter Scott' for a trip on the lake, I am always first to put my hand up when a boat trip if on offer.

The Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.
This was the highlight of the tour for Mum, definitely something on her bucket list.  It was fabulous, bagpipers by the hundreds, with bands from all parts of the world, even an electric guitar struct up at one stage.  All very entertaining and the best thing was that the weather was perfect too and the 8668 spectators stayed dry and warm.

Edinburgh Castle.
At first glance the cobbled stoned hill up to the top of the castle looked too hard to negotiate pushing Mum's wheelchair and I felt, not for the first time in this tour, that I should have done some serious weight-training in preparation for all this exercise.
 I spoke to the staff, and soon a lovely young man with a specially designed Merc. arrived and we loaded Mum in the boot, wheelchair and all!  What great service.

Grasmere, a quaint village in the Lake District and famous for an association with William Wordsworth.
Is it so easy to forget how beautiful this country is, we always seem to be in a mad dash these days, and it was so good to spend some time enjoying the scenery for a change.

A long way from home as usual!
This was the sign in a place in Wales that is famous for having the longest name ever:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIGOGOGOCH
I might have got one or two of the letters wrong, but who would know!

Here is Mum enjoying a delicious toasted tea cake in a delightful tea shop in Stratford-on-Avon, a tiny place, but excellent for a tasty snack.

On the way back to the airport, Marco, our tour guide, gave a speech of admiration for Mum's spirit of adventure.  Wanting to do a tour like this at 89, was something we should all admire, and there was a loud round of applause from the others.   I certainly hope I shall be enjoying life as much at her age.  Well done Mum!

Florida Roadtrip

We have decided to fit air conditioning to the boat, trying to live in Florida in the summer without it is impossible.  So the unit is on order from West Marine and while we are waiting for this, we thought we would get off the boat for a bit of a break.

The first stop on our little trip was in Lakeland.  Daryl was keen to stop and meet Chris Parker, a famous weather guru, who broadcasts reports on the SSB each morning.  Cruising yachts all along the East coast of the States rely on his information to plan their routes and it was great to put a face to the voice that we hear on the radio.

Ybor City.
This town near Tampa on the East Coast of Florida is  renowned for cigar making.  It is named after Mr Ybor, a Spaniard who found his way to Cuba in the 1800's, learnt how to make cigars and then brought his skill to the States when he'd had enough of the regime in Cuba.  His famous cigar 'The Prince of Wales', put this town on the map, and later it was named after him.

The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
What a beautiful building and housing some incredible artwork.  I have never been a great fan of his art, but I have to admit that some of the work has taken great  skill, and his ideas are extremely innovative.

After checking in at the local hotel, it was time to head to the liquor to stock up on some NZ Sav Blanc!
This charming girl was doing a promotion for Ron de Jeremy.  We asked who Jeremy is, she was appalled that we had not heard of Ron Jeremy, one of the most famous porn stars here in the States, who had developed a side line in Rum!
Apparently quite good rum too!

The Everglades.
We took an airboat ride through the mangroves to see the wildlife.  These boats go seriously fast and have no draft at all, skimming over reeds and logs in the water.  They are steered by foils behind the huge fan at the back of the boat, and so instead of slowing down around the corners, they speed up to do a sort of controlled hand brake turn!  I loved the speed, but some of the landlubbers aboard were noticeably quiet!

Holding a baby alligator! ( It did have it's mouth taped up!)
The guide was throwing marshmallows to attract them to the surface. 

And this is what we came to see!!
The locals had named this chap 'Elvis', he was over friendly in my opinion and as soon as he saw the boat, he headed straight for us.  A couple of the guides had lost hands this year, being over-confident, showing off to the tourists and maybe Elvis here was looking for a snack.

These are the mangrove seeds.  They fall off the plant into the water and the brownish tip will stick in the mud, and the top will sprout the first leaf, ingenious!

Great break from the boat.  Back to Cape Canaveral now to see if the a/c unit has arrived.

Cape Canaveral again.

Out of the water again!
Just needing to do some maintenance work on the boat, the engines have been smoking a little on start up.   So the fuel injection pumps need to be changed, and other jobs too.  There is always a big list, take one thing off it and add another two!
Our good friend, Peter, lent us his car for the duration of our stay and the boat made a great garage for it!

The anchor chain that we bought in Turkey a couple of years ago had gone terribly  rusty.  So we took it all off the boat and it went off to Jacksonville for a holiday to be re-galvanized.  It was 'hot dipped' and it comes back with some of the links stuck together.  So here I am with my hammer bashing the joined links apart, my kind of job!

Another beautiful sunrise over the marina, with one of the large cruise ships docking at the port.

And of course a visit to Cape Canaveral would not be complete without seeing a rocket  being launched.  This one was a Delta rocket, which apparently a spy satellite, so one of the residents informed us.

Heading back to Florida.

Heading north, we decided to clean the bottom of the boat.  So we ran the boat aground, so we could stand up and clean!  A little strange to be standing next to the boat in such shallow water, but great to get the bottom clean without the expense of a haul-out.

Dinner aboard 'No Rehearsal' with fellow cruisers Bruce and Toni from the catamaran 'Remi De'.   Always enjoyable to share a meal and a glass of wine with good friends.

And so onto Florida and West Palm Beach.
We managed to anchor just off the main street, great to be able to walk ashore and sample the night life and the restaurants here.
One morning we were woken up at 6am.  It was the start of a Triathlon  and all the swimmers were lining up to start the first leg, a 1.2 mile swim, then off to cycle 50 miles and followed by a run of about 15 miles.  We were exhausted just watching them from the comfort of our cockpit!  Wonderful to see all the action though.

Downtown in West Palm there is always something going on.   Here I am at 'Gingers Dance Party' dancing away with one of the locals, great atmosphere with all the kids joining in.  Daryl is not much of a dancer and sat on the sidelines.

A typical palm lined avenue here.  The houses are spectacular, but hard to see when they are at the end of long, tree-lined drives and super smart.

In the smartest areas in West Palm Beach, the 'For Sale' signs are tiny and tasteful.  There are no huge , ugly colourful boards here!

The Abacos

In Atlantis, Nassau.
Here we are in the bar again!  Daryl looking like a rabbit in the headlights, having been told to 'open his eyes'!
Simon is trying yet another cocktail, before flying back to England the next day.
It was sad to see Val and Simon leave, but hope they will be back for more sometime.

The Aquariums at Atlantis were absolutely fabulous, with a huge selection on fish, including the huge and graceful manta rays, sharks etc. all in huge numbers.

Never one to miss a party!  Joining in with the parade through the Atlantis Marina.

The best way to look around these islands is by golf cart, it's great to able to see and hear what's going on, but keep cool at the same time.

The day we were there happened to be election day in the Bahamas.  All the shops were closed and the locals were out in force promoting their party, driving golf carts and shouting out the name of their party to anyone that was listening.
Apparently the Progressive Liberal Party won the day, ( the yellow team) and we loved that 'No Rehearsal' was dressed in the colour of the winners!

Pete's Bar in Little Harbour is a great place to chat to other cruisers over a  rum punch or two.    Hung from the roof are hundreds of old T shirts and odd bits of memorabilia that have been left by passing yachts and their crew. 

Next to the bar, there is an art gallery and most of the sculptures are made of bronze which is cast in the foundry just down a sandy path.  So we went along to watch a pouring.  As if the temperature was not warm enough, the heat inside was extreme and the poor guys were covered in fire-proof overalls too.

Georgetown in the Bahamas

Near the end of April there is a regatta in Georgetown.  It is a beautiful sight to see all these boats racing.  They have a great way of 'hiking', on a plank of wood, fixed amidships and then pulled through to the other side after a tack.  Great to see.  The competitors bring their boats in from the other islands by ferry, and the locals set up wooden stands to sell beer and punches.

Good friends, Val and Simon from London joined us in Georgetown for ten days on the boat.  One of the important features the holiday was rum punch and here are Val and I getting to grips with a recipe that Daryl found on the internet!  The first jug was measured out precisely as per the instructions, but after that, we got a bit sloppier with the measurements!

One of the local specialties is conch.  There is quite an art for getting the creature out of it's beautiful shell.  Here is A J from Chat and Chill, a beach bar, giving Daryl a lesson on the trick.   You have to make a hole in the shell and then prize the conch out.  It is a rather tough meat, but softens in the local salads with lemon and orange juices added.  Then some chopped tomatoes and peppers and viola!  Delicious!





When the unwanted bits of the conch are thrown into the sea, the rays come into the beach for a feed.  AJ gave us some scraps and the rays, now familiar with this deal, appeared.  They seemed to enjoy being stroked every bit as much as being fed!  It was a wonderful experience and they were unexpectedly soft to the touch.

Kailk is the local beer here in the Bahamas and this pile shows it is rather popular!

The Abaco Islands

Having checked into the Bahamas, we now can cruise around the beautiful clear waters of the Abaco Islands, enjoying snorkeling on the reefs and the fine sand of the beaches here.

The quaint town of Hope Town is watched over by the rather famous Elbow Reef Lighthouse.

Sam, the resident lighthouse keeper, is in charge of lighting the wic

k when the sun goes down each evening. The light runs on kerosene and has to be hand wound every two hours throughout the night.

The light can apparently be seen for 17miles, but there are times when the wick will not ignite, or the boat with the kerosene supply aboard, does not arrive in time, so a little unreliable!

At the top of the lighthouse, after 101 steps!

You can just see 'No Rehearsal' anchored in the background.

We joined the weekly 'dingy drift'.

About sun-downer time everyone gets their tenders, armed with something to drink and food to share, we head to the upwind side of the bay. The dinghies are all tied together and they drift slowly through the anchorage, chatting and drifting! We counted 25 boats, all rafted together and picking up more participants and more volume as the flotilla floats downwind and tries to avoid colliding with the moored yachts!