It's nearly summer again! Well, as far as south coast marinas are concerned it is.
Summer berthing rates begin on 1st April and that's our cue to vacate our winter berth at Chichester and set off for pastures new(ish).
Why "ish"? Well the places we visited last year were virtually all new to us, but this year we intend to take a more relaxed approach and sail slowly along the French coast. We'll therefore be visiting many places we've seen before - at least in the early stages of our trip.
We don't know how far we'll get this year and we're really not bothered. When we near October we plan to look for somewhere to leave Cyclone for the winter months and return home. All being well, we'll start again in 2017 from where we left off.
Before we cross the channel we plan to sail up the Thames to London. This was something we meant to do last year, but we just ran out of time.
Last year we weren't actually all that organised. We'd failed to decorate as much of our house as planned and our preparation work was all a bit last minute.
Whereas......
This year we're not at all organised. We've failed to decorate as much of our house as planned and our preparation work is nowhere near as advanced as it was this time last year!
We've replaced Cyclone's standing rigging and serviced her engine but that's about it. She's been in the water all winter and we've yet to put her sails back on. We've spent a day scrubbing above and below decks but there's plenty more to be done yet.
We've got maybe 5 days left (once visits to parents have been taken into account) to get Cyclone ready to go, pack, sort charts & pilot books, victual etc. etc.
But then, as I recall saying last year, we've got passports, EHICs and debit cards. Everything will be fine.....
