What a lovely week we have had since arriving in Cowes and beyond. Cowes was awash with gorgeous classic boats on our arrival which made it even more lovely then it normally is. A few chores had to be done here such as a mountain of washing some of which didn't even survive after a good wash, whoops! New regime of washing now in place, small bucket load done every evening after the days end - slightly laborious. Further car seats also purchased for the kids to have a comfy place to sit in the cockpit when needed, as well as below. A bit of sailing practise in the Solent in between it all. Our first trips out in the tender were had form our mooring up the Medina. Loaded with the washing, rubbish, pram, kids and us, it was a little full but lots of fun. The kids even fell asleep in the tender on the way back from Cowes to the boat!! What a gem of a little tender the tinker tramp is. During our stay up the Medina we had a flying visit from a kiwi sailor, GUY, who came aboard for a beer and a little chat on his ambles up the medina in a borrowed rib.

We also discovered upon our trip down from Dover that our chart plotter touch screen was not working properly. So this had to be exchanged. A swift fix at Raymarine, and all set to go further West, only to discover that upon them fixing it, they buggered up the GPS and so we no longer had any means of tracking ourselves or access to charts etc! Slightly bigger issue now. After a long call to Raymarine venting some frustration with the fact  that our brand new chart plotter was not working for the second time in a few days, Rolf managed to ensure that a brand new one was to be delivered and installed to us on Monday. With this in mind we decided to leave Cowes anyway on Friday evening as planned from our very peaceful mooring up by the Folly Inn (thanks Matt and Ornya) as we do have secondary navigation equipment on our iPad. Off to Lymington we went.

Although effectively stuck again for a few days whilst waiting for our new plotter Lymington is certainly a much nicer place to be hauled up compared to Dover. A fab free kids fete was on whilst we were there which Audrey and Bertie both loved, especially the puppet show with the Beatles and One Direction (although a little churchy!) Crabbing, fishermen coming in with the days catches, salt water baths, lovely walks and a brilliant Saturday food market. We also had a fantastic evening with Tommy D who came to see us in Lymington. Was great to catch up, shame we couldn't go for a Sail, but we will hopefully have a chance to take him and the fan somewhere in the Med. James and Harry also came for a flying visit on their super fast Huntsman on Sunday.

 After our new plotter was in, we decided to do a further night passage down to Dartmouth, as it worked out better time wise and is also easier with the kids. And what a fantastic night to leave the Solent. A sail past the needles was a dream come true for Rolfy, and we both felt like our trip was really starting to begin passing the Needles. A celebration whisky was had as we passed. The lions share of the night was spent sailing with a lovely North to North West Wind. Sailing at 9.5 knots at times, it was a memorable night. Learning a lot from Skipper Rolfy and my ability and knowledge to sail Maya grew a lot on this passage. We shared the night watches although Rolfy did the lions share and slept in the cockpit with me on my watches, as my confidence grows! My first sailing sunrise and sunset for the trip, and even a few dolphins in the morning to welcome us. Plotter also worked a treat which was brilliant!!

We arrived into Dartmouth midmorning. What a stunning part of England. WOW!!!! It felt like we were sailing into somewhere in the Alps. Beautiful as we rounded the corner of the river, with the village set to both sides, boats all around and glorious sunshine. A late breakfast was enjoyed and the boys had a sleep while Audrey and I had a play in a bucket of river water and did the laundry. We ventured into town later in the afternoon in the tender again and enjoyed some local ice cream as we pottered about town. We decided to continue onto to Salcombe the next day, with the high tide as it wouldn't be an early start, gets us a little further West and makes the last leg to Falmouth a little shorter.

And WOW. So thankful we did come to Salcombe. At anchor now, really feeling like the holiday of our life has just started. Enjoyed a lovely sunsetting with BBQ chicken salad, red wine, dark chocolate and glorious views from all angles of our anchorage. The shore is dotted with little beaches which we will explore tomorrow along with the town and scorching weather for our stay. We will stay here tomorrow and enjoy the town, and move along to Falmouth on Friday. We will let you know what fun we have tomorrow in Salcombe. This could even be the place to sail the Tinker Tramp Tender with the Audrey...!

So due to our gear box issue we had to stay a few days longer in Dover than we had at first anticipated. I managed to get the old gear box out and off to French Marine in Essex to see what the cause of the issue was. What i had hoped would be a simple 'fix the clutch' job, rapidly turned into a dozen new clutch plates and a ten day wait for parts!!! The cost of the plates & labour to fix the old gear box was going to be around the two thousand pound mark. Not quite as cheap as a new car clutch, i found out to my horror! The other alternative and the one we went down was that suggested by Mike French and find a more powerful reconditioned gear box from a Yanmar dealer in Cornwall, so this was the option we chose. So four days later Nicky & I installed the new box into Maya and reconnected the all the important parts, such as the prop shaft. Had somebody told me a year ago that i would be proficient in taking out a marine gear box, and reinstalling a new one i would have probably have given them a long hard look. But as needs must, we cracked on and learnt a little more about how Maya ticks along the way.

In the mean time we had some exploring to do. We visited Dover castle which Audrey enjoyed especially, greeting the fair maid & a whole school party to boot. And we learnt a little history of Henry II and his squabbling sons, as well going down into the tunnels which lead into the heart of the white cliffs of Dover from which operation Dynamo and the rescue of the Dunkirk beaches was spear headed.; And Churchill famously spied across to France, and declared war on Germany. We also took some leisurely walks on the west harbour wall, and Audrey hollered her usual 'BYE BYE BYE' as the cruise liners departing, as well as Dover beach, in-between the all to frequent down pours. We stopped in at Dover Yacht club, and managed to convince the kindly general manager Richard to part with a slightly dilapidated burgee, and some good advise on leaving Dover harbour. And we met our first cruising friends (excuse the phrase) Wilue & David from Holland, who cruised the Caribbean several year ago with their young children and were on their way to Brighton, and the Solent. A definite taste of things to come. 

Sadly to say Dover is not the most salubrious of places to hole up for the week, so we are all glad to have moved onto Cowes.....

We departed Dover on Monday both full of nerves & excitement to be moving on.... We force 2/3 breeze forecast from the south west, we felt that if our new gearbox didn't let us down we'd be fine to reach the entrance to Solent the following morning. After some test runs on the engine inside the safety of the harbour walls, and all being well we decided to go for it. Unfortunately two hours out i discovered the light winds were more of the 30-35kts variety and very much on our nose & to add to our woes one of the hoses we had had to take off to get the gear box out and blown off the engine, and proved to be a beast to reconnect in a rolling sea. Lucky i did manage to get the hose reconnected using an industrial sized cable tie (thanks Adrien!). We decided to sail as far as Dungeness before night fell, and continued under engine through the night & pounding seas. Unfortunately both Audrey & Bertie suffered from Mal de Mer but slept soundly once in their bunks for the night. Maya proved she is the boat i had hoped she would be, and can handle a heavy sea with general ease and little banging & a good motion through the water. Due to the time lost fixing the engine hose our passage plan went out the window and it was a hard slog banging some hefty spring tides round Hastings & Beachy head before finally we turned due west and onto the Solent. A small relief came the following day with sunshine & a decrease in the wind speeds down to the late 20s early 30s, which only left us with the Solent to deal with that afternoon. Coming from the west we just had the small matter of Outer Owers & Boulder bank to deal with which under any other wind conditions other than a south westerly would be fine. However, as any sea fairing person will tell you, lee shores run high on the list of fears, and strong winds from the wrong direction will take your boat and park you on the hard before you know it, so we needed to have our wits about us before heading up and having a beautiful sail up the Solent and into the spiritual home of sailing Cowes. Exhausted we dragged our selves to a restaurant for supper & and a well deserved ice cold beer.


Today has been spent in Southampton sourcing more car seats for the cockpit. We are now a four car seat family, as well as stretching our legs & ordering spare parts. I think with good weather on the cards we'll spend the next few days pottering around the small anchorages of the Solent before heading onto Weymouth...

So we're on our way and not without some excitement already! We left London on a wet and over cast morning, which seemed fitting for our London departure, with James, Lucy & Harry George all onboard, to help us on our way to Dover. Our trip down the Thames went smoothly, with the wind behind us all the way, our first seal sighting and a marvellous view of the Montgomery's masts as we rounded and headed back up to Queenborough. The wind by this point had picked up to 30 knts on the nose & our gear box decided it no longer wanted to play ball. Some quick thinking and we disconnected the gear cable from the rocker arm on the gear box, and after much engaging & disengaging with no luck, we finally managed get Maya back into gear. A few nervous moments felt by all. Now the only question, how to moor her up along side the pontoon at Queenborough in 30 knots side up and no brakes! As we made our first pass we started to realise this could go one of 3 ways. 1. Get it wrong and upset the three drunken fishermen by totally compounding their boat. 2. Park Maya on the beach, not a great look for our first leg or 3. Hope we could bring her in gingerly enough that we'd be able to jump off and rope some brakes on before pt 2 became a reality. On the first run we came in with a little too much speed and only succeeded in leaving James on the pontoon, but luckily we still had Maya in gear, to make another pass. Luckily having James on the pontoon was an absolute blessing as he was our anchor man, and managed to bring the boat to a halt..... A rather larger sigh of relief on every bodies part. Dark and Stormys (& fruit smoothies) all round.

This now left us with a predicament, were we able to continue onto Dover the following day? After several more light refreshments, and several successful attempts at manually engaging the gear directly from the engine room, we decided if the wind abated some, we'd chance it and motor sail out of the Thames via the Princes channel, and around the Foreland past Ramsgate and onto Dover. As it happens we had a beautiful second half of the day and ended up doing 6.5 knts under Genoa & Main down the Kent coast. Definite Caribbean conditions, if a little cooler. Nicky enjoyed her first taste of helming Maya under sail, and looked quite at home behind the wheel as we raced along. A much smoother entry into Dover Marina pulling alongside the hammer head, which was lucky as Maya would not have made it under the very low bridge ahead!

James, Lucy and Harry left us not long after arriving in Dover. It had been invaluable and fun to have them onboard for the first 2 days of our trip. Now to fixing the gearbox issue before continuing any further. Some very helpful boaties in the Marina dived under Maya to see if we and anything caught round the prop. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we did not, so this then means it is definitely a gear box issue and not a quick fix. Rolf set to work today and has taken the gear box out, and will head off tomorrow to Essex to deliver it to French Marine who will hopefully fix it, fingers crossed its only a clutch problem and we don't need a new gear box. Until then we are Dover bound! Time to take in the sights.

The kids all had a great time. First Mate Harry did a sterling job helping navigate and keeping a good look out for pirates with the binoculars. Bertie slept brilliantly with the lulling of the boats movements and also under the noise of the engine. Audrey enjoyed the excitement of the sail, seeing all the boats, the sea and new sights. Few new things for her to get used to which will take a bit of time for her to get to grips with, such as harnesses and being hooked onto the boat when under sail. She is really enjoying running round the deck of the boat whilst in port, which has netting all the way round, and as always, she welcomes each passing boat pulling into the marina with a loud HI and lots of waving. Today we baked some cupcakes in the BBQ which Audrey loved as it means we get to sing her favourite song 'Happy Birthday' as all cake means birthday happiness to her!! A bit of learning curve for Nicky on the BBQ baking... hopefully less burnt bottoms next time. The ones which didn't burn tasted yummy though!


So far so good, even with the gear box issue. A blessing in disguise perhaps, better to happen now. Next stop Brighton...

So we plan to leave London on Saturday 5th June, well ahead of our original August date. As it happened several things conspired in our favour which has made this possible. Our initial plan is to head down the Thames to Queensborough & onto Dover, Brighton before spending some time in the Solent having our first real shake down as getting used to cruising as a family. We then hope to then head on down the south coast with a view to either jumping off from Dartmouth or Falmouth for the north coast of Portugal. 

The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. Trying to get all the last minute things we need as well as saying many good byes has been exhausting both physically & emotionally. But having completed a full engine service today, the remaining boat jobs can now wait & be done as we make our way. Now we will enjoy our last Greenland dock BBQ tomorrow night before saying aurevoir London.....