Snork Maiden redux

Slow progress. Visit to M. Bricolage for white spirit and bought hose nozzle that turns off. (I know this won't mean much to you, but picture hi-pressure water, sleeve type connector that requires both hands, ladder ascent to boat... and you might begin to grasp how important this is. All ready for anti-fouling tomorrow - promised to be fine in the morning, maybe showery in the afternoon and wet later. Will try to finish job in the morning and then maybe allow myself to have lunch at the cafe. Except that for some perverse reason, wednesday is fish day.... no day is vegetarian day. They do egg & chips any day. Left it a bit late last night, gets cold at sunset and too late to eat. I have a fantasy that one of my friends is back at the boat cooking supper. Sally's turn tonight, I think (Lynda last night.) Hope you're all reading this! I'd like to tell you about my anode adventure, but it'll have to wait. Will try to do better with the pix!

BLOG Day 2 on Snork Maiden. Not yet marina crazy, but won’t be long. Have been listening to cricket on radio 4 LW. Bangladesh vs England. I think England are winning. There’s not much commentary on the cricket, more like listening to 2 old geysers having a chat. One of them has a wife buying a summerhouse at Chelsea Flower Show… other one has house on Isle of Wight with a painter on the roof… so he uses some of the airtime to chat to him. Somebody’s wife has just had a baby. Can’t quite understand why it isn’t on radio 5 – I thought that was for sport. Maybe cricket isn’t sport. They also moan because there’s not enough cricket in schools, nobody is playing competitively, Lords is half empty…. Even public schools aren’t all playing cricket. Why was I listening? Because I was doing a little job, re-sticking headlining (like ceiling wall paper for boats) over aft berth. But it turned out not to be a little job – all the foam has crumbled into fine black dust, and the glue I ...

Sorry about this year’s blog – never as late as this! I usually manage to let you all know what our plans are, but this year seemed difficult for some uncertain reason. Anyway – you’ll all be glad to know that I’m in France, it’s warm and sunny, at least today it is. Snork Maiden is just as beautiful as when I left, with the washing up right there as ever was. I don’t know why it surprises me so much. It also looks as though some kind person has cleaned the decks – thanks to the sun, rain and winter winds. The first hour or so on the boat is great, it’s clean, tidy and peaceful, then along comes the job list and unloading to mess it up. For all those interested in visiting / crewing / hanging out with us, our plan is to get in the water asap and take off south, coast and island hopping on the way. At the moment the return ferry is booked for approximately mid-July. We will aim to get to Marans, our favourite port near La Rochelle, where we can leave SM until we come back in lat...