Snork Maiden redux

This is the only place to do email! That's my excuse anyway. Just a half of the very estimable Doombar, since I'm driving back to Sally's. The clientele here is quite a mix. The Medieval boatyard workers have gone home for their teas before settling down to a serious Friday night session. They were loud and jolly - a bit like the mechanicals in Midsummer Night's dream. They were talking about dropping tools off scaffolding. One chap said he was heavier than his tool so he'd throw himself off and catch it before it hit the ground. That caused a round of laughter to shake the walls. The Snork Maiden doesn't have much to report - the list continues! To be followed shortly be the scary budget. Sally's house is working out well - It's only about 3 miles away - and I managed to keep the log stove burning all yesterday evening.

Gweek Creek I am going to miss out the bit where we went aground (after Frenchman's Creek and before the really narrow bit of channel). We got off and were met by the yard workboat which piloted us in the rest of the way. We? Sally Randle and me. Anyway - the interesting bit is the pictures - so here they are. the whole thing was very quick and easy, although the access channel is scarily narrow and shallow. And we perhaps did hang around eating mackerel just a bit too long. It was very good.

3 WOMEN IN A BOAT Something like 15 years ago we ( Sally, Gillian & I) chartered a 36 foot Beneteau for a week in the Ionian and spent a sunny Greek week cruising Corfu and Paxos. Sally brought Dex ( 5 years old) and Gillian brought Maxine (8). They named the auto-pilot "Andrew (something) the Autograph pilot". (Come on you kids - what's the missing name?) We didn't sail very far - in fact we probably only really sailed 2 or 3 times, the Med being what it is we chugged around on the engine and even stayed in the same place for a couple of nights. We had a blow in Paxos where the boat was bouncing around so much that we had to get 3 Irish coffees handed over the bow on a tray. I bought a T-shirt with cartoon cats whose tails spelt 'CORFU'. I still have it, worn thin with 15 years of washing but it reminds me of the holiday and I'm not ready to turn it into engine rags just yet, maybe never. I had a waterproof torch and we shone it into the water...

FALMOUTH Sorry for the late posting... things got a bit busy. We arrived in Falmouth on Friday 10th September. It was grey, damp, the kind of late afternoon that makes me wonder why we ever thought that coming back to the UK was a good idea. On a nice evening, Falmouth looks very pretty. This was not such an evening. After the bumpy and tiring Channel crossing, I wasn't even sure that sailing was such a good idea. On my insistence, we headed for (1) the pub and (2) the nearest award-winning fish & chip shop. The Doombar beer was good, and we sat inside, in a warm place near the window. Outside, the Falmouth punters sat in their T-shirts, shorts and summer dresses for all the world as if they were in a Hawaiian beach bar. They gazed across the Carrick Roads - the opposite shore barely visible - as if waiting for the green flash. OK - I want what they're taking; maybe it's just Cornwall. After a coffee and a crab sanwich to go, Al took the train back to Bristol...