Here we are in Torquay
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Fri 17 Jul 2009 14:17
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Its been a little while since the last update due
to a whole series of events and incidents.
On our way out of Weymouth Susan noticed something
awry with the boom - the gooseneck had broken - presumably during our crossing
from Studland Bay - and we had to turn back to Weymouth. It took a little while
to find someone who could effect a repair (thanks to Neal at CDI) but it did
mean we had a further two days in Weymouth. Once we had the gooseneck re-fitted
we waited for a favourable tide change so we could get round Portland Bill on
Friday without too much turbulence - however in a SW F5 it was still
bumpy. The Lyme Bay crossing took us about 7 hours and we tried out the
auto-pilot, which worked a treat.
As we headed across from Weymouth we received news
that my father had been taken seriously ill.
When we arrived late in the evening in Torquay
we fired up the generator to top up batteries etc as we had no shore power, only
to find it shut itself down after a few minutes - something else to
add to the list of lists. The following day we caught a train to Salisbury and
were met by my brother Ian to go and visit my father and mother. He
appeared to have stabilised and was sleeping peacefully so we returned to
Torquay after several hours with everyone..
On the Sunday we found someone to look at the
generator but it was going to be Monday before it was going to be
fixed.
The generator had just been fixed in the late
afternoon when we received further news about my father so we arranged to hire a
car the next morning to get back to Ferndown - unfortunately
we arrived too late as father passed away early on Tuesday the 14th of
July. The funeral is next Wednesday so we will miss the start of the Biscay
rally but we will talk to the rally organisers about following on,
assuming the weather is ok. We spent some time with my mother and Ian and Kaz
before returning to Torquay to be ready to move Andromeda into the MDL
marina.
We are dedicating our trip to father's
memory.
Sue and Paul arrive tomorrow to join us for the
Biscay crossing and are still keen despite us missing the official start -
however even if we can't go with the rally we still plan to get down to Spain,
weather permitting. The past few weeks have seen some very strong winds,
torrential rain and very lumpy seas so a favourable weather window would be very
helpful - we don't want to motor, nor do we want strong winds on the nose - we
shall see what mother nature has in store over the next few days.
More regular updates should be available in the
near future, so more in due course.
Andrew & Susan
S/V Andromeda |