Getting ready again
Getting ready for the off once more
Hello my dear readers,
It’s good to be back in the writing seat as we prepare Zoonie and ourselves for the next adventure.
Our newly acquired home in Dorset, in which we lived for a short and sweet 4 months is now let for six months to a very nice gentleman, leaving us free to wander west once more in our lovely Zoonie.
Life has been packed since January with family Birthdays and the novelty of actually being able to be with the celebrant on their day after six years absence. Being able to entertain family relaxing in the warm spring sunshine in our cottage garden followed by a mini banquet sitting at our 12 foot Romanian Pine table which we bought with the house, as the logs crackled in the woodburner has left us with wonderful memories of our first Christmas in Myrtle Cottage and the reminder of a comfy little home to come back to later this year.
Our last family occasion was the sunshine blessed and pastel-flower filled wedding of Rob and Christine’s youngest son Jonty to Jenny. At the fine Holy Trinity Church in Stratford Shakespeare himself witnessed the event and the Wedding Breakfast took place in a delightful red brick barn in which, if you listened very carefully, you could hear the clatter of shire horseshoes and the gentle words of their masters. Stalls were replaced with tables and over one hundred happy folk helped the newly weds celebrate their special day.
During our short stay in the bard’s home town I had the pleasure of meeting my editor, Rachel, for the first time and we spent two hours covering many topics as well as the progress of ‘A Tale of Two Yachts’ my book about the first part of our circumnavigation, which is due to be released by IngramSpark on the 27th May in soft back and digital form. Rachel and I have been working together now for a year, preparing and polishing it for the enjoyment of anyone who wishes to read it. We now have to work on the marketing side of things, publicising it through various media avenues and to help things along I plan to post my Wordpress blog on Facebook and Instagram from the very start of the trip back in 2015, as and when we have internet this summer, so people can follow the full story and the essentially edited book. The first draft was 170,000 words based on the blogs, so I had to slash and burn the text by 70,000 words and we still have a long, 406 page book which I hope you really enjoy!
Since we have been back on Zoonie little birds have told us that numerous cruisers have the same plans as us this summer, to sail around the UK and now the Six Nations is over, the last son wed and bizarrely as a tragic war rages on in eastern Europe the time seems good. We are not getting any younger and Zoonie is still up to her well-earned sailing integrity.
The farewell pontoon party is planned for this Wednesday and then the next high enough tide to extricate her from her present tucked away berth will liberate her for the open sea to the Scillies and then on to Baltimore in SW Ireland.
Speak again soon, take care xx
