Hopefully not the whole of September but here we sit waiting for a weather window so that we can set off for the Canaries. This is one of the great developments of recent years – the ability to obtain five or even seven day forecasts of wind and atmospheric pressure in any area of the globe. So we learn that there is a nasty low pressure system working its way north from Southern Spain and it is clearly too big for us to avoid.  But it is very frustrating not least because the various forecasts differ as to when the gale will arrive and more particularly when and where it will exit the area. Of course the weather here in Guernsey is very pleasant at the moment but we were asked by the Harbour Master this morning whether we would like to move into the inner harbour before the bad weather starts so he at least is taking it seriously! Best guess at the moment is that we will be here for another six days. Good job we like Guernsey so much!

 

Of course since our blast down the North Sea we have spent three weeks in Southampton on the Discovery repairs and commissioning pontoon. All the bits and pieces have been completed save for one boring problem with the sea water intakes – they seem to take in both water and air which is not what is required. We have experimented with the problem both on the way here and by sailing up and down outside St Peter Port Harbour but we can not see a solution nor it seems can the experts at Discovery. Looks like a problem we will just have to live with and work round.

 

One of the great pleasures of the Cruising Life is the ability to go anywhere at anytime – subject of course to the weather. I thought this was a good definition of Freedom but I read the other day that there are in fact six degrees of freedom. No , not a new philosophy, constitutional law or even Habeas Corpus. They are what naval architects call the six different motions that floating vessels make; pitching, rolling,yawing, swaying, surging and of course heaving. I guess waiting here we are trying to avoid an excess of any one or more and particularly the last!