Friday 12th to 20th August

Spent our first day back home, (as we've been on the boat for so long now I tend to refer to it as home), sorting out, tidying and doing washing. On the Saturday we travelled to Portsmouth for my cousins 30th wedding anniversary party, which was a very busy active party with games and competitions all day. We managed to take in the one man show on the stage telling the story of Charles Darwin before we had to leave. As we were taking Harry back to the boat for a few days holiday he was at the party and was enlisted by the performer to help him on stage and caused quite a few laughs in the process. Sunday we started off towards Gloucester, first stop was Saul Junction where our friends Rosemary and Travers used to farm. The farm house is still there but the field nearest the farm is now Saul Marina. By the end of the day we had gone back to where we started and to the car as Margaret needed it on Monday the next day as she had to drive to Kent for a follow up check up on her ear op. Harry and I pottered about and ended up right back in Sharpness for another meal in the Dockers Club where we were joined by Margaret at about 8.30 pm. During the day we were passed by the first of 5 tall ships that were going up to Gloucester for the tall ships festival over the bank holiday weekend.

Tuesday after I found a final parking spot for the car until end of Sept. We set off once again for Gloucester and the River Severn and arrived about 3.45pm mooring in the dock near the British Waterways museum, with the engine on 243 hours since we started in April that equates to about 360 miles travelled. Wednesday Sue and Clive left for the River Avon, as we are going to be a few days behind them now due to visitors we said our farewells, though we may meet up again. We took Harry to the Royal Gloucesters museum by which time Claire had arrived with Luke as it was change over day. We all went to the Waterways museum before Claire left for tea with her Mum in Bristol. Thursday it rained most of the day so we stayed put and went food shopping picking up a DVD and popcorn as requested by Luke. It cleared later so Luke and I did a few Geocache's succeeding on 2 out of 4.

Ireland and the Games

We had Tuesday pm and the Wednesday to get to Belfast and we drove up the Coastal route where possible, staying at a hostel on Tuesday night. Quite basic for the price but it did the job. Wed to Sunday nights we were booked into the team hotel, a Premier Inn in the centre of Belfast.

We managed a morning sight seeing and did an open top bus tour. This took in the Titanic quarter, Stormont, The Falls and Shankill Roads and was very interesting.

New Titanic visitor centre opening next year to coincide with the centenary year, representing the bows of the ship at each corner

One of the many murals from the years of the troubles

The peace wall, still there by a majority vote by residents to retain it

From Thursday pm it was full on games with not a lot of time in between. Squash Thursday pm, Opening ceremony Thursday tea time,Golf Friday, Badminton Saturday am and we watched some swimming in the afternoon. Sunday we went to the track and watched the field and track events.Closing ceremony Sunday and gala dinner Sunday evening. The events were spread over several venues so we weren't able to take in many others due to timings and travel. It was a very emotional 4 days but really excellent and everyone so friendly especially the Irish. At the opening ceremony everyone, athletes and supporters paraded through the town behind an Irish Pipe Band to the venue and then each team with their team name held high was introduced and seated. We thought it odd that the first 10 or so rows of the theatre were empty, but once everyone were all in they introduced the Donor Families. It must have taken a good ten minutes for the them all to be seated, during which time the whole theatre was standing and clapping until the last one sat, very moving and tear jerking.

The closing ceremony was very grand. Seated dinner for 1500 people at an enormous hall. In between courses there were 4 presentation sessions, with celebrity presenters, of trophies for various accolades. Such as best children's transplantee best women,men, best team etc.
Joe won a gold in the squash and takes great delight in being the reigning British and World Champion Squash player at 30 -39 age group. He had a bad hair day at golf with a good 10 stokes over what he would normally expect to go round in. He made up for that with a silver in Badminton, with one of the guys he beat in squash taking revenge.

The Berkshire Royals team

Train hard play hard !!

We dropped Joe off at the airport on Monday morning before continuing our mini break in Ireland with a trip up the NE coast road of Northern Ireland to visit the Giants Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. We camped for 2 nights at Ballycastle about 20 miles from the causeway. Wednesday it rained a lot but we weren't to bothered as we had to travel all day to get back to Rosslare to catch the ferry. We didn't arrive until about 7.45 pm taking in some beautiful little harbours on the way. We also saw a couple of seals having a rest on the rocks. We decided to sleep in the car rather than find a hostel or B & B as it was so late and we needed an early start the next morning. It was surprisingly comfortable with the seats reclined to max.
By 4.30 pm on Thursday we were back at Michael and Denise's in Somerset to collect Charlie and back at the boat by 11.30 pm

On the Gloucester & Sharpness before we go to Belfast

Wednesday to Saturday 27th to 30th...... Wed we stayed put and just chilled, Thurs to Sat we did more of the same but we did move up and down a bit. Thursday Joe sprained his other ankle playing squash which threw our plans to visit the TSUK Games in Belfast into turmoil. The ferry was booked and should I go and get the car? I wanted to get to a marina to ask advice about a clatter that seemed to have developed in the gearbox. We got there on Friday afternoon only to find that they did not have a resident engineer. They gave me the number of a mobile chap and when I rung him he offered to come to us on Monday morning, wherever we were.

Celebrating our successful trip up the Bristol Channel

The beautiful Severn Estuary and one of the many beached wrecks along this stretch, deliberately so to protect and consolidate the canal bank. Each one has small plaque beside it with details of the ship and when beached and dedicated to or sponsored by someone with connections to the ship.

A trip to Slimbridge Widlfowl & Wetlands Trust where Spring Watch has been filmed

Saturday I decided to get the car anyway, and we upgraded our ferry booking to flexible, which meant we could cancel and get a refund as well. On Sunday we were able to drive to the shops and also check out a suitable place to pick up Michael and the boys. They were coming to spend the week and look after Charlie while we were away even though we weren't sure now that we were going. Monday the engineer arrived, although not conclusive he thought that there was a bit of play in the cv joint, not terminal, this was probably causing the noise because all four engine mountings were loose. 2 of them on the starboard side were so loose that the nuts were 3/4 inch up the bolt. He realigned the engine and tightened them all and the noise has improved considerably, that just leaves me to change the cv joint at my leisure.
Tuesday we were up by 5.00am, as the ankle was much improved, and the ferry sailed at 11.00 am and was 150 miles away at Fishgaurd.

Guess who dropped his ball in a patch of weed

The standin captain of the good ship Sammy Jo