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Date: Tuesday, August 19, 1997 8:57AM

Day 1. Sunday 10th August 1997

Boarded Tresmorn Maid and met Chris, our instructor for the next week. Cruised
under power from Falmouth Marina to the Endeavour Replica, and then around to mooring where we spent the night. The kids each had a turn steering the boat. Maggie took us out the Marina. I had the helm taking us onto our mooring in the evening.

Day 2. Monday 11th August 1197

Phoned dad on the mobile to wish him a happy birthday and got the lecture from mom about wearing a life jacket and putting on sun cream. Went for a swim, which was quite nice, as you got numb with cold and then don't feel cold any more. The day was spent sailing in the Falmouth inlet and practising "man overboard" routines and one "cap overboard" emergency. The kids nicknamed the fender used for the man overboard practice "Mr Stupid" because he kept on falling off. Chris drew a face on Mr Stupid to keep up the illusion. We had lunch moored in a picturesque bay. Attempted another swim, but wimped out. Nicky had a go on the bosons chair and had fun until her bad Dad dunked her into the water. Spotted a seal a few times.

Learnt loads of new impressive sounding phrases, like how to tie up warping ropes, set springs, slip the bow and the stern. Then sailing close hauled, broad reached, gull winged, backing the sails, and all the fun commands for jibing and tacking. "Standby to Jibe", "Tighten the main", "Jibe Ho". "Ready about", "Helm to Lee", "Lee ho". All fun stuff and the kids really enjoyed it all.

The afternoon was spent avoiding the thousands of yachts sailing in various "Falmouth week" regattas. After a days sailing, we did the sensible thing and moored alongside the Pandora inn for a couple of pints of "Tinners". We had to time the mooring exactly as the incoming tide only allowed us into the shallow mooring after 16:00. I took "Tresmorn Maid" in and we moored with the depth measuring 0.3m below the keel (30cm to spare) .

Day 3. Tuesday 12th August 1997

Plotted a course from the Pandora Inn to Fowey (pronounced Foy). We left at about 09:00 after a breakfast of vegetable grills on toast and motored out of the Falmouth inlet. Took a bearing of 314 on the castle before turning onto a bearing of 64. Well that was the theory. What really happened was that Maggie misheard and turned onto a bearing of 314, straight for the Falmouth Castle,

before doing a U-turn and getting onto 64. 64 sounds very exact, but our novice steering ability managed to keep the boat on a heading between 90 and 30. The wind was Southerly force 2-3 (very light), 12-16 on the instruments, which gave an approx. wind speed of about 20 knots given our through the water speed of about 5 knots. Sheeted the headsail and set the mainsail and then turned off the old London Taxi 30hp diesel. The sea was quite calm, but still rougher than our previous sailing in the Falmouth inlet. Unfortunately this left rather green looking Nicky and Tarryn - the thrill of sitting at the bow and having the spray crashing over them soon wore thin. After about an hour and a half and rounding the bell buoy, and turning onto a heading of 40, we went "Gull Winged" with the pole, and the main lashed with a preventor - ropes everywhere, before giving up with the now very very light wind (about 6 knots). and starting the London Taxi again. We motored into Fowey and moored at a pontoon for a late lunch.

Fowey is a pretty Cornish port which actually is the 10th busiest port in Britain, although you can't see any large ships as they are all up the river. We had a shower at the Yacht club, and then walked around the town before motoring and practising lasooing mooring buoys. Caught a water taxi to shore again and had supper in a restaurant in Fowey. Played sevens (a card game that the kids enjoy before retiring for the night and listening to the rain/thunder storm continuing outside.

Day 4. Wednesday 13th August 1997

Cornflakes and crumpets for breakfast. Then we pumped up the Zodiac and the kids have been rowing around the boats. There is no wind, but at least the rain from yesterday has cleared and we have a gloriously sunny day. the sunburn from Monday (who ever listens to their mother) is starting to sting in the warmth. The plan for today is for the girls to practice taking the boat into moorings and to the pontoon. Tomorrow we sail again, hopefully with a bit more wind and a

bit less sea sickness.

So far the weather forecasts have been stunningly inaccurate. Mondays forecast was for fog and rain - the day we all got seriously sunburnt in bright sunshine. Tuesday's forecast was for light winds freshening in the afternoon - well no, it sort of died in the afternoon. Today we were supposed to have force 4-5 occasional 6. Not.

Current feelings about buying a yacht is that 32' is quite small enough, and that if anything we would want to get a 34' or 36' Moody with at least a 30hp inboard capable of cruising at 6 knots. Creature comforts are important as is deck space for sun bathing and galley space for cooking. A slightly larger sea toilet would be nice too. On the clothing side, some decent fitting oilies (I

Have XL, Maggie has L, Nicky has M, and only Tarryn has some decent sized waterproofs - S) are a good idea. The life jackets/harnesses are great though. Southampton Boat Show, here we come.

This afternoon, after a lunch of cheese and onion Cornish pasties and ice-creams for pudding, we left the Fowey town pontoon under sail and headed out to sea. Well we would have headed out to sea but the pesky wind was headed directly through the mouth of the channel. Time to put all that tacking to practice.

There was a Cornish fishing boat under full sail directly in front of us, about a tack and a half ahead. It took about ten zigs and the same number of zags (to use non-sailing technical terms) before we were out of the harbour mouth, and then we chased the fishing/pleasure boat on a close haul for about an hour before we finally caught, overtook it, declared ourselves winners of the race, took a picture to prove it and then came about to head back on a beam reach to the

port. Coming through the harbour entrance, we got loads of jibing practice before the kids and wife finally mutinied against the able captain (me) and demanded the sails come down and we motored to the moorings. There we practised lasooing the moorings over and over, each having a turn being the helmsman, the bow and stern lasooer and the person warning off the ever helpful people in dinghies who wanted help us onto the moorings. Later this afternoon, we have been

mucking about on the Zodiac dingy, with the girls proving able rowers.

Day 5. Thursday 14th August 1997

I am frazzled by the sun, after a glorious day's sail from Fowey to the Halford river mouth. It is now supper time and I have just finished planning the navigation for tonight's missions. We leave at 21:00 and are due to finally weigh anchor in the Falmouth inlet at 00:40 tomorrow morning. At the moment supper (spaghetti) is on the make, and Pete Townsend is finishing a beer on his large blue motor launch anchored alongside. His other boat is a 40' Yacht anchored ahead.

The sun is just going down behind the headland. Tonight's missions start off finding a yellow lit buoy our in the bay, then an entry into the harbour avoiding some unlit buoys (and rocks), to reach the Northbank Buoy. From there, the final mission is to follow the 10m contour (which should be at 11.5m below the keel if my calculations are correct), through three legs before ending in some very shallows where we need to find safe anchorage for the night. We have a

safety margin of 30cm at our anchorage and previous courses/instructors have embarrassed themselves by waking up in the morning stuck fast in the mud, so here's hoping that I have got everything just right.

Must go, the spagbol is calling.

Third mayday of the day is underway on the radio at the moment. First was a man overboard, spotted by another yacht - and then lost sight of again, picked up by lifeboats and taken to hospital. Second was a dingy (not sure why) and this one is a yacht run out of diesel. Not sure why a yacht run out of diesel should call Mayday. Do they not know what the large white things on the mast are for? The are NOT spare duvet covers. A salvage vessel is on way to the yacht,

so expect he is going to pay through the nose for his diesel.

Spaghetti was excellent, and pudding is still to come. The sail today started when we left Fowey at 8:45 and motored out in calm winds. They freshened by about 10:00 and we went over to sail. We make between 3 to 5 knots with a .5 tide against us and very calm sea. Bright sunshine and warm weather meant shorts and T-shirt and now some very serious Ricky lobster impressions. The navigation to Halford went a bit awry with the tacking and desire to keep as close to the

wind as possible rather than trying to keep to the planned course, which would have been impossible. Still, we were able to take bearings and get in without a problem. We couldn't find a vacant visitors buoy so we anchored next to the Townsend flotilla instead. No one was seasick today and Tarryn and Maggie spent a fair deal of it sleeping. Lunch was toasted cheese sandwiches fried in a frying pan.

Day 6. Friday 15th August 1997

This morning we slept in a bit, until the bright sunshine and sounds of gulls and cows woke us all up. Maggie, myself and half of Tarryn went for a swim in Craggy Creek. Last night's night cruise was fantastic. it was a totally calm night with not a ripple on the sea and no wind either. So we decided to do the four missions under London Taxi power. Mission one was to find the yellow buoy using the lighthouse and east cardinal beacon for our bearings. We cruised at 6.5 knots and apart from having to take avoiding actions for lobster pots, found the buoy without a problem. Maggie had the helm, I was navigator, and the girls alternated spotting lobster pots and taking readings on the light house and east cardinal. Mission two was to find a particular spot in the harbour mouth, again fixed on the light house and on another east cardinal. We slid in on the

Bearing to the light house (20 degrees) until picking up the 335 bearing to the east cardinal. Mission two accomplished, we started navigating the channel on the navigation buoys, avoiding some unlit ones. Once finding the last buoy, we competed mission three and then Chris got the large anchor out for the end of mission four. We then took a back bearing on the Northbank buoy and headed across the shallows (0.0m at chart datum - 2.5m with the prevailing tide) till we

picked up the river channel contour. Then I could ditch my navigation notes and we steered on the 10m contour (11.5m with the tide). The only pit of navigation remaining was the depth sounder and some estimated times and a final bearing so we could know when to stop and find an anchorage. It went spiffingly and we anchored up the river in 2.6m (under the keel) which had dropped to 0.9m this morning.

This morning we are having breakfast here and then its back to the marina to do the last part of the course - cleaning the yacht.

All in all it has been absolutely fantastic and is highly recommended to everyone. I am glad we couldn't get a place with the Solent sailing school, and had to come down to Cornwall. Cornwall by sea is amazing, with all sorts of villages which are practically cut off from land tourists by narrow roads.

We head back to Winchester this afternoon, to get things shipshape for tomorrow's boating holiday on a narrow boat in the Welsh canals.

I have no Elephants for this special edition of Home News, so I guess that's it really. From four really "Competent Crew", have a good week all, and standby or a report on the canals of Wales.

Home News : 3rd September 1997

Last you all heard from me (collectively at least), we had just returned from a jaunt on the high seas and were bound for the calmer and muddier waters of the Welsh canals.

Unlike the sailing course/adventure, I am afraid the Welsh canals were pretty boring and do not make for a good Home News edition. It sort of went like this ... putt ... putt ... putt, oh another bridge ... putt .. putt ... putt, oh time for lunch...putt, putt, putt, oh another bridge ... putt ... putt ... putt, oh time for diner.

The productive side of it all, was that without TV (we actually found when cleaning out the barge that there was a TV, hidden in a cupboard but still), we had to do something more productive, and so taught the kids bridge. The lessons are still happening, but they pretty much have it now, and apart from the occasional brain abort,retry,fail (such as Nicky putting me in 5D with three in her hand and two in mine - doubled by Maggie and then suicidal re-doubled by Nicky = 7 down and much pain) we are all enjoying it. Thankfully this new non-TV culture has partially transplanted to home, and at least the occasional evening is spent exercising the brain.

Where was I. Right, canals in Wales. Well, that's about it really. Four miles an hour max., getting off and walking meant having to wait for the barge to catch up. The only real excitement came on the second to last day when the gearbox ceased and we had to wait while it was replaced with one which slipped the whole time. This was pretty tricky, especially as there were the locks to come and not being able to go forward when you needed to (like there was a queue behind you) was pretty embarrassing. The other excitement was trying to find where the barge was during the week. I still put in an appearance (albeit for limited hours) at SWALEC, and then relied on my navigation skills (NOT) to find the barge - based on bridge numbers (unfortunately not on the OS

Map) and Welsh village names (always with too few vowels and loads of ff's and dd's).

This time our holidays were not ruined by returning to a house ransacked by YWWCBVLB (refer to previous Home News editions for decryption). The weekend before going down to Cornwall, I took extreme precautions by bolting angle iron to the doorways, and then slotting in planks of wood which were secured from behind. Difficult to explain such a cunning defence, but I think you will find it patented and available soon from your local home security shop. Look for "Ricky's YWWCBVLB Wooden Barrier - guaranteed to stop even the most smelly thieves." Maggie also took precautions by affixing "Warning - Property protected by venomous snakes" signs. We also locked as much as we could in the new safe. So apart from having difficulty getting back into the house, and having to undo the Ricky Barriers and catch the venomous snakes, we had a trouble

free homecoming.

Other Home News, Tarryn starts Senior (High) school tomorrow. The PC's are still all alive. The latest toy is a GPS (GPS38) which gives you an exact grid reference as to where you are, well as exact as the pesky Americans will allow you. Works fine, but a little over the top for walking to Sainsburys. I have upgraded to a Universal subscription to MSDN, so should be receiving even more crap Microsoft code on CD-Rom.

Maggie is starting a year long course at Eastleigh College in a weeks time. Amongst other things she is doing French and German, so with Nicky doing Italian and Tarryn starting Spanish we just about have Europe sussed (I am sticking to English. If they don't understand, just talk louder, that's my motto).

The green car had a hiccup the other morning. Conked out on the motorway. After leaving it at a garage to be given the kiss of life, the problem was diagnosed as me having filled the tank too full and blocked the breather tube. This caused a vacuum and starved the engine. 2.50 UKP to fix, for a litre of oil which it needed as well. It is now back in service wearing out the M4, and annoying new R-Reg cars with taunts of "I only cost 500 pounds and am fully paid off - you cost 500 pounds a month for the next two years !!" Well, you have to have some fun.

OK, that's about the news. Have fun all of you.

Ricky

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