Winter in Penarth

We arrived in Penarth at the end of October to a warm welcome after three years away. Penarth is a great place to stay for the winter. It is well protected from any bad weather, with two locks to protect you from the swell. There is a strong community here who are very friendly, and the marina staff are exceptionally helpful.

This long stay on land has allowed us to get a huge number of boat jobs ticked off. The UV strips on both head sails have been replaced, all the internal frames for the hatches have been removed, vanished and reinstalled, the rig has been checked, the telescoping legs of the table have been un-jammed, the hydro-generator and fire extinguishers have been serviced, security bars for the small hatches have been designed and installed, a new shelf for the fridge has been 3D-printed, and many many more. We are very grateful to all who helped us, and in particular to Phil's dad Brian for his assistance and workshop services.

It has also been good to be able to visit friends and family. We have caught up with lots of people across the five months. We have enjoyed all our excursions, and thank everyone who was willing to travel to us or put us up for the night to make these events possible. 

I have also been able to visit my mum for a week each month, passing back and forth through Potters Cottage on route.

The weather has been improving throughout March, which has enabled us to anti-foul the bottom of the boat. We are extremely grateful to Dominic who gave up his weekend to come and help us scrape, sand and paint, and to Hugh at the marina, who gave us a couple of hours of his Sunday morning to lift and lower us so we could paint the lifting keel.

With the better weather, we are itching to be moving again and we are not really keen to be off. We are going to visit the Boréal yard in Brittany for a week to begin with, then we are heading north. The plan is to be in Norway by mid May.  We have heard such good things about Norway and are really excited to see the scenic beauty and wild life for ourselves.