Finally underway...

Sorry it has taken so long to get started but as you might have gathered it has been a bit full on here! However, we finally have a lovely yacht and all is well with the world…

The mission… find the boat!
After landing in the good old UK we spent a few days recovering and catching up with Murray’s family in Brigg and car shopping. Factoid: (picked that up off radio 2!) the British government had the smashing idea that people weren’t buying enough new cars so they offered a bounty on old cars… bring them in and have them crushed and you get 3000 pounds towards a new car… hence our difficulty finding a decent old vehicle to buy! We did hear tell of a pristine 1950’s morris minor (cover your ears Mr Ed) that had only done 45000 miles being traded in and it was ceremonially crushed as well… no exceptions allowed – have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous! Anyway we have ended up with a very nice BMW estate (2001) for the princely sum of $4800!! I have to say we feel very posh zooming about the place with our heated seats and electric this and that… it even knows when it is dark outside and you might require the light on before you get in! Too cool! 
And so we began the great boat hunt… we travelled here and we travelled there… not many places we didn’t go in between either… from Inverkip (that’s Scotland for those of us that are geographically challenged) to the sunny climes of Eastbourne we have searched high and low. We have seen a “touch of gel coat damage” read I slammed into a channel marker and split the hull and “that’s just a bit of water ingress” short for; now I have turned on the bilge pump we shouldn’t sink but for goodness sake don’t touch that seacock it will probably come off in your hand, as well as ones that made us go wow and then realise we need money to eat as well so perhaps we couldn’t go too mad!
But finally we found our little boat in the back eddies of Preston (yes there is a marina there in the old docks… and a very nice place it is too… if a little stinky and 18 miles from the sea through a very shallow river!!) And so it came to pass that we offered on “Hannika” a Bavaria Ocean 40… Ok, ok enough with the sniggering!! I know we have been a little rude about the newer bavarias in the past but this girl is made of sterner stuff and with a spacious aft cabin and a 1.5m draught we truly couldn’t find anything to match or even come close. In the end it was either this Bavaria or the same thing with a deeper keel and the desire to go down the French channels (max. draught 1.8m) meant we went for it.
She is a lovely boat and has been very little used by her previous two owners. Max and Sue say they have spent about 6 weeks sailing her but otherwise she has been hanging out at Preston for the last 4 years. So we hauled her out and cleaned the 2 tonnes of barnacles off the bottom (Should have just been a few barnacles aye Max!!) re antifouled, polished the prop and rebooted the sail drive and off she went at least 3 faster! After a few day in the marina (and several hundred of pounds spent at the chandlers – ahhh the joys of owning a boat!) we finally slipped our lines (and left them behind – don’t think they will ever wash out soft again!) and tip toed into the lock with some trepidation… at the shallowest part we had 10cm under us!... and gently gunned it down the Ribble River to the sea through miles of city flotsam and jetsam and twists and turns and the “Lytham Banana”… free at last we headed down under sail (sails very well if anyone is interested - 5 knots in about 10 knots of breeze) towards the welsh coast and the lovely marina at Conwy… sooo 65miles later we caught the tide into the river entrance of Conwy… well I never… exciting stuff probably is an under statement!!! We were doing 8 knots over the ground in tick over and had to make an extremely sharp 90 degree turn into the marina over the sill… too fast to see if we had enough water to make it but must have been as we wooshed to a stop on the inside… phew now we just have to potter into an extremely tight berth with a small cross wind… I will spare you the details but it took two attempts, some bow thruster abuse, someone throwing themselves on to the boat next door to fend off and some slick and judicious manoeuvring before we finally got in the slot, then someone else had a moment and stepped off the boat without a line and was just left holding on to a fender. That when we finally got a fit of the giggles but somehow managed to tie a few bits of string to a few of those cleat thingys and stopped for the night!! It had been a long, long day… Just ask Bramble who had to wait till nearly nine oclock for a pee!

So you noticed the addition of the dog did you? Yes the wonderful wee Bramble has joined the pack and what a fine boat dog she is. After being bundled off in her box from NZ she seemed to come out the other end no worse for wear… well I say that but the fact that everyone elses dogs came out to reception calm, collected and beautifully clipped and manicured and that Bramble came out in a mad dash, looking like she had been backwards and possibly forwards through several hedges is neither here nor there. She adores Britain; its woods, its beaches and especially its pubs! She is quite the pro… you stroll in, you take a seat (preferably with a view of some diners) wait to be patted and perhaps if your lucky, yogi a pork scratching or two!
Alas she is yet to see her first squirrel but we have been investigated moles and fox scent trails.

Now just to get you up to speed a brief run down of where we have been and where we are now…
We spent a few days (and lots more money on the boat!!) in Conwy – lovely, lovely place with great walking and a spectacular Camelot castle before heading off to Anglesey and Moelfre to be precise. A lovely spot. A cute little village and a lifeboat station (could be handy if the anchor drags!). Mum and Graham were meeting us here so we settled in for two nights at anchor (one very rolly one!) before shifting to a mooring buoy closer in… good job too as the wind picked up to an unforecasted 40 plus knots blew through the anchorage discounting Mum and G getting to see the inside of the boat… the wind finally dropped later in the evening allowing Bramble a welcome tinkle but not before it had blown the pee pee post off her doggy lawn!
Once we had caught up with M and G we drifted down to Puffin Island at a leisurely 6 knots before slamming our way up the Menai Staits to Menai Bridge. Very pretty place but not where we intended on ending up but it was not as sheltered at Beaumaris as indicated in the pilot book! And now you are up to speed… as I write this I am drifting about on someones private mooring waiting for Murray to return with more supplies while the dog takes a nap in the giant double bed in the aft cabin… just lovely!
p.s. Just in case you are wondering the weather here is pooh but I have grown to love my over pants, sailing jacket and sailing wellies… now if I could just remember where I put my woolly hat?!!