Mooring for sale on the Avon Gifford 2018

Our lovely old mooring that has come available on the Avon Gifford, now that we moved our boat closer to home in 2017.

It's a drying mooring in the upper reaches of the Avon that runs along the tidal road.  It's suitable for bilge or lifting-keel boats, plus catamarans, up to 26ft in length. There's easy access from the Fisherman's rest car park, where most people leave their tenders.

The river itself is beautifully pretty and great to spend time on.
From the Avon, day sailing can easily extend from Plymouth to Salcombe, a great cruising area.

A £70 annual mooring rental fee is payable to Eric White, but the mooring tackle is yours for £150 ono. Have a look at the other videos in this blog to see the river and the local cruising area in all its glory. Email me on alexbowling@btinternet.com for more info.

Moving the Jammy Dodger 100nm on the Bank Holiday

Now we're back in Lyme Regis where she belongs!

Looking forward to much easier sailing with the kids

New staff at Taunton Chiropractors

Well, we've been busy this year, as you can tell from the lack of updates on the blog. Here is a look at the latest team photos that have been taken this month.

We've also got a new website up and running to support Richard Medlock, our new Osteopath.

www.tauntonosteopaths.co.uk

Modification to a surf ski for sailing

Shakedown sail 2016

New furler reefing. New headsail. New 3.5hp mariner 4 stroke engine. Light winds. Lovely

second time out on the Hunter Medina

Getting the Hunter Medina OFF her mooring!

Its was a marginal day, but it worked out well in the end.

The early start was based on the wind and tide, but I failed to pay enough attention to the visibility mentioned in the forecast. It's bizarre how disorientating it can  be to go below in the mist. It's never been a real issue in a kayak. One of the many new things to get used to in a (slightly) larger vessel.

Needless to say, epic day.

Minorcan Holiday

Its been a long time since the last post, with a whole heap of good stuff going on to stop the blog. But here's the most recent installment, more to come soon about the new boat and the new clinic!

Dartmouth to Exmouth sail kayaking.

 

Seal-pupping time of year.

 

Whilst Christa was away on the 3 Peaks Challenge with Lucy and co. we managed to get a little trip round Looe Island. The seals that Mike and I saw round the outside of Caldey Island in West Wales had already pupped, so It was a suprise to see this calf in Cornwall still carrying (or was that just my imagination). I wonder what time of year grey seals normally pup in the West Country

 

Overnighting in the Lugger

 

 

 

Another successful camping trip

 

Even if it did try to rain on our parade!

 

A mid-week sneak off!

 

Well there have to be some benefits to being self employed. They were predicting good weather about a week in advance, so best take advantage of it. Dropped the kids off at school and whizzed down to Axmouth.

Another busy weekend.

 

You’ve got to love the start of the Spring good weather, for a renewed sense of vigour. Stretch out the sails and break out the belt sanders and spark plugs!

 

 

 

Fun with the kids in the garden

Well, finally go the sails out on the lugger this weekend, but whilst I’m editing that video, check out the kids getting busy with the kitchen furniture.

We are Sailing!

 

Well, nearly.

After kayaking and kayak-sailing the stretch of coastline from the Isle of Wight to Porlock, I have decided it’s time for a change. My hips will be grateful for the reprieve too! I may not be ploughing through the miles as I used to in a kayak, but it should be more relaxing.

We are going to keep a Drascombe Lugger on a mooring at Mears Boatyard at Axmouth. Its an interesting harbour mouth to get out and in from, more on that later.

Anyway, here is a picture we took on the weekend 1 hour after low water.

House Work

 

You may have noticed that there have been less blog posts recently. Well, there’s a reason for that. We have had a very intense 5 months working on the house.

Re-roofing, and structurally changing the load bearing elements of the roof and floors to tie the house together. The attempt has been to prevent the house from pulling itself apart. When houses are Listed, they tend to be neglected due to the paperwork associated with making changes to these old houses. Which runs completely against the process of Listing buildings in the first place. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Anyway, here are some of the before and after photos.

 

Well done to Joe and Prymo for the structural work, Rowan for much of the internal work, Greg for the plastering, Paul and co. for the decorative fascia work and Christa for both painting and for living in such a bloody mess without so much as batting an eyelid!

Kittens

 

Funny, no matter how distracted we have got from family life with all the work to be done on the house, life still goes on. The children keep growing, the bills need paying and now we have to kittens!

Brother and sister, Lilly and Patch. Gorgeous little creatures that have enriched our lives.

 

Round the Island

 

Well, this was the hardest trip I've done in this country. Although I've paddled around the Isle of Wight before, the weather was shocking. It blew force 5 all weekend and force 6 at times, which made some of the sea states quite scary. It made paddling last Sunday look straight forward.

I couldn't let go of the paddle to grab water or food for the 1st 30km, and only managed to land once in the 60km done on the 1st day! Even though it was the start of Cowes week, I only saw 3 sailing boats South of the Island, one of which I kept up with with the sail up for nearly 20km.

Off to Weymouth for a long weekend, where I hope to forget all about kayaking. The resultant pain should recede by the time we're back.

In the meantime, here is a far more pleasant trip from the week before filmed by Nick. Thanks Nick, its great not to be the cameraman sometimes!

 

Looe Island

 

Christa won us a short break with the Cornish Wildlife Trust on Looe Island last week. It was during the heat wave, so we hardly need an excuse to spend all day every day bobbing around in the sea.