Where did I park the car?

Once again I heard Sally shouting to me from across the marina. I was working on a yacht and dropped my tools and ran round to see what was wrong. Sal had a big grin on her face and was pointing to the second boat along from us. Under the stern was the top of a car. One of the students from the college had parked their car had not put on the hand brake and the car a Renault Clio had just rolled gently into the marina. Police, fire brigade, Breakdown truck, Inshore rescue, Harbourmaster and about 100 on lookers. After about 1/2 an hour up it came and was driven away to the tip. To date that makes 3 cars and one scooter in the marina. The last one was a citroen and after 1 hr under the water it came up with the windscreen wipers working and the lights on. (good make those Citroens)

Brittany weather

Once again in morlaix we have suffered with the weather.
Because the authorities here cant get together and
make a decision about what to do with the silt in the river and
the marina the town was flooded again.
We have the marina dredged every year but nothing is done in
the river so the water has to go somewhere and it can only
go into the town. Shops and restaurants were flooded and
alot of stock was lost. I have attached a site so you can see
the damage in Morlaix. Other parts of Brittany such as
La Rochelle had massive damage and lots of boats damaged
and 50 people died. People are saying that it is time
for the government to act on these problems.

see this site:
http://www.letelegramme.com/ig/generales/regions/finistere/morlaix-29-le-centre-ville-inonde-l-acces-barre-jusqu-a-11-h-diapo-video-28-02-2010-803346.php

beginning of 2010

After spending Xmas in Guernsey with Sall's family we got back to Morlaix to find that Colin & Silvia had left their boat here. In January Sally decided that I should retire after the spring as it was now 14 years since I had my heart operation and I was getting tired quicker. So I agreed to retire after I had finished the work I had on the books. Its now the middle of March and I have just finished the work. Since January I have designed 1 yacht for ocean sailing, 3 junk rigs,1 for a friend in california and 2 for friends in New Zeland. Our friend Claude is here and we have been helping him with Pet his 106 year old pilchard driver. Now we are just waiting for the warmer weather so we can get on with the usual spring jobs on Chunky (Feels Good).
This year we will be saying good buy to Brenda & Laurens who bought our old yacht (Ilsham a 6 ton Falmouth Pilot), Clive and Jenny on their boat Veronica a 1932 Scotish fishing boat and Claude with Pet. Laurens,Brenda,Clive & Jenny are heading of to Holland and are going to keep their boats in Den Helder so will be seeing a different way of life. Claude wants to head South. So this year we will be staying on the North Brittany coast and around the Channel Islands. I will try to get some half way decent photos for the blog but be patient with me as I am not too good on the camera or the laptop.

2009 Summer

Well we decided to have a quiet summer in 2009 as we had both been working hard. We decided to go to Pontrieux up the Trieux river so moored up and then went to get the car from Morlaix. We had a lovely time and met some new friends while we were there. Steve & Elena were so lovely they are as mad as we are. They collect pigs and treat them as their children so there was some surprises for the locals when they passed the boats. On the day of the fete du lavoir (washing festival) we put all our soft toys in the washing machine and then put them on deck to dry. The kids thought it was great and took many pics. they left before us and went to Isle Chausy where Steve left Elena on a rock and rowed away saying that he wanted a little quiet time. He did however get her back before high tide. Two other people that we met were Colin and Silvia who were retired. Silvia does counceling and colin is a retired general from the British army. They invited us aboard one afternoon for tea and fruit cake. They explained that it was a tradition as to see who makes the best fruit cake. Sally has come up with a recipe for a good one for this year so look out Colin. After saying good buy to our new friends and old ones we decided to go to Guernsey for a couple of days before we headed back to Morlaix for the winter and so ended the summer of 2009.