Wow! What a winter! Quite different to recent years for many reasons…
In October soon after finishing the Autumn season with HRCST I took myself for for a well deserved (in my opinion!) holiday to the Greek islands of Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca and Kastos. I had an ulterior motive however as the holiday was aboard a boat (a Bavaria 39 called Orestis) and I was hoping to achieve my RYA day skipper qualification! More details on that adventure here: Hellenic Day Skipping.

Not long before going on holiday my trusty Land Rover failed its MOT quite spectacularly and sadly it was time to say goodbye. Spending a bit of time to get it looking its best I put it on the Facebook Marketplace at the suggestion of a friend to see how it went. Well, it generated a lot of interest! The sound of facebook messenger notifications were just dying off when after a couple of months I was contacted by a couple in Redruth who were interested. They took a look at her at the end of January and were keen to buy her. We completed the deal and it has now gone off to live the rest of it’s days with ponies and on fields!

Christmas was a family affair this time at my Uncle’s in Allet. Beef for Christmas lunch – not my usual preference – but was beautifully cooked and the small family gathering was lovely. We did it all again on Boxing day (with turkey this time!) and opened most of our presents then.

A big new adventure for me due in part to various personal circumstances began in December with the purchase of Mandarin – a Sadler 26! I found her online and went to view her in Southampton on Sunday 3rd December. I met her owners Ceri and Carol and went for a sea trial. The wind picked up and she flew! I had a big grin on my face – I was a happy boy! I persuaded Ceri and Carol to part with their baby (who they’d had for the previous 12 years!) and arranged to sail her to Cornwall at the end of January, once I’d had time to organise a mooring. The voyage down was an interesting one which I don’t think I will ever forget! However we got her to the Helford where she is enjoying her new home! For more details of my maiden voyage have a look here: Mandarin’s Maiden Voyage.

Very soon after arriving in Helford aboard Mandarin (the very next day) I was on a train up to London to begin touring with bgroup and Point of Echoes. A great company and a great show we were hit with two unfortunate coincidences which caused three of our shows to be cancelled. Firstly was a fire at the Warwick Arts Centre which meant we were unable to go ahead with our two shows there and secondly a week of very unusual quantities of snow across the whole of the UK which meant that getting to our performance in Lazonby, Cumbria was out of the question. More details about this tour can be found here: Point of Echoes.

With a week to spare after Point of Echos finishes it is then time for the start of the HRCST season! Also this summer I have taken a role as ‘Assistant Moorings Officer’ on the Helford. It’s going to be a busy summer! 🙂