Another ocean voyage

Well, the blowy but sunny weather continued. We decided to head off to Jersey, but that morning the captain managed to hurt his shoulder. No idea how but it was pretty painful so the decision to have a bumpy but shortish trip was postponed. The little furry stowaway didn't look too concerned though, after more beach and ball and chasing other dogs, she was content to cuddle up with one of her many toys:

This rather pretty young Fox red Labrador called Mellow was her sparring partner and, naturally way faster so the chase games were fruitless but great exercise:

Having decided not to leave, we did one long trip. At high water we moved into the Victoria marina and the one corner of it that is deep enough for us. It had been occupied by a couple of patio door flybridge gas guzzling things but  became free as they moved to seek better shelter further into the marina area. Our weight (no, the boat, not ours) really helps avoid some of the bouncing around.that the lighter planing boats suffer from. 

Victoria marina is still open to the harbour swell each time the cill is covered but at low water you get a quieter time. Here is the low water view from our aft cockpit:

Then as the tide rises and the cill covers:

We did think that the paddle boarder was a bit optimistic:

He managed to hold station for a few minutes but as the tide rose higher and the inrush of water became faster, he had to abandon his fun. We continued ours though with a well deserved and partly medicinal gin in the evening sun:

We hadn't refitted the bimini cover as the winds were still rather fruity and we really wanted to protect it from damage. The cover is getting old now, just like the captain and crew, and so deserved some pampering. Mainly because having a new one made is not a cheap game. Here is our little corner:

so you can put things into perspective:

As the weather continued to be sunny, we had various excursions, including one to L'Islet and Rousse tower:

The kiosk there produced an excellent BLT baguette to share and a truly superb brownie. The Guernsey kiosk culture does produce some excellent stop off spots and food options. Izzy was more impressed with the Grand Havre beach of course:

Continuing our occasional old lifeboat picture theme, we reckon that there must have been quite a high tide for this one:

Our social life picked up with the arrival of some friends from Hythe Marina. Stephen and Alison arrived in their very shiny very new Nimbus:

and we enjoyed catching up on life, the universe and everything.

(Not a lot of ) maintenance news. We did one huge wash off for the poor boat, she was smothered in a crust of black goo which we think is from the Condor ferries when the winds were carrying their exhaust on startup over towards us. It was horrid - the radio aerials were coated in the stuff and all of the stainless steel rails too. The bimini got refitted and was given a coat of Boracol too. Oh, we also gave the stainless steel rails a clean up with Autosol.  

There is more news on collective nouns though. We mentioned the St Peter Port four Nordhavn thing, the Noodle, in a recent post. This prompted Mr Bishop to offer his collective noun to the list:

How about a "blast" as in "Havn a blast"?

After all, it means to have a great time or a lot of fun, does it not? Okay, I'll get my coat !

You can judge it against all the prior offerings.