Then Martin came to stay

We left poor Bella the cat before her owners returned from their cruise to the frozen north. Not because we disliked her or because the anti-histamine tablets had failed to stop the rather nasty reaction the captain has to some cat hairs. No, a way simpler explanation. Ages ago we'd booked to see Al Murray (the Pub Landlord) live on stage in Yeovil.

OK, we know, why Yeovil? Well, it was the only place relatively close to Penarth that was at a non-boating time of year on this tour. We'd seen him live in Cardiff several years ago and were really impressed with his memory and quick wit. You just have to look past the profanities to the underlying humour and his ability to pin-point the ridiculous in almost anything:

The event did not disappoint. In contrast to the "loutish" character of the pub landlord,  he is an Oxford graduate and very smart indeed. Have a listen to some of his World War II podcasts. (No, this time you are not being spoon fed with a link, go and search for them yourself!) 

Once again we'd managed to get things in the diary to be pretty back to back. We drove back from Yeovil, got the boat going again and warmed it up just in time for Martin's arrival. You might remember Martin as half of the Canadian "Martin and Inge" double act. They owned a Nordhavn 47 in the UK which had to be sold when they returned to Canada. Martin was over to spend a few automotive type days with us. After one night on board we headed to Ledbury for lunch, then a wander around the lovely old town, including the pretty church:

We were overnighting in a hotel near Tewksbury. Again, you might ask why. Fair question really. That is because it is pretty close to Eastnor Castle, the place that Land Rover use for off-road vehicle testing and that offers off-road driving days. We'd so enjoyed them that we persuaded Martin to try it out. Here he is doing the "see how easily Defenders climb steps" thing:

A couple of the muddier, steeper rough trail type hills needed a bit of momentum to get up as you can see:

Martin had a busy day, wading through plenty of water, climbing hills and (even scarier) descending some steep slippery ones. The steepest was known as Gearbox hill by the instructors on site as it is used to destruction test gearboxes in prototype cars. Martin also felt how a 30 degree lean to one side seems like way more when you are driving along! He had plenty of tuition on how to assess the tracks, how to set-up the car and just how amazingly capable these things are. He also made it very muddy:

and seemed quite smug about that.

After romping around off road,  the next day was designed to tick one thing off his bucket list. A visit to the Morgan car factory, a tour around the production facilities, quick lunch and then a drive in a Plus 4. That satisfied grin reappeared:

especially as the rain stopped and he was able to have a hood down drive. The Morgan factory guy said that was the first time he had managed to do so in 2026. Unfortunately for Martin the trip had to come to an end after an hour but he returned in style as this little video shows:

Even more upsetting is that Morgan cars are not imported into Canada at the moment - not homologated for the local market. So much temptation. For us as well.

Following another night in the hotel, we took him to Heathrow so he could return home. Only the M4 was shut so we had a nice diversion. Then, Martin didn't get onto the flight he planned as it was full (being a retired Base Training Captain with Cathay Pacific doesn't give him seniority any more on the staff perks flight waitlist.) One downside to being a gentleman of leisure. Sadly the same flight the following day was full too so he spend two nights in an airport hotel on his own - we'd already headed off so were too late to rescue him. The "Cheap Flights" song by Fascinating Aida springs to mind. If you've somehow managed to never hear it, look at youtube link.

We felt bad having abandoned him expecting all to be well.

Back afloat, briefly again, we braved the half-term madness and had a trip into Cardiff to get a few bits. It was manic - wall to wall bored looking kids. Luckily the soft furnishing area in John Lewis isn't where they tend to congregate so we had some respite. In the big shopping centre, the Lego store had quite a display going on. The Welsh dragon was most impressive:

We thought that inside the place we would finally escape from the pesky seagulls who like to poo all over the boat but no, there were even a couple of them, looking as malevolent as always:

We hurried past, just in case. You never know.

Reality - grey and gloomy as it is

The grim (or should that be truly gruesome) winter weather in the UK continued unabated. Rain, gales, storms, depressing grey skies. If Brexit hadn't limited us to 90 days in the Schengen countries we would have been very tempted to just escape somewhere further south  and warmer / less soggy.

We had some fun things to do as well  - like a root canal treatment on a pesky tooth for the captain. By the way it rained that day too. We did a few bits of house maintenance in Toddlerville then returned to the neglected boat planning some inside work in preparation for the summer season, if one ever comes. 

However, we had a phone call after Mrs Toddler had a fall that prompted a quick return to Hythe so the boat bits got parked. Once things stabilised, we headed west again but with a very nice stopover, courtesy of Izzy's mum. Anne had booked a rather nice hotel (that we'd used before( as an overnight and dinner thing but then could not use it. So, it was gifted to us and we very happily accepted the offer!

We've mentioned the Berwick Lodge just outside Bristol before and it hadn't changed much. Still a lovely place with excellent food. We complimented it with a rather nice bottle of wine as a wind down event after several stressful days. The rooms are all pretty quirky - ours had a bathroom that was probably bigger than the bedroom area as you can see from this little video:

The old house that the hotel occupies has some interesting features - this is the celling above a back staircase that would have been for servants to use. You can imagine how much posher the main one is:

Well before the kind offer of a night there, we'd arranged to have Sunday lunch with Simon and Nikki in another unusual setting. An Indian restaurant in Cardiff. So, we headed back to indulge in an 8 course tasting menu at the rather naff named "Purple Poppadum". We'd seen a special deal on this and had wanted to visit for ages - the place gets excellent reviews even though it is buried in one of the less than salubrious areas of the city.  We now know why it wins awards. Here is the tasting menu:

Luckily every course was small(ish). The flavours were just wonderful. 

After a seriously food orientated weekend, we collapsed and took stock. We had three days afloat to try and wash off the grubby boat and do some of the postponed tasks. Only continual rain and very cold temperatures frustrated most of those things. We still have rather a lot to do.....

However, we'd arranged to go and house / cat sit for friends so we duly headed off to Sarisbury Green (look it up!) to become slaves to Bella the feline:

Ann and Martin were off on a cruise to the frozen north, courtesy of the Fred Olsen lines ship Balmoral. Only the ship had an outbreak of Norovirus and lots of sickly people on the prior cruise so departure was delayed for a "deep clean". How they cleaned the infected crew isn't really clear but....  The weather forecasts had one rough day and Martin, who is not a natural sailor, had bought every seasickness cure known to man, including these rather tasteful glasses:

Luckily they avoided the Norovirus and Martin didn't need to call on the glasses. We felt honoured to have seen them being worn. Or was that amused? Meanwhile, Bella settled us in:

We had rather a busy time whilst staying there. Dropping Ann and Martin to the cruise terminal, meeting up with Tina (long overdue) who came over by ferry and train, having the little folding bikes serviced, seeing the Nordhavn Europe folks and, finally, getting the chipped windscreen in the car replaced after a stupidly long wait and many phone calls to Autoglass who have some major process issues going on. No choice but to use them thanks to the insurers though. A busy but good week was spent Bella sitting.

Xmas and going posh(ish)

Xmas kind of happened, as it usually does, and guess what it was at the same time of the year as always too. Nothing too amazing about that. We had an invite to Simon and Nikki's for Xmas eve dinner which was greatly enjoyed.  We then had a quiet Xmas afloat enjoying a little morning walk and then some good food (possibly some fizzy stuff too).

Post the Xmas excesses, we had another one planned though. The Celtic Manor Resort had offered the usual new year deals to try and fill a few rooms on a Sunday night. We'd taken advantage of what was a very good offer and headed over there to sample their 5 star hotel and hospitality. Have a look at Celtic Manor website link for more info.

Being cheapskates, we objected to spending a small fortune on their undercover parking offer so we had a little walk (luckily in the dry) to the building from the far from cheap outside car park. Good service, a great room on the top floor of the building with views over to the Bristol Channel too. OK you also got to see the M4 but didn't hear it luckily. Dinner was booked in the Clubhouse restaurant which is housed, no surprises here, in the golf clubhouse. We resisted picking up any of these trophies to dish out to golfing friends:

Dinner was good but the Tarte Tatin dessert that the captain tried was nowhere near as good as that served at the Pilot, the pub just up the hill from Penarth marina. Naturally it was way more expensive too.

Back in the main hotel, we admired the Xmas train setup that was running around the huge atrium area. This little video shows one small area of it only:

Very intricate and ornate. Quite something as was the timber dragon:

and the view down to the ground from our top floor landing:

The hotel and grounds were beautifully decorated and we were glad we took a couple of pictures that night as the next morning they had all gone. Some folks must have worked rather late that Sunday. A good stay, just disappointing that a 5 star hotel still has a buffet breakfast offering for the hot food in a very crowded breakfast servery area. They need to look at how the Spanish Paradores chain operates!

Maintenance news:

We'd wanted to give the boat a run out for some time, to make sure that all the bits were working properly still. However, the rain deluges that we'd "enjoyed" had washed huge amounts of timber and other debris down the rivers into the bay. There were some monster lumps of timber and big tree branches and trunks floating around  - some half submerged.  We really hadn't wanted to risk damaging our prop on one so we'd not left the berth since our return.

Finally, at the end of December, the worst of the rubbish had been washed ashore or been collected  by the harbour authority guys. So, we got all brave and fired up the electronics and the main engine. Amazingly everything worked OK and we did our usual plodding up and down the bay thing exercising both the main and wing engines:

The route is not terribly exciting but it did feel good to be moving again and feel the boat "alive" underneath us. Returning to the berth we had plenty of weed and junk floating about in the marina too so we had to do everything properly and turn the boat around then back onto our berth with just the use of the main engine. Operating the thrusters would have been too risky - plenty of stuff to drag into them and possibly jam up the blades.  As the water level was low that became a nice challenge since the keel of the boat gets well and truly grabbed by the rampant weed.  One of the few downsides to Penarth. 

The genset was treated to an oil and filter change and the Webasto heating boiler had a new fuel filter as a  late Xmas present as well. We are too kind to these inanimate objects.