Turkey - gone sailing and why not!

This time I am going to download the photos first and hope that it formats better so here goes... 22 April Semiliye near Marmaris (Turkey) and we meet up with Rupert Wilson for our first night on board Rumpus. The next day we sail to Knidos (T) via Simi (Greece!) for a quick stop and fuel up and spend the night at anchor in Knidos surrounded by ancient ruins. I enjoy a brief swim when I wake up on 24 April my 60th! This day sees us sailing on to Bodrum (Turkey) for a couple of nights. Today 27 April we are in Kos - Greece tied up to the town wall which dates back to 300BC! We are staying with Rumpus for the start of the Red Sea Rally from Bodrum next weekend and will cruise some of the Greek Islands near here during this week. We will leave Rumpus in Cypress around 16 - 17 May. The weather has been gorgeous but today we are back to winter. We are still on the boat search so watch this space.

I am constantly overwhelmed by the history and beauty of the places we are visiting. It is a feast - an absolute feast! Another highlight is the wonderful people we are meeting who are out here doing absolutely what we want to do. Lots of Kiwis and very inspiring.

Last day in UK

We spend the last morning checking over the boat again and leaving an offer with the broker.

Having made the decision to leave, it feels quite sad as the countryside is truly beautiful. We get a little lost in our rental car on our way north to Gatwick and end up quite by accident in Arundel. Highlights of this lovely town are the castle and Richard standing in the ice cream queue! Some people just can't help themselves! The gentleman standing behind Richard decided he was fair game to talk to and baled him up, so it was a costly exercise!

I am having difficulty with putting in the photos and making it format correctly so am just going to go on and not waste time on how it looks right now.

A last minute check on laterooms.com or yell.com (can't recall ) finds us this gem of accommodation - the best we have experienced in the UK. De Veres Venues Hartsfield Manor near Gatwick Airport for 30GBP including breakfast is our least expensive night yet, but by far the most outstanding and luxurious, including the sumptuous breakfast which sets us up well for the day of travel to Turkey via Dalaman airport and our arrival in Marmaris after midnight local time on 21 April. Despite adding the photo at the end here it has popped up on the top of this blog so I just give UP!!

Paris Oh Paris

What can we say? Paris through the eyes of people who live there is a privilege we enjoyed this week! From the hot chocolate, to the Eiffel Tower sparkling at 10pm, walking in the Bois de Bologne in the early spring and enjoying Emily and Helen's gastronomic culinary skills (link soon to be added for more detail) of spring milk rack of lamb, white asparagus, Vieux Comte, Fromage de Chevre Frais cremeieux, two bottles of Chateau Moulin De Brion “Medoc” 2002... and more.

Our hotel - Charlemagne at Nuelly-sur-Seine - thanks to Emily's local knowledge was superb and we caught up on much needed sleeps. But most of all the family time we had with Emily, Marc and Helen was the best.

More soon.... Pippy

Boat Search

Hello all... hard to believe it is only one week!

We have been to Singapore, Paris, London, Hamble, Ipswich via rental car - and back to Hamble. We have checked out the boats we had marked up on the internet and found one we would love to own. But it will be a slow process as it takes around 3 weeks to book a slip for marine survey and have not settled on a price yet and the owner has gone away for 2 weeks!. We are going back for another look this morning and that will be it for now. We have looked at around 50 boats up and down the country and gone over around 12 for closer inspections.

It has been a wonderful experience to spend some time in Hamble which is a truly lovely destination and the yachting centre of the south of England. We stayed at the Royal Air Force Yacht Club right on one of the many marinas dotted along the Hamble River which flows out into the Solent. The countryside is truly beautiful and the buildings -cottages, manor houses and pubs have obviously been around for the odd century or two.

We are leaving UK tomorrow for Turkey to hopefully catch up with Rupert Wilson and do some sailing for a couple of weeks. We are both very well and enjoying ourselves immensely.

This is me and Elliot Rose. She has that dreamy far away look in her eye which is a definite Buchanan trait!