Episode 9: Poole, Wales and back to Poole

 Episode 9:  Poole, Wales and back to Poole

Sunday (still in Lymington)  we had a table booked and a date for lunch at noon with Sam, Sam, Harry and Charlie. With Sam and Harry's reconnoiter on Saturday Sam figured he would try to park right down by the quay with the family. The parking over by the life boat station was easier and more plentiful but not so great a walk on very narrow streets with small children. Sunday morning Noel had some "Alone Time" we need that occasionally and I went off to church on the high street. The harbour master needed us to move slips. They got the boat moved to a plumb spot at the foot of the ramp on the outer side so that small children had a short walk. I really appreciated this all getting done while I was off doing my thing. Success with the parking and we had a wonderful lunch and great visit. Charlie is 2 and 1/2 about...well he is convinced he speaks clearly and loves hats so took too Noels collection right away. It was great fun. They headed off after coffee on board and we cast off and headed to Poole. 

Beautiful sail that ended up being a motor sail when the tide changed. Warm and sunny when we got tied up in Poole. 

What a place there was an "ocean 60" with foils. Something that you see in magazines and we walked past to exit the marina! 

The Ocean 60 is tied up in front of the motor yacht and looks so small. Its beam is wider then our house, and that's with the foils tucked in.  

This personal yacht was heading to the Isle of Man for the TT races as their next stop. The owner treats his crew well as they were 10+ yrs with the boat and it was now 20 years old and looked great.

With the weather closing in and being foul for heading west we took the opportunity to visit Dave and Dawn in Wales. They had ordered a cruising guide on Iceland for us

Diesel filling  

We rented a van and drove about 7 hours each way, yes postage would have been more viable but not half so much fun. We were very glad to have brought our car SatNav with us as we know how to work it. Well it needed a sim card so we purchased one and then three hours to up date with the UK maps. Car rental's are expensive and for some reason a van was about 1/3 less. So guess what we hired. They kept trying to up grade us to a bigger van and we keep asking for the smallest van. This baffled them as usually bigger is better for van rentals we explained we only needed the two front seats and that we were not moving freight. The up date to the SatNav meant we did not have it for getting from the ring road back to the boat...We managed just...

The up dated SatNav could not find our friends 20+ yr old house and thankfully Dawn found us driving in circles and lead the way. Not sure how we could have fixed that but WhatsApp 'location share' was a great help.  The next day we were off to Portmeirion we tried for lunch and they would only do High Tea so that's what we had.

Sorting out walking sticks, well one any way.  

Perfect place on a dull windy wet day.

 Dave and Dawn were married here and had the place to themselves after 5. 

Many of the building are guest accommodation's

 Different perspective same place.

They purchased the land beside that had been wonderful gardens and so there are loads of trails and interesting collections of trees. 

 

you see this and just around the corner..

 

 They even had a dog cemetery.

The trails were extensive

Noel made good use of his stick.

Back to the village by the high road.

We did all this walking so we would be hungry...That is not a problem with sailors. 

Places to take photos everywhere.

The hotel was restored after a fire causing extensive damage. 

The fire place just inside after reception. 

Pre drinks in the room of mirrors

 Dried junipers added to G&T

Another rum discovered. 

 Weather vane

 So glad we had a good walk 1st. This was for all four of us. 

We had a fabulous visit with our pals and they were all excited heading to go sailing in Turkey and then a friends wedding in Greece the next week. In 2019 we had joined them on a charter boat holiday in Turkey.

We had a lovely evening and learned a new card game. We had great canasta games when we sailed in Scotland with our boats. We needed to get back to the boat and they needed to pack. We were up and under way the next day at 6 back to Poole with our new cruising guide in hand.   

This is one expensive book and we may skip Greenland having looked up the harbour options. 

During the Covid-19 lock downs in Toronto we saw way too much TV and loads of documentaries...at some point we saw one on "Bombay Sapphire" distillery near Winchester UK. The car SatNav routing brought us close and then Noel did a little more research on his phone so off we went. Well the roads are very narrow but we found it and it felt a bit of a sham as they import the alcohol and only infuse it on site. They were closed down through the lock downs but had record high sales. The glass houses were wonderful.

Concept model

 Amazing the investment.

The tour got us into the glass houses. May be when they get up and running properly it will be better.

The previous use was money printing presses.

 The river water is too "Chalky" to be used in the booze and its no longer harnessed for a mill but yet the river and the water make the location lovely. 

Back to Poole and retuned the van about 4:30 PM so they drove us down to the boat which was happily as we had left it. We were shattered and very much looking forward to a visit from my nephew Nicholas and his daughter the next day.  Great visit and again we just chatted and walked and talked and forgot to take photos.  

So... up next we are not sure but it will be to the west if the winds are right.