#seasthefuture Scotlands International Marine conference

 Mark found monty with a flat tyre on the drivers side this morning. I haven't mucked about with the camera , that is the angle it is sitting at. Mark jacked it up as little as possible and squeezed the tyre on as you can see from the piccy below. Things would not have went well if it had coped.
There would have been a crane involved and a lovely little red boat below in the pond would not i think welcomed the visit of over a tonnes worth of landrover on the deck.

Could have been very embarassing and expensive . There was a combined phew from both of us when he let the jack back down.



as you can see the tyre has just perished. can't complain it was a second hand one and cheap , So it did well , bloody nice tyre

 I do have to apologise for the tyre piccy being at the bottom. I have said before i am not techy but it doesn't help when the tech iss not techy either.

 This is Tom at his most comfortable. he was snoring and his claws were all out. The sheep fleeceswe brought from home were ours but i think they must be the equivilant of memory foam for a cat . They have well and truely taken them over

Patch has her place too , she likes to lie between them and then when she feels sleepy she face plants. looks really funny when she does it. must try and get a vid of that.

YUM YUM This came in last night didn't have time as it was going back out when i saw it. But did manage to leap the boat and a 6ft high banking to wave at it. Chuffed to bits to see it there this morning. Was supposed to be helping to get the boat ready to go out and test the engine , but managed to get a picture promising to be quick with  a pleady voice saying " it might not be there when we get back go on pleeeeeaaassee." i think Mark understaood if we had of went out and it wasn't there when we got back he wouldn't have heard the end of it. . according to mark it is what is called a snatch vehicle. In and out of enemy territory quick with no fuss, do the deed and then out again. It has smoke tubes on the front to give it cover , but i am not sure if the are smoke rockets fired out of the tubes or it lets just smoke out of the tubes, But hey who cares , it just is cool. Got to be on my want one list.

 Concrete Steve who is a retired RAF landrover mechanic says Landy's are great , well obviously we all know that. He doesn't like the forces replacements for the landy, too complicated to work on to many computers but the most important thing is they look to big. The Landy was always seen as the rescuer , the hero. Friendly smallish and a nice face. People in wartorn countries took to it seen it as the good guy. But the new big things they have like hummers etc are scary to those that are already really scared which is not helpful to those trying to help thesepeople. And you have to admit i have always thought of the landy as the good guy and say the toyoto hilux as the bad guy.. Which isn't really fair on the hilux because they are brilliant

Well i just had to show you this. Just because whoever owns it has spent a load of time love and money on it.And its air cooled engine sounded lovely when it came in.  I will always love an original beetle just like i will always love the original mini but the new ones are just yuck. Looks like somebody has stuck a straw up its exhaust and blew it up like a baloon.

Now i am going to try and find the owner of this beauty. Years ago there was something called the camel trophy. Involving teams from pretty much every country in the world doing some expedition. It was something special to watch , challenges were set up and it was always Landrovers specially equipped by the solihull factory, that took part. They normally did something for the communites they passed through and it would be places like the amazon etc.. it was brilliant and you will still see the od camel disco or defender o r rangey about still in its camel colours. But it was called camel because of the tobacco company which sponsered it . Well thanks to it being illegal to advertise tobacco products , camel stopped doing it. I think it carried on but under a nother name.and sponser. I think this is one because it has on its side Wateraid and London to Capetown Plus the names of the two people on the expedition that are British. It was a competition but what i always loved about it is how the seperate countries would help each other when there was a problem and left nobody behind. If you get a chance google it some of the things they could do with landies would astound you.
                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                   

Again i am sorry you shall have to tilt your head to see the very proud skipper taking his own boat LAL out for the first time. Petra was with us to give us some tuition. We are in no doubt as to how niave we are . This beautiful place is not like back home , there is no straight way out , mud banks are everywhere and constantly shifting. It looks completely different when the tide is full than it does half an hour later and there is soooo many boats . Some moored in the channel , some moving. Mooring bouys everywhere, channel markers and for some random reason a stick like a small branch stick just sticking out of the water, why?

We also had Dinghys not as many as yesterday but still a hell of a lot and whereas in Loch  ryan you would just move away from them you can;t because you have to stick to the channel for depth.. they just dart around you like hoverflies and you hold your breath till you are through.

sorry tilt your head again. So beautiful wonderful Petra helped again , god we would be struggling without her. We would probably muddle through with the odd shout from a yachty but it would be stressful. Her being with us made it enjoyable .And she is so good even if you listen to her when she says down and then listen to your husband and he says she ment pull so you pull and guess what she ment let the sail down.

This is Richard ,the owner of Bedwells and Brother Steve in their beautiful boat which i adore and love the sound of the engine. He kindly took a photo of us sailing. Which is impossible to do when you are on the boat sailing it.

 Put this one in so you could see the swathe of dinghys we had just got through and the fact that i left my pegs on tut tut .

Fran and Colleen and there lovely boat. Heading out sailing for two days. They are pretty resident here. And have been great neighbours. They have got a very gentle lab called ossie who likes to jump up but not put any weight on me and give a sweet little peck of a kiss on my nose.

Frans lovely boat. Rather Smart






Bloody computer  just does not like this picture but wont let me do anything with it Tyre and perishing from way way at the start of this post. Lal did well she came back with a sooty bum. We think leaky injector but will check when we get a free mooring in France Just a bit of smoke when you wellie it. I had a great time today Was on the Tiller for quire a while weeving among the boats . Petra and Mark were doing other stuff,I was so busy concentrating i didn't notice for some time that a beastie was haveing a good suck on my leg
Our boat feels responsive , the tiller isn't too light and i can feel the direction straight away. With Petra on the throttle i moored up at titchmarsh marina and then Mark did the same. She taught us how tides and winds play apart in mooring and if in doubt circle and try again . keep it slow.Don't get flustered. We then moored atthe diesel pumps which is much more difficult and then headed back down the channel . It was a great day Mooring back in our place in the pond was tricky Brother Steve was there to help and i really need more practice on knots , i am ok till i think how to do it and then it turns into spaggetti.. Took the Kayak out to the mooring bouy again . Apparently Brother steve and everyone else got a good peek at my knickers when i was tieing the knots but thats fine i just won't be waring any next time so ha Going to take Petra to steak night at the club tonight , thats if she comes , she says she doesn't like to commit.I thought it would be anice celebration as LAL has been out of the water for two and a half years . But theres no pressure might get her a doggie bag for bosun her tibetan terrier..