This is our new car it goes 23 knots and is called Tinker Belle.The girls think it is better than a fair ground ride!
Team Belles
Christmas in the Caribbean
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Our new car
This is our new car it goes 23 knots and is called Tinker Belle.The girls think it is better than a fair ground ride!
The Wind Belle Logo
this is the logo for the three belles and the boat that we all sail. It will no doubt strike fear into the hearts of any young lads or land lubber aged three to eight, when they see the Belles battle flag.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Rough plan
The plan.
Some people have asked us where we will be when, and quite frankly we don't have a clue.
Due to winds and the boats performance plus crew capability we really don't know how to predict into the future beyond tomorow. However we do have a basic plan.
June.
South coast of France.
July
Corsica, mainly west Coast.
Aug
Sardinia
End of Aug Mum's in Tuscany
Sept
Balearic's. (PS looking for crew from Sardinia/Corsica to Balearic's)
Oct
down to Gibraltar
Nov
Canaries
Nov 27 ARC depart, still looking for crew.
Roughly 20th Dec arrive St Lucia
25th Dec Bequis
1 Jan Bequis
Jan.
Southern end of Caribbean Islands
Feb
Mid range of Caribbean Islands
Sophie's 40th Birthday 17th Feb - Isle de Saints!
March.
Towards top of Caribbean
April.
Bahamas TBC
May
Florida/Chesapeake
July
NY, Long Island sound Newport
Aug Maine????
Sept.-Oct From Newport to Chesapeake
Nov waiting for hurricane season to end
Dec Bahamas Exumas?
Jan-April Caribbean, but where to be sorted out.
May decide whether to come home or go to New England or go to Med?
Some people have asked us where we will be when, and quite frankly we don't have a clue.
Due to winds and the boats performance plus crew capability we really don't know how to predict into the future beyond tomorow. However we do have a basic plan.
June.
South coast of France.
July
Corsica, mainly west Coast.
Aug
Sardinia
End of Aug Mum's in Tuscany
Sept
Balearic's. (PS looking for crew from Sardinia/Corsica to Balearic's)
Oct
down to Gibraltar
Nov
Canaries
Nov 27 ARC depart, still looking for crew.
Roughly 20th Dec arrive St Lucia
25th Dec Bequis
1 Jan Bequis
Jan.
Southern end of Caribbean Islands
Feb
Mid range of Caribbean Islands
Sophie's 40th Birthday 17th Feb - Isle de Saints!
March.
Towards top of Caribbean
April.
Bahamas TBC
May
Florida/Chesapeake
July
NY, Long Island sound Newport
Aug Maine????
Sept.-Oct From Newport to Chesapeake
Nov waiting for hurricane season to end
Dec Bahamas Exumas?
Jan-April Caribbean, but where to be sorted out.
May decide whether to come home or go to New England or go to Med?
One month in.
So we have now been on board for nearly a month. Nothing to adventurus, however I think we are all getting more used to the life style. The hardest thing is definaterly hthe girls schooling. There is a fine balance to be struck between standing over their every word and pushing them on becuse we all want to go to the beach.
Talking of beaches, so far they are a real bonus, we just can't get over the fact that every day is a swimming day, and that the weather does not stop being summer. Obviously it gets windy but does not get too cold even in the rain. It makes those prescious weekends in english summer seem rather strange. I still don't quite get it that I don't have to go to work on Monday.
In other ways we still have to keep a vague disciplinein stead of thinking we are on a two week holiday, for example no drinking at lunch time during the week, unless visitors demand it in which case I am fully into it.
As for the beach, well i am now definaterly sandcastle king, sophie has a suspicoun that I do it even when the kids are not playing with me.
As for the whole South of France topless thing, it seems that the only people who do this were born in the 1940/50's so i spend my time gazing out to sea.
On the visitor front we have had a good number of visitors and these are really welcome. It adds a little freshness to our world.
On to language, as many of you will know i do not speak a word of french and it turnsut our french friends do not speack a word of English, despiteme talking slowly and very loadly.However i have got the french shrugg down to T.
Finally our pathetic blog is up and running so please have a look and add the odd comment.
Talking of beaches, so far they are a real bonus, we just can't get over the fact that every day is a swimming day, and that the weather does not stop being summer. Obviously it gets windy but does not get too cold even in the rain. It makes those prescious weekends in english summer seem rather strange. I still don't quite get it that I don't have to go to work on Monday.
In other ways we still have to keep a vague disciplinein stead of thinking we are on a two week holiday, for example no drinking at lunch time during the week, unless visitors demand it in which case I am fully into it.
As for the beach, well i am now definaterly sandcastle king, sophie has a suspicoun that I do it even when the kids are not playing with me.
As for the whole South of France topless thing, it seems that the only people who do this were born in the 1940/50's so i spend my time gazing out to sea.
On the visitor front we have had a good number of visitors and these are really welcome. It adds a little freshness to our world.
On to language, as many of you will know i do not speak a word of french and it turnsut our french friends do not speack a word of English, despiteme talking slowly and very loadly.However i have got the french shrugg down to T.
Finally our pathetic blog is up and running so please have a look and add the odd comment.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Hi again, we haven't been on the blog for a while but not much happened over the past week or so. Jonathon's dad came out for a few days though which was fun but unfortunately the weather while he was here was terrible, too much wind so we couldn't even take him sailing which I think he found very frustrating and then typically as soon as he left the weather changed and we have had the most beautiful weather ever since.
We have had many lovely days sailing in the morning and then anchoring off the local beach for lunch and coming back into the marina for the night. I think that we have all swum in the sea every day, at least once. The most exciting thing for the girls on the beach at the moment is that they have been catching little baby starfish that get washed up on the shore. Tallulah collects them by the bucketful and then returns them to the sea many hours later rather worse for wear!
Jonathon's mum has just been to stay for a few nights and although she had never slept a night on a boat before in her life she soon settled into it. I think she rather enjoyed herself and even took part in the sailing, I think we got her winding the winch handle and she even took the helm once, under protest.
Today is Sunday, our day of rest, we didn't sail, or do any schoolwork, just a walk, trip to the beach and a little dinghy ride to the playground, not too strenuous a day as everyone rather tired, girls too late to bed again last night. School tomorrow so I must get them off to sleep early tonight otherwise we fight over work in the morning. Thank God I've got no uniform to iron!
Sophie
We have had many lovely days sailing in the morning and then anchoring off the local beach for lunch and coming back into the marina for the night. I think that we have all swum in the sea every day, at least once. The most exciting thing for the girls on the beach at the moment is that they have been catching little baby starfish that get washed up on the shore. Tallulah collects them by the bucketful and then returns them to the sea many hours later rather worse for wear!
Jonathon's mum has just been to stay for a few nights and although she had never slept a night on a boat before in her life she soon settled into it. I think she rather enjoyed herself and even took part in the sailing, I think we got her winding the winch handle and she even took the helm once, under protest.
Today is Sunday, our day of rest, we didn't sail, or do any schoolwork, just a walk, trip to the beach and a little dinghy ride to the playground, not too strenuous a day as everyone rather tired, girls too late to bed again last night. School tomorrow so I must get them off to sleep early tonight otherwise we fight over work in the morning. Thank God I've got no uniform to iron!
Sophie
First few days on boat
17/May/07
So here we are finally on board Wind Belle our new home for the next 2 yrs.You will no doubt get used to my awful spelling and terrible grammer. This is the reason I am not allowed to home school the girls in English. I also type rather slowly so although the length of my prose may look quit short you can re assured that it has taken a long time.
Getting here seemed like a never ending list of jobs to do. Taking the kids out of school, renting the house, packing all of our Cobham stuff into Tides reach Attic. All the time we avoided really saying good bye as we know we will see our good friends soon enough.
We have even started home schooling which is a real experience, in both the positive sense and the less positive. First of all I have to read the days lessons to make sure I vaguely know what i am supposed to do. Then it is time to be Mr Dad, but what i have found great is understanding how much the girls already know and watching them trying to learn new stuff. Makes a father feel proud and frustrated at the same time.
Sophie and I drove down to France with one car load, including putting the optimist dinghy on the roof as a roof box.Only problem was that we used one of those cheap blue tarpaulins which broke up after about 100 miles, leaving all our stuff exposed to the elements.See photo.
I finally left the De Beers group and had a great send off from one and all. (Thanks Grace) Actually i was a little embarrassed by how nice everybody was. "My office Girls" gave me a great clock and barometer which is proudly on Wind Belles wall and the office gave me a great pair of binoculars.
Just before we left we had Tallulahs 5th birthday party, some 26 kids and a big group of parents.A great way to see people before going.
Now we are in Port Camarge, on the mighty Wind Belle, it would amuse Tim Peters to hear that it is blowing 35 knots, but we feel quite snug, in the marina.
So far the girls seem to be adapting well, despite the 35 knots and blowing sand. They really enjoy going on the trampoline and skipping.
Sophie bought down their 3 hobby horses much to my protestation, but the girls have used them a lot, so you can just picture it, three blond girls doing international velvet along the dock, amongst all the yachties.
Jonathon
18th May
Johnie's spelling really is bad! Not sure mine is much better but I think my typing is. Well, day two and things are getting better by the day, today clear blue skies and sunshine, the wind even died off this evening although it was jolly hot, but seems to be nice and cool tonight. We did home schooling this morning, about time too, I think the girls have missed about a week over the pack up and move, not sure we are going to be able to give them a half term next week, I think we are on week 4 and we should be on week 5 or 6, our summer holiday is getting shorter and shorter! But still the girls worked hard this morning and although Imy needed rather a lot of persuasion she did write a lovely story about baby owls. This afternoon the girls and I spent our first afternoon on the beach which was fab and made us think for the first time we were going to enjoy this life! We even swam, all of us, which considering the water temperature was colder than our pool back home it was quite impressive! The air temperature makes it all possible which was about 28 degrees. Plenty hot enough to dry two loads of washing in only a few hours thats all I know!! Its great, I do love my washing machine.
Sophie
19th May
First trip in the boat with the girls. Started both engines, tested them in forward gear, cast off the mooring lines, then found out that the throttle on the port engine was not working. Not too much of a drama except that were in the the middle of the Marina main channel with little steerage and losts of stress and lots of traffic. My french which is nonexistent but was made up for with my gesticulations, Very French!.
Anyway we did a couple of circles out to sea, and anyone who knows me and my mechanical skills will realise that i quickly came to the conclusion that it was broken.
Back to our berth before the sea breeze kicked in. only problem is that is requires a reverse a lot with only 2 foot on each side of some decidedly aggressive looking posts. Anyway after much twittering from me and an very subdued Sophie we put the kids in the cabin locked the door, and put the boat into reverse, only for Sienna to start crying and the kids to help her escape from the cabin by giving her a leg up out of the window. Despite the distraction we made it into the birth without a scrape,or a scratch.
So that's the first day sailing, without putting a sail up.
Jonnie
20th May
Totally land locked today. But Jim and Graine have joined us. Great to have Jim aboard as he gives me an excuse for a glass of Rose'. We have been swimming in the sea every day which would amaze Katie boat. The water is the same temp as in Chi Harbour in the middle of Summer, gets rather cold around the midriff.
Also thanks to Katie boat we have mug beans growing, not quite sure what to do with them but they are shooting. So Katie if you are reading this please let us know what t do.
Jonnie
Now 25th May.
I know this gets very dull for most people. Last few days have been great. Fabulous weather, and we have been on a miny voyage. We did our first trip which was 25 miles, out to a place called Sete. At Sete we had to wait for the Bridges to be lifted, there are 5 in all and you must be ready to go through at 715 as the bridges carry all the traffic and the trains into set. We went through the bridges, some which lift and some which swing. Its very hard to believe that the whole of Sete must stop moving for a few sailing boats. Then we progressed onto Meze, which is where there are a lot of Oyster beds and a small fishing port. We were too big to get into port so had to anchor outside right by the beach in 3 meters which was about 200 meters from the beach. In the morning the girls all swam to the beach and I sailed in the opi. It was a great feeling to wake up at our first anchorage with the sea all around and gorgeous sun shine. This is what it is all about. It was so fun we decided to stay for another night. Next day back through the five bridges t 10 am. You can tell when a bridge is about to lift because the people walking across it start to run.
Then for a sail back to Port Camargue. Its then that Jim lets me know that he carries the curse of up wind sailing. He always seems to have a wind that is a beat when he is cruising true to form we end up beating the cat, we do aboout 45 degrees to the wind and were averaging 5-7 knots in 12-15 knots of breeze.
We better find some trade winds for most of our sailing.
Finally the first competition amongst the Belles has been decided. Tallulah was the first to fall into the water from the dock. luckily she had her life jacket on and the fish she was reaching for with her net got away. However she is turning out to be quite the fishing chick, and runs up and down the dock with a net getting little whitebait size fish, not that we are going to eat them knowing what we have pumped out into the harbour. Stop press all the girls have now caught a fish, Ok so they are only 2 inches long but they are the first fish of our journey.
Jonnie.
My turn now. Mum and Dad have just left after what we thought was a fabulous week, I think they had a fun time too. They both seemed very relaxed, judging by how much wine was consumed and how much sleep was had! We have been incredibly lucky with the weather while they have been here I don't think they saw a cloudy day. We ate outside every meal and it certainly didn't rain. However since they have left the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we had our supper inside tonight and I have just had to bring the towels in as it has started to rain, come back mum and dad! Tomorrow is Sunday and the forecast for the next few days isn't great but our plan for tomorrow is to go to a bull fight (a friendly one Johnie assures me) apparently they take ribbons of the bulls horns should be entertaining anyway. Everyone very tired tonight, too late to bed last night for the girls resulted in a lot of tears this evening. When wanting to leave the beach at 5 o clock the girls did say they wanted to go home but when asked if they meant really home they said "no, back to Wind Belle" which was a relief !
Soph X
28th May
Yesterday we went to a bull show. At the show a big bull was put in the middle of the circle it had ribbons on his
Jonnie head.
There were nine people in with the bull,when the bull ran to the men they jumped over the wall. Sometimes they grabbed a ribbon from the bull's horns.
Imoge
Tallulah has also been the second person to fall in the water, reaching for a crab, Having already got the gold medal for falling in and now the silver i full expect her to get the bronze as well.
So here we are finally on board Wind Belle our new home for the next 2 yrs.You will no doubt get used to my awful spelling and terrible grammer. This is the reason I am not allowed to home school the girls in English. I also type rather slowly so although the length of my prose may look quit short you can re assured that it has taken a long time.
Getting here seemed like a never ending list of jobs to do. Taking the kids out of school, renting the house, packing all of our Cobham stuff into Tides reach Attic. All the time we avoided really saying good bye as we know we will see our good friends soon enough.
We have even started home schooling which is a real experience, in both the positive sense and the less positive. First of all I have to read the days lessons to make sure I vaguely know what i am supposed to do. Then it is time to be Mr Dad, but what i have found great is understanding how much the girls already know and watching them trying to learn new stuff. Makes a father feel proud and frustrated at the same time.
Sophie and I drove down to France with one car load, including putting the optimist dinghy on the roof as a roof box.Only problem was that we used one of those cheap blue tarpaulins which broke up after about 100 miles, leaving all our stuff exposed to the elements.See photo.
I finally left the De Beers group and had a great send off from one and all. (Thanks Grace) Actually i was a little embarrassed by how nice everybody was. "My office Girls" gave me a great clock and barometer which is proudly on Wind Belles wall and the office gave me a great pair of binoculars.
Just before we left we had Tallulahs 5th birthday party, some 26 kids and a big group of parents.A great way to see people before going.
Now we are in Port Camarge, on the mighty Wind Belle, it would amuse Tim Peters to hear that it is blowing 35 knots, but we feel quite snug, in the marina.
So far the girls seem to be adapting well, despite the 35 knots and blowing sand. They really enjoy going on the trampoline and skipping.
Sophie bought down their 3 hobby horses much to my protestation, but the girls have used them a lot, so you can just picture it, three blond girls doing international velvet along the dock, amongst all the yachties.
Jonathon
18th May
Johnie's spelling really is bad! Not sure mine is much better but I think my typing is. Well, day two and things are getting better by the day, today clear blue skies and sunshine, the wind even died off this evening although it was jolly hot, but seems to be nice and cool tonight. We did home schooling this morning, about time too, I think the girls have missed about a week over the pack up and move, not sure we are going to be able to give them a half term next week, I think we are on week 4 and we should be on week 5 or 6, our summer holiday is getting shorter and shorter! But still the girls worked hard this morning and although Imy needed rather a lot of persuasion she did write a lovely story about baby owls. This afternoon the girls and I spent our first afternoon on the beach which was fab and made us think for the first time we were going to enjoy this life! We even swam, all of us, which considering the water temperature was colder than our pool back home it was quite impressive! The air temperature makes it all possible which was about 28 degrees. Plenty hot enough to dry two loads of washing in only a few hours thats all I know!! Its great, I do love my washing machine.
Sophie
19th May
First trip in the boat with the girls. Started both engines, tested them in forward gear, cast off the mooring lines, then found out that the throttle on the port engine was not working. Not too much of a drama except that were in the the middle of the Marina main channel with little steerage and losts of stress and lots of traffic. My french which is nonexistent but was made up for with my gesticulations, Very French!.
Anyway we did a couple of circles out to sea, and anyone who knows me and my mechanical skills will realise that i quickly came to the conclusion that it was broken.
Back to our berth before the sea breeze kicked in. only problem is that is requires a reverse a lot with only 2 foot on each side of some decidedly aggressive looking posts. Anyway after much twittering from me and an very subdued Sophie we put the kids in the cabin locked the door, and put the boat into reverse, only for Sienna to start crying and the kids to help her escape from the cabin by giving her a leg up out of the window. Despite the distraction we made it into the birth without a scrape,or a scratch.
So that's the first day sailing, without putting a sail up.
Jonnie
20th May
Totally land locked today. But Jim and Graine have joined us. Great to have Jim aboard as he gives me an excuse for a glass of Rose'. We have been swimming in the sea every day which would amaze Katie boat. The water is the same temp as in Chi Harbour in the middle of Summer, gets rather cold around the midriff.
Also thanks to Katie boat we have mug beans growing, not quite sure what to do with them but they are shooting. So Katie if you are reading this please let us know what t do.
Jonnie
Now 25th May.
I know this gets very dull for most people. Last few days have been great. Fabulous weather, and we have been on a miny voyage. We did our first trip which was 25 miles, out to a place called Sete. At Sete we had to wait for the Bridges to be lifted, there are 5 in all and you must be ready to go through at 715 as the bridges carry all the traffic and the trains into set. We went through the bridges, some which lift and some which swing. Its very hard to believe that the whole of Sete must stop moving for a few sailing boats. Then we progressed onto Meze, which is where there are a lot of Oyster beds and a small fishing port. We were too big to get into port so had to anchor outside right by the beach in 3 meters which was about 200 meters from the beach. In the morning the girls all swam to the beach and I sailed in the opi. It was a great feeling to wake up at our first anchorage with the sea all around and gorgeous sun shine. This is what it is all about. It was so fun we decided to stay for another night. Next day back through the five bridges t 10 am. You can tell when a bridge is about to lift because the people walking across it start to run.
Then for a sail back to Port Camargue. Its then that Jim lets me know that he carries the curse of up wind sailing. He always seems to have a wind that is a beat when he is cruising true to form we end up beating the cat, we do aboout 45 degrees to the wind and were averaging 5-7 knots in 12-15 knots of breeze.
We better find some trade winds for most of our sailing.
Finally the first competition amongst the Belles has been decided. Tallulah was the first to fall into the water from the dock. luckily she had her life jacket on and the fish she was reaching for with her net got away. However she is turning out to be quite the fishing chick, and runs up and down the dock with a net getting little whitebait size fish, not that we are going to eat them knowing what we have pumped out into the harbour. Stop press all the girls have now caught a fish, Ok so they are only 2 inches long but they are the first fish of our journey.
Jonnie.
My turn now. Mum and Dad have just left after what we thought was a fabulous week, I think they had a fun time too. They both seemed very relaxed, judging by how much wine was consumed and how much sleep was had! We have been incredibly lucky with the weather while they have been here I don't think they saw a cloudy day. We ate outside every meal and it certainly didn't rain. However since they have left the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we had our supper inside tonight and I have just had to bring the towels in as it has started to rain, come back mum and dad! Tomorrow is Sunday and the forecast for the next few days isn't great but our plan for tomorrow is to go to a bull fight (a friendly one Johnie assures me) apparently they take ribbons of the bulls horns should be entertaining anyway. Everyone very tired tonight, too late to bed last night for the girls resulted in a lot of tears this evening. When wanting to leave the beach at 5 o clock the girls did say they wanted to go home but when asked if they meant really home they said "no, back to Wind Belle" which was a relief !
Soph X
28th May
Yesterday we went to a bull show. At the show a big bull was put in the middle of the circle it had ribbons on his
Jonnie head.
There were nine people in with the bull,when the bull ran to the men they jumped over the wall. Sometimes they grabbed a ribbon from the bull's horns.
Imoge
Tallulah has also been the second person to fall in the water, reaching for a crab, Having already got the gold medal for falling in and now the silver i full expect her to get the bronze as well.
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