Doldrums

Sun & heat now back fulltime and the children in the pool from the start. As J had to return to Heathrow in the afternoon, we only had the morning together before they left. Sad he had to go after such a short time.

After they had gone, the rest continued the pooling while I put together the sailing gear on my 1988 inflatable. Barry had kindly done quite some work on Saturday trying to patch up the holes mice had made in the inflatable since it was last used in 2011 in Croatia. A tribute to German engineering & quality that after 31 years it is still - just - alive. There is at least one slow puncture left but we had run out of patches on Saturday!

I have been doing a hard-sell for the children to take the boat but had never shown it to them other than on videos and there were none of them showing off the really excellent sailing gear.

I never took a camera along when sailing because of the danger of capsizing which only happened once. Not in the North Sea, not in the Atlantic, not in the Bay of Biscay, not in the Med, not on a stormy Scottish Loch but on a windless, calm little bay in Croatia's Adriatic and only due to an unexpected shift of position by my crew!

Called Barry to see the final parts of raising the mast. Even he as a non-sailor was impressed by the quality. My dream is for him to get his children to have sailing lessons in the countless lakes near their home in Ireland. Elliot over the last two years & now last week Charlotte, have been introduced to watersports during their summer camps and seem to show an interest. Although very easy to transport, the kit is somewhat more than the Ryanair cabin baggage limit!

Although Barry may look into seeing if he can activate any contacts with Irish lorry drivers passing through Bavaria, I suspect nothing will come of it. I would love to mess around in it myself but lack the motivation when alone. Perhaps it would be easier if Mum & Dad sent their children to me for much of the 10-week Irish school holidays.

By the way - the wind didn't get up, so Barry didn't get the aluminium mast caught in the overhead electricity lines. In the photo, you can see the new insulated wrapped line has been strung up alongside the old and still connected bare lines. Tomorrow the workmen arrive to exchange the four poles & connect the new line.