A walk in the woods

A week on a narrow boat!

My son will tell anyone that the highlight of this trip for him was when his dad (me) crashed the boat! It wasn't a horrible crash and there was no damage and no need to inform the MIAB ( Marine Accident Investiagation Bureau) or to instigate our SOPEP (Shipboard Oil Polution Emergency Plan) or even to write an incident report to shore side management. The thing with narrow boats is that people crash them all the time and at 2 or 3 miles per hour a nudge Into the trees or the bank is common place. Not probably so cool for a professional captain.

Anyway, the week was amazing, the boat was well equipped and warm even though it was middle of the British winter and the kids had a great time. Our son 4 was able to steer (without crashing) start the engine, increase and decrease speed, help with the locks and our daily routines, such as cleaning nod topping up with fresh water.

On board traditional sailing ships, a "Happy Hour" is common place and rather than it's usual reference, this is a period usually after breakfast where the whole crew muck in and do cleaning duties in order to make the captain happy. We have tried to incorporate this into our routines at home to get the kids involved in some of the daily chores but it has been most successful on the boat. Accompanied by the bob the builder song played at high volume sweeping and vacuuming was done by our eldest and dancing and singing youngest.
 

Walking on the South Downs

 

This is a firm family favorite and is something we all do often. we made a little movie on this occasion. not that well edited but here it is.
http://youtu.be/5gLL4n3Um6Y

On the promenade

It is not particularly British to promenade but in Brighton and Hove we all love nothing better than a walk along the prom. The beauty of our city is that it has a defined edge, the beach and the sea and a long wide prom that goes from one side of the city to the other.

On any given day there are joggers, kids on scooters and bikes, families walking and mums with strollers. It is always busy and  we are lucky to live just a city block from it. If we need to give the kids a run, which we do often this is always a nice alternative to the park and we head down there for a scoot, bike ride or walk. Our son has learnt to ride his bike without stabilisers this month and even managed the 4 mile round trip from home to Hove lagoon. I have to admit that on the way home he was powered by ice cream but I still I had to carry the bike back up the hill for the last little bit.
http://youtu.be/8dY68cZnmCE
 

Grown ups went to Rome

It seems crazy but the grown ups in our house have been in Rome this weekend, when tomorrow is the day that we begin our travels as a family to Vietnam!

The focus of our weekend was to relax, to run in the Rome to Ostia half marathon and to celebrate Mrs P's birthday. How the words relaxing and running 13 miles in a half marathon go together in one sentence, I am not sure but it has been fabulous, as any trip to Rome is bound to be.

With the children deposited with happy grand parents we have actually relaxed and also found it odd to be without the kids after spending so much time all together.

The run took place on Sunday, it was a warm spring feeling day and although it was a rather an unimaginitive straight roman road course to the coast from the city, we finished with good times and in good spirits. Powered by a best roman pasta dinner the evening before that was also accompanied by a bottle of nice red wine. I don't believe that drinking wine is the best prep for a long run. But when in Rome... In any case, I managed a sub two hour time (just) at 1hr 59.06 which I was pleased with and Claire being fitter and more competitive managed to finish in 1 hr 51 which doesn't sound much quicker but is actually a whole mile ahead of me!  

The highlight of Rome though is always the a aincient history that is everywhere and the food and wine, together with the ambience and abundance of great restaurants. We have loved it!

Now we board our flight home, excited to see our lovely kids and to get ready for the main event of our time off together which as I have said starts tomorrow. We are off to Vietnam. As a lot of our friends and family want to know what we a up to, we will post as often as we can. I have no doubt that our adventures there will be brilliant but our time at home has also been very memorable.

Living the Dream

Our small family is enjoying a period that needs to be savoured, enjoyed and eventually remembered and cherished.

Claire, my wife, starts her new job in May and as most of my friends will know, my work at sea means that I rotate through work and leave every 3 months and so it currently appears from the outside that no one in our house has a job . We have been living in this dream like state since January! As I write I am sat wondering why I have not had time to write about our adventures so far. We have two kids which might explain or somehow excuse the lack of time to document. Boy child is age 4, about to start school in September and girl child is nearly two. Both children have been pulled out of nursery for the period, saving some but of course not all of that huge monthly financial burden. 

So the question was how would we, our small family enjoy this time? We decided that n extended trip somewhere had to be a part of it and we also decided that to start we would stay home in Brighton and Hove and enjoy our small home and spend time with the kids in familiar surroundings. For a couple that work and kids that normally spend 3-4 days a week in the care of a nursery, all be it a very good one, there is a period of adjustment when the daily routine is down to us, what we want to do rather that what we have to or need to do. Spending time "off" at home and fully with the kids is brilliant but much harder than we thought. It is however, a gift and creating structure has been important. We have also taken short trips, packing our car often, to the rafters with coats, boots and warm clothes, giving us and our kids what we think are experiences that bring us together and help the kids to start establishing a sense and spirit of adventure. I will write briefly about some of what we have done separately because it has been amazing and whether the kids are old enough to remember it is doubtful but as parents we  are making the most of this precious time and are hopeful that it will start to shape the foundations of our little people somehow.

Fernando De Noronha

 
No words required for this place. It has everything and nothing all at the same time, even taxis contractors and banks but not quite as you know it. A couple of photo credits to Patrick Muller from Atlantis divers and a warm thanks to him for our wonderful stay on the islands.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Names in the sand

 

 

 

The Islands of Fernando De Noronha do not need many words to describe them. On the day I arrived we went to explore this deserted beach. I wrote my sons name in the sand and climbed to a vantage point to take a photo for him. I made it just in time for the tide to wipe away some letters but you get the idea, a friend then ran around using scuba fins trying to fill in the letters. It nearly worked.



Windy South Atlantic

Out on the South Atlantic the wind has been strong and the sea and swell quite rough. The other morning the wind began to drop but the large swell and wind blown sea was still present.

This situation made me smile as it reminded me of a deck hand who was from the Ukraine and worked with me in Cyprus. His name is Constantine.

When sailing you obviously need some wind to help your boat move. If it is rough, there is normally a lot of wind which gives you the extra power you need to proceed through the big waves. When the weather does what it did here this week, i.e. the wind drops but the sea remains it is a lot of hard work and you basically get nowhere.

Constantine was a prolific womaniser and he used to use this analogy to describe how he was getting on with the current woman of his special Ukrainian attention.

"There is a big sea with no wind captain!" - means, I am really trying hard but not getting anywhere!

"The wind appears to be picking up captain" - Things are going well.

"There is a storm brewing here captain" - I am going to have to hang on tight, this might be quite a ride. My own translation- late for work.

What the hell is that!

Sat on the bridge on a quiet night watch the other evening we saw something that turned out to be pretty cool.
At first it was just a bright light on the horizon. I thought it was an distress flare. I said to Noel, "Oh shit mate, this might be interesting!" Of course we would go and check out a distress flare but off the coast of South America, could it be pirates or something similar? I checked the position and direction and there was no echo's on the radar and the light kept getting higher and brighter and I called on the radio for people to come and look. Like a huge commit streaking towards us through the night sky. I started to worry that it was a missile and then it disappeared but not for long. This was obviously a rocket and the first stage fuel had now separated and was glowing and falling back to earth, to the sea! and really not that far from where we were happily sailing along on our quiet night watch. That would be a seriously bad day!
Imagine getting hit by falling space junk. It is not something that you normally would have to worry about. I can just hear them ashore now. 'Well didn't you check for rocket launches when you did you passage plan?' We would all be sat in life rafts and watching the yacht sink under the weight of its new, large, molten hot metal, space ship shaped hat and I would have to explain to the MIAB (Marine Accident Investigation Bureau) what went wrong.
The BBC would make a report. " The British captain from Sussex was said to be shocked and stunned at such an unlucky encounter with the falling debris. He praised the actions of his crew but said that there was little they could do. "We were hoping for a new satellite dish but this is ridiculous, he said!" The yacht was said to be well built and have state or the art communication systems but was no match for the satellite deployment rocket's, first stage 'P80' motor, that smashed into it late Monday night  etc etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22405969 Looking up rocket launches on line it seems that French Guyana is quite the place for launching satellites into orbit because of its proximity to the equator. We got to see one of them and it was quite cool.