Blogger problem????? seems a lot of them lately

It seems that every time I try to post a photograph I am told that Blogger has a problem and that the engineer has been called so I write a post, and eventually by the time I have finished its sorted, sometines. So I will blog about my old moody 29. I loved that boat and it saw us safely from Dartmouth to guernsey in the worst weather that I have ever experienced in a boat so small, at one time we had 48kt gusts over the deck in a wind over tide situation and we hove to for an hour or so. finally making it behind guernsey some 18 hours later accompanied by a pod of what looked like pilot whales, certainly were large for dolphins. She was a bilge keeler and quite lively in a sea (as you can imagine) whith some slamming but great at antifoul time I just settled her on the small sandy shore in Brixham harbout (with the permission of theHM) and got on with it.

I had her for about three years, and my Jaguar 25 for the preceeding 5 years. My wife who hates sailing, (much preferring not to go to sea in anything other than a Marks and spencers shop) preferred the Jag, with its low headroom and fin keel, ho hum! I sailed the moody mainly single handed as I did the jag, and as far as I can remember only had two real family holidays on any boat that I owned once with my kids when they were young and once (to Guernsey) with my wife. I did however have many weekends and bank holidays. Prehaps my memory is fading and I`m being unkind but it seemed that way, as I spent an awful lot of time on my own on the sail boats.

I have had several good mooring spots for my boats not the least Brixham, on the trots and laterly in the marina for the same price, which I let go, pillock!! where I am still a member of the yach club, Dartmouth at Phillips yard now a development of houses and flats? and Beauleiu opposite the sailing club on a swing mooring. (I have booked a stall at the boat jumble 23rd April to get rid of some bits) I really enjoyed bealieu and its serene charm I can remember sitting on the boat in the misty late evening drinking a glass or chardonnay,and hearing the faint sound or the song two little boys (Rolph Harris) being sung by what sounded like a couple of children and a pair of addults, it was very quiet and as they got nearer it got a little louder until out of the mist a beautiful traditional pilot boat appeared with a small family singing away (still quietly) waving as they past, whith their small single cylinder engine chonking away. Great memories! I loved sailing and still take any oportunity that I get to sail, my last moderate trip was as skipper on a steel, seventy foot ketch to Portugal with two very sick (owner and friend) passengers starting at Brighton via Dover and then biscay to Lisbon. Nice trip, crap weather in Biscay for two days but great after that. Had its moments, we were requested to look for a life raft some twenty miles back from where we had passed that day, in crap weather, to find out that it was a two meter red fishing bouy, and sailing out of lexoes marina in a moderate wind ( engineless) . made me realise that the entrance to the marina is quite narrow for a yacht that size.
I will go back to sailing eventually I think, as it is my main love, but it will have to be a comfortable boat I fancied a 61 roberts but missed it and now have seen a 50 something so I am alert to the options. I still have to fix my port engine ( a month) and get the boat on the market so that could take a while, who knows what the future will bring?