Locked Down!

As with the rest of the UK, we too are on lock down. The marina and boatyard staff are no longer around, apart from the harbourmaster who maintains a watch of the marina and yard. We aren’t even able to take the boat out onto the river as the river police are clamping down on all travel.

Again, like the rest of the world, our future plans are uncertain and change daily.

We were intending to leave Fox’s in mid April and take the boat to the South Coast. We had training booked in May and were also planning a trip to the Channel Islands to collect an outboard engine and new anchor. We were then heading for Falmouth to wait for good weather to cross the Bay of Biscay and head to Portugal, aiming to arrive in the Canaries in October ready for the Atlantic crossing on ARC+ in November. Obviously, most of this is cancelled/postponed. Luckily, we are able to stay at Fox’s for a while and monitor what is happening in UK and the wider world.

The ARC+ has not been cancelled yet, so this would still be an option. We would want to leave the UK in June/July in order to get decent weather to cross Biscay and allow time to explore Spain and Portugal on route. However, this is dependent on whether countries are ‘open’ again by then. If things are not looking like improving by end of May we will delay leaving until next year. This would be disappointing, but it would mean that, once things settle down, we can practise sailing in more familiar waters!

Remembering better times, our last trip down the river before lock down.