Well where do we start, we had our leaving party which was a brilliant day, it was so good to see everyone and we would like to thank all our family & friends for coming along. In the day time we had lots going on and one of the highlights of the day was a tender race between Phil in Santa Louise 2, Jon in Double Bruyn 2 and of course me in Ashby Girl 2, of course I won easily and its one of them major events that Phil and Jon seem to have forgot about.

Our neighbour Jon was taking his practical skipper license in the Solent so we decided to take him in Ashby Girl so that Jon could get feel of a proper yacht. We met up with Mike and Carol in the evening where we all had a lovely meal and the following day took Jon over to East Cowes to meet up with his boat and other shipmates. When we saw the yacht that Jon was taking his course in we were shocked to say the least, it was a racing yacht rather than a cruising yacht and I am sure that the wheel was bigger than Jon. After a very hectic week with bad weather conditions Jon completed and passed his yacht masters.

On the 15th May Young Debs retired from her job of employment and on the 22nd May I also retired, although the amount of work I do most people think I retired some 8 years ago. Since retirement we have been busy preparing Ashby Girl for her forthcoming adventures and saying our last goodbyes to our family and friends.

On Sunday 24th May was the end of the Brighton Festival where an annual firework display is held off Brighton Marina wall. We had some friends over and had nibbles and drinks on the back of the boat whilst watching the display. Although the display wasn't as good as previous years we still had a great time. Our friends Rob & Jacqui came down for the event and spent the night on the yacht, this was an experience for them but hopefully a good one.

On Thursday 28th May at 8am we finally released our dock lines and officially started our adventure. Our first port of call was Gosport where we spent 2 nights. On the Friday we spent a lovely day with Young Debs family, her brother David picked us up and firstly took us to see his new house where we had the grand tour, we then went to Emsworth where David & his family are holidaying in their caravan. We spent the remainder of the day at the caravan site where we had fun and games and a bbq.

We left Gosport at 8am on the 30th May for our next port of call which is Falmouth. The first part of the trip was ideal with the wind directly behind us at about force 4, the wind picked up to force 7 but although they were strong winds they were still behind us and this caused us no problems. During the night the wind dropped off until eventually they died completely so we had to motor sail. We had a wonderful sunset, thousands of stars during the night, which is something you never see on land and then a lovely sunrise in the morning. The trip took 33 hours and we arrived in Falmouth Marina at 5pm on Sunday 31st May. We are now in Falmouth waiting for some insurance documents to be forwarded to us and a good weather window to cross the dreaded Bay of Biscay.

Have a look at the photos titled PHOTOS MAY 2009 you could even see yourself. If we can get internet access we will write again at our next port of call that will be La Coruna in Northern Spain and tell all about the Biscay crossing and if it is as fearful as most people say.