Just got back from 2 weeks away on the boat with family. Apologies for complete lack of blog posts. We didn't stop and I just didn't have time or energy for blogging. Friends and family will probably have followed our progress on facebook anyway.

But the blog is good for reminiscing. So here's a quick summary of the holiday.

We got down to the boat on Tuesday 6th August, loaded up with water and fuel and then anchored off Pottery Pier for tea. After double checking forecast we decided to cross the channel to Cherbourg over night, thus making it easy for the kids who would sleep for most of the passage.

I dropped the hook at 8pm while Angela gave the kids tea and got them ready for bed and we motored out of the harbour.

Glassy smooth sea and no wind for the whole night meant rather boring motoring but also benign and easy going conditions for the kids. The wind picked up about 25 nm off Cherbourg Peninsula and we enjoyed a decent sail into Cherbourg to find ourselves moored up in the marina at 8.40am.

Spent the morning relaxing (I slept for a while!). Went swimming at the leisure centre in the marina complex in the afternoon. The following day was spent visiting the market and the superb Cite de la Mer in the afternoon which the kids really enjoyed. Dinner at the pizzeria. Pretty full on with the kids!

By coincidence our friends from Hanse 371 (sister ship to our previous boat) Clivian were also in Cherbourg so we met up with them a few times. They left for Alderney on the Wednesday and we followed on Thursday.

Alderney proved a hit with Angela and the kids what with the stunning beach in Braye bay. Lots of time spent on the beach and a morning hiring bikes to cycle around some of the island. It happened to be the end of Alderney week so the locals were in high spirits and friendly. Great place, could have spent longer there and the weather was stunning.

On Monday we sailed down to St Peter Port Guernsey, through the dreaded Swinge and Little Russle which were both quite docile. Lovely sail. Again caught up with Clivian in Guernsey.

The weather continued to spoil us and we took the opportunity of being in a bustling town to stock up, treat ourselves and get the boys hair cut (finally). Visited the Candie Gardens and the Leisure Centre for some more swimming and enjoyed a meal at the Indian along with Sue and Graham from Clivian.

We decided to make our return trip via Dartmouth making use of the forecast SWly winds. Angela has cousins living in Kingswear and her parents are about an hour away in mid-Devon so we thought Ange and the kids could visit while her Dad and I sailed the boat home.

Wanting a night time passage to make things easy for the kids we left St Peter Port on Thursday 15th at high tide and slid over to Sark to anchor in a rather lovely bay for a few hours before leaving at 6pm.

With not much wind to start with we motored around the southern end of Guernsey before making our course in a NW direction towards Dartmouth. The wind picked up around 11pm and for a few hours we had some good sailing. Ben decided he wanted to get up and see the ships in the middle of the night so once we are abreast of the west channel light ship at the end of the TSS we woke him up and he came up top to check things out.

Early morning as the sun came up the weather decided to get a bit nasty. We got very wet. It also got quite gusty and with the westerly swell the motion became uncomfortable and helming became tricky.

Visibility was poor and we couldn't even see Start Point until about 3nm off!

While putting in the second reef the topping lift somehow parted company with the boom and was swinging about madly just out of reach. Not wanting to risk it causing damage I hauled it to the top the mast to be retrieved later.

Cruise ship Ocean Princess was anchored outside the entrance of the Dart with her tenders bouncing around in the chop.

We got into the Dart around 9am and anchored off Kingswear while we waited for the marina to find a berth for us, and were then moored up in the marina by around 10.

The rest of Friday was dismal. Rain, rain rain!

On Saturday we met up with Angela's cousin Nick and his family. The boys had a lot of fun with their boys.

Angela's parents joined us first thing Sunday morning. Angela, Jamie and Maria disembarked with a heap of bags and Dick, myself and Ben slipped out of our mooring just before 9am to head on out to sea and Eastward across Lyme Bay.

With the wind almost dead aft and the swell on the quarter it wasn't the best conditions for learning to helm and hold a compass course, so a bit of a baptism of fire for Dick. After a nasty crash gybe I opted to get rid of the mainsail altogether and sail with Genoa alone across Lyme Bay making life simpler and safer for everyone. While I could helm with both sails I needed to be able to let Dick handle it at times and the tiller pilot was struggling anyway.

While we pushed foul tide across Lyme Bay we used a few engine revs to keep our speed up to make sure we reached our ETA off Portland Bill to pick up fair tide to our destination.

Around 11am I suddenly heard a splash and saw a Dolphin surface by our starboard quarter. We were then rewarded with a display by a pod of at least 3 dolphins playing on our bow wave. So rare to see Dolphins in these waters this was a wonderful treat and we all sat on the foredeck to watch until they departed about 30 minutes later.

We slipped carefully into Studland Bay in the dark and were anchored around 9.45pm. A quick meal of Chilly and we were tucked up in our bunks (Ben had already gone to sleep before we rounded Anvil point).

The following morning we rowed ashore for a walk and noticed two red flags in the sand marking a small crater containing a rusty old cylindrical bit of iron. Soon after the National Trust landrover rolled up and two guys got out and scratched their heads. A bit later as we were tucking into a fried breakfast at the beach cafe the Police turned up and the next thing we knew they'd cordoned off the beach (with our dinghy sat in the middle of it).

We were told by the Police that they had phoned the military and the military said it sounded like an old WW2 mortar and they were taking no chances. We were allowed to our dinghy to depart but I have since discovered that a controlled explosion was carried out a bit later on.

Studland Bay was used for a "dress rehearsal" for the D-Day landings and live ammunitions were used. That on top of the mines that had already been laid means that there are still around 50,000 unaccounted for pieces of live ordnance somewhere in the area.

We were told that six years ago a mine was found. Studland village, the peninsula and Sandbanks across the harbour entrance were all evacuated and the mine was covered in sand and sandbanks and blown up. Even then windows on the apartment block at the furthest end of Bournemouth seafront were shattered!

From now on I will tell the kids not to dig too deep with their spades!

Anyway, we sailed off the anchor around 11 and were on our mooring by 1pm, packed up and drove Back to Devon to meet the rest of the family.

So a nice round circle. Great weather. Some good sailing and we covered a fair few miles with the kids on board. A great achievement I think, even if it does mean we now really need a holiday!