We caught the flight back to Bournemouth from Alicante and were back home 6 hours after leaving the apartment. Remind me not be so critical of Ryanair in the future! We had to leave Angie in the departure lounge at Alicante as her flight to Manchester wasn't until the evening but it was easier for her to get a lift with us than rely on Spanish public transport. She had about 6 hours to wait but a few years ago we would have considered that a short flight delay at Alicante! Fortunately she had seen the film `Terminal` about a guy who has to live in an airport terminal so she was well equipped... She is a very resourceful lady anyway..

All was well at home so we set to getting our stuff together for Glastonbury. I did feel if I am not provisioning a boat I am provisioning a tent. We set off on Tuesday for Bristol, complete with backpacks, tent, food, wellies and flower head bands. Due to the usual scramble for Glasto tickets we had only been able to get coach package tickets from Bristol which meant we HAD to go on the coach from Bristol as entry tickets would only be handed out by the coach driver . This wasn`t ideal although we were so pleased just to have tickets, of course, but it actually worked out really well for us. Maybe not so good for Char and Chris though who kindly met us in Bristol to take our car to Glasto for us so it would be there for our journey home (and full of extra supplies). We stayed in a hotel and then got the coach straight to the festival entrance gate bypassing the entry queues. Char and Chris and friends slept in the cars in the car park while we were in our hotel bed... they then kindly queued to get in early to secure us all a good camping spot. By the time we arrived the tents were set up, camp made and the wine was poured. By Wednesday evening the transformation from boat bums to festival bums was complete and even Martyn had his wellies and hat on.. I won't go on about brilliant Glastonbury is or how it it isn't about seeing the big headline bands but more about people being together and having a good time, meeting new people and having new experiences. I won't go on about the healing fields or the debating tents or the circus acts or the random performances you just come across happening all over the festival. Just have a look at the web site, register for tickets and try and go if only once before it changes to be like any other big festival. We were charmed again with the weather - we had rain on the second day and just enough mud to know we were at Glastonbury then the sun shone and the mud all dried up. The Stones were, of course, truly amazing and give us all hope for life in our late sixties as did Kenny Rodgers (!) Highlights for us were Elvis Costello, The Beat , Frightened Rabbit, Black Roots, PIL Ltd and for me Mumford and Sons. Also saw talk by Tony Benn, listened to Prof Brian Cox and watched African Acrobats and so much more.....

We woke up early on the Monday in our tent and bearing in mind the festival finished on the Sunday we looked out expecting to see the camp site nearly empty. We had planned to wait until the main crowd had left, then pack up leisurely and leave when it was quiet. Wrong! Hardly any tents had gone. Obviously no one ever wants to leave Glastonbury... We made a snap decision to get out while the going was good, threw everything into the rucksack and yomped it to the car. Thank you so much Chris for helping us to find our car in the car park by thoughtfully decorating it with so many flowers! We didn't stop to take them off and headed out of the site to be on the road home within 15 minutes - brilliant. We didn't expect the flowers to survive the 2 hour trip back to Bournemouth but duct tape is strong stuff and we pulled in to our drive with a still fully decorated car. Will put a picture in the gallery. (The flowers are in the kitchen Char waiting to be collected if you would like them back...)

It is always such a big comedown after Glastonbury that I think it was good that we didn't have time to mope about because we had a student house to clean and decorate before our flight back to Spain the following Monday. We didn't get time to see everyone ,in fact, we didn't see most people and that made me quite sad as I do miss family and friends when we are away. Thanks though to
Carol and Colin for as ever feeding and entertaining us and we look forward to you coming out to the boat. We didn't get to see Stuart and Kirsty but again hope to see you on the boat very soon. Nicki, Nigel and George - look forward to seeing you in Mallorca in a few weeks.

We flew back to Spain on 8th July and after checking on the boat (all fine) we spent a lovely week at the apartment celebrating our wedding anniversary and just chilling. We spent some very happy, drunken evenings with Pat and Maxine and were very impressed with Pat's knowledge of Showaddywaddy songs and Maxine`s dancing put us all to shame!! Thanks too to you both for taking us back to the boat with all our provisions (again! we really do not just continually eat!) and all our stuff. It would have been a real struggle without your help.

Soon it was time to get back to boat life and stop loafing around pools and beaches, drinking and eating. One of the last jobs on the boat was replacing the radio aerial back on top of the mast. This meant Martyn climbing the mast. He is really good with heights, as I know from watching him running around on house roofs replacing tiles, (usually with my hand over my eyes and waiting for the yell and the thud!!) but the climb using ascenders and ropes is always a physical challenge. He says he enjoys the workout but this time in the heat it was pretty tough and he really felt the effects afterwards but he did it and it was all working perfectly. We thought we were ready to go.

Then Martyn did one last engine check and found a pile of salt in under the engine. Obviously there had been a sea water leak and the water had evaporated leaving the salt. On investigation the seal in the water pump had perished and needed replacing before we could leave. Apparently this would be an `off the shelf` common spare in the UK but might not be here. Other people in the marina told tales of waiting 4 months for simple spares to arrive and also stories abound of astronomical prices charged for simple parts - admittedly all unverified and probably exaggerated but we weren't hopeful when we set off on foot in 30 degree heat for the 5 mile round trip to the Volvo dealer in San Pedro. I think we looked the worse for wear when we got there so the lady behind the counter took pity on us , disappeared out the back and returned triumphantly with a new seal costing 5 euros! We bought 2! The euphoria of having the new seal and the relief of only being charged 5 euros buoyed us up for the slog back to the marina. We must have been at least half way back before either of us mentioned the heat, our sore feet or how far it was...

It took Martyn about an hour to fit the seal and us about 3 hours and a long swim in the pool to recover from the walk but finally we were ready to leave San Pedro and next morning will be leaving to head towards the Balearics...
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