23rd December 2010
Snowy England, airport disruptions, train delays, motorways iced up just a news item to us now. We had experienced some of the last lot of chilly weather and are pleased to be back in sunny Turkey. Today I am sitting in the cockpit, in teeshirt, shorts and sun hat on, enjoyable but heavens did the Dr really say I had to do this for 10 days surely I misunderstood his fractured English, but more of that later!
We flew out of Luton just a week ago, a day before the recent crop of snow closed airports and caused general confusion leading up to Christmas. We arrived back at Tuatara late evening just as a storm began to unleash a rope creaking, awning flapping wind across the marina. The distant rumble of thunder and lightning flashes crept closer as we unlocked the hatch boards. It was good to be back aboard Tuatara even though the wind soared to over 50 knots(some say 60) as the lightning and thunder danced hand in hand across the mast tops. At least it wasn't snow, we were warm and best of all not stuck in an airport.
We had thought we would retreat to Turkey earlier than planned when the first snow and disruptions hit England. We were in Belfast, I was feeling a bit miserable with flu and the English TV we so enjoyed watching was full of doom and gloom and very chilly temperatures. We skyped Trudy and Geoff in North Lancashire.
"No, do come it has only just started to snow here today"
We emailed Julie and Peter at Alnwick in Northumberland, along with Scotland they had had huge amounts of snow. No, no wrote Peter everything's fine, I can drive around enough to get you from the station. He wrote other things as well, regarding Kiwis being whimps. Now there was a challenge. Ok, we wrote back, we will let you know our train time.

Trudy and Geoff, that seems such a mouthful. We are used to referring to people by their boat name. But they are Stream Spirits no more, having finished their circumnavigation they are now land dwellers again and Stream Spirits is going to be off on new adventures with her new owners. Any way the view from their house was a winter wonderland. Rolling farmland covered in snow. Stone farm cottages surrounded by white trees, robins and blue tits darting between bird feeders, red ivy berries nestled among frosty edged leaves. But hang on what are those round chimneys Aaerty\coming out of those fields? They are the air vents for the long canal tunnel that goes under the fields just across the road from the house. A mile long, the tunnel runs from the village of Foulridge to just past their house.(Peter and Julie said, "ah, yes we have been through that tunnel.) We walked down the crunchy snowy lane to the canal to see the tunnel entrance and found barges iced up to the canal bank. Blue smoke was coming out of a couple of chimneys, a bit cold for living aboard here.
A couple of days with Trudy and Geoff during which we repaid their hospitality by helping to choose and decorate their Christmas tree and kept them up late chatting about cruising friends and experiences. Giving them a few days break and a some earlier nights we left for Alnwick. The fast train to Edinburgh speed smoothly over icy tracks, past aces of country side, the snow half way up the fence posts not an animal in sight. Hopefully they were warmly tucked up in some of the farm buildings we wizzed past. Alnmouth, the last stop for that train before Edinburgh and there was Peter with a warm greeting for two non whimpy Kiwis. Foulridge had snow but Northumberland had had SNOW. Their front lawn had disappeared under a metre of snow, long icicles twinkling in the sunshine hung from gutterings, major roads were lined with piles of snow pushed there by over worked snow ploughs. Cars maneuvered gingerly on smaller icy roads not important enough for a snow plough visit. Thick blankets of snow on roofs had melted a little, sliding down onto guttering where it had refrozen. Plumbers and roofers where going to be busy fixing damages once the snow melted for good.
We went for a drive out to Newton on the Sea. The North Sea was smooth, small waves running up onto the icy beach. Peter, an ex fisherman confirmed that yes it can be a cold rough unpleasant sea to be on. We passed the grave of Grace Darling and the light house she rowed to for her heroic rescue, had hot soup by a pub fire and admired Bamburgh castle before Peter delighted in giving us a rural tour over snow covered roads.
Walking around the lovely town of Alnwick the next day we could feel a very, very slight rise in temperature the snow was slowly starting to melt a few notice boards outside shops warned about standing under guttering, the icicles were slowly losing their grip. On the train back south there were signs of a thaw, but the thick northern snow was going to take much longer to melt than further south. Green fields greeted us on our return to Foulridge. Black faced sheep were out and about again, grazing around small patches of remaining snow. The barges were still iced in, ducks slid across ice to peck at crumbs kindly left on the ice for them. A couple more days enjoying rural England then Trudy dropped us off at the car hire company for our trip south to Luton via the Peak District.
Luckily Geoff had printed off directions to get us around Manchester and on to Youlgrave from www.mapquest.co.uk as the Hertz map was barely good enough for main road but quite useless for skirting large cities like Manchester. We got a little lost just after Manchester when we couldn't find some road names. Then miraculously we found ourselves on the right road and could follow the directions again. We stopped at The Grouse Inn for lunch, the building had been there along time, first mentioned in the Doomsday book. If we had had time they could have taken us grouse shooting across the hills, we settled for hot vegetable soup. The Peak hills and dales had been covered in deep snow, a week later the snow just lingered in shady valleys as well as along the cold side of hedgerows and stone walls. We didn't see any grouse but lots of pheasants were out and about.
We were heading to Youlgreave and Stanton in Peak where my Great grandfather Benjamin Yates grew up and where his parents, my great great grandparents are buried. We drove through picturesque villages and past pretty scenery, what a lovely place to come from. At Youlgreave we were disappointed to find the church was shut but we did find the gravestone of Ann and some of her children. Sarah had been before us so we had some idea of where to look. The sun was losing its warmth as we went onto Stanton in Peak to look for Great Great Grandad. I had trouble finding him, all Sarah said was that his gravestone was on a bit of a lean, well, so was every other gravestone they had all been there so long. We decided to find somewhere to stay at Bakewell before it got dark and go back the next day. We were pleased we did because we had time to go back to Youlgreave where the church was now open. The church of All Saints at Youlgreave, where Benjamin and Ann were married and probably where Benjamin junior was christened, is said to be possibly one of the most impressive churches in Derbyshire and the Peak District. It dates back to about the 13th or 14th century, many additions and restorations over the centuries the last major restoration was carried out about 1873. The description the man, organizing the church Christmas tree, gave us of the Christmas eve service, choirs, candles and even a live donkey nearly made us want to stay.
We found Benjamin senior's grave amongst all the other leaning headstones at Stanton in Peak. We drove down the lane by his last resting place, past grazing sheep and an inquisitive horse to look out on a view across the rural Peak district and spotted 4 pheasants posing for photos whilst avoiding the shooting season guns. A lovely last resting place for a country man.
We both enjoyed seeking out the relatives and checking out the Peak villages but our UK visit was coming to a close, we stayed at Derby then drove through Althorp, a quick look at Princess Diana's old home, we skirted Bedford admiring thatched houses along the way and on to Luton. It was a rainy miserable day it looked like the forecast bad weather was on its way. Would the 7.45 am Easyjet flight getaway or would the snow land first? At 5am the next morning I nervously looked out the window ahh no snow. In fact on the way to the airport at 6am a high rise temperature gauge said it was 6 deg. After we lifted off the day got colder and then the fun began for travelers but we were safely back on Tuatara admiring the snow on the distant hills enjoying a cup of tea in the sun. Our welcome home storm had disappeared over the horizon and all was well with the world ...that is until I fell off the bike a couple of days ago and damaged the muscles around my knee. We have had a great 7 weeks away from Tuatara and are now ready to tackle some boat jobs. Alan is working on them between fetching and carrying for me and I sit here, frustrated, seeing all the things I should be doing. It's amazing how jobs that I would normally make a quick note of now glare accusingly at me as I sit with my leg up.