Here is a little summary of what we did over the 92 days we were away on our summer shakedown:

Starting and finish location: Brighton
Places visited in order: Itchenor (at anchor), Yarmouth (pontoon), Studland Bay (at anchor), Weymouth (town quay), Dartmouth (pontoon and at anchor), Cawsand Bay (at anchor), Helford River (at anchor), Falmouth (pontoon), River Fal (pontoon), Fowey (buoy), Cawsand Bay (anchor), River Yealm (buoy), Salcombe (pontoon), Studland Bay (at anchor), Newtown River (at anchor), Itchenor (at anchor)

Total distance travelled: 550nm
Longest leg: 87nm from Salcombe to Studland

Nights were spent as follows:
5 on town quay
15 on marina pontoon
25 on river pontoon
41 at anchor
5 on mooring buoy
1 night sail

Fish caught (that weren't put back): 1 mackerel!!! (think we need more practise...)

Total mooring fees paid: £890
Most expensive mooring fees - Weymouth £28.60 per night
Most expensive beer - Yarmouth, IOW £3.30 a pint
Internet costs: £30

Longest time between running the engine (running on wind and solar power only): 5 days

Over the 3 months we used the following fuels:
3 x 3.9kg propane bottles for the cooker
245 litres diesel for main engine and battery charging
60 litres of petrol for the outboard engine
6 litres of paraffin for oil lamps

Breakages:
Steering cable popped off its guide.
Wind generator blade flew off (sorry Marc and Anne)
Outboard engine continually breaking down , bad at starting, when started would cut-out, not very reliable and meant we often felt trapped aboard.

Useful items:
Vodafone internet stick - good signal everywhere except River Fal where it was a bit hit and miss.
AIS receiver - particularly useful at night for making it obvious what a distant light was and where it was heading (and for spotting Le Grand Bleu).

Photo is Emerald sailing back to Brighton with all sails out for the first time, picture courtesy of Anita Curtis.

We are now back in the concrete prison that is Brighton Marina. The views are definately not as good as those we've had over the last 3 months, but if all goes well only 6 months and we'll be off again!

We had a great few days anchored in Itchenor with the weather giving us a last bit of sun. We were joined in the anchorage by our friends on Lady Rosemary and spent the days with a walk up to Chichester Marina, a BBQ and a bit of a canoe for me - I know what I'm going to putting on my Christmas pressie list now :-)

The sail back to Brighton was one of our best, motoring out to the Looe Channel to get there before the tide turned and then a cracking sail from there to Brighton. The sun was shining and we got our stay sail out for the first time which gave us an extra knot of speed. The wind was a bit variable from a F2 up to a F5 - meaning we got practise at putting in a reef, letting it out again, putting it a reef.....

It looks like we came back at the right time with the first big storm of autumn whistling in the rigging. Roll on March!

We arrived back in the Itchenor anchorage yesterday, our last destination before heading back to Brighton on Thursday. The forecast is looking like it is obliging for once - sunny with N-NW winds F 3-4 so it should be a pleasant last sail.

Our friends from Brighton on Lady Rosemary also arrived here yesterday we had a good catch up with them and tales from their round Britain sail.

Just outside the entrance to Chichester Harbour Colin caught our first mackerel. Woo hoooooooooooooooooo!!! So I had my first filleting practise.... I think I'd get nil points for presentation but at least there was still some fish meat left after I'd hacked it to bits. And it tasted lovely for breakfast this morning, grilled with croissants from the shop in Bosham.

The photo is of Emerald at sunset in Newtown River on Sunday after most of the other boats had left.

We left Studland Bay for Newtown Creek on Friday. We arrived to find a few boats there already leaving little room for manourver and we had a little coming together of mud and Emerald's keel. But we soon budged off and the helpful harbour master pointed us to a deeper spot. I thought 'ooh this is a lovely place'..... a few hours later and I hated it, there were so many boats, many seeming to not care whether they boffed into another boat because they had anchored too close. On Saturday there were 100 boats there, the harbour master telling is it had been the busiest Saturday all summer - how had we been so foolish to think it wouldn't be crowded on a sunny Saturday in September!!!!! There were some bizzare displays of anchoring - one boat throwing out 30m of chain in a depth of 3m, no wind and with other boats swinging in every direction possible only a few meters away from them.

Sunday was scorchio and we braved ourselves for a swim, a few laps round the boat, the water wasn't too bad once you were in and the sun was lovely and warm when I got out. On the plus side, most of the boats left Sunday afternoon and we had some gorgeous sunsets - picture added on the next post. I'm sure its a lovely place outside of the summer. Oh and we picked more blackberries!

Hi all,
all well on Emerald, our foraging scores for this year are as follows:

Sloes: enough for 12 litres of Sloe Gin ;-)

Blackberries: enough for 24 bottles of wine ;-) and 6 huge apple and blackberry crumbles!

All for free! Not bad for a few days working the sunshine. We are heading on in the morning, leaving Studland Bay for Newton Creek on the Isle of Wight.
Hard to believe that this time next week we'll likely be in Brighton again. It'll be nice to be back, but still a bit strange not to be on the move for 6 months.

Oh well, Emerald will be better for some care and attention, and so will our houses which are in need of some serious maintenance.

The six months are going to be jam packed with 7 day weeks trying to get all the work completed, and being able to cut our ties with Brighton and possibly the UK as well by next season. Exciting times, and hopefully the work will go according to plan.

We've a couple of large jobs to do on Emerald, insulate the Forepeak, and reinsulate the fridge and freezer, move the wind generator and get all the other gear on board, so we can continue improving as we go.

Photo of us enjoying the sunshine in 'Crazy Horse' our tender. That's Old Harry in the background.

However we've a final week of cruising to go, probably including, Newton Creek, Osbourne Bay, East Head at Chicester and Itchenor Reach, before we go through the Looe Channel and back to Brighton.
If you spot us at anchor, come say hi, have a cup of tea, or a beer.

Slainte
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