Chores, “Chance” and Chatter

The last couple of weeks have been taken up with a lot of domestic chores – like plumbing in a new dishwasher! as the old one emitted a very large blue flash at Christmas, the day before we left for the States and Queen Mary 2 cruise. We have also been catching up with neighbours and friends afar (always a pleasure) and, of course, James had his own ‘chores’ to address – one of those was the reconditioning of the Taff rail wood on the back end of “Chance”.

Deciding to use gloss finish yacht varnish this time, with five coats they are looking magnificent. Good enough to see your face in and hopefully very capable of taking on the rigours of life of the waterways for another year.

With winter temperatures always against making a good job of things in the garage, the varnishing was done in the warm of the conservatory.

We popped up and spent last week end on “Chance” and, after spending so much time recently floating about on much larger craft, it was wonderful to look out on a calm and tranquil marina.

“Chance” has faired fantastically over the very bad winter so far and there was only the basic of jobs to be done to get things up and running and, deciding not to take “Chance” out of the marina, we enjoyed the week end with a couple of trips into London on the train.

On Wednesday this week we had a real treat, when Ian and Irene (nb Free Spirit) came down to visit us. Ostensibly to get a ring which we collected and brought back from Dubai for them (long story!), (You can read all about it here)their visit was something we’d looked forward to. Here’s Irene and Ian with Doug on beach at “The Bill” in sunny Selsey!  Irene, as usual, adorned by numerous cameras and ready for the next flora and fauna shot.

After a walk on the beach we took them to the nearby, delightful and picturesque Bosham. In summer months Bosham is usually heaving with tourists but on this occasion we had it virtually to ourselves.

With the tide out the acres of cold, grey mud still have a beauty all of their own.

With Irene’s help, we spotted a few different wading birds among the many of gulls and ducks who make this lovely area their home.

Inspired by Irene and her impressive camerawork (we now understand a little of how she gets those wonderful pictures on her blog site) James had a go at capturing some of this ancient village on film.

The church has the distinction of the grave of King Canute’s daughter within it’s walls.

Perished from the cold wind howling up from Chichester Harbour we took refuge in “Anchor Bleu” for a warm and a pint. The usually very helpful chalkboard, warning drivers who park their cars on the flats when the tide is out, that the tide will came back in at some stage (!), was lacking in it’s information.  As we’d parked in the danger zone we had to ask how long we’d got to enjoy our drinks. 

We were ok for time so our ceaseless conversation continued as our bodies regained some feeling. The rest of Ian and Irene’s woefully short visit was a great joy.  We had a wonderful meal in the evening at The Seal in Selsey and we retired to our beds just after midnight – four very happy chaps!

Thanks Irene and Ian for your delightful company (and the fab coffee and walnut cake!) and we look forward to meeting you somewhere on the water in the next couple of months.