The update is long overdue, and it's going to take ages as I'm trying to use a new text entry program on my PDA. Hopefully I'll improve as time goes on.
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Peridot
sits at the new pier in Staithes. Not too busy a harbour... |
Even
at the end of the pier Peridot will dry out at low tide. |
Looking
downstream from Staithes bridge... |
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...and
looking downstream. |
Early
morning return from Whitby with Staithes in the background. Cy is
helming. |
Sunrise
over the quarter. |
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Cy
is much more aware than I am of the action o wind through the sails.
We tried all manner of using the staysail, with great success. |
An
interesting change of course took this ship across our bows - far
closer than I'd have steered! |
An
evening drift with the squash crew a month ago. Fish and chips on
board were lovely, though! |
It still doesn't feel as though autumn has even taken hold, but last weekend saw more leaves falling than have in the weeks leading from the summer and we're thinking about the approach of darker night events. Almost all the Bunning family are coming here for Mum's birthday, eighteen of us, I think. She knows about it this time, no secrecy, thank goodness, as it would be so hard to keep all the bed making from her! Come to that, the new bed delivered last week might have caused a few questions, too. It's also the weekend of Darlington's fireworks display, so I guess most of us will head down there on Saturday evening. We're also planning our half term holiday leading up to that weekend - Martin and Jude are taking us to London for a few days...
The boat has taken much of our attention over the past couple of months, and we've been trying to sort it out to our ideals as well as using it as much as we can. We're almost regular visitors to Staithes, and I spent the night in Whitby with Cy a week or so ago. We also experienced a night sail, well, left the harbour in darkness at 5.30, anyway, and had a grand sail back to Hartlepool as the sun rose behind us. Arriving at low tide, entry was only possible because the lock keeper opened the gates and the outflow raised the harbour level a few inches.
One real bummer was having our trailer stolen from the yacht club. Most particularly, it reduced our options with the coming end of season - do we leave the boat on the water in the marina (expensive) or find somewhere else? We feared our insurance wouldn't pay but it seems now that they will. Trouble is, delivery time on a new one takes us past Christmas. We have, though, now located a second hand one in Essex, not too far from where we're staying in London, so we'll have a look while we're there and maybe bring it home with us. Then again, it's a cunning trolley on top of a trailer combination and heavier than our old one. Do we need a bigger car? Does it never end? On the plus side, the trailer bearings need never be immersed as the boat launches from the trolley, which is winched on and off the trailer. We should save a good sum on maintenance and cranage, and there's even the option of keeping Peridot ashore through autumn, winter and spring, but launching simply when we want to sail. In the summer we would have various options as we worked up or down the coast of shorter term moorings. We'll see.
Jenny is really enjoying part time working - or, more truthfully, really enjoying more time away from work. Her job is about to alter slightly as she shares a new class with another teacher who has also decided that part time is the way forward, this time specialising in autism. Ash Trees is working well for me, and I intend applying for a proper job there if tomorrow's interview doesn't come off. I'll tell more if it does...
Mum is happy and mostly well, even though she keeps complaining about feeling like an old woman. She has just applied to have one of the big sycamores in the back garden cut down - she does worry about it losing the big branch overhanging the conservatory! We doubt permission will be granted, but it's worth a try. The other one (only a metre separates them) will fill out, but probably not in her lifetime. If turned down we'll apply for trimming permission on both. As I mentioned earlier, autumn's leaf fall is slow, and there are many to drop yet, certainly more than half.
My essay detailing a few of the people who have been a positive influence on me is just about ready, and will be on these pages soon. It has been an excellent exercise, and I certainly feel very good about others, and even not too bad about myself, at the moment. Well worth doing, I recommend it.
I've given up on the new software, and am back to the built in character recognition. Using the other has shown me how quick this is! Nowhere near as fast as typing, but quicker than writing neatly. I'm going to finish this here, and perhaps post it in the morning before I go to be interviewed. Or I may just sleep late.
Bye for now. Send us a note!
Steve Bunning
20th October 2003
