CHANGING CREW AT FAHAN MARINA

14^th June

Today we lose Sandy and Ian, we have had a lovely 2 weeks, with warm, and sunny weather most of the time.

We have seen some of the most scenic parts of Ireland on this leg, which has been really nice.

Ian is flying out of Belfast, and Sandy is meeting her husband Nick in Derry, and staying at a very nice Hotel, overlooking the river. She can't wait to have a lovely soak in the bath. I think that the lack of shower and bathing facilities has been a bit of a shock, but she has coped very admirably.

I am very proud of her, and she has been really good crew.

As well as the most scenic part of Ireland is has been the most remote part, with anchorages and harbour walls, and no facilities. We were down to our last half pint of long life milk yesterday too.

We do have a shower on the yacht, but then there is the issue of how much water, and again water isn't always available. - Still that’s sailing for you.

Ian cooked a really nice breakfast. This was before they went off on the 1 o'clock bus to Derry

The Engineers arrived at 11.30 they had located the problem which was the pipe at the very back of the engine. Brian had the parts shipped from Bournemouth to Derry, and they had picked the parts up. It was quite difficult job because one of the nuts was very rusty. Joseph the Engineer was determined, and eventually got the part off and hopefully all is well.

We still have another pipe, that can be fixed when we arrived home.

Carol and I decided to go to the local very posh hotel & restaurant down the road called the The Red Door and have a very expensive G & T, while I was able to log onto the WI phi and do some updating. As it was pouring with rain we looked lovely with our wet gear on.

We were hoping to eat at the small local pub, but no luck as it was fully booked.

15^th June

Today Carol and I had lots of jobs to do, and it was absolutely tipping down with rain.

We cleaned out the engine compartment of oil, and ran the engine to check it all out. I tightened the nuts on the stern gland, as it was dripping a little too fast. We did some scrubbing and sweeping. I did a bit of washing.

We both decided to have s shower in a tin portacabin with a shower tray that didn't empty,uck.

At lease we had clean hair, needs must.

We have to to the Buncrana, to get the shopping, we were hoping to get a bus, but were lucky enough to meet a local sailor, who very kindly gave us a lift, even though we lived at Derry. These people are amazing, so helpful and lovely.

We had to get a taxi back, as the bus didn't turn up, when we were told it would.

It was still raining, we were glad to get back to the yacht.

The rain finally stopped at about 6 o’clock in the evening.

Tomorrow our new crew arrived, so we are stocked up and tidy, and ready for them to come aboard. All we need now is a good forecast.