bigbadblog

Another eventful week of  extended deadlines and delays.... we thought that it might've been possible to set off with a grand party to wave us goodbye on Saturday.... sadly that will not be possible... But, looking on the POSITIVE side of it all, it has meant that we are now more prepared than we would otherwise have been.  We have;   refurbished the rear lazaret seals and latches so that they should be watertight and are now lockable.  supplemented the existing anchoring equipment by adding a new length of chain, 60m, together with 40m of anchor rope to create a new main anchor rode. This should allow us to anchor in depths of up to 30m. We removed the old 35m of chain from the forward chain locker, attached a new 45m anchor rope to make our secondary anchor rode, and relocated it to the starboard lazaret.  We have always commented on the slight list to Port due to the position of the generator and hope that putting the chain on the opposite s...

Well! In the end the new engine IS the show model from the Southampton boat show. It arrived at the yard on Tuesday and fitting should be complete for a relaunch of 'Tin Tin of St Mawes' on Thursday afternoon. Paul has completed the official vessel registration but found that he had to add 'of St Mawes' as the shorter name had already been taken. Last week, I spent several days helping prepare the boat and getting hold of various bits and pieces for the voyages ahead. These included; an extra fuel filter,  ocean rated Dan buoy,  2 litres of sun cream,  Tin Tin visiting cards,  4 x 20m mooring ropes,  new seals for the aft lazarettes,  fixing 5x 12v fans in cabins for the hotter climes,  removing all the dry food stocks left over from our earlier 'Tin Tin Around Britain' adventures,  removing the 35m of anchor chain ready for the 100m of replacement chain so that we have a chance of anchoring in some of the deeper anchorages we ...

Nervous excitement, apprehension, that feeling of 'Lets just get it started NOW!!' Last week I accompanied Paul and Anne to Saxon Wharf in Southampton for the relaunch of Tin Tin after a summer rest on land following our Tin Tin around Britain excitement in May and June. She was already in the slings when we arrived to inspect the new bimini and cover plate for the retractable bow thuster (which dropped off somewhere in the Western Isles!). The new bow thruster cover plate... BOLTED on! The new cover plate looks really well made and as if it certainly won't come off in a hurry. We searched for signs of where the original had been attached but found not a sign.. so we suspect that it was probably held on with ties and and hope... Views of the cockpit bimini  This was intended to be the 10 day the run up to the start of Tin Tin around the World  . Little did we know what would transpire over the next few hours.... After checking all seacocks were open ...

As my friends on FB will know I have had a very relaxed year visiting Spain and France and doing a lot of sailing in Paul's new toy... TIN TIN. Here are two links to his blog... 1 and 2 This is my photographic record of the trip from Arzal-barrage up the coast of Brittany and across to Cornwall Last night in Arzal Arzal - Belle ile de Mer and meeting Uncle Nick and Aunty Helen Sunny, warm and relaxed.. despite the wheel still dropping off at inconvenient moments! Groix sunset, tallship, and meeting the 1st group of extra crew in Benodet Ile du Loc'h views with Tin Tin Flora from Ile St Nicholas  Ile de Penfret Ile St Nick summers evening Ushant to St Mawes is 35 leagues... sort of... but it IS due North! Arrived at destination to a St Mawes sunset.

I am cutting short my trip by a week so that I can attend my Aunt's funeral. I will write up the missing sections of the trip when I have settled back into UK life.

I have moved on round the Gaspé peninsular and down the coast to Prince Edward Island spending the night at a campsite by the water in Summerville. It was an interesting night as the winds got up and changed direction by 180 degrees due to the nearby hurricane which is now touching down in Newfoundland to the north of here. I am leaving PEI by ferry tonight and will look for somewhere to stay when I get to Pictou in Nova Scotia. I have a lot of driving to do if I am to see Halifax, then get the ferry from Digby to across the Bay of Fundy to St John tomorrow! I aim to drive the 980km from Saint John to Montreal late on Sunday so that I can catch a bus down to New York on Monday morning..... The map on the top IS up to date!

22nd. Drive to Yoho Nat Park, camping at Takakaaw Falls The next morning we jumped back in our overwhelmingly underpowered Dodge Caliber with a very strange automatic gearbox and headed for the group of National Parks that make up the Canadian Rockies. Our aim was to get to Yoho National park and get a place in the Takkakaw camp ground from where we could undertake a 'four boot' walk as described in the book called 'Dont waste your time in the Canadian Rockies'. Highway 1 didn't disappoint us with the scenery. We stopped in Golden for some coffee and perfect cinnamon buns and were entertained by the very un pc owner with tales of the two season, winter and construction, and the pros and cons of immigration! I spotted a Drascombe lugger on a trailer and chatted to it's owner. He was a very British expat, with an incredibly bulbous nose, and had found it for sale in California and brought it up to BC. We continued on to Revelstoke and then glacier National Parks...

  After leaving the BC Hydro campsite  we continued on the amazingly scenic Highway 99 for a short distance before heading south towards Lytton on Highway 12 as we crossed the river in Lillooet. Once again we were driving down a vast valley fringed with high mountains but this time the valley was covered in golden rolling fields of grazing punctuated with the occasional bright green irrigated oblong or circle. The soils looked very light and erodible and the river had cut a deep gouge through the loess leaving pale cliffs with relatively flat areas either side. This road gets closed in winter because of landslides and avalanches and there was a team clearing a small rock fall from one particularly unstable portion.  At Lytton the Fraser river is joined by the Thomson river and there are a proliferation of white water rafting companies offering the thrill of a lifetime...  We turned north on Highway 1 and after about 15 mins drive stopped at a small resort, at White Canyon, which also...

Dear all, I realise that I am not keeping up with my travels very well... But now I have added a map which shows where I have been and where I am at the moment... Almost anyway! I have just spent four days with my cousins Isabel and Anil in Toronto which was a great place to relax a bit and plan the final push to the Atlantic coast. I shall be in Québec on Saturday after spending two nights in Montreal. I hire a car in Québec and will do a weeks sightseeing covering as much ground as possible but aiming to include the biggest tides in the worl around the Bay of Fundy, Halifax and Prince Edward Island as well as a drive around the Gaspé Peninsular.. Keep watching this space!

19th Aug. Vancouver - Whistler We packed up our stuff and stored it at the hostel before going in search of the car. The email from Canadian Affair gave an address which only had two empty car hire units, neither of which were Avis. We had to stop for refreshments at a Starbucks (much to my horror and boys delight!) to browse the Internet and find the correct address before managing to walk past the place! Eventually we got hold of the car and drove up the 7 levels of the basement garage to the street and back to the hostel to collect our bags. Once loaded we set off tentatively through the afternoon traffic and headed out of Vancouver through Stanley Park and across the Bridge towards Horseshoe Bay and on up Highway 93 towards Whistler. As promised by Jane, the views were astounding, ever-changing views as we travelled along Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, clinging to the side of the rocky margins of what is really a fjord which ends at Squamish but continues to keep you entran...

18th Aug Grouse Mt We ventured across the water to North Van and Grouse Mt to undertake the infamous Grouse Mt Grind....a 1000ft direct ascent of the Vancouver playground (skiing during winter, hiking, biking and zip lining during summer). As we went up to the base of the climb on a bus, we were overtaken by and ambulance and fire truck which we then found at the base of the trail after a visitor had had a heart attack about half way up the path. This turned out to be a blessing,for us at least, as we had to find an alternative route, the BCMC, which was not the straight line up the mountain but a much nicer route through the forest away from the teasing view of the gondola zooming up and down overhead. We arrived at the top in good shape and headed straight for the cafeteria! Large cold drinks and chips went down vey well :-) We then joined the large number of slightly less fit people in a wander around the 'attractions' at the top of the mountain. There is an enclosure wh...

16th Aug Vancouver. Matt and Nick arrived at YVR at 11:30 and once they were through customs and immigration I had to feed them at Burger King... Not what I was expecting but I refused to take them to McD's (throughout their two weeks here!). We bought some normal price transit tickets at the domestic terminal saving $15 for the trip into town (there is a $5 'Airport departure tax if you buy the tickets at the station!) and made our way to the Cambie Hostel where I had stayed the previous night to offload luggage and shower before I took them to Canada Place for a nice lunch then round the corner to the park where Nick fell asleep on the grass. An early bed at about 21:00. 17th Aug Vancouver. We did a mega shop at MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) buying a replacement spork for me, freeze dried food, tons of energy bars, a 3 man tent, sleeping mats, some Keen walking shoes for Nick, a couple of dry bags, a buff for Matt and some gas for my stove taking it all back to the hostel be...

15th August and I arrived back in Vancouver regretting the rash decision to eat a Wendy's burger at Seattle airport... I had 40 minsto get some food and there were queues everywhere so I plumped for the quickest option.... not a good one. A Tim Horton's iced capuchino and blueberry muffin at YVR restored me to my normal self! I made my way to Gastown and the Cambie Hostel that I had booked before leaving for Alaska. It is a busy hostel with it's own bar and bakery where you get you breakfast of coffee and muffin or for an extra $2.75 you get a cooked breakfast! It was at least 10 deg C warmer in Vancouver than Anchorage and the four person dorm was sweltering. One dorm member stayed up very late booking flights on his laptop and then left very early so not much sleep... NOTE: I know that I am two weeks behind in my blog but will endeavor to catch up soon! I am having a busy time driving, camping and hiking the Canadian Rockies with Matthew and Nicholas. Sent from my iPa...

Bettles to Vancouver in 24hrs (14th-15th Aug) We left Bettles for the 15 min flight back to Prospect Creek in an Arctic Airways twin engined plane, crammed with almost all our luggage and with Hannah in the copilots seat. The remaining luggage would be flown on the same plane to Fairbanks for us to pick up lat in the day. Once back at the cars we crammed ourselves in and headed home, I joined Tim in his car and we set off for Fairbanks and Anchorage 500 miles away. We stopped for a late lunch and refuel at the Yukon crossing on the Dalton Highway (hamburgers and all things bad!). Mike and I craftily hijacked Tim's car and his cd collection leaving Tim and Michelle to play movies in their car to keep the 4 younger members of the expedition happy and occupied. Mike drove the road to Fairbanks where we collected the luggage from an almost closed Airways hanger at the edge of the airport. A quick refuel and we continued on to Anchorage. Tim and Michelle left us far behind and we had i...

Mon 8th Aug. Float day 1 We woke to a dry day and started preparing the rafts . This took some time as we worked out how all the stuff would be divided between the rafts. It was a good thing that we had left some stuff behind as we seemed to be piled high as we set off down river and learnt the basics of raft control from T and M. We paddled hard to avoid the trees that have fallen into the water as they are undercut by the river, they are referred to as 'sweepers' or 'widow makers'. We didn't travel far before we stopped to set up camp as we had started quite late. FD2 Tues 9th Aug We struck camp and went for a hike up the hills behind us. We started through Sitka spruce with deep moss and some alder undergrowth then as we moved up the slope we lost most of the Sitka and the bushy alder became predominant with blue berry, cranberries, crowberries underneath. Then the alder disappeared and we were left with the moss and stunted fruit bushes making a very soft base...

Wolverine creek (67.61265N, 152.26408W) from my tent at midnight on the 9th Aug. This is day two of our river float down the John river. Fairbanks to Bettles. Sat 7th Aug After meeting up with Tim and Michelle in Fairbanks on Saturday we drove North in convoy along the Dalton Highway which will be familiar to those who watch 'Ice road truckers'!! The majority of the road is gravel and snakes it's way north through rolling hills of stunted Sitka spruce and tundra. The road stays mostly on the ridge lines, occasionally dropping down to the water courses where the road is usually heavily patched and bumpy as t it sinks in the boggy ground. The alaskan oil pipeline snakes alongside, usually within a mile of the road raised up off the ground on pillars each with radiator vanes on top to stop heat being transferred down and melting the permafrost. We crossed the mighty Yukon river on a long sloping bridge surfaced with timber and filled the cars with fuel at a pump that had ...

6 Aug - Now in Fairbanks after a day in Denali park where we saw wolf, hoary marmot, moose, caribou, ground squirrel, ptarmigan and a lot of wet people! We took a bus into the park and hopped off at Polychrome where we hiked up a hill to 1300ft and had lunch looking out over cloud covered, snow dusted mountains while we were dusted with large flakes of snow ourselves. We had a view of Mt McKinley on our way north. We stopped in Nenana to pick up some breakfast to supplement the cold pizza from the night before! The laundry is on, Tim and Michelle are arriving soon, we will stock up with pasta, rice etc etc and then motor north as far as we can, camping on the way if it gets too late to reach Coldfoot at a reasonable time tonight. Next update is likely to be after we have completed the river trip in a weeks time! bye for now. Sent from my iPad

3rd-6th August Set off from Anne's house, 10 people in two cars, and headed north. I traveled with Anne and her two children, Corbin 4 and Harlow 14 months. The cars were crammed with cool boxes full of camping stoves, utensils and an assortment of bear defences ranging from bells through pepper spray to a tazer. We drove for about an hour before stopping at a giant roadside stall of fireworks. There are a whole series of these at this point as it is just outside the city jurisdiction where it is illegal to sell or let off fireworks. There were a couple of old split screen VW Combis, a double decker bus with a scoreboard dated 1776 and the score USA 1: UK 0. Having resisted the temptation to buy giant rockets and multiple mortar launchers (Mike couldn't and bought a whole load of pyrotechnics), we continued on to Byers creek camping ground at mile 144 and set up camp with two large tents and my little one, with a large tarp set up over the camp table next to the fire circle...

Tues 2nd August 2011 (63.746N 150.1196W) The 1st of August was mostly a day for shopping and stocking up ahead of our trip to Denali and on to the Gates of the Arctic National Park. The Kenyan Thomas's and I love REI... But it is dangerous kind of attraction! REI is an outdoor equipment store on a vast scale. Everything you have ever dreamed of for your biking, hiking, camping and climbing needs and loads of stuff I didn't know existed but instantly know I ought to have! I was very restrained bearing in mind that I am limiting my luggage to 15kg, so only bought some gas for my stove, a gps and a replacement for the hat I left in Glacier Bay. When I say hat, I mean a Seattle Sombrero which is wide brimmed, breathable, and waterproof. I gather that Seattle is much like any of the north west coast of N America in that it rains a lot... I am writing this from inside my tent at 22:45 and it has been raining since I woke up this morning in Anchorage! Back to yesterday. After satis...

Anchorage day 2 - 30/7/2011 Got up at a very reasonable time of 09:00 and had a light breakfast, Twining's Irish Breakfast Tea and bread with orange raspberry jam, before venturing out on one of Tim's bikes to explore the parks leading down to the coast. There are very good bike/pedestrian paths alongside almost all roads and through the parks. I headed down the Chester Creek trail to Westchester Lagoon and on to the Coastal Trail. Red necked grebes were just sitting around waiting for me on the lagoon. This is a manmade lagoon with a 5.5 acre area below the dam which is tidal. The sluice has a white plastic threshold and is illuminated at night so that the salmon can be counted as the swim up the restored stream and into the lagoon. I spoke to the volunteer and he said that the intention was to have a webcam set up to allow remote access for the volunteers but that that was not ready to deploy yet. The salmon run has not started in earnest but is expected to start in this str...