Well what a miserable day again!  Yesterday we got the 4th art exhibition up and running at the RVYC.  Will be there for about 10 days.  Quite a reasonable attendance for the private viewing but I think that may have been due to the free glass of wine on arrival!.  I have put in 6 pictures, which have all at some time appeared recently on the blog.  Fingers cross that perhaps one may sell, but I'm not putting too much hope into that!

We managed to find the spray dodgers hidden deep in the bilges of Bloto, and Perry has put the name on the side.

Attached spray dodgers!  Looks good.

We were anticipating going to Beaulieu (Bucklers Hard) this weekend, but the weather forecast is set to give us a few storms and rain again, so it looks as though it will just be a little sortie tomorrow to make sure we manage to get a sail in.  Unfortunately as always seems to happen with an Easter weekend the weather is likely to spoil it for everyone.  Looks like I'd better dig out a good book!

 Some of the pictures I've painted in the last six months!

Profile of a squib

Boat on the Mayenne

Squibs

View from gardens at Royal Victoria Yacht Club

I've just checked, and cannot believe that I haven't done an entry since September! What a bad girl am I.  Thus, I have almost 6 months to catch up on. Well let's start with the painting - of which there has not been a great deal.  When we returned in September, the weather wasn't too bad so I managed to do some outside work.  Looks as though I have placed the pictures badly, but hey you get the idea.  Following that in October we did the so called "gentle" atutumn series with East Cowes Sailing Club.  We didn't do too badly for a couple of old fools, won two of the four races, but overall came second.  At this point we had thoughts about changing the boat...... started to have look around and decided on a Hanse 301, and ended up buying one but it was in Anglesea of all places.

This is us racing with Bloto in the Autuum series.

After quite a delay, managed to get the new (well not brand new!) boat brought down and lifted into Gosport.

Bolero ready for its departure to Wales.

Hanse 301 arriving in Gosport

Looks big to me!

While waiting for the new boat to come down, we managed to sell the Bolero, and off she went to Wales.  She's been a very good boat to us for more than 30 years, but perhaps it was time to make a change, and get down to a bit more sailing.  Perry and Dave managed to bring the boat safely across the Solent and set up over there, but unfortunately there were quite a number of jobs which had to be done to get her seaworthy.  In addition the weather was absolutely foul which made work difficult.  When the work was finally finished the weather was still foul and delayed any sea trials.  We managed a couple of trips up the Medina and even poked our head out past Cowes but that was about it.  Then finally winds eased up (a bit) but started to blow from North/North East, and bitterly cold.  That was not going to stop us.  So off we went to Lymington.....

Our "new" Bloto on her new moorings in the river

Just to prove we made it to Lymington!  Boy was it cold and thank goodness for the heating.

Of course, Bertie didn't seem to realise it was cold and was happy to do a bit of sunbathing on deck.

Fortunately it was sunny in Lymington and the Yacht Haven was lovely.  Spurred on by that we decided last weekend to go the other way and set of to Gosport.  Unfortunately arrived an hour too early so it was a bit lumpy turning the corner in Portsmouth.  Moored in Haslar Marina.  Not too special where we were moored.  Boat rolled most of the time with the help of the northerly/easterly winds.  Took two days after we got back for my eyes to stop rolling.  Again it was cold but we survived.  Pretty lumpy for the return home, and I am not sure I am in a rush to get back there again.

Here's the proof that we were actually in Haslar Marina - So the lesson learnt is not to leave the blog 6 months before updating, because there are too many bits and pieces, like Christmas (with Annie) that got left out!