Day 15 Thursday 2nd June- Milford Haven

I enjoyed my lie in and lay contemplating the stuff I needed to do. I turned on the radio and this reminded me of one thing: replace it! I have a very beat up Roberts LW/ FM radio.It has no aerial, has a rusty metal speaker grill and always works.It lives on the boat all year. I left it at home, because I thought I'd take my Pure digital one with its 2 speakers and great sound. I have learned that digital signals are virtually non existent everywhere and this radio does not make the most of FM and gobbles battery power. This is the one I should have left at home. i wanted something cheap with a good reception. The advice I later got in Radio Shack was that it would need to be an FM/LW. I found one in Tescos for just under a fiver.

Now those who have shared an office or a home with me will know that tidiness is not a virtue of mine. Sailing forces me to find a safe place for everything or it gets thrown about the cabin. A few days ago I watched from the cockpit as a loose mushroom rolled about aimlessly. It was mildly interesting wondering where it would come to rest.I was expecting I'd find it stuck to my bare foot later. Anyway, whilst not at sea things can get pretty disorganised quite quickly. Its a sort of art form with me. this morning I had run a mains power lead into the cabin and was having my breakfast with everything on charge. I took a couple of photos chez moi.

Next tasks were to contact the Engish language School in Totnes to check everything was OK and they had started using my house. I then had to notify my house insurance company of what was happening. Legal and General were a breeze compared with my boat insurers. I have a restriction on my policy which limits me to UK waters and no more than 12mls off shore. The policy excludes the Chanel Islands,Northern Ireland and The Isle of Man. When i went to Guernsey i merely phoned them up and they said OK. I thought it was going to be as simple going to Ireland. No they wouldn't insure me en route. If I took my boat be ferry they would resume insurance when I'm over there. Alternatively they would cover me over there once I got there.

Milford haven is a big place, It must have had an illustrious past. The marina is located in a basin, which has lock massive lock gates. Everything gives the impression that there have been some big craft here. In comparison the leisure boats seem fragile and inconsequential compared with the scale of where it is located.The bijou arcade of shops which have been built on the old wharf seem twee. I wonder what the hardy dockers who once trod this place would make of the scene,                                                           

The area has always seemed pretty run down to me. The retail draw on the ubiquitous Tesco shopping park says it all.

The streets seem windswept and like something out of the wild west. Even in this fantastic sunshine I find it a place that's hard to love.

I was reading a bit more of Libby Purves's "This Cruising Life" yesterday. She seemed to capture so much of what sailing means to me. She says:-

"We are not Walter Mittys,because however sensible and cautious we are, the sea is real and therefore the adventure is real too, Sailing is one of the few ways in which ordinary, desk bound and not particularly athletic westerners can partake of the ancient, honourable awesome world of self reliant adventure.... Out of the harbour we may be ludicrous hobbyists, but 10 miles out to sea we have a share in the oldest terrors and triumphs of all. We are spacemen,"

Aside from this visceral living on the edge, another aspect i enjoy is the improvisation you deploy to keeping things going.I added to my list of things lost over board one of my sailing bags. So looking for a cheap replacement becomes a challenge. Similarly my toilet bag is ripped so needs replacing. So which is cheapest a laundry bag, a picnic bag or a cool bag/ how do they differ? Such deliberations have become the replacement for how to deal with the incessant complainers in the office.

I had time to answer the question of what Guillemots eat.They are indeed like swifts in that they do not come to land other than to breed. They live the rest of their lives at sea, diving for a range of fish including cod. They look like this:-

                                                                                       

Its amusing looking at the names of some of the boats in marinas. Often they relate to how they have been bought with names like "Inheritance.Occasionally a name fits the boat perfectly. In a corner of the marina there is a neglected paint peeling craft with the name Shoestring.

The yachtsman as an archetype is a middle aged to elderly male. He may have various virtues but he is bound to be a bit long sighted. It seems to be verging on cruelty to put the smallest key pad possible on the door to the toilets.It must have been a young electrician with a nasty sens of humour who fitted this.

I went to a large gallery near to Tescos. I was taken with the script on a nice turned wooden bowl. If you can't read it -"Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt. dance like nobody is watching." As thought for the day go this seems like a good one.



Finally to recap on the journey I will provide a continuation of the map. As I left Devon I felt strangely that the journey was now properly starting and even though I know Milford Haven, it feels like I have left the South West peninsular temporarily behind                                                                                                               

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       minds .