May Bank Holiday 'Cruise' - May 28-29

The plan was simple. Head over to the boat early on Sunday with the four of us, plus Nana and Grandpa, and set off around lunchtime to find a quiet anchorage about 5 miles away in the Walton Backwaters. After a leisurely breakfast, we'd find a beach, anchor off and take the kids ashore in the dinghy. Then back to the boat and home.

Hmmm.

The weather didn't play ball. The wind blew hard all day Sunday and harder still on Monday. For the first family outing on the new boat, we didn't want stress and worry to be the abiding memories, and getting a long keel boat into her berth with the tide and wind pushing her forward was a recipe for trouble.

So we made the most of the situation and spent time exploring ashore, fixing things on board and hanging out a bit. Issie and Max settled down to some serious lounging on the saloon bunk.


The kids also did a bit of fishing for crabs with a hook, line, bit of salami and complete lack of patience. The results were predictable, as any crab vaguely interested in the bait would have had to move pretty quick to catch it on it's way back up to be 'checked' by Issie.



Issie modelled her lifejacket by posing on the foredeck. note for later - when taking photos of a 4 year old , never ask them to smile. This always results in a strange face being pulled.

By Monday lunchtime, the weather was getting even worse with rain threatening, so we packed up and went to visit Sutton Hoo, a National Trust site when a 7th century royal burial mound yielded amazing treasures and the outline of a 90 foot ship. Much of the exhibition is indoors, so it suited the bad weather very well. Max and Issie even got to dress up as ancient anglo-saxon children.



Next week, the forecast is finally promising us sunshine and light winds, so hopefully we can get out and about!