18th May

Lymington

The sea state at Hurst. No weather for a channel crossing in a sub 10 meter craft

Expecting a call on the Sunday evening to say our proposed channel crossing to Alderney aboard "Shogun", the most excellent aluminum catamaran operated by Rob Thompson out of Lymington, would be postponed for a day, I was surprised instead to get a call to muster for a possible window in the wind in the early hours. This caught me by surprise so much that by the time we were finally sorted, and the dog transported to its foster home for the next five days, it actually was the early hours that my wife Radka and I arrived to the cottage where Andy Colmer, the trip organiser, was waiting, along with Steve Smith, who for the purpose of this story I will call Mesito, as other Steve's were involved in the making of this story. However, the window didn't arrive, and although the following days forecast was marginally better, there was a feeling of "we wont be going" hanging over all of us. Already our five day trip was down to four days. We went out and about for a few hours, taking in the sights such as Hurst shingle, above, which I must admit looked ripe for a bass or two with the wind slamming in!!

Mesito's amazing Paella........

It wasn't all bad though. When we returned to the cottage, Mesito set about making a paella. Now, I have tried cooking a paella before, and failed miserably. It is not an easy dish to cook. The genuine cooking pan is a definite starting point though. Steve spent some of his years living in Spain. From what I can see, he has achieved two very distinct advantages in life. The first, is that he met his very beautiful and charming wife there. The second is an appreciation of Spanish food, that has led to him cooking like a native. The paella was simply stunning. In fact, already the eating side of the trip was proving excellent, and eating is probably my second favorite hobby, as Andy had welcomed us the previous evening with one of his legendary chicken curries!!