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so back to the main blog folks...

i will put pics up and let you know when ...

hurricane

is what we are in the middle of at the moment! will be glad to be home....will even be glad to be in the channel, where it should be a lot calmer, apparently.

force 7

but we survived the force 9! somewhere off northern spain at the moment, and looking forward to getting home ... if it weren't for the windchill it would be 50 degrees F at the moment, but as it is feels a good bit colder...

free wi fi! couple of pics

in the azores, hurray, and allison went on a trip on her own ( i was going to do a different one, but we decided i could do that myself, since all it was was walking round town, which is mostly closed!)

so i'm sitting outside a cafe at the cruise terminal

there was a chap with a carriage with two lusos in teh shafts doing carriage rides, so i took advantage of that - only 10 euros, which was good value, and meant i got my horse fix for teh week!

then found the only open museum, the military museum, only 1 euro, and it turned out quite interesting - in the old fort, and there was a good view from up on the battlements.

here's a pic of allison riding in the sea in Antigua, i'll upload the rest probably to facebook when i get back...

and looking forward to getting home... and hope the drive north isn't too bad, the weather sounds truly horrendous, gaynor has had to use hot water to defrost al the locks and blots and it is all a bit of a nightmare. and has had to get more haylage than we'd planned as they've had to be in more than we thought.

the weather

my mother was moved to ring me this morning to tell me how bad the weather is at home! i ijust feel guilty that i've left Gay nor to do all this extra hard work re, Mollyeven though she says that's fine, you know how that goes...i still feel guilty ...

as we are still warm, although i was moved to put trousers on this morning, rather than shorts!

and i forgot to say

we sailed by monserrat and saw the volcano smoking away - in the morning it was clear as anything as we sailed into Antigua, if a shade distant, and when we left that evening the captain said we'd go right to and past it (unanticipated) as we had time; unfortunatlely by that time it also had a large raincloud sitting on top of it so we couldn't really see anything of it at all.

and today? logged in to check emails etc on home PC (remote log in) and it appears to be down... hope there hasn't been a power cut!

next stop the Azores...

St Maarten and antigua

bad me ddin't write ysterrday - very busy weekend!

St Maarten on Saturday - we were driven t the very top of what they said was a high hill, for a walk back down again through an old sugar plantataion and rainforest. it was quite amuzing, as the guide was full of warnings about how steep it was etc etc, but all of thoses on the walk are used to the Lakes and Derbyshire's Peak District, so found it a shade on the tame side. the warnings are, of course, addressed more to the US market (sorry Jean!) where they tend to get peope who aren't used to walking and have to be told that there will be no medical facilites on route etc...

great views!

it's a very odd island in some ways - very small, partly dutch and partly french, with two separate governments etc and if you are in the french part, you are french (and thus in the EU!)

Sunday was riding in Antigua. alongside and on a very white beach (with the option of riding in the water, but the latter, on a lead!) western saddles, mostly in note very good nick, and the bridles/halters an agglomeration of bits and pieces cannibalised from other stuff. reins were cut down lunge lines or draw reins....the horse i was on waws a bit gobsmcked to have a rider on who know about seat and leg aids without kicking! and the leader left me to lead on occasions when he had to go sort out one of the others!

set off back across the atlantic Sunday teatime....doubt i'll have anything more to say until Saturday (azores)