Semi-locals ?

I always felt pangs of dread as I left Pembrokeshire to return to London. That dread that it was back to day-to-day London life...

While away Ju90 commented that we were not 'tourists' but Semi-locals... now thats a nice idea, and quite true. We've been and will be down there so much that it makes sense for us to think of ourselves as semi-locals. After all, we have an address, a 'floating' cottage, friends and genuine love of the area.

Being a part-time local gives us a sense of belonging and not just visiting. In fact having Shoestring then becomes just like a second home, albeit a small wooden one that leaks in from the roof the rain. So no need to find excuses to go 'away for the weekend' it is simply 'working from home for the week'.

Not quite sure what this wittering on  is about either. But anyway it made me feel better. :0)

Historic logs

Thanks to Hannah Robinson and her mother Maggie for the kind extracts from the log-book of Mr H.J. Robinson -a former Shoestring co-owner with Dr Ellis.

Posted below are a couple of entries from the log-book, you may need to click on them to enlarge them to read.

May 15, 1983

Welsh Cakes!

On our second trip to Wales I found this delicacy in Morrisons of all places. Now I realise they are available all over wales by many large bakery brands.

I have to say the best ones we've found have always been fresh ones from smaller bakeries, in particular the bakery on the corner of 'Y Welsh' and 'Ropewalk' in Fishgaurd have the most amazing ones we've tasted.

Welshcakes are small round cakes a bit like scones and eaten with or without jam or butter, we prefer without.

We now find ourselves bringing back a few boxes of them each time we return from wales for friends and family.

I've included a quick recipe from the BBC website below incase anyone feels like having a go.

Ingredients
225g/8oz self-raising flour, sieved
110g/4oz (preferably Welsh) salted butter
1 egg
handful of sultanas
milk, if needed
85g/3oz caster sugar
extra butter, for greasing


Method
1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
2. Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted cutter.
3. You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.
4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam.

The last trip out: Over night at Lawrenny Yacht Station

Shoestring moored up to her buoy for the night

We had our last night in Pembrokeshire, (due both to The Rum Situation and work demands). We left our moorings in Neyland at 11am just before the high-tide, and went out for a sail. Initially we were going to sail up to Angle Bay and then turn back up river to Lawrenny, but the wind and tide was against us, so we sailed as far as the entrance to the Pembroke River and castle pond, then turned to sail up river towards the Cleddau bridge.

After pottering around under sail, Michael had a go at the helm under sail, this time without hitting any buoys, King slept as usually. We realised how much the time flies while we're sailing as four o'clock came round we turned back with hardly any wind -we even tried motor-sailing to speed up things, and headed back from Picton Point towards Lawrenny.

Michael (and new hat) at the helm.
(Shoestring is in need of a new mainsheet traveler!)

The Lawrenny yacht station is a wonderful location, but popular, we managed to get a last minute visitors buoy by calling in advance. -£10 for buoy B28 on the edge of the Cleddau and the Cresswell river mouth, a beautiful spot as you can see but requiring a bit of a paddle to get to the Yacht Station's pontoon -King's first trip in the Sevylor Canoe! (link to the review), needless to say he was nervous but very trusting and eventually enjoyed it.

Thankfully our charts are a bit more up-to-date, but you get the idea.

Once ashore we realised that the wallet was still on the dashboard of the car at Neyland! A quick, but expensive (£60) return trip in a mini-cab solved this. We didn't go in but the Lawrenny Arms pub on the old quayside has been recommended to us many times.

Me(Tony) off out in the canoe.

We rowed back to Shoestring in the canoe, after having a bit of fun trying to get King into the canoe over the edge of the pontoon. -Thankfully he had his lifejacket on so he was easier to carry. -Or at least aim and throw as it must have looked like to the people watching with great humor in surrounding yachts.

After dinner on board we had an amazing sunset at Lawrenny, we sat on the fore-deck in our woolly jumpers with a scotch and coke (YES NO RUM) and watched the still water reflecting the light from around. Then complaining as a motorboat user, just after sunset decided to show off water-skiing skills with no navigation lights and making lots of noise and lots of wash. Thankfully this ended after twenty minutes or so.

Sunset at Lawrenny, looking up the Cleddau river.

We settled in for the night, noting that Shoestring didn't move that much more than she did in the Marina. I was in the double bunk up front and had to have the forward hatch open for a while longer to look at the amazing star-fields you get in the very low light pollution skies.

Shoestring's bow, with No.1 job awaiting a tie-down for the night.

Come morning all had changed. Rain, and I mean RAIN, was falling, Shoestring's cabin roof leaked again, this time in 1 new spot too! We had a quick breakfast of toasted muffins and jam then decided to return to Neyland under engine. -Wearing every waterproof garment we had.

King relaxing on his bunk (again)

Safely docked at Neyland about 2 hours later, we both wished we had spent the night out there before in our trip. We decided to leave Shoestring at Neyland during the wet stormy weather, and drive back to Lawrenny for lunch at the (award winning) Quayside Tea Rooms, where we had a very reasonably priced lunch that was one of the best we'd had on our trip.

One of our best shots from the evening. (Before the storm hit!)

We can't wait to take Shoestring back to Lawrenny. Perhaps next time exploring by Canoe further up to Cresswell Quay (the water is too shallow for Shoestring) where there is another great pub which has the best hog roast and BBQ in Pembrokeshire on a friday night apparently. We'll investigate and report back!

Link to Lawrenny Yacht Station

Made in Solva

I have to confess, for the last six months with Shoestring we've used Sainsburys Basics blue mugs... Shocking I know. 

We've been on the lookout for some nice handmade mugs for ages, we both love craftsmanship in all forms, as reflected in our day jobs, and of course, having a wooden yacht.

On a visit to Solva last week we found the perfect mugs to compliment Shoestring's craft. At £9 each they were not cheap, but these beautiful blue mugs were made by Bobbie Jacobs, whom we had a long conversation with on her work as she found us four of a similar size. -The mugs are thrown and spun instead of being cast. Her work is a wonderful reflection of the area with her bright blue hues and tones setting a theme in their work. You can visit the Solva Pottery page here.

Solva is a wonderful little town, accessible for 2 hours either side of high-tide, and it's quay drying completely. It has a great, dog friendly pub: The Harbour Inn, which serves great food, next door to another great café 'Number 35' where Michael enjoyed a locally caught crab salad. (Which was caught by the café's own boat).

We had a browse through the "Window on Wales" store there, both purchasing a fine pair of Wellington Boots. Then went off to visit the local Woollen Mill.

About one mile away from the harbour is the Solva Woollen Mill, another traditional crafts-place. Their workshop forms part of their retail store where visitors can literally walk up to the looms and discuss their workings with the crafts-people there.

More than a tourist attraction the mill is a working company and offers a fine variety of rugs, blankets and throws. -Their 'Skomer' pattern is particularly nice!

Sadly, the Sock-Knitting-Machine pictured above was out of order. But made me want a Sock-Knitting-Machine of my own nonetheless. 
The Woollen Mill is currently raising funds to restore its water-mill workings, some of which can be seen turning both outside and inside in the tea room area.

We've still to explore the quayside and harbour area fully, but can definitely recommend the town to visitors by car or sea. -We've not tried yet but previous owners have managed to dry Shoestring out alongside the quay wall there.

Last night at Lawrenny

We spent last night moored up river at Lawrenny Yacht Station. Just a quick entry this one, until I get a chance to post fully.

The Rum situation

"Running out of Rum!"

Michael just commented on our rum supply status... This must mean its nearly time to go home... :0(

If you want to keep us here, please post bottles of Rum to:

Michael & Tony, Yacht Shoestring C/o Neyland Marina, Brunel Quay, Neyland, Pembrokeshire.

Well it's worth a try!

King and friends

As he seems to be the most popular crew member here's some shots of King's holiday with us in Pembrokeshire.

Broad Haven beach is still one his favorite places to look at things.

King's friend, Genie (Ju's dog) was slowly sinking into her bouyancy-aid to avoid helping with sailing.

King's favorite place while sailing in asleep on his bunk. -You may note he needs a whole bunk to himself! He does sometimes stick his head out of the companionway to check we're still there, or to complain when we change tack and heel over the other way.

PHOTOGRAPHS!

Thanks to a 97pence camera card to CD service I can upload few photographs for you all. Above is Shoestring in light winds near Lawrenny. (I've now fixed the slipping boom vang.)


Here's me at the helm, this is a bit past Castle Reach on the River Cleddau, No2 Jib raised on the bow, I'll be testing the Genoa tomorrow!

Here's Julie and myself at the helm under engines after a sudden summer storm blew us all over the place. Michael was in the cabin making tea, while Ju watched. -I think this is just past Picton Point on the Cleddau.

I'll upload a few more photographs over the next few days.

Ju90 on Shoestring

Last saturday we sailed out to Dale for lunch, anchoring up in great weather, we had two friends; Ju(aka ju90) and Julie with their pet Westie, Genie. I asked Ju to write a guest entry in Shoestring's log book, I've typed it up here for your reading.

Ju90 + Genie (Westie-terrier) + julie (with no cats).

Arrived 9.15. Boys arrived 9.45 -off buying more booze + a hat. Fortunately Ju had finally worked out how to get into marina loo.

Visitors denied coffee on grounds of tide + tardiness -Offered 12 diet cokes instead. Turned out the boys had not washed up, so no mugs available.

Michael looked great in the hat.

Set off to see industrial glories of West Wales from the water under motor. Tony worried about Irish Ferry, but in event had no problems spotting it. Genie eventually agreed to go into cabin, but displayed 'breed standard' of animosity eyes throughout voyage. King perfect gentleman + lived up to his breed standard by dozing all day, (mostly) trusting the boys to keep him safe.

By lunchtime in Dale, had all turned into Capn-Birdseye... a situation not improved by G+Ts/Rum and diet coke. Boys finally washed up b4 setting sail (yes really) for marina.

Perfect conditions ? wind+tide both heading straight for the marina -meant we sailed back at twice the speed of the outgoing trip, sails setting perfectly + boys beaming proudly. J+J competed with each other to photograph bouys + occasionally the boys. Genie looked to see if there was any place to hide before huddling into her bouyancy-aid + shutting her eyes until berthed, after which she cheered up slightly, helped by Michael feeding her posh dog biscuits.

Michael dropped his sunglasses into the marina as he tied up -as crew he inevitably works twice as hard as the helm -but otherwise it was the perfect day.

Ju90.02.08.08

You can visit Ju's website here.

I'll be posting my 'record' of our trip to dale, once I get back and get my camera lead! We're still at Shoestring, and the weather is still wet! She's currently covered in tarp thanks to a new leak in the roof!