Home to the rainy city

The flight home was very pleasant apart from a rather shambolic stopover in Barbados where the passengers in transit were herded around and treated very disrespectfully by customs. To such a degree that one passenger felt forced to formally complain. The point at issue was whether we were actually entering Barbados as we were being confined to the departure lounge, as it was, any duty free booze was temporarily confiscated and even water bought on the plane was forced to be thrown away. I tended to agree with the German in that technically we were not entering the country. It is a real contrast to the friendly welcome we received arriving by yacht.

The landing at Manchester after an eight hour flight proved a real shock to the system, temperature was a rather chilly 4°c and it was grey and drizzly. Waiting on the station with our luggage I was listening to other conversations and my ear was remembering that in the north of England it seemed that people were prone to moaning a lot! The train journey home also proved somewhat depressing due to the inordinate amount of litter everywhere.

Later it even made a half-hearted effort to snow, this is the view from the front door of our house.

However we had arrived home and things did seem familiar but also strangely not. Both Lynne and I felt a little dislocated, which is what I suppose we were after so long away. I was particularly disturbed to be charged £6.60 for 4 pies!

It was lovely meeting up with friends and family, it did seem however that our alcohol intake was increasing particularly when we visited Alex in the Brewery Bar. He gave us a tour.

It is of course a working brewery and Alex is learning the whole process of production, his speciality however is working with customers and he seems to be making a real success of managing the bar. 

We had several meetings with friends and family and the atmosphere was always very pleasant. It was particularly gratifying to hear such praise for Alex from his customers once they discovered who we were ( and sometimes before they did ) we are very proud of him.

Of course it would have been churlish not to sample the many excellent cask ales that the Black Edge brewery produce.

From chocolate flavoured stouts, citrus golden blonde ales, hoppy bitters, we felt quite spoiled after  nine months of fizzy lager!

Of course much as we enjoyed it, the hectic social whirl had to cease briefly as we also had other things to attend to. Namely dental appointments, health checkups and replacing bank cards which were due to expire in the next year. I also replaced my laptop and bought a new mobile phone that would be slightly easier to keep swooping SIM cards with. We had a large shopping list much of which depended on how I was going to get back to Getxo. I had arranged to sail to Spain with a friend Peter who owned the junk yacht Malliemac, however when I phoned him he seemed to be in the midst of an emotional crisis and was a bit non- commital. I arranged to meet up in a few days when he would tell me the whole story.

So what's it like to be back?

It cold......very cold.

It can be quite expensive.

It's very dirty.

It has to be said that it seems customer service has improved ( Lynne assures me ) certainly Nationwide, Santander, Dell, have been excellent. Our Dentists have pulled out all the stops and have been brilliant. The Brewery Bar is superb! However I have still failed to get an appointment to see a doctor despite changing to Lynnes surgery. God forbid I was actually ill.

TV is just as I remember, appallingly bad.

My sisters dog Bonny still remembers me.......I got a delightful welcome.

We continue to visit with our friends and family and without exception that has been wonderful, we need now to go further afield and we are looking forward to that.

We both still feel a little like strangers at times but I suppose that's understandable.

We are both missing Dark Tarn and can't wait to continue our journeys.............

In preparation for which we have a collection of new flags, a new national ensign ( red duster ) courtesey flags for St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Gyana. We are also finally in receipt of our flying fish house flag as we are both now officially full members of the Ocean Cruising Club having completed our qualifying passage.

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We also have a new ssb receiver ( for synoptic charts ) and other bits and bobs to install on Dark Tarn when we return.