Hoist the Mainsail, Set the Rudder!

Outbound and southbound. Ferry on Sunday from Plymouth, which is 2 days and 850 miles away. Roughly. We're making 2 night stops to visit family in Glasgow and Ascot. The journey gets tedious and painful if done "in a one-er" so the intermediate stops are welcome.

These first few miles are normally the worst of the trip, what with increasing traffic density the further south we get. It really makes us appreciate the relative remoteness of where we live as by the time we get to Mum's at Ascot we always seem to be in a permanent traffic jam.
The motorways were clear, more or less, and apart from being charged double on the M6 toll "because of the height of your vehicle"  - I knew I should've got rid of the 2-inch lift - we had an unremarkable transit from North of the border to the Thames valley. Wet, though, and another unexpected little snag...after about 3 hours of driving rain outside it began to rain inside as well. Big fat drips onto the driver's knees. Sue remained dry and sympathetic, trying to stem the flow with the chamois leathers we keep for such emergencies. We rescued the maps from the overhead stowage and did what we could to mop things dry but with the "lean" always towards the driver's side, Mike was always going to be at the deep end of the bath. No idea where it's suddenly sprung a leak and probably too difficult to trace now the rack and everything is on. Just have to wear a mac.
The ride from Ascot to Plymouth we did yesterday morning. Sunday. Little traffic and we allowed  lots of time since the roads into the south west are often clogged with traffic. Not so today, possibly because it wasn't "seaside weather". Generally dank, the tops of the trees in the base of the clouds. As we'd decided to avoid the major motorway route and taken the A-roads the countryside was more interesting to drive through. Mike has always loved this part of the country and we're debating whether it might be a retirement option, eventually. The hills are green and rounded, not grey and rocky, and the whole environment is much gentler and welcoming. Driving the A303, it's easy to imagine how things would've been a couple of centuries ago; a muddy single-track Turnpike road, winding through sleepy villages cuddled by the folds of the hills, chocolate-box cottages with their thatch pulled down around their ears like a wooly hat against the weather. A curl of smoke the only way to tell if anyone's at home. Timeless scenes. Would've been better if we could've seen more than a few feet! Passing Stonehenge, Sue managed a shot of this famous landmark through the window...and the fog.

 Not the best of days to be standing guard.

Plymouth, though, was basking in sunshine and 18 degrees. 

 One reason for allowing extra time was to visit a chandlery to improve our astro-nav kit. The DIY quadrant is OK for playing about but if we want to make even a half-decent stab at doing the thing properly we need proper equipment. If we'd have had the idea a bit earlier we might've picked something up from e-Bay but with no options left we decided to invest some cash in a "student" sextant.

Not hugely expensive for the fun we might have with it and considerably more accurate than the previous option. Should be good enough to get us a fix within a few miles of where we really are....

We'll be  in Santander in a coupleof hours. The beasts in the Bay of Biscay have left us alone for yet another voyage, and it's been flat calm all the way. Glorious sunshine for our departure from Millbay dock and a celebratory glass or two...and some more photos to follow. Unfortunately the ship's wi-fi is as slow as we predicted and the laptop battery is about to die, so gotta go now. I'll try to publish this now but it might not work....Back soon.