Le 'Spring Tide' Voiles Vers La France

The Silver Tide

First, my humble apologies for the bad use of a foreign tongue, if my title efforts are grammatically incorrect.  It has been a while since I 'learnt' French, a while longer since I had to use it, and what felt like a while longer still to get seven words out, where two are English.  Still, to put it into perspective, I'd say as a whole, my French is about en par with my German, better than my Welsh, and far, far worse than my English, which when I fall into an accentual stress can sound unintelligible.  Especially on Southern ears.

My Aunt Isobel, and husband John

Aside from the above gibberish (or kauderwelsch auf Deutsch), the nub of this entry is I have finally learnt news that my Aunt and her husband have begun their post retirement adventure to sail the waterways of Europe.  They sold their house last year, downgraded, and bought a boat with this plan in mind, and they settled on the Spring Tide.  For the purists out there, it is apparently a 34' Bruce Roberts Waverunner design steel cruiser.  To the non-purists, we shall settle on it being a rather nice boat for getting away when the weather gets warm.

Exploring the deck

Today, I learnt that they landed in Dunkirk (after sitting out the most consistent April showers we've had in a while on the East coast of England), and are already planning how to worm their way around Europe for the next few months.

I for one, wish them all the best, and hope we can get out to see them at some stage during their adventure abroad.  I did manage to catch up with them last summer at Limehouse Marina in London when they explored the River Thames in an effort to get more intimate with the Spring Tide before heading into deeper waters.  Olive came along, and she had a great time finding her way around a boat.  She even wanted  to play Captain at one stage.

How hard can it be?

I hope and pray that their linguistical skills are better than mine.  Albeit, in truth, I think they'll keep the English vim, and just talk that little slower, and more loudly in anticipation that all will be okay.