A much-needed break

Well, I said "we'll be back". That was on January 6th, and we're now considering paying poor Kantara a visit this week. We need to go for the monthly Webasto burn, but this time we also intend to spend as long as it takes, cleaning the algae-ridden roof - however cold the weather chooses to be - and draining the stern bilges, which have collected an inch or so of water over the past months.

I didn't blog about the last time we saw her. It was but a brief visit in which we failed to check the Webasto fuel filter, simply because I couldn't unscrew the base of the filter pot. I contacted Colin the engineer about it, and he kindly went to loosen it for us, and reported that the filter was perfectly clean. Good news.

Once the new bathroom and shower-room had been completed (in the house), we felt very much in need of a break, and we booked ourselves a week in a lovely, 17th century thatched cottage in Devon. "Hideaway Cottage" in the middle of nowhere. On the way there, we dropped in to see Dorothy, Grace's eldest sister, and her brother-in law, Brian. A couple of days later, we met up with Christine and Mike, her other sister and brother-in-law. We hadn't seen any of them for a long time. and it was great to catch up.

The weather was dry throughout the week, mostly sunny, and usually pretty chilly, but we loved it. Tourists were few, many of the shops were closed. Grace and I looked along one deserted, cold and windy beach and laughed at our memory of the sands at New Quay on that very same day back in 2019, where people were sunbathing and swimming.

By contrast, our Devonshire beaches were almost devoid of people even when the sun shone brightly. There's a lot to be said for visiting off-peak!

There were lots of interesting, beautiful and fascinating places to visit inland, too. Notably, Knightshayes Court...

...and the amazing House of Marbles.

And now we're back home again, and not short of things to do. The list is long and boring, so I won't itemize it here.

It seems now that our visit to the boat might be today. Fingers crossed, though it looks as though there might be some of this on the way!