Umm, don't look very boat like to me.

Well, where to begin. I now have the wood for the oars and I would have begun to make them by now had I not been a bit distracted by our new acquisition and project which is a van. A very big white van, an LDV 2.5L, long wheel base crew cab Convoy. Until recently it used to belong to the M.O.D who cared for it well and so it has a good service history.

A van is incredibly useful for a boat builder and this one even has a tow hitch, fantastic! The van itself is not sophisticated and is pretty agricultural to drive, which I really like. Now, the van thing is soon to be a camper van thing. Rae and I are planning on converting it so we can spend next year wondering around the UK and maybe even venture into Europe.

Next year is our year of exploration. This is all beginning with a five week trip to India at the end of January. We are off to a place called Auroville which describes itself as a Universal City in the Making in Southern India www.auroville.org/index.htm when we come back we plan to convert the van and basically travel for a while, do as much sailing as possible, an ocean passage would be good, anybody need a couple of crew around about next June? As well as this we will be available to assist you with any boat building, maintenance and repair work etc.... just let us know as we have a van and so can bring our tools to you!

Oh yep, and I will be beginning to make the oars this week, life is good!