I wish we knew what the music Brittney ferries play to wake you up in the morning! I’m sure it wouldn’t be the same at 0442hrs for a swimming wake up but the boys really love waking up to it.

We got some breakfast in the cafe and stew was convinced we were still outside the harbour… so we took our time… and there was barely anyone left… and the I realised that we were in fact docked and in fact by the time we got back to the garage there were only a handful of cars on our level! Oops!

The new engine set up took a bit of getting used to and certainly wasn’t as powerful on the hills but good old Kev has a plan for that. We made it over the Nantes bridge with ease (one of my best bridges! Massively high and industrial.)

We headed along the road and saw an open supermarket for an Emergancy beer stop! It’s a public holiday here so shops are closed, so it was a result! The rest of the journey was very smooth and we arrived at the site and set up in the sunshine.

A trip to the beach for some bat and ball, a swim in the sea and Fraser found a star fish!

After showers Fraser had a test of fishing…. Now I’m sitting with a glass of wine, with a bbq on the go and looking forward to a good sleep and a lazy day tomorrow as a storm passes through.

It’s fair to say the journey to the journey hasn’t been a smooth one.

A couple of weeks ago we took freckle for a spin and she wasn’t running well at all… we alwayS use kev at SGS air cooled for all freckles needs… so we were straight on the phone.

The news wasn’t good… the engine had an injection system and the control panel had some broken diodes (me neither!!!!) which meant we had to convert freckle to having carburettors. I heard expensive, And stew heard big job! We also needed a new exhaust and parts for these old vans are hard to come by. Thankfully kev managed to find the parts and with a handful of days to spare he worked really long days to get us running. Except freckle had other ideas. We collected her and some of the issues remained! After some more road testing and frantic calls go Kev, on Monday freckle returned to the garage to get a new distributor fitted. Once again a lot of crossing of fingers and contingency planning meant we didn’t have to use stews great idea of hiring a transit van and sleeping in the back! I’m not a snob but I do prefer windows in a heat wave!

We only had a few days in hand to have a few test drives, with busy work schedules, stew having some of the busiest days at work following drought conditions time was running out!

By Sunday lunch time freckle was packed and we were actually ahead of schedule…. Aside from there being no running water in the house we were looking good. We thought a quick test drive, tyre check and the trip to the spa for a shower etc and some food before a leisurely drive to the port would be nice. After the stress of the week before it was very much needed.

However… that would be boring!

As we went up Athelstan hill, fully loaded, we went down into first gear and the most horrendous sound happened. It sounded like something fell off the van.

I jumped out and stew sat still… and our first words were “game over”. We weren’t sure what had happened but it sounded terminal. As I was on my hands and knees on the pavement I felt totally defeated! We managed to reverse back down the hill and pushed the van around into the close at the bottom (where another van was also broken down!) and started to make a plan.

Stew got under the van and between pictures being sent to kev and my dad (who had walked down to help) we identified that the drive shaft had become disconnected because 2 of the bolts had sheared off and the others had rattled lose. Fraser was busily ferrying bikes up the hill to mums, I was on the phone to the ferry company working out our options and dad was trying to convince me that it was a good idea for him to be under the van a few weeks after some hefty surgery! We thought last week was stressful… what did we know!!

The RAC had a 4.5 hour wait so we had a back up plan to recover freckle… and meanwhile amazingly kindly mum and dad had had a chat about lending us their van so we could still go away, moving back their holiday and mum was planning how to empty it!

Once the roadside team had removed one bolt I was off… whilst the roadside team used a drill, and hacksaw to remove the sheared and bent screws. I tried a number of shops and by this point it was 3:45 (on a Sunday) and I realised we were running out of options.

At this point the Jones family drove past and more kindness and help followed with Steve collecting ramps and jacks and coming back and helping get the plan to remove the drive shaft. I’d gone back to get my car as I’d realised that we were at least 2 bolts down and we would need some of there was any chance. I’m a very optimistic person and at this point there was in my opinion zero chance of getting freckle running.

Next, the team increased as my brother was making plans to remove the bolts from his van to put into ours… I passed Kwikfit and thought I’d nothing to loose. Again they were amazing and immediately sprung to action. 3 guys were searching tool kits for bolts and even gave me some gunge to keep the bolts in as well as 12 new bolts in exchange for a promise of some beer on our return!

Back to the roadside… stew was ready to start putting it back in… the new bolts fitted and as the last bolt was being tightened… the RAC man arrived! We were all nervous when we restarted the engine… IT WORKED!!!

4 hours behind schedule and we were back on, up Athelstan again this time successfully and back to get the bikes!

Quick showers and a bite to eat in Wagamama’s and we made the ferry with minutes to spare.

I still can’t believe we made it, I’m so grateful to all who helped and hero status to stew for getting it done! I’m also grateful that the ferry was running an hour late which meant we had more time before we had go abort! Never has a man deserved his pint of 1664 on the back of the ferry more than stew.

On the back of the ferry we sailed off… and as we got to spice island all our parents were sat having a drink waiting to see us off. It was hilarious as I think dad was auditioning for a job as a lighthouse keeper… I’m sure there can’t be a brighter torch on the market!! There was lots of shouting and waving as we passed! I’m surprised that the Captin didn’t change course.

A quick pint and we were off to bed… surprised to be on our way for another adventure! It wouldn’t be our holiday if there wasn’t a teeny bit of drama!