Skip to main content

Rona arrives in France!

It's been a very busy 24 hours on Rona II. Docked in Gunwharf Keys and
staying overnight, the past two days have been filled with shopping,
showers, visits to the boat from family and numerous trips to Burger King
and Subway before setting sail to France. Many of the crew took advantage of
the big sale at the local Musto outlet, appearing back on deck with their
trendy new Musto Crocs. Thanks to the Normanton Grandparents, the crew
enjoyed a delicious sponge cake which of course did not hang around for long
after dinner on the second day of the back to back Normanton watch.

Rona II also had a visit from Milo's Grandma at Gunwharf who took the helm
by storm, despite the terrified look on her face as a ferry passed by and
caused the boat to sway...'I already feel sea sick!' she shouted. After
leaving Gunwharf the crew took a trip down the Solent to pay a visit to Big
Lizzie, the new aircraft carrier based in Portsmouth. We can confirm that
Big Lizzie is indeed...very big!

Today Rona II sets sail again as we head across the channel to France.
However, our original plan of heading to Caen has been postponed as we are
making our way across 'too quickly' and will arrive too early to make our
way through the lock. Seems like the crew still have their racing caps on
and can't wait any longer to take over the French beaches. With George
Hopkins as our navigator for the next couple of days we are hoping to arrive
in Le Harve tomorrow morning before heading off to finish the rest of the
planned cruise and back round to Le Harve for the final celebrations.

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rona II blog 23rd Aug 2017

> Disaster strikes! After arriving in the visitor marina of Le Havre at
> 0430,
> Rona II drove over a stray rope which had been left in the water.
> This tangled around the propeller, causing the Skipper to call for the
> anchor to be dropped a mere 10 metres from our intended mooring position.
> The crew then had to inflate the rubber dinghy and set world class rower
> Theo Darlow to take a line to shore where himself and Dr Sam Wareing
> pulled
> the boat in.
>
> In the morning, the afterguard set off to find a commercial diver to cut
> the
> rope free from the propeller. They located a man named Patrick, who
> arrived
> to the scene of the incident at about 1500 donning full scuba gear; he
> quickly got into the water and began working away at the stern of Rona II.
> After roughly 45 minutes of fishing bits of rope from the marina water,
> the
> crew saw Patrick emerge victorious. Angus Elliman used his bilingual
> …
Post a comment
Read more

Christmas aboard Rona II !

Today, the most festive of holidays was celebrated on the vessel Rona II,
along with the birthday of watch officer Nathan Meager. Funnily enough, this
is the first time that Nathan's birthday has been celebrated in unison with
Yuletide. To get everyone in the Christmas spirit, a cardboard Christmas
tree was created and duct taped to the mast. Mistletoe was also devised out
of slightly inflated white balloons and paper leaves, after the genius idea
from Will Davies, who quickly realised his tactical error. The Mongols on
Mother watch have been slaving away since 0500 local time to bring the crew
a delicious five course roast dinner - yes, really!

Crew member Harry Normanton managed to smuggle the most delicious birthday
cake onboard to share with everyone on Christmas day; which was baked by his
loving granddad. The cake was carefully converted into a birthday cake, now
reading "Happy 40th Birthday Nathan." Thirty-nine year old Nathan had very
mixed emotions a…
Post a comment
Read more

Leg 5 - The Final Blog!

After a long, hard month, the Rona II crew are returning home. For the past few days, the three watches have been cleaning and getting the boat ready for the delivery crew who will return her to the Hamble, and enjoying the hospitality of Le Havre.Wednesday morning was spent cleaning the boat to try and make it look like it hadn’t just crossed the Atlantic, and like the crew hadn’t been painting the town red the night before. At lunchtime they were given shore leave and the chance to have a well-deserved shower, but due to Rona II’s early arrival in Le Havre, the showers weren’t open, so everyone onboard had to go to the swimming pool, purchase Speedos, and shower after a colder than anticipated swim. In the evening, the crew were invited to our fellow competitor yacht Peter von Danzig for a little get together, and everyone enjoyed being able to talk to the other crew about their Atlantic experience.Thursday is traditionally the day of both the Captains’ Dinner and the Rona II …
Post a comment
Read more