Yellow vans have not featured a great deal in our activities over the last few weeks. Neither has mountaineering. Instead, we’ve been messing about in boats – and on bikes.

Dave recently passed his Yachtmaster Coastal exam (quite a feat, given that the day over which he chose to take it was cursed with a conspicuous lack of wind). This not only allows him to charter yachts from various reputable companies – watch this space – but also qualifies him to skipper CUYC’s yachts Kestrel and Puffin. For his first trip in charge, we took Kestrel from Ipswich south to Brightlingsea on an almost perfect weekend: bright sunshine and almost enough wind to make it exciting. The club requires new skippers to undertake a probationary trip under the “supervision” of an existing skipper (who in reality gets to relax and enjoy not having any responsibility while dispensing sage advice). Somehow Dave managed not only to persuade Greg to fill this role, but also to convince him that he really wanted to make homemade mayonnaise and potato wedges for everyone as we came into our anchorage. Unsurprisingly, served with a glass of wine and a sunset, they were a roaring success. In fact, the whole weekend went excellently.

The following weekend came with a bank holiday, but the temptation to run to the hills for three days was trumped by the temptation to take Jo’s new bike for an inaugural spin. As it’s a Super Galaxy tourer, our intention was to do a two-day tour, but in the event we only managed a day ride from Oakham. In retrospect this was probably a good thing, since we had left our tools in Cambridge – the curse of living in two places – and were also lacking a couple of panniers and (it turned out) some cycling fitness. We headed around the north side of Rutland Water, and thence to Ketton, King’s Cliffe, Oundle and Market Harborough. Our previous experience of the area being limited to driving through it on the A14 as quickly as possible (which is often quite slowly), we were pleasantly surprised to find delightful roads, pretty villages and some distinct undulations in the landscape. These became increasingly unrelenting as we returned north to Oakham through the wonderfully named hamlets of Glooston, Cranoe and Tugby, and since we were also having some bike issues and were by now quite tired, the last few miles were something of a struggle. Jo was incredibly grateful to have something other than road racing gears to get home on! 75 miles definitely used to feel easier…Hopefully some proper touring to come in the next few months – then at least we can blame the weight of our luggage!

Last weekend we were again on the East Coast, helping to prepare Kestrel for her summer trip to the Baltic. (Unfortunately we’re not joining her, owing to our calendars being too busy and Dave having a little work project to finish, but since Dave has organised the entire programme we do have a vested interest in making sure she’s seaworthy!) With great company and great weather, tasks such as taking the stove apart and cleaning it, scrubbing algae off the hull and fixing some wiring with the help of washing up liquid (don’t ask) weren’t too arduous. Testing the loading capacity and top speed of Kestrel’s new dinghy was particularly amusing. We also enjoyed a lovely meal at the Butt and Oyster on the River Orwell, and had a good stab at clearing out the excess beer and gin that had accumulated in Kestrel’s saloon…