The wind eased to a moderate hooley around 04:00 and neither of us slept soundly. We're up at 06:30 and ready to leave at 07:15 Ali stands by with the mallet while Nick prepares to try and start the engine. The battery has dropped a little, to 11.8, in the cold. Should be enough, and if we're nervous how on earth (moon) did Armstrong and Aldrin feel when they pressed the start button on the lunar module? Thankfully there's no drama, she starts normally and t...

Up at 06:30, leave the aire an hour later and slop out then up the hill for the long-face mile to the port. Check in is smooth, Douane comes in but without his gun this time and we are last on except for a broken down vintage MG-TC towed on by a port tug. By the time we get up on deck the lines are being cast off and Pont-Aven shudders her way off the quay with loads of vibration. A few minutes out we are passed by Armorique and Ali exchanges 'your ship' pict...

All ready to leave, we pass the mailbox key to the neighbours and say goodbye. We set off and Mary Lou is rolling along fine but a mile or so down the road Nick notices the electric parking brake switch is 'on'. Normally it wouldn't even move with the brake on, We pull into a pub car park to check, and find it's all working but not holding on the incline. We phone the garage and despite being chock full of pre Christmas work they offer to help. Attempts at ...