My apologies for not posting a monthly report for ages; there was plenty to report through the summer, but Fiona got ill and I got pretty much overwhelmed with things to be done. Suffice to say for now, we had many lovely trips, mostly about the islands of Roaringwater Bay, with sightings, in order of frequency, of harbour porpoise, common dolphin, basking sharks, minke whales, bottlenose dolphins and fin whales, not to mention my old ever-present friends (they cost me very dearly in my fishing days), the seals, both Atlantic grey and common. There is a colony of the latter, not so common in our parts, in the Ilen river estuary.

Another important bit of news is that we have planning permission for an extension to Horseshoe Cottage. This would enable us to provide better service and also manage things better from the point of view of our own survival, but whether we can finance it satisfactorily remains to be seen. For the present, we have to get Fiona back to full health, and the two of us have to reflect of what to do. No more B&B for the time being. We are on the Algarve, and sailing for Las Palmas in Mallorca for a gathering of fellow cursillistas. More of that anon. Then we plan to sail back to Faro, where we shall spend some time giving the old boat tlc before sailing for home in the spring.