Graham (and Frances) keep Woolly Mammoth in ‘the other island’ click to enlargeI’m back on Play d’eau and all is well with life. Very well.
Woolly Mammoth
Having followed my time in hospital for a rebuild of my prostate last week, our dear friends, Graham and Frances of Woolly Mammoth have penned an ‘Ode to Pee’.
It’s brilliant!
Ode to Pee
We thought we’d write this little verse, now you’ve seen the Doc and Nurse;
And they’ve unclogged your blocked up drain, enabling you to Pee again.
We also thought it would be nice, to give a bit of our advice
‘Cause you’re not used to good full flow, whenever you may want to go.
When you’re next having a great time, stand up and shout, I WANT MORE WINE;
Your tank will fill so just take care, that you don’t Pee it everywhere.
When you are full we recommend, that you yourself can just pretend
On your next visit to the Loo, stand back, take aim like firemen do.
Please don’t mind our little tease, we just want you to be at ease;
It’s wonderful now you can Wee, all we can do is shout YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE……..
Woolly Mammoth
Piers
from the Pilot house of Play d’eau
Fleming 55
Beaucette Marina
Owen Cole of The Medical Specialist Group click to enlargeIt’s Saturday and Lin’s on her way to collect me, homeward bound to Play d’eau in Beaucette Marina, Guernsey.
In a nutshell
Guernsey’s Princess Elizabeth Hospital; The Victoria Wing; a successful TURP operation; zero side effects; many friends made, and I think – correction, I know – I’ve put on weight.
The Victoria Wing
After wondering for ages how best to describe my three day stay in The Victoria Wing, I have at last found the right words. A treat. It really was. I was spoiled. A special treat. And my health insurance was paying for it.
Medical matters
If the truth be told, I’m a wimp when it comes to medical matters. I wasn’t looking forward to having the TURP but I knew it had to be done.
I’d met Owen Cole, the Island’s consultant urologist at Guernsey’s ‘The Medical Specialist Group‘. We’d talked for a long time, not only about my prostate and prostates in general, but boating and music.
Google researching had eliminated the last shred of doubt. Without sounding patronising, Owen Cole is right at the top of his profession.
A holiday
So the last three days have been like a holiday. OK, it had it’s time of stress but that’s the same with any holiday, n’est ce pas?
I checked into The Victoria Wing, was shown to my room (complete with en suite); the bed was comfy and had a controller which was more fun than any TV remote; wi-fi, and a room service call button labelled ‘nurse call’.
The staff
And now to The Victoria Wing’s staff. We all know that the greatest asset in any business is its staff. The staff make the business. The same applies to The Victoria Wing where their staff is supreme.
From the moment I arrived everyone made me feel at ease, at home, valued and cared for. It was so reassuring.
The cooking
In a 5 star hotel you’d expect good cooking, wouldn’t you? But in The Victoria Wing it’s even better. Unexpected? Yes.
I’d heard about the Chefs, both called Dave, but thought some of the stories had to be urban myth.
Chef Dave
10:30am. A knock on the door. ‘Come in,’ I called.
‘Good morning, Mr du Pré. I’m your Chef, Chef Dave. What would you like for lunch today?’
‘What’s on the menu?’ I asked. ‘Well, I have a suggested à la Carte menu which I’ve put together for today, but maybe it’s easier if I tell you the ingredients we’ve had delivered this morning from which we can make anything you’d like.’
Ideas of the urban myth were being blown out of the water. ‘Apart from most vegetables including some lovely asparagus, we have just had in some turbot, brill, cod, salmon, smoked salmon and scallops – hand dived, of course. We have beef fillet, pork, rack of lamb and veal. It’s all fresh every day. We keep nothing in the freezer except ice-cream and peas.’
Had I died and gone to heaven? Maybe not the best comment to make given I was in hospital.
Two lunches, three dinners, and I know I’ve put on weight. And I haven’t even mentioned the breakfasts with bacon, fried bread, fried egg…
Guernsey is blessed
There’s no doubt that Guernsey is well and truly blessed by having such a competent team in the Urology department of The Specialist Medical Group and such lovely and dedicated staff to run The Victoria Wing.
Leaving today
On the one hand, I’m sad to be leaving. Everyone’s been so lovely and I’ve really enjoyed myself. On the other hand, I can’t wait to be back home with Lin and Play d’eau.
And I want to tell everyone ‘I can pee!’ It’s such a relief – literally. I can pee as if I was eighteen again. Success all round.
Thank you Owen Cole, The Victoria Wing, its staff, and last but not least by any means, Chef Dave.
I just wonder. Do you think Lin will bring me a menu to discuss tomorrow morning?
Piers
…about to leave…
The Victoria Wing, Princess Elizabeth Hospital
…en route and able to pee, to… Play d’eau
Fleming 55
Beaucette Marina
Princess Elizabeth Hospital click to enlargeMany of you will know that almost a decade ago, I was found to have prostate cancer.
Least aggressive
Thankfully, the cancer was ‘micro’ and of the least aggressive type flavour.
The consultant recommended a ‘watch and pounce’ approach with six monthly PSA checks. These checks have stayed constant and have raised no cause for concern.
Benign enlargement
The nuisance was that a few years ago, the prostate began to swell causing difficulty in peeing. Investigation found this to be caused by ‘benign’ swelling (benign prostatic hyperplasia – BPH) of the prostate which is reasonably common in men as they age.
Initially, I was put on the drug Tamulosin to relax the prostate. This worked for a period of time, but as its effectiveness declined another drug was prescribed called Finasteride.
This was simply horrid. At first there was intense itching. Then man-boobs started appearing. As the itching worsened, HoLep surgery was recommended.
HoLep
On 27 November 2012, I was admitted to the Circle Hospital, Berkshire, where I had a HoLep operation.
But after a year, peeing became difficult again. Having moved to Guernsey I met with the Island’s Urologist, Mr Owen Cole, of the Medical Specialist Group.
An MRI was conducted which was found to be clear. However, it showed that 30% by volume of the prostate was scar tissue caused by the HoLep.
Thankfully my private insurance covers this and provides two main benefits: the urologist’s mobile number, and the Chef.
The Chef
Apparently, Chef will come and take orders for what I’d like to eat. And if it’s not on the à la Carte menu, he’ll secure the ingredients and cook it for me.
Result!
Somehow, I feel masses amounts of scallops to be the order of my stay in hospital.
Piers
Sick Bay Play d’eau
Fleming 55
Beaucette Marina
Our dear friends John and Beryl came to stay for a week click to enlargeI’ve failed! Despite all the best intentions, I haven’t kept our website up to date.
With Play d’eau bringing us safely home to Beaucette on 26 September 2013 after a glorious 980nm summer cruise, the plan was to post at least one update a week. Have I achieved this? No. Only one, and I’ve been making all the excuses known to mankind.
There’s an old expression that I’ve used so often when mentoring businesses, “We judge ourselves by our intentions, yet we judge others by their actions.” Need I say more?
So, no excuses – but just in case…
Our dear friends John and Beryl came to see us for a week; our son Diccon and wife Charlotte brought their two children, Oscar and Maia, to see us for another week; I was asked to fly to the Middle East for a fortnight to survey some Double First schools; I attended METS 2013 in Amsterdam; du Pré (Guernsey) Ltd was contracted to produce a new website for Beaucette Marina which went live just before Christmas.Grandchildren Oscar and Maia – ‘the weasels’ click to enlargeAnd, we celebrated Christmas for the first time with no family which actually turned into an endless party with many Beaucette liveaboards having ‘open boats’ and sore heads, including Play d’eau; it was Lin’s 65th birthday; January was taken up with creating another new website for Beaucette Restaurant and Lin had two days in Amsterdam to meet with her sister from Australia.
Lin’s 65th birthday
Lin’s birthday? An important one, but how to celebrate it? Aha! That’s the subject of the next post.
Piers
From the Man Cave of Play d’eau
Fleming 55
You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.Diccon, Maia and Oscar click to enlarge
Mr and Mrs Pigeon had hunkered down out of the wind for the night click to enlargeBy gum, did it blow last night!
…and fire lit the Heavens
Overnight, rigging screamed, Play d’eau lolloped (a nautical technical term) and the wind stirred surface water to slap the hull.
We recorded a N’ly average of 21kts with a max gust of 26kts, and that was even though we were in the lee of the marina so it must have been far greater on the exposed coast.
Having been rocked and rolled we were up at by 6am and had coffee (tea for Lin) and toast (with fig jam – gorgeous) in time to watch the sun’s rays strike the soft underside of the night’s clouds with the most brilliant red orange fire to light the heavens.
By 9am the sky had mostly cleared revealing a blue sky scattered with blobs of cotton-wool fair weather cumulus clouds, and a wind that had gradually veered and abated to an E’ly F3.
The pigeons were grounded
It was as though the sky was on fire (The picture is completely untouched) click to enlargeIt had been so gusty over night that even our neighbours, Mr & Mrs Pigeon, who have their berth (nest) on the granite wall in the creeper next to Play d’eau, had hunkered down in the lee of the rocks and foliage.
During the day, the tempestuous seas that had raged outside the marina tempered their behaviour and quietened, and the wind continued to drop.
John and Beryl
Our dear friends, John and Beryl, come to see us on Monday for a week. We can’t wait, but just hope the NE’lys don’t pay the marina a visit with their rock ‘n’ roll during their stay….
Piers and Lin
From the Meteorological Laboratory of Play d’eau
You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form. The sun rose to strike the clouds after a night of strong winds (The picture is completely untouched) click to enlarge
Dreaming… Herm looking at Jethou with Guernsey in the background click to enlargeHaving started in March, it’s been six months since Lin and I started adding posts to our re-vamped website.
We’ve had great fun taking over 2,000 photographs and writing 94 posts, and from the number of hits each post receives it’s so worthwhile.
Instead of you having to check to see if we’ve added a post, the site can let you know, automatically.
Just add your email address to ‘Subscribe by email’ (left column between ‘Where’s Play d’eau’ and ‘Categories’) and the site will automatically let you know when a post is added.
Searching and Categories
Apart from the Search facility, have you seen there are different categories (left column) for posts depending on what you’d like to see?
Currently, these are,
Cooking onboard (our proven recipes that can be created onboard)
Cruising (passages we have made)
Living aboard Play d’eau (day to day ‘happenings’ on Play d’eau)
Marina Specifics (significant news about marinas we’ve visited)
Servicing/Technical/Nav (knowledge and tips learned from years of boating)
What next over the winter?
Capt Lin in command returning Play d’eau to Beaucette from St Helier on the final leg of our 2013 summer cruise click to enlargeGiven our summer cruise is over (we’re living off the memories) the only categories that might not be as prominent as usual, will be Cruising and Marina specifics.
But whilst these two categories slumber for the winter, the others will come to life and receive enhanced coverage.
So feel free to subscribe – and we look forward to your comments in the coming months before we set sail again for …. wherever the seas call us.
Privacy
Finally, we hasten to add that your email addresses are not shared with anyone, ever. Total privacy.
Piers and Lin
from the Saloon of Play d’eau
Fleming 55
Following my comment about the Hollamby Portable Radar unit in my post Camaret to L’Aber Wrac’h, I see Kim Hollamby has posted a comment about his invention.
I found the comment so exciting (I love technology) that I had to reproduce the comment as a post, here.
The Hollamby Portable Radar – PLIRA
(Reproduced with the kind permission of Kim Hollamby)The PLIRA had an advanced plasma screen click to enlargeAh yes, the portable radar.
You are of course referring to the (in)famous Motor Boats Monthly April Fool joke of (I think) 1988.
To put this in context you have to remember this was the time when the very first GPS handhelds were emerging. Like mobile phones of the same era they were large by modern standards but had everyone very excited about portable electronics. I had a Sony GPS that looked like it had a small satellite dish at the top and a Vodafone lead acid cell handbag mobile that fully developed the arm muscles.
Which was probably why we decided to ‘create’ the PLIRA radar – a handheld radar. What followed was a whole page of elaborate explanation about the technologies involved including (from rusty memory) a plasma display which was pretty forward thinking on our part.
Advanced screen technology
In reality it was one of the very early LCD televisions that we ‘connected’ to an inverted enamel dog bowl by means of a redundant curly phone cable. The word PLIRA was very professionally letrosetted around the dog bowl and the illusion was complete.
The PLIRA was mostly the invention of the magazine’s then Technical Editor Mik Chinery but with some finessing at the subbing stage by yours truly.
By the time the whole article was ready for press I was slightly alarmed at how convincing the thing was, despite its name PLIRA offering a clue.
So I printed my office number at the foot in case we had a load of readers randomly calling all and sundry to place an order.
Which was a major personal mistake of close on biblical proportions.
What I discovered, within hours of publication, is there is clearly nothing so dangerous as the damaged ego of a boat owner who has been thoroughly taken in. Of which there were quite a high number.
St Peter Port, Guernsey
The only pleasant conversation I recall was from the Deputy Harbourmaster at St Peter Port. He had gathered quite a crowd of boat owners at the dock head who were variously sceptical and taken in and wanted to know who was right. Perhaps they were even running a side bet or two. Anyhow when I imparted the news I could hear much jollity on the other end of the line so perhaps the good folk of Guernsey simply have a better sense of humour than mainlanders.
We really stayed well away from April Fools after that. Once bitten…
Given my Honda CR-V has a radar hidden under its radiator grill badge I’m sure a handheld radar would be possible now – except of course Elf ‘n Safety wouldn’t allow it.
Happy days.
PS – it’s all a bit of a shame in a way as we secretly hoped the PLIRA would climb in the charts to be seen as being as notorious as the polyestermite (a worm that attacks GRP) – a creation of Bill Beauvis that caused widespread genuine panic when it appeared in Motor Boat and Yachting a few years before.
When this year began we had no idea some of the ‘firsts’ that would happen.Lin and our four boys. They won’t tell us the joke they’re sharing…. click to enlargeIn October 2012 we spent a week in Guernsey making sure we knew the practical details surrounding our move to the island in March 2013 where we’d live on Play d’eau in the privately owned Beaucette Marina.
The first first – Furniture
We could store all our furniture in Guernsey but would it fit when we bought a house? Instead, the decision was made (not easy) to keep only those pieces that were family ‘heirlooms’ or had ‘special reasons’. The rest could either be sold or given to our sons. Their choices and requests were mostly able to be met and thankfully there was no falling out over who had what!
So, Jan 22 2013 saw most of our furniture being collected to be sold at auction. The rest was to go to long term store in Guernsey.
We slept on our mattress on the floor; we started married life that way but on a different mattress, I hasten to add! It was not as easy to get off the floor to get out of bed, age was creeping up on us. Our garden tables and chairs were used indoors and one sofa was kept for comfortable sitting.
We culled our bits and pieces into what we needed and could use on the boat now, what we would use later, and gave the rest to charity shops or sold. We became ebay masters! The remainder would go into short term storage in Guernsey where we could access them, if necessary.
I found I had squirrelled away loads of toiletries when they had been on special offer – they will keep us going until at least next year!
Second first – Houseless
We had been renting a house in Chetnole, near Yeovil, since selling Orchard Gate in Nov 2011. Now we had to vacate and clean the rental property so moved into a holiday let at the other end of the village for a week. We left this on 9 March 2013.
Third first – the Fox
I took the first car (our little Fox) to Guernsey at the beginning of March 2013, taking the fast ferry from Poole and back later that day for Piers to collect me.
Fourth first – Snow
We ‘first’ departed the UK on 9 March 2013. Piers had to go to USA so he flew back the next day leaving me to hold the fort. The following day saw the island assailed by a blizzard. The wind was gale force north-east and the snow was horizontal. It was exciting yet daunting. Guernsey had not had such bad weather for over 50 years and the airport was closed for 2½ days.
Fifth first – Cessation
We are no longer employed. Piers had started Onaphone in 1979 making his first sale the next year. Later, the company name changed to du Pré plc. It was really strange being cessated by our own company! Our last day of employment was 21 March 2013.
Sixth first – Guernsey
It was 22 March 2013 and finally we arrived in Guernsey to live on the boat. The longest time we had holidayed on her in one stretch was 10 weeks in 2010. Now to live on her with our belongings and in the winter as well! Guernsey self-store has been brilliant for those things of which we have no immediate need.
Seventh first – A Fiancée
Toby, our youngest son, proposed to and was accepted by his girlfriend Amy. He did ask Mark, Amy’s dad, for permission, beforehand. They will marry in South Africa next April.
Eighth first – Piers was officially old
Piers was 65! We had a huge gathering of all the family in May – the weather was very good to us and brilliant memories will be cherished.
Ninth first – Exploration
We have been away exploring since June 18 and ventured further south than ever before. We reached Rochefort which is up the river Charente (south of La Rochelle) and a lovely place to visit. From there, we’ve started the return back north, visiting places we missed on the way down.
Tenth first – Another Fiancée
Adam, our third son, proposed to, and was accepted by Perdita. Wow, two future daughters-in-law in 4 months. So exciting for us all. How come this all happens when we are not in the UK?
We still have another 4 months of this year. How many more ‘firsts’ are there waiting for us?
Lin
From the Saloon of Play d’eau
Fleming 55
You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.
The quietness and tranquillity of Beaucette Marina, Guernsey click to enlargeHave you ever wondered about coming to Beaucette Marina? Ever wondered how the marina was created – its history from quarry to marina? And what about the restaurant which seems to have changed hands a number of times over the last few years – is it OK?
Having taken many calls from friends and colleagues asking us these questions, we’ve created new pages on this website which hopefully answer the questions so we don’t have to keep repeating ourselves!
Having tasted the fare at The Restaurant at Beaucette Marina I can only say how delighted we are to have such a great venue as our ‘local’. Al Fresco drinks and dining at The Restaurant at Beaucette Marina click to enlargeWith its position overlooking the marina and distant islands, Valerie with Head Waiter, Max, and their staff are attentive hosts, whilst Chef James (Valerie’s husband) and his team of five are busy creating everything that comes from the kitchen, fresh and from scratch.
Having eaten there on a number of occasions, neither Lin, myself nor our guests have been disappointed. Hence, we decided to add a page to our website about The Restaurant at Beaucette Marina.
Gâche Melée
When I was taking photos of their kitchen, one of the chefs was creating a dish especially for a party that was coming the next day which had requested a traditional Guernsey dessert. ‘Of course,’ James had responded. The result? Gâche Melée, a rich apple based cinnamon cake, made from the best of beef suet, heavy in calories and really cholesterol challenging. Luscious!Chef Yervis creating Gâche Melée a rich cinnamon apple cake click to enlargeThere are two traditional recipes for this dessert, one originating from south Guernsey, the other from the north. Since The Restaurant at Beaucette Marina is in the north, the latter was chosen.
Breakfast?
We have yet to sample their weekend breakfast menu, but having seen the full English and a special of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon I don’t think it will be too long before we are climbing the pontoon to knock on the door of The Restaurant at Beaucette Marina.
Piers and Lin
from the Saloon of Play d’eau
Fleming 55
You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.
These were the voyages of Piers and Lin du Pré aboard their Fleming 55
