About this site

Piers and Lin du Pré bought their new Fleming 55 / 129, Play d'eau, in 2003.

She was berthed in Beaucette Marina, Guernsey in the Channel Islands at N49° 30’.197 W002° 30’.350 until she was sold in October 2021.

This site charts the thrilling adventures they had in her.

You can contact us here.

Where’s Play d’eau?

If the new owners have the AIS on, you can find where Play d'eau is right now.

Click here.

Zoom in and our position will be shown on a map.

Recent Posts

Exterminating bugs

Robin of RES replaces the GPS1 aerial of the Furuno satellite compass

Bugs – the bane of Play d’eau’s new Pilot House new electronics. Can we really exterminate them? I remember seeing mother-in-law size cockroaches in Delhi years ago in my flying days. There’d been a flying ant swarm and cockroaches …

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Vegetable Stock

All ingredients trimmed, peeled and chopped and in the pot

Our recipe for stock has been worked and refined over the years and never lets us down, producing a concentrated stock for many of the recipes we’ll be adding. It’s packed with flavour and keeps really well in the fridge for a good three weeks and almost for ever in a freezer …

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Play d’eau goes up in the world

The offending anode bolt was knocked out

In cleaning the bilges I’d found a slight weep from one of the four bolts used to secure the two main anodes to the hull. Its washer was rusted leaving a slight rust stain where water must have oozed from the bolt and dribbled into the bilge. The concern was if the hull was wet from the water ingress …

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Lady Jazz interrupts her music making

Lady Jazz, Sealine F43, owned by Bernie and Lynn

Logging into the Motor Boat Forum at ybw.com a week ago to catch up with news, I found ‘Thepipdoc’ had come into Beaucette Marina the previous evening on one engine having had an engine failure part way across the English Channel …

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Parmesan crisps

Parmesan Diamond crisps - they'll go as fast as you can serve them!

These Parmesan Diamond crisps are so, so more-ish. Great with drinks and they’ll disappear the moment you serve them amidst many ‘wows’ of praise …

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From the Galley of Play d’eau

Play d'eau galley

After much encouragement, Lin and I have decided to add a section on Cooking onboard

The first recipe will be Parmesan Diamond crisps which are really simple to make and so rewarding …

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Cooking onboard

Rose garlic was only one of many varieties

Rose (violet) garlic, the best of all garlics,at Paimpol’s farmers’ market, Brittany click to enlarge

Eating out appears to be the choice of many boaters rather than cooking onboard. Whilst away, it’s a holiday in itself not to have to cook but we sometimes we come away disappointed with the fare we’ve been served.

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Birthday celebrations come to an end

We ate at the Chef's table at Bohemia, Jersey

Three weeks of birthday celebrations finally came to an end on Monday. A totally brilliant time which will need at least a year to recover!

My post ’65th birthday celebrations!’ reported the first ten day phase of this extravaganza, which ended on 9 May when the last of our sons with their families, and our dear friends …

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12 May 2013 – Free bus pass day

Dave of Yacht Akemi cooking my birthday breakfast

Today I was 65 years old and qualified for my free bus pass! And to start the day, Dave of Yacht Akemi cooked me a birthday breakfast with a duck egg …

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“Play d’eau”

The name Play d’eau

The origin of the name Play d’eau has its roots in 1992, and it was 1995 when the name was first used in earnest.

Play d’eau Our Princess V39 click to enlarge

The Cougar

When we bought our 50kt Cougar Predator 35 in 1992, we had the task of …

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