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

Homeward bound

"The wheel on the front goes round and round'

Well, we’re homeward bound. After a magnificent and glorious three weeks in South Africa, we have travelled from Cape Town to Durban to Amsterdam and will shortly leave for Guernsey.

Having taken afternoon tea at Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Hotel (as a chap and chapess do), we stayed at the Granny Mouse Country Lodge some 90 minutes west of Durban for one night before catching an Emirates flight to Amsterdam …

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A Hippo Story

A wide open mouth is a warning sign

On our safari around the Tala Private Game Reserve, the ranger took us to the Hippos and pointed out a Hippo Run, a track that a Hippo uses.

Woe betide anything that gets in the way of the run – it will suffer. Apparently, someone had left their Toyota Landcruiser across a Hippo Run in the Kruger game reserve. Three tons of Hippo charged and T-boned it at 30 miles an hour. …

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Wedding preparations

Welcome to the wedding venue

A picture postcard story of the wedding preparations.

The wedding venue, Acacia. A beautiful thatched, wooden barn with a large decking area overlooking a waterhole, 150m away. The sun was bright and strong. …

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The wedding – 19 April 2014

Toby and Amy exchange their vows

The day had arrived. The day Toby and Amy were to wed.

The Tala Private Game Reserve was the chosen wedding venue with its 3,000 hectares in KwaZulu-Natal, between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Its various single story accommodation lodges are scattered around the reserve with a central main reception and restaurant complex. There’s no tarmac here, just rough dirt tracks. …

Continue reading The wedding – 19 April 2014

Rosendal to Oudtshoorn

Alternating red and white, a wall of colour was created

After our two nights at the Rosendal Winery, the drive to Altes Landhaus (Schoemanschoek, Oudtshoorn) was greater in distance and greater in beauty if the latter was at all possible.

The enormity of the endless, dry, arid mountain ranges, the range of colours, the ostriches, baboons and other animals we couldn’t identify, was captivating. …

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