For George and for England

Hello readers,

We're not in Spain today, we're in England, both in body and spirit. And where better place to be on our national day and the day of the saint with whom I share my name - George.

The problem with having a name like George is that I can't really deny my English heritage, as it's a very English name - although I am aware of the Greek roots. Sometimes, usually when I'm abroad, and embarrassed by the behaviour of my fellow Brits, I'd prefer not to be so obviously English, but on days like today, I'm proud of my nationality and heritage. St George was a rather fine chap after all, and thankfully it wasn't a bear that he slayed, but a dragon.

We had a rather timely meeting last night with a prolific collector of flags. As we admired our friend's collection, he told us he had several duplicates, and, knowing about our flag pole, from which we like to fly the bear flag, he asked us if we'd like the duplicates.

Actually, duplicates wasn't quite the right word, and we went home with 3 flags featuring the cross of St George, including a fine bear sized one.

We got them all flying this afternoon and they made a stirring sight and some lovely flapping noises. If you look hard you might see Yorkie and me on the roof of the bearmobile, looking proudly at our new acquisitions.

A happy St George's day to you all.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Getting Shipshape

It was very exciting for us all, getting to know a new boat. Now, I wouldn't like you to think that the Jaguars we'd sailed on the previous 2 flotillas, were out of favour with us - not at all! We still love them, and would have had another if we'd had the choice, but we didn't. There weren't any on the route we were taking this time. As a result, we'd chosen the rather bigger Beneteau 32 and it was certainly an impressive boat as you will soon see.   

As we tried out all the equipment on the boat, prior to setting out into the big blue sea, we gathered at the stern for the important ceremony of raising the bear flag.

It immediately began to flutter well and, seeing it flying, brought a lump to our throats. It is becoming a very well travelled flag and still looks good, despite having been out in all weathers.

Another important task, was to kit ourselves out with safety harnesses and lines. It is important to get the fit right and we are of course 3 very different sized bears. They must have known we were coming, as we all quickly found a perfect fit, and tested clipping on to a solid part of the boat. We were safe and secure and ready for anything.

I was very excited, but a little apprehensive about sailing a boat with a wheel, as I am very much a tiller bear, and this was the first time I had sailed a boat with a wheel. I made sure to get some practise in ...

It was very different to a tiller and took some getting used to. For the first couple of days, I steered what must have looked like quite a drunken course, as I instinctively turned the wheel the opposite way to the course I wanted to take, only to have to quickly spin it to the other side as I remembered boat wheels work like car steering wheels.

While I was getting used to the wheel, George & Yorkie got some practice on the VHF radio. 

They were pleased to find that our lead boat was the very same one that had been with us on our last flotilla, Loutraki. This made it easy for them to remember how to call up the lead boat with "Loutraki, Loutraki, this is Milia, Milia".

By this stage we were ready for the off and feeling full of confidence.  We were going to enjoy some great sailing.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

We Are In Residence

As I'm sure many readers will appreciate, one of my first tasks, after taking over the command of Leander, was to raise the bear flag.


I take this duty very seriously - after all once it is flying I am duty bound to sail Leander well, as if I don't, the bear flag will tell the world that it is me putting up such a poor show.

As for positioning, first of all I got it a bit low, so I climbed up the cradle that holds the boom when we're not sailing, to get it a bit higher.


This did the trick, and, as you can see from the picture, the wind caught the flag immediately and it began to fly proudly, to indicate B.U. bears in residence.

I can't resist showing you my favourite shot of the bear flag flying. It was caught on camera by Yorkie a couple of days later. Here it is ...


... a lovely Broads sunset, shining through the bear flag - simply magical!

Lots of love Eddie & Crew xxx

We Have Arrived

Gio and Bris are very excited, as along with Randolph, Benji, George, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco, and Rosa they have safely arrived at Cheltenham for Greenbelt.  For Gio its his very first time.  We drove here in pouring rain, but our prayers have been answered and we were able to put up our tent in the dry.

 

After the tent was erected the next job was to put up the Bear flag, so our friends Travelling Moose and T5 Wilber would be able to find us (p.s. which they did!)

 

We then stopped for a well earned cuppa and a pasty for lunch.  It was a good job we had this late though, as there is so much happening this evening, we reckon it's going to be very late before we get a chance to eat again.

 

We'll tell you more soon.

 

Love from Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt Crew xxxxx

Adventuring Swallows & Amazons Style

Well, would you believe it, we're having so many adventures this year that another adventure starts before we've finished telling you about the previous one. We simply can't keep up with our posts, so you'll have to excuse us if we do a bit of backwards time travel in our blog.

We're only going back to last month though, when we had a simply superb camping adventure in the Lake District. We set up our camp in what is probably our favouritist place in this country, Hoathwaite farm at Torver, near Coniston.


We love it so much as we are able to camp very close to the shore of Lake Coniston and have great lake views from our encampment. It is simple camping with few facilities, but that suits us fine as camping is, for us, all about the great outdoors and getting close to nature. We took our Mirror sailing dinghy, 'Miri' with us, and our walking boots and planned a week of wonderful outdoor adventures following in the footsteps of our Swallows & Amazons heroes.

Before we could start our adventuring though we had to observe the ceremony of the raising of the bear flag.


Here we are standing respectfully to attention while the flag was raised. You can see the raised flag flying in our earlier picture.

Don't you just wish you were there too - we certainly wish we were still there.

Lots of love, the B.U. Swallows & Amazons adventurers xxx

Comings and Goings

Dilly has now left us and returned home. This was sad for us as we greatly enjoyed having her to stay, and we do miss her now she has gone. However, it was not such a sad occasion for Dilly who was overjoyed to see her mistress again when she came to pick her up. We like to think Dilly had a good holiday with us and will ask to come and stay again the next time a holiday is planned.

Dilly's departure, however, coincided with a happy event, which cheered us up no end. This was the arrival of the newest member of Bears Unlimited. There is a link to Dilly, as our new friend was one of the gifts Dilly's mum brought us back from France as a thank you for having Dilly to stay.


As our latest member comes from France he has a French name. Il s'appelle Gilbert, pronounced Gil-bear (get it!). In our picture you see Gilbert being welcomed to Bears Unlimited by Marmaduke, as tradition has it that the previous newest member welcomes the new newest member (in the presence of the Bears Unlimited flag of course).

Gilbert is settling in well and already beginning to look a bit less serious than he looks in his picture. Our attempts at French and Gilbert's at English are proving very entertaining but we are all learning fast!

look out for some of Gilbert's adventures with us in the weeks to come.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx