GPS (GONE PERMANENTLY SAILING)

Stan and Sue Snape'

Chapter One'

A sailing boat with a yellow stripe

Set out on a sea of blue,

She went by the name of 'Milda Rose',

A Vancouver 32.

She was fitted out for long distance

But soon we stopped for the night.

We'd done well to get from Port Solent

To Yarmouth, Isle of Wight.

At dawn the next day we continued

With a long sail to Dartmouth ahead,

But the going got harder and harder

So we settled for Weymouth instead.

The skipper said "Don't be disheartened,

We won't let delays get us down",

And he treated the crew to a dinner

At the best fish and chip shop in town.

Around Portland Bill the next morning

We started to get second thoughts,

But by evening we'd anchored in Dartmouth,

One of our favourite ports.

After Yarmouth and Weymouth and Dartmouth

Falmouth would suit the rhyme best,

But the weather turned bad, so we settled

For Salcombe, and took a day's rest.

The weather improved, so on Monday

We set out for Falmouth again,

And after one day to get ready,

From there we'd be heading for Spain.

With the help of some good friends in Falmouth

We'd everything done in one day,

Then we talked with them long in the evening

And they wished us fair winds on our way.

Since we bought our Vancouver last Christmas

The moment we'd been waiting for

Had arrived, as the sun rose o'er Falmouth

And we started to leave England's shore.

It was too late to go to the chandlers

For that last minute fitting or part,

Too late to pop down to Tesco's,

We had an adventure to start.

The next stop would be La Coru¤a,

Four hundred and some miles away,

But first came the question of crossing

The waters old Biscay Bay.

As 'Milda Rose' sailed out that morning,

Out on the wide ocean blue,

Chapter One reached its conclusion

And Chapter Two hove into view.

'Chapter Two'

A little boat with a yellow stripe

Sailed out on a sea of blue,

She went by the name of 'Milda Rose'

And carried a crew of two.

The first day out from Falmouth

Was a perfect sailing day,

The wind filled the sails in the sunshine

As the English coast faded away.

From then on we saw only water,

No land, just the sea and the sky,

An occasional ship in the distance

And the odd plastic bag floating by.

The wind died away in the evening

And daytime gave way to the night,

A million stars twinkled above us

As we motored along by their light.

Biscay can get rough in August

And isn't a place to go slow,

So we didn't mind using the engine

With four hundred miles still to go.

We saw lots of dolphins and seabirds,

Even a Robin Redbreast,

We gave him some bread and some water

But all that he wanted was rest.

He tucked himself up in our dinghy

Sheltered from wind and from spray,

Then slept till the sun rose next morning,

Said `thank you', and went on his way.

For four days we kept right on going,

With four hour watches each night,

Till we saw through the mist of a morning

The 'Torre de Hercules' light.

It guided us into Coru¤a

As it has many sailors before,

And soon 'Milda' rested at anchor

Whilst we rowed the dinghy ashore.

We had a good time in Coru¤a

But didn't stay very long there,

We wanted to see Camari¤as

Just before Cape Finisterre.

We were now in the third week of August

And still had a long way to go,

So we rounded the cape to Bayona

(That's just outside Vigo, you know).

But enough of these little short journeys

Gibraltar was where we should be,

So once we heard northerlies forecast,

We sailed off to start Chapter Three.

'Chapter Three'

'Milda Rose' with her crew of two,

Sailed out on the ocean blue,

Heading south for the winter,

The wind and the waves were too.

The wind didn't pause for a moment,

The waves never stopped for a rest,

To the east lay the Portuguese coastline,

America lay to the west.

Porto was passed on the first night,

The next evening Lisbon was near,

By sunset the following evening

The Cape of St Vincent stood clear.

As we gazed at the cliffs in their splendour

The moon rose beyond them to say,

Don't go south beyond Cape St Vincent

Turn left now, Gibraltar's this way.

The wind and the waves didn't listen,

They kept on going due south,

Whilst we headed east 'long the Algarve,

To the Mediterranean's mouth.

To our left lay the coastline of Europe,

North Africa lay to our right,

Between them the Straits of Gibraltar --

A truly spectacular sight.

And then there's the Rock of Gibraltar,

Looking the same to this day

As it did in the Ancient Greek legends

When Hercules came through this way.

But ashore he would find it quite different

With motor cars blocking the streets,

Pubs and Macdonalds and Safeways

And duty-free shops full of treats.

Nevertheless we still stopped there

Although it's a bit of a heap,

It's got this outstanding attraction,

The diesel's incredibly cheap.

Then one final leg to the Costa

Del Sol and the sunshine of Spain,

Where it's warm and the living is easy

And the rain mainly stays on the plain.

That is the end of our journey

To the Mediterranean Sea.

We'll settle in now for the winter

And bring to an end Chapter Three.

But then when the winter is over

And summer is with us once more,

We'll head back out to the Atlantic

Ready to start Chapter Four.