Welcome

		This site is about our family and it contains photos that we have taken mainly since being land-based. Our voyages aboard Adèle during 2005-07 are described on the separate web-site www.syadele.com Scroll down for a list of our travels and family events and celebrations. Click images or titles below to see the slide shows and read a little about the individual events.
You can also click the Knightstone tab to read about our Medieval home, Knightstone Manor, and its history.

  Bump and Shower Parties - May 08
Jen and I discovered that she was pregnant coming down the lift at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. Suddenly she complained that everything smelled so funny and strongly and I said: “You must be pregnant”. She took a test and our happiness was confirmed.

These pictures show Jen at a few stages of her development. I have taken pictures of Jen, when we went to balls in Austria in January (4 months), in New Zealand in late February (5 months), in Venice in April (7 months) and in our field with the Llamas in May (8 months).

Our friends very nicely arranged two shower parties for Jennifer, one in London and one in Devon. The London party was at Geraldine’s and Sanford’s home and was hosted by Geraldine, Elisabeth and Florence. It started as a party for the girls, but we men were allowed to join later in the evening.

The second party was arranged by Hillary and John Drew in Wiggaton very near Knightstone Manor. There we men were accepted from the very beginning! At both parties the guests had kindly brought some gifts for Eric Gregory (Little O) and many of the pictures show Jennifer opening or looking at the gifts or the other guests looking at Jen, opening them.

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  Beth and her Ponies - May 08
Beth Ford is an extremely talented young rider. She was turning 14 years old a few days after I took these pictures. She loves horse jumping and competing in many different events and has the talent and ambition to go very far. Her grandparents and her mother are actively supporting her and spending a lot of time taking her to different events.

Beth lives in Tipton St John, not far from Knightstone, and she keeps her ponies at her grandparents field and stable near Sidmouth. Jen and I are helping her by contributing to her training and paying for a very competent teacher. Camilla, our housekeeper, has also given her free lessons.

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  Knightstone Weekend - April 08
One weekend late in April we had invited three families to join us. Michael and Camilla Persson came with their children Amanda and Caspar. Michael is vicar at the Swedish Church in London. Jonathan and Tasia Campbell joined us as well. And so did Elisabeth and Dudley Pennell with their 5 year old daughter, Indigo. We had great weather and the pictures show us having tea in the garden and enjoying a walk along the Cliffside between Beer and Branscombe.

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  Philippine School & Scholars - March 08
I have supported a school and students in the Philippines since 1992, and now Jennifer takes an active part as well. We have also since more than five years now been joined by the Granlund family, who are building a new school building for the students.

After New Zealand we flew to Manila to visit the school and meet the students. We have around 60 pupils in an elementary school (the first six years) called a Multigrade School and we support a further fifteen students in High School (years 7 – 10) and College or University (the level thereafter). We met the scholars in small groups and had either a lunch or dinner with them and talked about their success and problems, aspirations and worries. And we had separate sessions with the teachers.

We were joined during these days by Jen’s mum, Luz, and Jen’s niece, Mikee, who had come up from Bicol, where they normally live. After our visit Jen went back to meet her family and show off her bump, whereas I flew back to England.

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  South Island, New Zealand - March 08
This journey started off with a wedding on the North Island (see previous folder). Two weeks later I was going to give a presentation of our sailings in cold weather, Svalbard, Antarctica and the Falklands accompanied by some of Rick’s and my photos. In between we travelled for a week around the North Island and for a few days also around Queenstown in the South Island.

We visited Blanket Bay resort near Queenstown and drove up the mountains and also took a helicopter flight across the Southern Alps over to Milford Sound on the west coast of the south island. We stopped at Milford Sound and on a glacier and at the sea. We then drove north to Wanaka and Whare Kea resort before returning to Queenstown, flying back to Auckland and enjoying time with all our sailing friends.

The low pressures pass the South Island and all the rain falls down on the west coast, which has nearly impenetrable rain forest in the valleys. On the east side of the mountain range it is much drier, at some places nearly a desert landscape. We had constant sunshine all of our time in the South Island, and the weather is normally better here than in the North. We travelled between snow-clad mountains and valleys covered in vineyards within an hour. And we saw the young and not so young active with bungee-jumping, while we enjoyed the oysters and the lamb with the local wine.

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  North Island,New Zealand - February 08
Jennifer and I were invited together with Lasse and Bittan to be present at Mark’s and Georgina’s wedding. Mark had been First Mate and Georgina (George) had been bosun on Adèle and apart from us also Paul (engineer) and Gillian (stewardess) were present. Gillian would get married later on in April in Australia.

The wedding took place in Omapere, Hokianga bay on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand nearly as far north as you can get. There were lots of good photographs from the wedding and those can be seen at www.one2onephotography.co.nz/georginamark.html

After the wedding we spent a week driving around the north part of the North Island and staying at a couple of different places. We first spent time in Omapere (northwest) and then went to Kauri Cliffs Resort (northeast) and then we went to Russell near the Bay of Islands. Finally we returned to Auckland before flying off to the South Island.

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  New England, USA - Autumn 07
Jennifer and I had a photo expedition to New England during two weeks in October 2007 to enjoy the famous autumn foliage. The reforestation of New England in the last century, when the farming industries moved to the mid-western states, has probably improved the quality of the air and reduced the global warming, and it certainly has created a stunning “Technicolor” landscape!

We travelled from Boston to Vermont and New Hampshire and stayed mainly in small hotels. We went from there to Kennebunkport along the coast of Maine and back to Boston. Finally we visited Newport in Rhode Island and met all the people of MCM that had provided the back office for Adèle during her expeditions around the world.

The foliage colours were at its most impressive in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but it rained and was foggy most of the time. In Kennebunkport and Newport we had sunshine, but the colours hadn’t advanced as much. Vermont offered a compromise between the two.

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  Iceland - August 07
Jen and I were invited to Iceland by Fridfinnur (Sigge) Sigurdson together with Lasse and Bittan. We travelled around by boat, small airplane and a huge specially built car that could traverse the lava fields and glaciers in inland Iceland.

It rained a lot, but on our last day at Tingvalla, the sun was shining on all of us. According to the guidebook on average it rains all days except one in July in Reykavik!

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Mikee at Knightstone - Summer 07
Mikee, Jennifer’s four year old niece (she turned five in October), visited us during the summer together with Jen’s mum Luz. We spent lots of time at Knightstone but travelled also to Sweden to experience Marstrand, where we had the Christening of Adèle two years earlier, and we were tourists in London.

The pictures show Mikee at Knightstone with our friends and with the animals.