Premier In

This is the room we had in the Premier Inn in Poole. The original plan was to stay here and be out in time to catch the 8.30am ferry from Poole to Cherbourg, but the wind put paid to that, and the alternative plan was to drive to Portsmouth and catch an overnight ferry to Ouistreham.

The Sunday itself was very busy. My wife's sister and two of her daughters had arrived on Saturday, so Sunday morning was spent cooking roast beef for seven people and then getting packed and loading the car in time to leave at about two o'clock in the afternoon.

It was a masterpiece of organisation and all went according to plan. We were our usual half an hour late starting out, but that wasn't a problem - although as we travelled, we were worrying about whether we would have a house left when we got home after the threatened wind.

The journey was uneventful, and we arrived at the hotel just as the wind was rising. We had a meal and then went to bed, but it was a wakeful night, as at some time in the early hours, the wind sounded like it was tearing some of the sections of facia off from just outside our window. One of the advantages of not having to catch the early ferry was being able to eat breakfast - I'm very partial to a full english.

Surprisingly after all the noise, there was no damage to the hotel in the morning. I had fully expected to find parts of it lying in the car park. The storm had passed really quickly - there was just a gentle breeze blowing as we put our bags in the car and set off for Portsmouth.