winter sailing and house viewings

Yesterday was a superb day. Will invited me, and Full Circle, over for a sail on his Kalik 44, called Guapa. I drove down to Levington, to arrive at 09h00, and by 10h00 we'd cast off. Very little effort on either my or Full Circle's part, as Will had his daughter, Evita, along, who is obviously quite a dab hand with this boating lark, and cast us off tidily and without drama. The Orwell was like a millpond, so we motored up past Harwich, with 2 large ships passing us, and as we cleared Deadmans point, the breeze filled in, on the nose, and we enjoyed a great close hauled run out to Medusa off the Walton headland. We were making at times over 6.5kts over the water, and its was great to be sailing again. All too soon, we reached Medusa, tacked round, and ran back in towards Harwich. We met Sailorman on the way back in, on his lovely Oyster, and both headed back to SYH. A great lunch was forthcoming, while on the move. Shepherds pie, roast potatoes, brocolli, cabbage and carrots, followed by christmas pud and loads of custard. By 14h00 we were tied up again and enjoyed a gluhwein to take the chill off. Fabulous to be out on the water again. This morning our contract with the new estate agents begins. An auspiciously good start. They called this morning with a viewing request for later today and the sign outside the house went up at 10h00.... Already streets ahead of their predecesors in my books.

Miles logged 17nm
Miles this season 1011nm
Miles since this blog started 1,794nm

Another year in review

Its come to that time of year again, where I review the year, purely out of self interest you understand, and look back on the best bits..... always a pleasure for me, because it makes me read the blog entries again, and remember the details that would be lost if I hadn't written it down! Jan was cold, but I had a lot of jobs to do.... prior to Christmas, i'd moved the winches, and needed to fit various bits... especially two new banks of clutches, which took time, but worked well.... However, Maggie had been lifted at the start of Feb, and with cool, but bright days, it was obvious that she needed scraping. This proved to be a mammoth job, and took 7 complete days with scrapers to remove god knows how many years of antifoul, re-prime, and re-antifoul. Along the way, I removed the horrible silver stripe from down her topsides, using WD40 and a household scouring sponge.... and repainted the stripe in a blue... I also polished and treated the topsides, so that she came up a treat. Early March, and she was re-launched and ready to go aagain. The weather however didn't play ball, and it was wet and cold, so on her berth she sat. As April approached, I decided that i'd better fit the radar, and many trips up the mast, along with real hassle threading cables, eventually saw it in and working, ready for Spring adventures. I also finally finished recovering the cushions, and she was starting to look good. As the weather improved into May, we did a few day sails, and started to weekend again, and had our first BBQ of the season at Bradwell in the freezing cold with ybw forumites!. At the back end of May, we headed towards Oostende. The weather wasn't very nice to us, and we were 2 days late leaving...... as it happened, it made little or no difference, as we then ended up stormbound in Ooostende for 4 days, finally dashing back via Dunkerque in a weather window... This was a final throwing of temper by the weather, and as we entered June things improved, starting with a fun 'boys weekend' where we dug our way into the Walton Backwaters at night (and low water), and then enjoyed some lovely weekends in varius other locations. July started well, and we cruised a few new places, with one memorable weekend where we tangled ourselves up with a large metal boat, and had to temporarily abandon our anchor to be retrieved later that day. As August appeared, we set off on our summer cruise, with a long (24hr) crossing to Holland, a delightful tour of the inland water ways, back via Belgium, and very relaxed. September saw SWMBO take Maggie with a few other female friends off, while we boys sailed of to the Deben in another boat, and then later in the month, me hitch a ride aboard a Beneteau for another boozy run across to Cherbourg. As it started to cool off again, I fitted the Eberespacher.... she was now really getting to be what we wanted, so naturally, we did the obvious thing, and put her up for sale..... She sold quickly, by the 8th October, and by 18th October had gone.... and we've spent the rest of the year trying to sell our house, so that we can downsize, buy a bigger boat, and start the work all over again in 2007... Have a Grand Christmas and New Year everyone, and here's to a fabulous 2007 sailing season!

sailing over the Xmas break

Have got a day sailing lined up over the Xmas break with Will on his Kalik 44..... never been on one of them before (in fact, if I'm honest, i'd not heard of them before Will bought his).... its a big boat, with massive decks, and a big powerful rig, so quite looking forward to sailing her.....

the latest news...

No offer on the house was forthcoming...... And the estate agents are on their two week notice.... we have already lined up a replacement... I'm told that the period after Christmas and New Year is a good selling period.... but to expect the odd timewaster..... House has been on the market for 2 months now.... so hopefully we'll get some movement shortly...

visiting

A grand weekend.... Got most of our Christmas shopping done in Ipswich, and took the opportunity to visit two marinas and drop in on some old friends.... Marie Louise of Leigh seem to have had a good summer, a complete lap of the UK anti clockwise..... and plenty of stories to tell.... We handed the keys back for Neptune, so we are now marina-less! The house viewing on Sunday apparently went quite well.... no offer yet, but there are some signs that one might be forthcoming.... albeit at a lower price than we will be prepared to accept... but its a starting point... and if an offer is forthcoming, will be a step ahead of where we have been...... The estate agents better get a move on, as we are going to write to them on Thursday to give them the 2 weeks notice needed to ternminate the agreement, as its the first date we can do so....

5th time lucky

Again, not sold.... people did need to buy somewhere desperately, but bought somewhere else... quite a bit cheaper... looked at the details of the house they have bought thinking, oh dear, we are still overpriced.... but the house they have bought is much smaller..... so in chatting to the estate agents, the buyers again liked our property, but it was a bit higher than they really could afford..... Now, I wouldn't want to condemn people to debt, but do the estate agents sell at all, or just show people around? Regardless, another viewing on Sunday.... thats a step forward.... first time we've had two viewings in a week (or even in a fortnight come to think of it!)... I guess the only positive is that people viewing at this time of the year are likely to be far more serious about buying.... The estate agents are showing these people around on Sunday.... we're off down to Ipswich to do a bit of Christmas shopping, to hand the entry fob and key back to the marina, and to show our faces to the marina staff to keep in their good books should we need a berth in the new year! it'll be handy still being able to park in the marina car park... avoid the Christmas parking nightmare....

still banging on about my house....

Another viewing this evening..... 4th time lucky maybe? These are folks that have sold, need to move, and are looking right now! They have one more to view on Friday, and then they'll make a decision.... Maybe i'll be pouring over boats for sale over Christmas? Who knows in the strange parallel world of the housing market....

umhhhh?

Got a flyer from the estate agents this morning, stating grandly that as Jan, Feb and March are the best selling months, then would we like to join their 'red hot' programme..... All we've got to do is reduce our price by between 5 and 15%, and they'll mark all the details up with 'red hot special price reduction'.... Considering we've just dropped the price by £10k, and that theu've managed to get the grand total of three viewings in 7 weeks, I don't think i'll be bothering..... On a more boaty note, I bought a sextant this week from fellow ybw forumite, FullCircle, so thats something to do/learn over the winter, and i've also (rashly?) volunteered to help him with a few winter maintenance jobs.... anything to get back on a boat... actually, quite looking forward to it! Also, another friend has very kindly offered us use of his boat.... he sails one weekend in three, and has given us free reign for 'spare' weekends if we want it.... very decent of him... its a 1 yr old Sun Odyssey 32, so very nice....and Ipswich based, so in familar territory.... Gosh... some boaty content at last!

6 weeks and counting

House has been on the market for 6 weeks today.... we've only had 3 viewings in that time.... I guess its a combination of the time of the year (who wants to buy a house just before Christmas!), plus a less than effective estate agent. We are going to give 2 weeks notice to the existing estate agents on14th Dec, which is the earliest date we can do so, and switch to another one.... The last people to view liked the house, but it was right at the very top end of their budget, and they felt that, with the changes and decorating they would want to do, they would be stretching themselves a little too far... not a lot of evidence of the estate agents selling them the idea very hard though.... This is rapidly become Houseblog rather than Yotblog.... sorry!

viewings

Another viewing this morning...(the third in total).... awaiting feedback... In the meantime, I contimue to boat browse... have added Sun Magic 44's to my list.... a bit older, but solidly built, a good layout for our needs, and very seaworthy.... Edit:... spoken to the estate agent 5hrs after the viewing, and they haven't spoken to the potential buyers yet... "We don't like to hassle them".... what on earth do they think I am paying them for?.... its surely a basic part of the job isn't it?.... not at all impressed so far.... regardless... not a good sign... you would hav thought that they'd be pretty quick in making an offer if they liked it, as they are in rented accomodation at the moment.... oh well.... back to browsing the boats for sale adverts whistfully....

selling the house

We decided over the weekend that we have set the price just a tad too high, so have today reduced the price by £10k... we talked to others in the area who are selling, and they have had a lot more activity than us. We've only had two viewings in 5 weeks. I also talked to another estate agent, and they seemed to think we were a little expensive as well... so down goes the price... the current agents have just 5 more weeks before we can cancel the contract.... Still secretly looking at boats for sale... I think that it will boil down to one of two boats Beneteau Oceanis 411 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40 Both seem very nice... Have also seen a well priced Sun Odyssey 42.2, but wonder why its at such a good price.... if its still for sale when we've moved then we'll perhaps take a peek... must bear in mind the berthing costs though.... and as ever, it depends upon what we end up selling the house for, and what we have left over after buying a replacement!

no progress

House still for sale.... just two viewings in 4 weeks.... we've either overpriced it, or the estate agents are rubbish! In fact, we suspect the estate agents are rubbish... they've only proactively called us once without being prompted in 4 weeks... despite us requesting regular contact when we first signed up with them.... Will review the situation this weekend, and make some decisions... we are contracted to this estate agent for 10 weeks as a sole agency, but they need to get themselves into gear, or i'll become an 'awkward customer' shortly... and they'll wish it was only 5 weeks contracted! We've bookmarked at least 10 boats that could potentially meet our needs, so will have a busy few weekends when we finally get the house sold.... However, SWMBO is, rightly, now refusing to look at adverts for boats, as she claims it depresses her!

cancelled marina

We've cancelled the marina berth. They were very pleasant in making this easy, and have promised to do their best to find us a berth when we get the new boat if they can, and if we need it... all in all, I have to say Neptune has been a pleasant experience... the staff are very nice, and will do their best to help you if they can. Another viewing of the house on Friday.... fingers crossed!

berthing

Really not sure what to do with berthing arrangements.... with Magna Carter gone, we are reviewing our options.... we're paid up in the marina until end of December, and have our name down on the waiting lists at two other marina's, SYH and Shotley..... however, very little movement on the house sale yet, with only one viewer, and therefore I strongly suspect that we'll be into the spring before we have even the slightest chance of buying the new boat...... so what do I do... Sods law says that a berth will come up at one of the new marinas, but we won't be ready to put a new boat in there..... Our current thinking is to end the berth in Ipswich, and keep on the lists at SYH and Shotley, and then if we have to, we'll go onto a buoy for a season if no marina berths can be found at the right time... A friend reckons we'll get a buoy at Burnham if needed, but we'll need to find somewhere for winter storage as the cranes aren't big enough for a 411 (assuming thats what we end up with....) All very complicated! Still, the positive element is that i'm not currently paying a marina mortgage, so thats £200 a month better off, and if I cancel the marina, that'll be another £240 a month better off... all going towards lots of new goodies for the new boat....!

relaxed

After 12 days staying with my parents along the fantastic coastline north of Barcelona, we are relaxed and even a little suntanned (unseasonably hot at 29 deg!)... we walked into the mountains, shopped the Barcelona streets, and even explored the local monuments.... but most of all, we explored the Marinas... lots of 'em.... fantastic! First viewing on the house on Sat... no feedback yet, but have been away... Cheque has cleared for Maggie, so we are now officially boatless....

completion

Cheque for balance of payment on Maggie arrived today, so once its cleared we're all completed./.. I'm not sure when she's being taken away yet.... but some time in the next week or ten days I guess.... We're off tommorrow morning to visit my parents for a few days in Barcelona... so a bit of end of season sun to cheer us up... The Estate Agent is supposed to be coming around this evening to show us the final sales sheet for the house for sign off, and to get a set of keys to be able to show people around while we are away, but no sign of them yet, and its gone 19h30..... hope they still arrive, otherwise its a delay in getting the house on the market....

survey

Maggie had her survey at the weekend, and all appears to have gone well, as we have acceptance from the buyer, and barring the completion of the financials, she's sold... The house has gone on the market this evening, and at a value suggested by the estate agents of a little more than we anticipated, so a good day all round really! We've been frantically viewing boat details, but shown incredible and for once, unusual, restraint by doing no more than looking on-line and in the mags.... phew thats painfull.... i'm itching to go crawl over a few boats....!

timings and thinkings

Maggie is being lifted today for her survey, and dropped back in Monday... Survey is Saturday... We've been gently exploring what boats we might like to replace her with... Of course its dependent upon what we sell our house for, and what we have to spend on its replacement, but if the plans work out, then the current favourite is a Beneteau Oceanis 411... We've been revising our thinking regarding buying brand new. As appealing as it may be to own a brand new boat, with a complete blank canvas for adding extras, a number of people have sensibly commented that there is huge advantage in firstly letting someone else buy all the bits, and living with their choices, and secondly, in letting someone else deal with all the hassles of a new boat and the niggles that go with it... Having looked at the market, we can get so much more for the money by just going for a couple of years old, and so this will probably be our plan... If we don't get quite as much as we want in cash difference between properties, we'll just have to downgrade our expectations a little... Other thing, is that we are also toying with the idea of moving marinas... we are a little fed up with the 9nm trek up the river anytime we want to go anywhere, and add to this the noise from saturday night revellers, and we'll see what the chances are of getting into either Shotley or SYH... prefer Shotley as it seems a bit more cruiser oriented rather than SYH's racing community, and is also a bit easier driving wise, but either would be good in reality....

filling boats with junk

Last night I went over to Maggie on the way home from work to get all our personal stuff off the boat, firstly to make it easier for the surveyor, and secondly so that she is ready to be taken away by the new buyers.... I was gobsmacked at how much stuff we'd built up onboard..... it took me nearly 4 hours to offload all our personal belongings, and numerous trips between the boat and the car with the trolley..... The car was stuffed to the gills, and I didn't get home until gone midnight.... Mind you... she now sits a inch higher on her waterline! I also dropped the key (our one and only key - something else i'd meant to deal with!) in an envelope and into the marina post box.... its not the most secure of postboxes, and so I phoned them nervously this morning to check that they'd received it... all OK... phew... So now, the survey... not sure what day its going to be yet....

breeze, booze and good news!

What a weekend! For some time now, we've had a weekend planned for a group of us to meet up at West Mersea as a sort of laying up supper..... Jim had tried his best to get us into the YC, but a large group there made that impossible, so we ended up booked for a table at the Coast Inn..... As the weekend approached the forecast looked more and more ominous, and drop outs started Friday morning, with understandable apprehension at a forecast that mentioned F8's..... Regardless, we thought we'd head down to the boat and see what the situation was on Saturday morning... When we got there, I finished the last few bits of the install for the Eberspacher, and got that working.... joy... a warm cabin, free of shore power... We then slept soundly, apart from listening to the rigging in the marina whistle.... I set the alarm for 06h15, with a planned 07h00 departure... when we got up, it was still pretty breezy, but perhaps not as bad as the previous evening, so we decided to stick our nose out of Harwich and review then.... out by 07h05 (not bad compared to plan, and better than usual!) We motored down the river, with phone calls from Roger to let us know he had set off from Foxes, and from Karne and Patrick to let us now that it was a bit much for them in Vreny, and they were coming by car.... As we reached Levington we hoiked the main.... I stuck 2 reefs in thinking i'd rather shake one out than add another in.... as it happened, a good plan.... for as we passed Harwich the wind built, and by the time we reached Walton headland we had 29kts apparent..... I had unfurled a small scrap of genny, and we were still making a good 9 to 10kts over the ground with the tide helping us In the mean time, Roger had come screaming past us... with a single reef in, and a good load of genny.... lots of mutual photo taking and he was gone! It took us very little time to get up to Clacton, but it was hard on the wind only just holding course without a need to tack... but quite flat seas, and actually, although pretty windy, really good fun... This changed fairly substantially as we past Clacton, and for some reason I cant work out, the sea state changed dramatically to a large and short sea, with quite a few breaking waves.... Maggie is a great boat, and felt completely safe, but we were now pounding our way to wind, and virtually every wave was breaking over the bow and washing back.... we had at points a couple of inches of water in the cockpit..... but she shrugged it of as only a heavily built boat of this sort can.... regardless, for family cruising it wasn't ideal! We gave up with the genny when we were in the run into the Blackwater when it became clear we would need to tack and take the sea on the quarter, and furled the genny and motor sailed the last 3nm..... By complete coincidence, as we got close in, we saw Jim on Full Circle coming from Burnham, and thus were able to motor together in towards West Mersea... heard Roger call up the coastguard... whoops..... he stuck his boat aground pretty much on high water on the largest tide for 30 years!!!!!!!! less than great, but fortunately was able to get off in the end.... We soon found a buoy in the West Mersea moorings.... We had a viewing of Maggie arranged for 13h00, but due to the sea we were horrifically late, nearer 15h00... but as it happens, it all worked out OK.... the tide was so high that the causeway across to the island was shut for nearly 2 hours, so no harm done..... so I picked up the visitors, and they came and looked around Maggie..... they seemed to like her.... and my good news.... An offer!!!! which we, with a bit of negotiating, accepted, and took a deposit..... GREAT! (and if you are reading this Marcelle, Thanks!) So thats Maggie sold (subject to survey).... now the house to go!!!! Buy 17h00, we had all congregated on Full Circle and a quick drinky, and then all off to the Coast Inn.... Everyone who was finally expected had arrived by boat, with the only exception being Squidge.... So we had a quick pint in the WMYC, and then down to the restaurant.... and who is sat there... Squidge and family!..... excellent.. a full compliment... A good meal.... in fact not bad at all..... the usual round of entertaining moments, from the appearance of the ybw pink pig (an 'in joke'), to an admission by Jim that he was the secret ebay buyer of the 'question mark' that Dave had sold, and was subsequently fretting about what to send in order to protect his reputation.... And back off to our boats by 23h00..... as usual, we had forgotten a torch, so we were very grateful for the clear skies and decent moonlight..... found Maggie eventually, hidden in the Mersea channels..... not a simple task at low water! On waking at 08h00 Sunday, we found a bright, sunny morning, with perhaps 8kts of wind.... what a contrast.... So by 10h30 we slipped off, and soon had sails up.... the wind in open waters was more like 18 to 19kts... but with it being behind us, we had a great sail back.... the first 2 hours a bit slow as we were plugging the last of the south setting tide, but then it turned and we shot up towards Walton.... glorious.... bright sun (and I am burned again!), 8kts on the log, and very little traffic.... we turned in towards Harwich, and the big tide was a killer..... the ebb had started, and we made painfully slow progress up the river..... we did see another forumite (hi Nick) around Levington.... It finally took us 2 hours from Harwich to Ipswich.... very slow.... but we had a times 3kts of ebb tide... Soon tied up on our berth with no dramas... and started to pack as much as we could to take home with us..... no chance of getting everything in the car, so i'll have to do another trip this week..... I didn't even think about this, and am suprised at how much stuff we have on board that takes up loads of space such as wellies, oilies, etc etc...... Anyway.... Maggie is sold... we had a superb last sail in her... in fact a classic sail... the kids were quite emotional at leaving her for the last time.... sad really in some respects, but sounds like she's going to a good home.... She'll be lifted this week for the survey.... shouldn't be any issues there (fingers crossed!)

Miles logged 78nm
Miles this season 994nm
Miles since this blog started 1,777nm

Selling Maggie

Had quite a bit of interest in her so far..... about half a dozen enquiries that I would describe as realistic, 2 viewings, and one more arranged... No bites so far, but a positive start.... Am however, suprised by the number of people asking for "any more information"... I'm really not sure what to send when they ask that..... I thought i'd put more detail in the advert (and generally via this blog) than any boat advert i've ever seen......

no sailing this weekend

Instead we'll be stripping off wallpaper, painting and clearing up 10 years worth of accumulated toys from beneath beds, in order to get the house ready to go on the market..... even got to face tidying up the garage.... gulp!

Girls weekend

This weekend has been long in the planning. We arranged for several of the ybw forumites to get together, and for the respective SWMBO's to depart upon Maggie, and the boys to leave on FullCircle.... On the girls boat, Mrs FullCircle, Vreny, SWMBO and two non forumites, on the boys boat, myself, FullCircle, Mr Vreny, and a non forumite.... We got down to Maggie Friday evening after a less than perfect journey with the main trunk road we use being closed due to an accident... we found Karen propping up the bar in the Lord Nelson..... Within an hour or so we had got ready to depart and radioed the lock only to be told that they didn't have anyone to operate the lock for 30mins due to a shift change, so by the time we actually locked out it was gone 22h00.... I was slightly nervous of the engine, as I hadn't run it since teeing in the furl line for the Eberspacher... it started beautifully as usual, but I had visions of it dying..... so I didn't settle until we were 45mins up the river by which time I reasoned that any fuel in the filter system and pump would be long gone, and if was going to starve of fuel, it would have happened by now! We grabbed a buoy at Levington, and it was midnight by the time we crashed out.... Alarms woke us at 06h00, and within 15mins of waking we had motored to the fuel pontoon at SYH, and picked up Helen..... we motored back to the mooring, at which point I radioed FullCircle to find out how far away they were. They were planning on leaving Burnham at midnight, so I thought they should be close. I was somewhat concerned to get no reply...! All worrying was to prove futile, as we saw them on a buoy as we motored back... so we tied up alongside... It turns out that they had decided to leave a couple of hours early, and have arrived at 05h00, with Jim helming all night! Regardless, we swapped onto the 'correct' boats, and we, the boys, cast off and grabbed another buoy.... one full fried breakfast later, and we dropped the lines and headed off towards the Deben.... The girls it appears had the same idea, and as we rounded the corner, we saw them slip, and head off up the Stour.... It was upwind towards the Deben, and we had a beat.... Jim is carrying a full complement of marine growth on his hull at the moment, so progress was slow, but we got there, and made our way through the sometimes formidable Deben bar.... that is one serious entrance! A gentle motor up what must be one of the loveliest sailing rivers in the UK river, and we reached Ramsholt.... George, the harbour master was ensconsed in his boat. directing activities in a highly organised manner, and we hovered alongside him, and asked for a mooring which was duly allocated with no hassle... and within 30 mins, we had grabbed it, inflated the tender and set off ashore for the Ramsholt Inn..... Two great pints of Adnams finest beer, and a stinking hot afternoon, along with reduced sleep volumes, and we were all fading... so we decided to head back to the boat.... Jim's tender is only a wee little thing, and four fully grown blokes, with a couple of pints in them on empty stomachs must have been a sight to see! We motored the tender back towards George to make our payment, and were treated to a little bit of 'sailing how it used to be'..... George would take no money from us... a free night....... unbeliveably unusual these days to come across a non money grabbing harbour... and a credit to them.... you Deben folk are lucky to have such a delightful sailing area, as well as 'proper' harbour masters.... We (read Jim) then knocked up a great meal of salmon fried into rice, and various accompaniments... superb.... and then drank a very pleasant bottle of red wine, and three or four of bottles of Duvel between us.... pleasantly glowing, but no longer drunk, we relaxed for an hour or two, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.... As it started to get dark, we had a great sunset... one of those long red ones that stretches down to the water, and across the fields when Jim noted, with a sense of enthusiasm in his voice, that the wind was blowing dead down the river at about 5 or 6 kts, and wouldn't it be a perfect evening for a run down the river under cruising chute..... so we duly hoisted the crusing chute sailed off the mooring with it, and had an amazing sail upstream in the dusk.... heaven..... We found ourselves up by 'the Rocks' anchorage, decided it looked idyllic, so dropped the kite and motored over, dropped the anchor and settled in for the night.... this is one of those few remaining gems of an anchorage... quiet, pretty and sheltered.... lovely. By 21h00, we were all shot, so this roughty toughty boys trip saw us all going to bed by 9pm....! We arose reasoanbly early, enjoyed another great fried breakfast, and set off gently down the river by 09h30. We were going to be a bit early for the bar, so we meandered at just over a knot back towards the river mouth. Which proved to be just the right thing to do. This river is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace... 11h00, and we made the bar.... the tide through here is ferocious.... it was 2 hours before HW, and as we closed on the first of the two main channel marks, we were doing 5.8kts SOW and 1.5kts SOG, and this was a neap tide!.... the water boils and bubbles.... and the posts marking the end of the breakwaters have a huge wave around them, and look to almost be bending under the pressure... not somewhere to make a mstake.... but within a few minutes we had cleared the bar, and headed back to wards Languard point and Harwich.... By 13h00 we were back at Levington, arranged a rendevous with the girls, Left Maggie on a buoy and all went on Full Circle into SYH for a spot of food... a grand meal, and we weren't away until 16h00... All bar myself, SWMBO and Helen set off on Full Circle back towards Burnham, and we set off back towards Ipswich.... tied up, tidied up and ready to depart by 18h30... a bloody good weekend had by all... SWMBO feels that she learned a great deal, having taken much more time on the helm, put Maggie onto a buoy, several MOB drills and most encouragingly from my perspective had to make decisions on strategies for getting into and out of a marina berth with 15kts of wind blowing, and being very pleased with herself for it all working perfectly..... we'll be doing this again I hope... Thanks all, we've had a brilliant weekend....

Miles logged 32nm
Miles this season 916nm
Miles since this blog started 1,699nm

Maggies details

FOR SALE
£18,000
Magna Carter
1976 Dick Carter 3/4 Tonner
Length 33' (10m)
Beam 12' 7" (3.7m)
Draft 5' 7" (1.65m)
Single deep fin in Lead

Maggie is a mast head rig with single spreaders, with a single backstay and babystay both with wheel adjusters to set rig up. She had the sails, mast and standing rigging replaced in 2003 with Hood sails and Selden mast, which is keel stepped. The main is fully battened and on bearing cars with a lazy jack system, and the genoa is furling 150% on a Hood furler, with a foam luff and UV strip. Both sails are in excellent condition. The main has 3 full reefing points, with 2 permanently setup back to the cockpit allowing the sail to be carried into very strong wind conditions, important for safety. There are also included a number 1 through 3 hank on Genoa's and a storm foresail on a seperate wire bolt rope, These are all in very good condition, especially the storm sail which is as good as new. Finally, there are 2 spinnakers, a tri-radial number 1 and a lightweight ghoster. The boat is fully rigged with the appropriate spinnaker handling gear including guys and sheets, pole, uphaul and downhaul. Below decks we have completely re-upholstered her in 2005, including fitting new back cushions, and rebuilding the forepeak to create additional berths and stowage space. She has 7 berths, configured as 2 saloon berths (excellent sea berths with lee clothes fitted), 2 pilot berths (also excellent sea berths), a double in the forepeak, and a quarter berth by the chart table. Overall she is large for her size and age, with full standing room in the main saloon, and is very spacious for her period, certainly more than many of her contemporaries, or within her price bracket. The chart table is capable of taking a half folded admiralty chart, along with large stowage space in chart table for charts, etc. Fitted by the chart table is a spare Magellan GPS, along with a switch panel, a Nasa Navtex unit new in 2006, a radar, Raymarine 20XX, which is a 4KW radar with 24nm range, plus MARPA ready if a fast heading compass is fitted, as well as a Raymarine ST50 log, depth, and analogue wind instrument. There is also a stereo FM cassette player with two speakers in the main saloon. The VHF is also fitted here, and is a Navico 6500S with a masthead aerial, and an additional speaker also out in the cockpit. The main GPS is Garmin also fitted at the chart table, but on a stainless steel bracket that allows it to swing out into the companion way so that it can easily be seen from the helm. The whole chart table has good lighting, plus red lights for night vision. The galley is to port and has a Neptune cooker new in 2004, with twin burners, grill and oven. Alongside this is a decent size coolbox, to which we fitted a compressor fridge unit in 2005, and is sufficiently effective to freeze things when turned right up. The boat has an allin one shore power unit that we fitted in 2005, which provides an onboard 240V circuit, as well as a 3 stage charger for all the batteries, step charging and then trickle charging to maintain their condition. All outlets, both 240V and 12V are through circuit breakers with RCD capability. The system is then wired back through a galvanic isolator to earth, protecting against galvanic corrosion. (again new 2005) The engine is an Albin AD2 diesel, which is original, yet has been well maintained, and starts first time, and runs very well. It has an 8Gallon fuel tank in stainless steel, and we also have a 5 gallon jerry can as a backup included. The engine runs through a gearbox to a shaft sealed with a Deep Sea Shaft seal, and is exhausted through a Vetus exhaust system. Spares are readily available for this engine, but we have several spare new filters, both oil and fuel, spare impellors, fan belts and a complete set of injectors included. The whole things drives a 1" shaft with a 2 blade propellor, fitted with a stripper rope cutter for added security, and that drives Maggie at a comfortable 5kts cruising speed. Fitted in the engine compartment is an Eberspacher Airtronic D2 blown air heating system (current model), with a single oulet into the saloon. This is capable of warming the whole boat in a short time, and can be used while at sea as an added bonus. The batteries are housed beneath the aft ends of the saloon berths. The engine start battery was new in 2005, and is a 102Ah starter battery, There are two domestic/service batteries, both of which were new in August 2006, and are carbon plate 105Ah deep cycle batteries designed especially for multiple charge-discharge routines. Also, there is a 75Ah emergency battery to support either the starter or domestic batteries as neede. All these are charged by the shore power charger unit, and are connected via isloation switches. There is a cleverly constructed wiring system for these, via a Diode isolator system that ensures that they can never be accidentally disconnected from the engine (and hence damaged) and yet and combinations can be brought together as required. This is shown in a wiring diagram that also details schematically the wiring for the whole boat, all of which is comprehensively labelled for easy trouble shooting. Further to the shore power, Maggie also has an Aerogen 4 wind generator on a pole on the transom, supplying charge through a regulator unit that also prevents overcharging the batteries. This is extremelly effective in providing enough power for basic needs, and is very quiet in operation. As a final source of power, there are two Siemens solar panels mounted on the pushpit that can be isolated as required. On the deck, Maggie is fitted throughout with Treadmaster ensuring a safe surface when at sea, and has enormously wide side decks which are both safe and easy when you need to go up top, or for sunbathing when at anchor!. She has genoa cars both sides that are on long enough tracks to allow any of the sails to be set properly, important for safety. On the coachroof is mounted a 4 person liferaft, which was new in August 2006, and has a 4 year service interval. behind this is the sprayhood which provides good protection from the weather. The cockpit is split into 2 sections, a helmsmans well where the tiller sits, and a passenger well. Neither have traditional style seats, but instead very wide decks upon which you sit and that provide enormous amounts of seating space. We like this arrangement as it keeps the tiller clear of the crew (great if you have kids). The cockpit is fitted with two 3 speed 44 winches for the genoa and 2 slightly smaller 2 speed winches on the coachroof by the clutches for control lines and halyards. The control lines and halyards are led through clutches that were fitted new in 2006, along with new deck tidies to keep line runs neat and tidy. There are also rope tidy bags, and winch handle pockets fitted in the cockpit. In the passenger cockpit is a large locker, with the gas locker inside (which drains overboard) and hols a 3.9KG propane bottle with space for all the fenders, buckets, warps and miscelleaneous bits that collect. In the helms cockpit is a larger locker that opens into the stern of the boat in which we keep the shore power lead, and various other bits and bobs. There is a large selection of warps and fenders included in the sale. On the foredeck is a Simpson Lawrence electric windlass, with a foot operated switch as well as manual capability with a 25lb original CQR, 20m of chain and 20m of warp stowing to a dedicated anchor locker in the bows. and the anchor on dedicated chocks or stowed on the bow roller. In the helmsmans cockpit is a Raymarine 1000 autopilot that allows easy handling short handed or more relaxed passage making. in front of this, in the bulkhead is a new Plastimo bulkhead steering compass, and the otherside a Raymarine tridata repeater, allowing all the instruments to be seen in the cockpit simultaneously, with a large display for those with slightly less than perfect eyesight! The boat has a traditional port and starboard light on either side of the pullpit, a new stern light, and a steaming light and deck light on the mast, as well as an anchor light that plugs into a power supply on the stern. There are 3 bilge pumps, two manual whale systems one in the saloon, and one in the cockpit, and an electric bilge pump on a float switch under the main saloon floor. The galley is well fitted with stowage space, as is the rest of the boat. In fact there is an enormous amount of stowage space for accumulating your nic nacs! There are two large stainless steel water tanks low down in the boat for stability, with large inspection hatches for easy cleaning. The heads are forward, and is a large Jabsco, which was new in 2003. There is also a seperate vanity basin, storage for toiletries and a large wet locker to keep wet clothes and oilies to avoid soaking the boat. She also has two horsehoe safety buoys. Throughout she has large cleats that are capable of carrying substantial loads for safe mooring, towing or general usage. She has a large number of other miscellaneous items that will be included such as jackstays, flag halyards, a new ensign staff and radar reflector. In fact everything you need to get sailing immediately. Finally, her handling. Maggie is a Carter 3/4 Tonner. They are reknowned for their safe sea manners. She handles a big sea with ease, is a delight in a steady breeze, and has a lovely feel when at the helm. She is more than capable of handling anything thrown at her, and will carry on long after the crew have given up! She is built extremely solidly, with thicknesses in excess of 1 1/2" in places, with a skeg protecting the rudder, and hence is a safe solid boat. Yes she's 30 yrs old, and isn't perfect, with the odd scrape and scratch, along with the usual round of filled holes, but she's in pretty good nick overall for her age, and very well maintained and cared for. You will find (as we did when we were looking) that it will be difficult to find a boat with more space, storage and dependability for the price. If you want a boat for family sailing, the extra space Maggie offers will be hugely appreciated. I'm sure i've missed things, and i'll add them as I think of them... but please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. If the above isn't enough (phew!) then read this blog. There are pages and pages of details and pictures regarding where we've been with her, what work we've done, and how we've found her to handle and sail. You'll not find a more open view of a boat than here!

Maggie for sale

Property prices look possible to facilitate a newer boat, so Maggie will be going on the market shortly..... price to be decided... but she'll be a bargain given what we done to her, and how well she sails! If you are interested, drop me a mail from here, and i'll get back to you with details.... Full spec to follow shortly...

Boat show

Interesting boat show as usual..... Met several people that we know while there... So what did we see? We looked at various different boats, not really particularly serious about buying, but still took a look... We were impressed by the layout and thought placed into the design of the Bavarias... but put off by poor quality in one or two places..... the Jenneaus looked like the design was showing its age.... particularly the teensy weensy cockpits..... and the interiors, which while nicely layed out, looked a little fragile... But.... the Beneteau..... we were very impressed with the Cyclades range... substantial, spacy and yet still useable at sea... We had a good poke around the 393, which we liked a great deal... and a brief, longing look at the bigger 43 foot version.... In fact we liked the 393 so much that we are looking at the viability of moving to a smaller house to get a budget sufficient..... SWMBO is coming home from work today armed with local paper property section.... and i've been trawling internet sites to get a feel for local property prices... More on this soon no doubt.... either realising that its not practical, or possibly a visit to the local dealer for a test sail!... we got enthusiastic about this time last year about a new boat purchase, but never followed it through.... this time seems a little more possible though.... I guess if it looks viable, then Maggie will soon be on the market.... contact me if you are interested.... if you read this blog, you'll know already how much care, time and attention she's had in the last couple of years, and how beautifully she sails in both light and rough stuff.... Other than that, not a lot going on at the show.... usual round of cheap bits and bobs, none of which we desperately needed, so we saved the money and went home by 15h00...

Cherbourg Jolly....

Well what can I say.... The usual round of frivolities on the now annual Scuttlebutt Cherbourg trip.... this year about 20 boats and 65 people made it.... I was sailing with StugeronSteve on his Beneteau Oceanis 331 again, and we made it down to his Marina at the lovely Beaulieu at about 23h00, much at the same time... after I had detoured to Ipswich on the way to pick up 2 kites with the forecast following winds both ways and light.... Jhr turned up promptly ay 07h00 the next morning, and after we had spent an hour in the pouring rain freeing a stuck spinnaker pole fitting, we slipped.... the plan was to head for St Vaast, just East of Cherbourg, and given that its locked and didn't open until 02h00, we went the long way round out of the Solent via Bembridge, which proved a nice sail, as the rain stopped, and the wind blew about 12kts... As we passed Bembridge, we set a course of 186 Mag, turned the autopilot on, and settled in..... Steve had invested in a new Raymarine combined plotter and radar, so a good chunk of the journey was used up in playing with this new 'toy', and by 23h00, we were off Barfleur.... Tome called up on the VHF and was only 5nm west of us, so we converged and headed into St Vaast together..... The night was black as it could possibly be.... full cloud cover, hiding the moon, so it was impossible to even pick out the horizon,. As we closed land, we could see massive storms on the radar, and ten minutes later, the heavens opened.... it was torrential.... so here we were, approaching a notoriously difficult entrance, none of us having been before, with absolutely no visibility, and with rain so hard that we could neither read the plotter screen, or look anywhere other than our feet without drowning..... fun really! none-the-less, we made it in, after a bit of dancing around with the local fishing fleet, and got ourselves tied up by 02h30... A couple of drinks to celebrate a successful crossing, and we retired to bed.... the next day was a bit grey, but thankfully not raining too much, so we had a quick look around St Vaast.... very nice.... not overly commer******ed... By the evening, we found a little restaurant, enjoyed Moule Frites, and went back to bed by midnight.... Tome's crew meanwhile lived up to their name as the Emsworth Bad Boys, and partied all day.... absolutely hammered is the term that springs to mind, with antics including walking into closed plate glass doors.... 06h00 the following morning, we slipped and headed over to Cherbourg.... 35nm by the battleship route, but with a moderating sea, we cut a few corners, and with a good tide, did it in 23nm.... the sea, while moderating, was still quite large, and the first 10nm to windward, across a quartering sea saw one of our crew off, and from reports after, several others on the other boats.... Regardless, 11h00, and in Cherbourg.... 20 boats there.... biggest accomplishment in my eyes being Duncan in his day fishing boat!!!!!!, along with about half a dozen 'channel virgins'... well done all of you... We had time for a quick scrub up, and caught up with a few old friends, and made a few new ones, and before we knew it, it was 19h00, and we were in the bar again... this time for an orgnaised meal in the yacht club..... cracking evening.... usual reparté, and another late night..... So..... Departure Sunday morning was delayed until 08h20, almost the last boat out, and we had a light wind motor sail all the way back... with the wind thankfully across the beam, but never more than about 10 to 12kts..... we entered the solent via the Needles Channel, and m,ade our way into Yarmouth, where we rafted up against Nick, and also found Pat and Tom there too.... so four boats, a visit to the Kings head... proper beer, and a very decent Steak and Ale pie.... back to the boat by 22h30 before the last water taxi, and then finished a decent chunk of a bottle of Laphroaig along with Nick's crew..... sigh... 02h00 again.... 07h00 Monday, and we slipped off, for the short hop back to Beaulieu..... tied up, sorted the boat... gave it the kind of clean needed after a boys weekend trip, and away by midday... What a great weekend.... i'm absolutely knackered.... but we've had a real good time, got some great sailing in, and we'll be there again next year.... I'm thinking about leaving Maggie in the solent after our summer cruise, and doing the Cherbourg trip on her, and then taking her straight back to Ipswich afterwards... long trip, but might if a couple of the east coast gang are up for it.... Tommorrow we're off the Southampton Boat Show.... report to follow....

Miles logged 180nm
Miles this season 884nm
Miles since this blog started 1,667nm

hot air... again..

So the Eberspacher is nearly fitted.... it was, as suspected, quite a big job... I mounted the main unit on an internal bulkhead behind the engine...crawling into a small space through the aft locker, into the guts of the baot.... I then 'teed' the fuel supply off the main engine supply.... by crawling through the aft locker into the guts of the boat... it wasn't as bad a job as I had anticipated... when I got inside the boat, I found another fuel shut off tap at the exit from the tank, that I didn't know existed, so when I cut the main pipe, there was only a dribble of fuel to catch.... the next bit was a little more nerve wracking, cutting a hole in the transom for the exhaust outlet..... it wasnb't quite the right shape and took 20mins of filing to get the nice shiny stainless exhausr plate to fit.... but it does look good now... Next, I fitted the exhaust pipe between the heater and the transom... by drawling into the guts of the boat Then finally, fed cables through from the main cut off switch to the heater unit.... and connected them... by crawling through into the guts of the boat... after getting back out to turn the power back on, I crawled back in, and turned it on.... Bingo! it fired first time despite the many horror stories I had been fed about 'pesky heaters'..... I fairly quickly switched it off though, as I haven't yet fitted ducting, and didn't want to cook the engine compartment.... I managed to burn my butt on the way back out of the rear locker on the now hot exhaust.... So, left to do before the job is finished.....

1] lag the exhaust and fix it in place
2] fit the 2m run of ducting
3] extend the wiring on the control so that it is the main boat! Just so you understand... the rear cockpit locker is a hole 16" by 30"..... hence the complaints... and the numerous cuts and bruises!!!!!

heating

No sailing this weekend... C has her 11+ exam for entry to Grammer school... but I am going down to the boat tommorrow to start fitting the Eberspacher... the exhaust turned up yesterday, so at least I can trial run it now when its fitted (if its fitted!).... And thenb all i'll have to do is fit the warm air ducting... Current thoughts are to run just a single vent near the chart table, angled down the length of the boat.... I would in the ideal world like to run a vent all the way to the forepeak as well, but its a long run, so will firstly be difficult to route, secondly very expensive (I estimate about £90 of fittings and pipe plus another £50 for lagging it), and thirdly the air may well not be that warm by the time it gets that far anyway.....

carter 3/4 tonner

Maggie is a rare breed.... a Carter 3/4 tonner, designed by Dick Carter for the '75 3/4 ton world cup, and only 12 ever built..... some debate as to where, but certainly boats were built by Northshore in the UK and Olympic in Greece, and possibly some by Thames Marine..... I don't know if Olympic actually made them, or just completed them, but I assume that Northshore built the hulls and decks given their relationship with Dick Carter who went on to design the early Southerlys, but thats only speculation.... The Carter 3/4 tonner is referred to in Adlard Coles famous book, 'Heavy Weather Sailing' in her ability to handle extreme weather, with mention of the boat Ariadne... I have previously tracked down 2 other Carter 3/4 tonners, 'Stomper' based in Burnham on Crouch, and 'Ariadne' based in Wales (although the owner belives it to be a different 'Ariadne' to the one in the AC book).... This evening, i've found another, based in the US, possibly called 'Gotcha'... have e-mailed the owner and awaiting a reply.... its for sale, and yet again mentions the fantastic sea manners of the boat.... seems we all agree, its a fun, and dependable boat to sail

rafted at Zierkizee

Getting busier by the minute..... but pleasant neighbours!

the worlds most peaceful pontoon!

On the pontoon in the Veerse Meer... Very quiet, very relaxing...

heading home

The plan proved straightforward.... 20 minutes after we had tied up, Squidge from the forum wandered over.... they were on their summer cruise and had dropped into Neptune for the night..... Squidge has two boys of a similar age to our kids, so within half an hour, respective tenders were inflated and four happy kids were rowing merrily around the marina.... SWMBO's heart was in her mouth, but we figured we just had top let them get on with it.... they all had lifejackets on, so the worst case was a wet set of clothes and a dented ego..... We ended up going out for a bite to eat with Squidge and family in the evening, and then coffee back on Maggie... Sunday weather is excellent... kids have immediately taken to the tender again, and were last seen being towed by another group of kids in a tender with a tiny little outboard on the back at about 1.5kts to the other end of the marina!... this gave us time to clean Maggie up properly, and ready for a departure..... my mum and dad have invited us over for dinner this evening... a good end to a great week... So summary.... we loved Holland.... we'll be going back.... Nieuwpoort was nice too.....

Bloggers convention

Wednesday dawned as a pleasant day, with plenty of sunshine, so we decided to talk a walk. The plan was to walk into Nieuwpoort itself, maybe have a coffee, and see what the town was like. Initially we walked into Nieuwpoort Sud, which was a msitake, as it was suburbia.... so we carried on to Nieuwpoort Bad, which is where the beach is located. It was a long way... we think probably about 4 miles... Ok for us, but a long way for the kids.... although to their credit, they didn't complain once.... Nieuwpoort is a classic North European seaside town... a long row of grey concrete tower blocks along the seafront, with parallel rows of faceless shops.... not overly stimulating.... we did however find a nice seafront restaurant, and had a slow and pleasant lunch. By 15h00, we were flagging, so we caught the tram back to Lombardsjide, the nearest station to the marina, and walked just a few minutes back. Early nights allround in preparation for a day trip to Brugge the following day. Thursday, we caught the tram into Oostende, and then the train from Oostende into Brugge... much like our last visit, we wandered aimlessly for several hours. This time we also treated the kids to a ride in one of the horse and carriage 'taxis'... We caught the train back to Oostende, arriving back there at 17h00. We had arranged to meet up with fellow Blogger 'OliveOyl' and her family in Oostende for a meal... is this a first? Just before 18h00, we met with OliveOyl in Oostende train station, and after a bit of meandering, found a restaurant, and settled in for a meal.... well... what a super evening... very pleasant company... good food, good wine. By about 20h00, OliveOyl suggested that with an early start, that we might like to get back to the boat.... and they were clearly keen to have a little peek at Maggie, so very graciously, they offered us a lift back to Niuewpoort, and we enjoyed a drink on board with them.... OliveOyl.... thank you so much for the evening, we really enjoyed it... it was really nice to meet you and your family. It will be our treat next time we are in Belgium. As we were retiring to bed, the wind had started to build, despite the forecast suggesting just a few knots of wind.... I logged on, and the forecast still confimed light winds.... so why were our instruments reading 20kts? Regardless, we retired to bed, with alarms set for 05h30 (BST), and when they woke us, it was still windy...... I took a look.... 20kts, NW... nasty exit from Niuewpoort, long passage dead into the wind.... we went back to bed! I awoke again at 07h00, and the wind had dropped right off.... I ummed and arred for a few minutes, and then thought 'sod it, lets go'.... So we quickly readied for departure and set off by 07h45... The entrance was messy. The wind of the previous evening had left quite a swell running.... it was heaping up in the narrow entrance and we pitched our way out, with some fairly violent slamming, and plenty of water coming over the bow... it took a while as each wave stopped us in our tracks, and we crept at a snails pace out.... It was a little unnerving, and wouldn't have been fun to have been caught broadside too.... carefull helming, and everyone else clipped on in the cockpit..... As we cleared the entrance, the swell rounded off a little, but was still large, I estimated about 2m, and so we had a bouncy run to a 1/4nm off shore. I set course for the D1 mark, which is pretty much on the direct line from Nieuwpoort to Harwich, and we rollercoasted our way out. This course takes us over several sandbanks... OK for depth, with a minimum of 5m, but as expected, each time the sea state got a little messy. It would be very difficult to pick a way out round all these banks. I had set the main with a single reef before we had left the entrance, which proved to be the rigth decision, as therev was still 22kts of wind, so with a small amount of genny unfurled, we set off.... it was tight on the wind. We could just hold our course on a tight port tack... it wasn't however much fun. The boat was well heeled, it was grey, with no sun, and every wave was throwing spray over the bows.... we left the motor on, as the waves were killing our boat speed (down to 2kts without the engine), so we needed the extra drive otherwise we were facing a long upwind passage.... By the time we passed D1, the weather was clearly changing... the skies cleared, the wind eased, and the sun came out.... by the time we reached WestHinder, just 15nm offshore, we had 12kts of wind.... The swell however persisted, so we had to continue motoring.... At West Hinder we crossed the first of the two TSSs (Traffic schemes), and had to take a little avoiding action, but nothing serious... We then set course for the main north sea TSS. This is a fair way, and we didn't reach the TSS until 15h00.... the tide had set North, and there was an enormous amount of traffic going north.... we had to avoid no less than 5 ships.... it was very difficult to pick a way through, and we ended up crossing in short bursts, whith periods of 90 degree turns inbetween.... as we crossed the seperation zone and into the South bound lanes it was obviuous that the tide was against the ships, for we saw only 3 vessels going south and only had to avoid one.... It was 17h00 by the time we exited the lanes, and set course for Long Sand Head... The wind had all but vanished by now, and after a few hours the sea had settled a bit, so our average speed was improving... it was still however depressing to see the GPS state that its was 22nm to LSH with no chance of sailing..... We passed LSH at 20h00, and with a sense of being back in the Thames Estuary, and being near home, we set course for Rough Towers... or rather continued on pretty much the same course since we had left West Hinder..... The wind had lifted again a little to 12kts, and had turned to a bit more Westerly, so I freed the sails, and (still with the engine) shot off at 6.9kts towards the Rough Towers.... it was getting dark, and the lights of Harwich were clearly visible on the horizon, which helped psychologically, but ironically made it very difficult to pick out the nav marks... it was a further 10nm to Rough Towers.... We had yet again to avoid a large ship, trying to get into the Sunk Anchorage, and this cost us another half an hour...... the clouds has also come over again, covering the moon, making a dark night, and it started to rain......The wind also built back up to 20kts, so, not wanting to pick out the marks in the dark under sail with a stiff breeze, we dropped sails, and continued under engine alone... Rough Towers appeared out of the dark just 1nm before we approached it... a strangely oinous sight in the dark... two large concrete towers in the middle of open water.... with just two cardinals to mark them.... we shot past them in the full flood, and then had the challenge of picking out Cork Sands Yacht Beacon. Whowever placed this mark I don't know.... its a tiny North Cardinal, on a pole, specifically designed it seems to place the light right in the centre of all the background light from the shore..... it however does mark a very shallow piece of water, and isn't a mark to be missed! As in previous visits to this area in the dark, the only way forward is to find the main Cork Sands Mark for large shipping, which is a flashing red, and far more obvious, and then when close (like within 1/4nm) try to spot the Yacht Beacon.... this time we had passed it towards the red beacon before we saw it.... We turned towards The preffered Yacht Track, and followed the remaining 3.5nm to Harwich, just outside the channel, which was good as there was a lot of traffic flooding in and out...... With the tide at full strength, we shot down here at over 7kts, and before we knew it, had turned into the harbour itself. Our plan was to grab a buoy at Levington, and then take a slow trip up the river in the morning.... however, every buoy was occupied, so we had to carry on to Ipswich..... not much fun in the constant rain... We locked through, with advice from our ever cheerful lock master to 'get dried off and have a stiff whiskey'..... and entered the marina.... our berth was occupied (we had in fairness told them that we'd be away until Monday), so we grabbed the fuel pontoon at 00h45, and retired straight to bed.... The following morning, our berth became avaialable, so we hopped onto it.... we fueled up while on the fuel pontoon while we are it.... I was delighted that after 16 hours of motoring we had only used just over half the tank..... Now we need to decide what the rest of the plan is!

Miles logged 86nm
Miles logged this trip 295nm
Miles this season 704nm
Miles since this blog started 1,487nm

Belgian bound

Sure enough, I was dragged to the swimming pool!. It did however, use up most of the afternoon which was good as there isn't a lot to do in Roompot. The marina appears to be part of a large holiday complex, and has the associated facilities, which was useful, as it included a supermarket. We took the opportunity to stock up on a few basics, and then retired to the boat where we had a pleasant family evening, playing games before getting an early night before a relatively early kick off the following morning. We set alarms for 05h30. SWMBO gained by having gone onto local time, as this was 06h30 by her watch.... (I tend to stick with BST, otherwise I get awfully confused with the navigation!)... We got ourselves dressed in full foul weather gear, and slipped quietly.... it only took 25 minutes to get to the Roompotsluis, and we had to wait for just 15 mins before it opened. This lock is BIG. We locked in with a decent sized cargoe vessel.... and several other yachts, and used perhaps half the available space.... The skies were grey, but fortunately, it wasn't raining..... Soon the outer gates opened, and we re-emerged back into the sea for the first time in a week.... We had really really enjoyed Holland and will be coming again. The tide was flooding south, so we set course for the inshore passage, towards Vlissingen, and shot down at 8+kts over the ground. The wind, despite being forecast for a North Westerly, hadn't gone that far round, and had a lot of West in it. Fortunately it had just enough northerly to enable us to sail, albeit tight to the wind. As we reached Vlissingen, we freed off a bit, still upwind, but with the sails just eased a bit to let them breath. With 15 to 18kts of wind, and the tide still assisting us, we shot down towards Zebrugge.... and by the time we reached this point, we were nearly 6nm ahead of plan.... Sadly, the tide inevitably turned against us. Its unavoidable on this passage, as there is realistically only 4 1/2 hrs of supporting tide to be had.... However, with a decent wind, we were still making around 5kts over the ground, and continued to make good progress. Then the sun peeked out, and life started to look good.... Before long, the cranes of Zeebrugge appeared on the horizon, and we continued to make good progress.... finally the waypoint for Oostende popped up, and before too long we were heading towards Nieuwpoort... We had alread decided to go to the Airforce Yacht Club Marina (WSKLuM) from a recommendation.... wow... British marinas... you need to sit up a listen.... besides having a staff member meet every visiting boat to take their lines, and ensure that they found their allocated berth OK, they then presented a map (in English) with the location of every conceivable shop or facility you might need... they have on site evrything from launderette to nice bar, bicycle hire and ice delivered to the boat.... while we sorted the boat out they delivered the latest weather forecast over a tannoy (in English as well as Belgian, Dutch and French) and they charged me 39 Euros for 3 nights..... so nice to know that we get so royally ripped off in the UK..... the Belgians must gasp when they see the prices of British marinas....... So by 16h45 we were tied up.... a passage time door to door of 11 hours... not bad considering that we had to lock out of the Roompotsluis.... We're here for 3 nights now.... SWMBO wants to revisit Brugge, the kids want to hire bikes and go exploring, and me.... well I just want to relax!

Miles logged 53nm
Miles logged this trip 209nm
Miles this season 618nm
Miles since this blog started 1,401nm

windy again!

Apparently Zierkizee doesn't close on a Sunday. Well not entirely anyway. We wondered around for a while. We had been running out of cash, and all the machines in Zierkizee seemed to be unable to dispense cash to any overseas cards... we had begun to panic, with thoughts running through our heads of our accounts having been emptied by identity fraud, or something equally sinister, until we saw Belgians and Germans having the exact same problem. However, Sunday morning, it resolved itself, and after what must have been our 5th visit to the cash point, it dispensed the goods.... the first Sunday victory! We then discovered a gift shop that was open... our second victory... the kids were dissapointed that they couldn't buy some tat as little gifts for their friends... so suitably weighed down with plastic windmills and hastily knocked together (no doubt in Taiwan) model ships, we wondered on. We found a nice cafe bar, and had a pleasant lunch, and a couple of cold beers... the sun came out..... And then, our third and final victory... the tower hovering over the Zierkizee skyline, the Monstertoren, appeared to open after midday, so we duly trooped up the 275 steps up and the 275 steps down. The view from the top was worth the effort, with a clear view right out over the Zeelandbrug, over the Roompotsluis, and far over into Walcheren. In the mean time, i'd been watching the wind build, and when returned to the boat, not only were we inside a 3 boat raft, but also it was gusting 26kts... Firstly, we rearranged the raft to place us on the outside.... as usual, our Dutch neighbours spoke perfect English (somewhat embarressing isn't it), and were quite OK with us mucking the raft about... and then we listened to the forecast.... with hindsight, it should have been the otherway around! With Netherlands coastguard forecasting 6's and moving to a North Westerly, we decided to not leave in the morning.... Maggie copes perfectly well with a stiff breeze, and in fact is fun to sail in a 6, but its a long passage for the kids (and probably SWMBO) in that weather, with 24 hours of swell having built up, and secondly and probably more importantly, none of the Belgian ports are much fun to enter in a strong NW, and indeed can even be dangerous. We decided to hold off, and head for Roompot marina in the morning... partly to just try somwhere different, and secondly, to be closer to the Roompotsluis for a departure on Tuesday morning... We slept soundly, and after an easy start, and a light breakfast, set off. The 8nm to Roompot took just over two hours. it was slow going, as it was straight in to the wind and the tide, but we plugged through it under engine, not bothering to raise the sails for what would have been a less than pleasant beat in a relatively narrow channel. We reached Roompot marina, and grabbed the holding pontoon.... they requested a call on VHF ch 31.... why oh why does Ofcom prevent us from using the channel that most Dutch marinas use? We overcame it, with a phone call, were allocated a berth, and soon alongside. We agreed that our close quarters handling has been good this week. No major dramas, and definitely working better as a team. The Havenmeester took our money, and informed us of the marina's swimming pool.... the kids were delighted... guess what i'm going to be doing later! First impressions of Roompot?.... not the touristy location that we have previously visited... more a functional marina.... but clean, pleasant staff and conveniently located... (below corrected - I forgot to add the mileage for Sat and Sun last week!)

Miles logged 10nm
Miles logged this trip 156nm
Miles this season 565nm
Miles since this blog started 1,348nm

big bridges, and bigger rafts

The Veerse Meer is a beautiful location. We had a superb nights sleep, with complete peace and quiet. By 10h00, we decided to slip and head off... the wind was blowing across our beam straight onto the pontoon, but it was only at 15kts. However, it was the perfect opportunity to practice springing off, which we did with some aplomb... perfect, and guaranteed that the topsides didn't have to scrape past the corner of the pontoon. We motored our way out of the anchorage, and set off down the Veerse Meer towards Keersluis, and the entrance to the Oosterschelde. It was downwind... a mixture of dead runs and very deep reaches... so we set sails, and with apparent wind at 10kts, flew down towards the lock... After 45mins, and a gently rising wind, we were being pressed a little, despite putting a turn or two in the genny, so rather than muck about putting a reef in for just a few minutes before the lock, we dropped the sails... this proved fortuitous, as we rounded the next bend to see the lock in front of us..... there was quite a queue, and we waited no more than 3 or 4 minutes before the gates opened.... we motored in, amongst the now expected rush of Dutch boats... there is no concept of queuing or orderly entry! We motored in, with the later half of boats, and saw a space for 2 boats alongside the wall... the boat in front of us was heading for the front of the two slots..... however, he decided to tie up in the centre of the gap, taking up both slots.... idiot!.... (he then later proved the point by climbing the ladders, and doing press ups on the ladder at the top, with his shirt removed... enough said).... so we backed off, and went forward and aimed to raft alongside a more forward boat.... no problem, but as we approached the boat, the boat behind them was still tying up, and one of the crew plopped over the side..... straight in between the boat ond the wall..... they managed to recover him very quickly, albeit with a heavily dented ego... Even so, we tied up alongside the planned boat, and waited for exit. Which all went to plan. The vista of the enormous Oosterschelde opened in front of us, and we then enjoyed an hour of reaching across to the spectacular Zeelandbrug. This is one seriously big bridge, with a total span of over 1.5nm.... Our timing was poor, and we reached the lifting section just 5 mins after it closed, and so had to mill around for 25 minutes waiting for it to open again.... which it duly did.... again, a mad rush by every boat bearing a Dutch ensign for the gap.... it seems to be a competition to get through as quickly as possible! We passed through the gap, and turned into Zierkzee.... a short leg up the canal entrance into the harbour itself.... and shrieks of delight from C, as she saw her first windmill.... for which she had waited a good few days! In the harbour we went right into the town centre to the niuew haven, and were directed by the harbour master to a pontoon berth, alongside which was a result given that boats were already rafting up... clearly the request for 2 nights helped! So we tied up, quickly hooked up shore power before the scarce sockets vanished.... and went to explore the town.... very quaint.... a lot like Middelburg, but if anything, even prettier... although perhaps a tad more touristy... When we got back to the boat, we were on the inside of a 3 deep raft, with kids on both outside boats, so grins allround... Soon an active campaign was underway to rid Zierkzee harbour of every crab it had ever nurtured.... By 18h30, we slipped off for something to eat... a bit touch and go, as we had limited cash left, and every cash machine seemed to be out of order... however, we scraped enough together, and went to eat at the 'Eetcafe de Banjaard'.... superb.... really well priced, and excellent food... cost just 65 Euros for the for of us including drink, deserts and coffee, and was very nice food, especially the side salads... When we returned to the boat we were 5 deep.... one boat 3 out had deemed it appropriate to put on a shore line on the bow only.... good job the winds are light.... Earlyish night tonight..... although not sure what we are going to do tommorrow, as it seems that Zierkzee, touristy or not, shuts on Sunday!

Miles logged 14nm
Miles logged this trip 132nm
Miles this season 541nm
Miles since this blog started 1,322nm

Inlands seas

We arose Friday morning to see a bit of a damp day... not too cold, but a bit wet. However, as we had arisen reasonably early, we decided to aim for the 09h30 bridge opening... The marina has narrow aisles, and we didn't want to hang around in them for two long, with our limited steerage in reverse, and so we set ourselves up to depart by slipping the leeward bow and stern lines, and then listening for the bell announcing the bridge opening.... impatience beat us, and we slipped out of the box as our watches ticked past 09h30. No problems... we reversed easily out of the box, turned comfortably, and then headed forward. I went slowly, given the shut bridge, and not wanting to have to hold station with very little room to maneouvre, and was pleased to hear the bell ring just 30 seconds later. One boat ahead of us, and we slipped out. We turned sharp left into the canal from which we had entered Middelburg, and set off at a leisurely pace. There was a wind blowing across the beam of about 10kts, so we unfurled the genny, and shut down the engine. The sun decided at this moment to peek out from behind the clouds... So here we were... inland, in a canal just 100m wide, sailing!... we were very chilled!.... After 45 mins, the lock into the Veerse Meer beckoned, so we furled the genny, and started the engine.... we waited just 10mins, and then into the lock... we had to raft up, but without any dramas, and then the locks opened into the the Veerse Meer, the most southerly of the Dutch inland seas.... We followed the channel markers for about an hour, until we reached one of the larger islands.... we had agreed the night before that we'd try to anchor on its North shore, where there was sufficient water, but it was a bleak place, with little of interest, so carried on to a cut through between the island at the next. This looked more promising, but sadly the wind was blowing straight through the gap, so we abandoned that too.... The previous night, I had identified a perfect little sheltered area between the island, and one to its south, but it was tight..... very very tight on depth.... however, with the first two failures, we thought that we'd have a peek... and creep in dead slow, slow enough that if we touched then we could just back out.... we could get away with this due to the absence of any tidal flow.... so we crept in, and saw at the worst 40cm below the keel.... we entered an absolutely lovely natural harbour surrounded on all sides with just two entrances of less than 50m width... even better, in this harbour there were several pontoons jutting out from the shore, and we crept towards the one that looked like it had the deepest water.... it was quite easy to get onto, as the wind had built to about 15kts, straight onto the pontoon, so I just pulled parallel with it, and let the wind drift us on.... It was a georgeous island.... well cared for by the Dutch, and we explored for a while... but before we knew it, the kids had introduced themselves to a family of four Dutch kids on the next pontoon along (there are only 3 pontoons!), and were busy crabbing, playing football, flying kites and generally being kids, and so we had a relaxed afternoon... The other side of the pontoon to us were moored an english couple, in their seventies, who had spent the last 20 years cruising, and so we chatted to them for most of the rest of the day... An evening meal saw us through to dusk... the kids retired to bed, and here I am writing this now.... a great day.

Miles logged 5nm
Miles logged this trip 118nm
Miles this season 527nm
Miles since this blog started 1,308nm

Klomps!

After reaching Middelburg, we took the opportunity to explore a little... It is a pretty town, with a number of interesting things to see and do. We explored around the town centre, and its various churches, alleyways, and quaint streets. However, through tiredness, we eventually found ourselves back at the boat, and retired to bed pretty early. A full nights uninterrupted sleep, and we had a day set aside in Middelburg to explore a little better. The church bells reminded us of the quarter hours, with their pleasant chimes, and against this backdrop we set off.. The kids had seen an advert for a place that showed the whole of the Walcheren district in miniature, so we headed towards this. On the way, we were lucky enough to stumble across what seeed to be quite a major local event... a sport known as 'ring jousting'. This involves a rider on a horse charging down a narrow aisle of sand with a lance with a spike on the end, rather similar to a Javelin, and to try and hook a ring held on a rope. The ring is the diameter of a two pence piece, so it is no small challenge. There were quite a large number of competitors, and a larger number of spectators, and was clearly a major local event. We watched entranced for a while, and eventually moved on towards the exhibition we had set off to see. Miniature Walcheren was worth seeing, at least from the kids perspective anyway, and we wasted a good few hours. We then spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the little shops in the pretty alleyways, and generally wandering around the multitude of canalside walks... Only purchase was a pair of clogs for the kids, which they were delighted to learn that in Dutch are called 'Klomps'!

canals

We arose at 08h00. It would have been easy to sleep longer... much longer, but I was conscious that we were on the fuel pontoon univited, so didn't wan't to cause any problems. As it happens things went well. 15 minutes after we arose, a boat came looking for fuel. The Harbourmaster came over in his tender, and was perfectly OK with us being on the fuel pontoon... he understood... The Dutch are a nation of sailors! The fuel pontoon, in the daylight was a lot longer than I thought, and we didn't have to depart, instead, just shuffled forwards, and the boat slipped in behind us. When he had refuelled, I did thesame, paid my night's fees, and then we tidied up. By 10h00, we slipped, and made our way around to the first of the opening bridges, and after waiting 20 minutes were let through into the Walcheren canal on our way towards Middelburg. Its a remarkable thing. The contrast between the crude dock area inside the lock, and after the bridge that permits entry into the canal is enormous. The bridges opens, and takes you into a tree lined boulevard, that is pretty, quiet, and very relaxing.... pootling along at a pleasant 2kts, we made our way through a number of various bridge types, some lifting, some turning, until, in less than an hour and a half, we turned to port into Middelburg. Middelburg is picture postcard pretty. You round into a town centre, and are faced with an elegant white bridge of almost victorian style. The holding pontoon is immediately to the right, and we are tied up, and allocated a berth in just a few minutes. The bridge opens on the half hour, so we only have to wait 20 mins before being let through into a lovely little marina, with long rows of box moorings. SWMBO is nervous. Our first experience of a proper box, only ever before having moored bow to with a pick up line or buoy... however, we slipped deftly in, with no dramas. A nice Dutch guy comes to grab our bow lines, the ready prepared stern lines drop smartly over the posts, and we are secure in no time, and sorted. We have decided to have the rest of the day in Middelburg, and all of the following day, and then leave Friday morning for Veerse Meer. More to come!

Miles logged 3nm
Miles logged this trip 113nm
Miles this season 522nm
Miles since this blog started 1,303nm

long legs

After precious little sleep, we arose at a quarter to midnight, and quickly made up a flask of coffee, had a coffee to drink, and quietly crept off the mooring buoy at midnight. The weather had decided to play ball, and the wind was a North Westerly at about 12kts, so a decent reach across to Holland was on offer. Given the forecast showed wind being about, albeit not in our part of the sea, I decided to set a course towards Oostende, where we would be able to head up towards Holland, with an option to dive into Oostende if it wasn't nice out there. This looked OK as a plan given that the forecast suggested a swing to South Westerly, so the Oostende entrance would be quite safe in a blow. However, we still had every intention of making Vlissingen. Harwich as usual was challenging in the dark. The bright Sodium lights of the docks making the navigation marks very difficult to pick out. I know the water well, but have often wondered how challenging it would be for a stranger to the area. By 02h00, we had rounded Cork Sands Yacht Beacon, and set a course across the base of the north sea... things were looking OK... I had planned on 5kts for the passage, and we were just about making it.However, and hour later, and the wind dropped.... our boat speed reduced to just 3.5kts... I didn't really fancy motoring for 20 hours... and even then, with Maggie's small tank, we only just about had eough fuel remaining for 14 hours motoring anyway, so we plugged on under sail... The Northerlies of the last few days had left a large rolling sea, and while not concerning from a boat perspective, the wallowing motion wasn't pleasant... no one was seasick, but it didn't make for a nice motion. We reached the Southbound TSS by midday, a good three hours behind the passage plan, but fortunately had very little traffic, in fact only one ship, and that was well off, so all we did was motor straight across... we could have held the course at right angles under sail with the wind by now having gone South West, but I needed to gain back some time, so at 6.5 kts, it was helping, plus got us across the lanes quickly... there was slightly more traffic on the Northbound lanes, not suprising given the tide going north, and we had twice to alter course, but again, nothing serious. As we popped out of the TSS it was decision time, either head over towards Oostende, or set north towards Holland. Given that we had already lost the first two days of the trip to the weather, and the amenable wind strengths and direction, we decided to make for Holland, so we set course heading straight towards the main entrance fairway to Vlissingen, conveniently on a direct line... The slow passage had mucked us up though, and the tide was turning.... and it flows at a ferocious rate along that coastline.... under sail, we were making a pathetic 2.5 kts over the ground... So on came the engine, and we bumped it up to a still inadequate 4kts. Mixed in with this was a rather messy refuelling effort, where our backup 5 gallon can was poured in... not easy in a big rolling sea, and some ended up on the decks, and some on SWMBO... I wasn't popular! About 17h00, the weather changed. Dark clouds came over, and the wind freshened up to about 18kts. This was actually quite handy, as I was starting to worry about having enough fuel, so the sails were set, a full main, and a few turns in the genny, and we powered off, at last over target speed, sometimes making 7kts over the ground. This still proved inadequate, and as the evening set in, the wind inevitably dropped. Fortunately, late enough to ensure we were OK on fuel, so down came the sails, and on came the engine... but as we came in towards Vlissingen, the tide was devastating us, and we were making just 3kts over the ground with the engine working hard... We finally started our final approach into Vlissingen at 22h00, 2 hours after my planned arrival time, still crawling along, and depressed to see that we had a further 5nm to go... at this speed, another 2 hours. The kids had long given up, and had retired to bed. Despite the bouncy motion, they were happily snoring from below! The route into Vlissingen is a 'preferred yacht track' just outside the main shipping channel. I'd always though Harwich to be a busy port, but it is nothing compared to Vlissingen. A constant stream of shipping was plowing in and out, and it required enormous care to make the right moves at the right time. Not easy when tired, and in the dark in an unfamiliar port. The route also requires a right angle crossing of the mini TSS in the estuary itself. I had planned all this out, and fortunately also taken care to write down all the light characteristics on a note card for the cockpit, so that was all OK... but as we entered the harbour there was an ENORMOUS ship being turned around by tugs ready for departure to sea. It was going to be tight on our planned route, and I didn't fancy either getting in his way, or having to sit and wait for another half an hour, so we cut across early. dodging 5 ships in the process, and being bounced around mercilessly by the wake mainly caused by a constant stream of pilots seeing to their business. We found ourselves up again the foreshore, in plenty of water, but it did make picking out the lights to the main harbour entrance into the lock and canal system very difficult, and it was with a sight of relief that I finally confirmed the lights that I suspected as being the right ones by sighting the outlines of a large number of wind turbines that were marked on the chart, and showed up in just the right spot... we followed the sectored light, until it showed the safe white sector, turned in, and sighed with relief as we entered flat water for the first time in 23 hours. I called the lock who happily responded that they would open up, and we entered the mouth of the lock... a huge beast, not made any easier psychologically by it being low water, and through tiredness... I entered what I belived to be the lock, to look up and see red lights still showing. We were just in a entrance 'tunnel'!. I was going to be there too soon, so reversed... the usual dramas with Maggie not answering the helm in reverse, but now I know her, I was confident enough to hold her, and she gradually crept backwards, despite getting very close the barnacle encrusted sides.... the lights changed, and we popped into the lock... no pontoon, only chain risers, and we made a bit of a mess of getting in... nothing too serious, again tiredness showing its face, but I did have to reach over to the ladder set into the wall with the boat hook, and pull the stern in so that we could get the rear line on.... it was a quick lock, and while we rose, the customs guys yelled down at us asking if we had duty free, where we had come from, who was onboard etc.. all the usual stuff, and done quite politely and in a friendly manner.... We locked out, and into a strange, almost discomforting area, that looked more liked a disused trawler hidey hole, made wierd by the yellow sodium lighting all around.... we motored according to the pilot, to the far end, turned to starboard, and breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden appearance of the Schelde marina. We slowly crept in, and were dismayed to see a long line of completely full box moorings, and all the waiting pontoons deep in rafted boats, with no more room without blocking up the main channel... so we very slowly motored around to the far corners of the marina hoping upon hope to find just one empty space... things were looking dire as we approached a dead end, and could see all the slots filled, and then SWMBO spied that the fuel pontoon was empty. Now, I don't like mooring on fuel pontoons without permission from the marina, but it was late, they had gone home for the night, we were dog tired, and there wasn't anywhere else, so we tied up finally at almost exactly midnight, 24 hours to within 3 minutes since leaving, ignored any efforts at tidying the boat, and dropped into our beds exhausted. Quite a passage.

Miles logged 110nm
Miles logged this trip 110nm
Miles this season 519nm
Miles since this blog started 1,300nm

more weather

Sunday evening looked better, as it had cleared upa bit during the day, with the sun even coming out... so about 19h00 we decided to set off down the river, to grab a buoy at Levington, and then take a final check on the forecast before leaving around midnight... We had a pleasant run down to Levington, and grabbed a vacant buoy with no trouble... I logged on to various web sites, and then got the shipping forecast... N to N/W 5 to 6, backing NW 5 to 7 occasionally 8. Visibility moderate, sea state moderate to rough... Ah. So we decided to leave it yet another night.... we stayed on the buoy, and then set off back to Ipswich at 10h00 this morning.... now back in our marina, with a forecast that looks much better for tonight... we'll see!

weather

Got down to the boat Saturday evening. We decided not to sail Friday as I had a long week at work, and was quite tired. by 14h00, we were onboard.... Forecast however looked decidedly dodgy, so a family decision was taken to leave it 24hrs... Friends who had just moved to Ipswich invited us over for Sunday dinner, so that helped! During the night it blew pretty hard, and rained very heavily, so it was a good decision!

forecast

The forecast for the weekend looks undecided... we are now setting off Sat night rather than Friday.... i've got too many early starts this week with work, and don't fancy an overnighter when tired..... There's some wind around... looks like it'll be Ok Sat night/Sun morning, but perhaps a bit of rain.... we'll see... I've decided that this is a holiday, and if the weather looks rubbish, then we'll just start by going somewhere more local...... perhaps the Backwaters, the Deben, or even down to Burnham..... its a family trip after all, not a get across at all costs desperation run! Mind you... still 48hrs to go.... forecast could change completely in that time frame!

sell up and sail pt2

Should add that we are definitely going to do this..... its just our thinking has moved on from waiting for the kids to leave home, and perhaps going at age 52ish, or saying sod it, and going now....

sell up and sail

A more serious post, and less humdrum sailing news... We're getting steadily more serious about the idea of 'selling up and sailing'.... We reckon that if we realise all our assets, budget £50k for a boat, then we can survive on £600 per month for about 15 years before we'd need to seriously consider working again on anything other than an ad-hoc basis.... Scary proposition though, as it means having nothing when (if) we return.... except a boat, and hopefully a pile of memories... Off the top of my head, big concerns for us include:

1] Schooling for the kids.... could we be dedicated enough to school them for 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week, and even if we could, would it make the 'dream' less appealing?
2] Family health back home - I guess this is a standard concern
3] Finances... what if something major broke, and we couldn't afford to fix it... engine/new sails/rigging... I guess this would just cut short the timeframe
4] Ability to find work after our return - maybe a mute point... I suspect that if we do this, we'll be unlikely to return!... but even so.... my current skills in the IT industry will be next to useless after 15 yrs!
5] Kids, and their integration into 'the system'.... assuming they decide to go to Uni, will they ever fit in?... will they find the structured environment restrictive?..... will they have the neccessary group social skills?... if they don't take the higher ed route... when/how will they enter the world of work?

Ironically, the bit that I suspect troubles most people, the reaction of their families isn't a problem... we've very briefly floated the idea past both sets of parents, and they both think we'd be mad not to do it!... sisters are a different matter... both firm participants in the capitalist system, and busy climbing the personal wealth ladder... can guess what their response would be! I was also personally concerned that this was my dream, and that I would be dragging SWMBO along as an only partially eager participant.... but she seems to be getting keener and keener on the idea, and is now talking about it more and more..... I guess neither of us have jobs that have us flying out of bed in the morning, eager to face the days working challenges, and both dream of a better life with other concerns than paying the mortgage, running the car and paying the electricity bill..... Ho hum.... contemplation required methinks...

Bosco

After SWMBO finally relented and at last discovered the joy of springing on, rather than the mad panic of bow and stern warps when the pontoon is too short, I have invested in a Bosco boathook..... so now we should be able to hook on without getting off the boat.... a great bit of kit... looks very substantial.... the only one i've seen that I would trust under load.... a cast hook, much better than the daft plastic things people seem to have.... mind you at the price they are, they should be good! I'm hoping now, that sooner or later SWMBO will have a go at driving the boat on..... it won't matter if we aren't close enough with a boat hook to help.....i'll still be able to reach over and get us hooked on.... Perhaps the 'girls weekend' we have organised in September will help her to gain the additional confidence needed.... she's going out with along with a group of friends 'better halves', and they will try coming alongside etc without the watchful eye of us lot of blokes there.... !

landlocked again

No sailing again this weekend.... Got to take C to Sea Cadets summer camp on Sunday..... 5 hrs driving each way.... looking forward to that, not! We are off next weekend on our annual summer 2 weeks (and a day) cruise... Plan is to head straight for Vlissingen from Harwich.... about 20hrs I suspect, and then dive into Middelburg.... if Holland isn't too busy, then we'll perhaps stay a while and visit Goes, Zierkzee and the Oosterchelde, and then head back down the coast towards France.... want to visit Nieuwpoort, and then perhaps Gravelines.... cross over towards Dover or Ramsgate at some point, and then round back to Ipswich via Burnham. We're hoping to meet up with the crew of Full Circle for a days racing in Burnham week, before heading back to home on the bank holiday Monday.... Can't wait!

the dark side!

Spent a day yesterday in a Fairline Squadron 58 cruising around Cowes watching the racing.... spectacular stuff with the big racing monohulls coming down on the line with large gennakers, apparently touching 25kts.....! it was clearly freaking out the slower classes, watching these beasts coming down on them from behind at such outrageous speeds..... Quite a few ripped sails, and plenty of broaches to keep us entertained..... Really tight racing insome of the one design classes, and the usual suspects (a certain major yacht chartering company maybe?) causing chaos upwind......

Miles logged 31nm
Miles this season 409nm
Miles since this blog started 1,190nm

quiet night

Another hot weekend loomed! The usual Friday evening traffic madness was avoided, as C wanted to go to her Friday night sea cadets, so we didn't get away until 20h30.... Arrival was too late for a Friday night departure, so we wiated until Saturday morning... We had (yet again) a guest onboard... this time, my neice, R, who is a keen Oppy sailor, and quite excited about the trip... the usual Stone point run was planned out (NB to self - stop going to Stone point, i know its nice, but perhaps some other destinations would be good!) So about 09h00 Saturday we slipped and left... the sun was shining, and there was about 4 or 5 kts of wind... so we motored.... pretty much the whole way.... we did try to sail, but there was so little wind that we couldn't stem the tide.... We arrived in the Backwaters by 11h00, and looked initially in vain for a spot to anchor.. it was really busy.... we were just beginning to wonder if we might have to slip round to Hamford Water, when someone kindly pulled up their pick and left... so a slot appeared, and we dropped in.... it took 2 attempts to anchor.... the first time it didn't bite... I think I dropped the chain too fast... but second time was fine... After a short wait to check that we were holding OK, we set of for the beach (entailed the normal palavour of inflating the tender on the foredeck, and wobbling into the inflated tender with the outboard!) Fun and games was had by all.... hot on the beach.... We were a bit too far out into the channel for my liking, so when another boat inside us also left, then SWMBO and I dived into the tender and moved Maggie 60 feet closer to the beach... the boat was moved without drama... but it wasn't without incident... The outboard needs a good pull to get it going, so its my job, while SWMBO holds the tender off the shore.... usually no problem... only this time, she hopped to get onboard, stood on a sharp stone, and didn't quite make it into the tender.... teetered on the edge for a second or so, and gracefully rolled backwards off the side into 18" of water!.... I was laughing my head off.... fortunately she also saw the funny side of it, and was rather pleased with herself for keeping the auto inflating lifejacket dry....! By 17h30, everyone was tiring so we retired back to the boat for food, cold drinks and an evening of card games..... The new batteries are doing their stuff, and the fridge is significantly colder than it used to be... We held just fine through the turn of the tide, and the kids went to bed (albeit begrudgingly) at 21h30... at which point SWMBO and i sat in the cockpit with a bottle of wine and chilled out... One surreal moment.... it was still very hot at 22h00, and a large group on the beach were enjoying themselves... one of their group had an accordian, and was belting out all the old favourites... but it did get kind of wierd, sitting there in the cockpit at gone 10 O'clock at night in just shorts, listening to 'Jingle Bells' being played rousingly on the beach, with full vocal accompaniement... Kids awoke us bright and early as usual, and with a bit of a breeze having kicked in, we decided to sail rather than return to the beach.... so we set off down towards Cork Sands Yacht Beacon.... it was very hazy, and at just 2nm offshore, the land had vanished... but nevertheless.... with 13kts of wind, and broad reaching, it was a cracking sail..... sadly, it had to end, so we tacked round, and headed back to Harwich, and then sailed most of the way downwind back to Ipswich.... by Woolverstone, the wind which had been building steadilt up to 18kts, vanished, so after a few minutes of drifting, we dropped the sails and motored.... just as well, as 5 minutes later, the wind returned at 20kts, 180 degrees different, so it would have been a stiff beat! There was a bit of traffic for the lock, so we tried our spring line again onto the holding pontoon... SWMBO was much happier, and when the lock gates opened up, we again used the spring... A bit of confidence could be seen in her... So when we arrived at the berth, it was rathere smartly slipped over the outermost cleat, and we arrived neat and tidy on the pontoon... problem solved... it works OK now she understands the mechanics of it all... So, another hot weekend... with good wind.... long may this super summer weather continue!

Miles logged 25nm
Miles this season 378nm
Miles since this blog started 1,159nm