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......