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!