Category: Preparation

Having hidden all the contents that we can’t stash anywhere sensible we have stacked them behind lee cloths in our unused bunks and we think we may be ready to go…..somewhere? It has never happened before; the weather forecast is for no wind for at least the next 6 days and the UK will be hotter than many places far to the south. Some wind available across Biscay and more around Cap Finisterre. Looks like the ideal time to head straight for Spain once through the Channel. We will know more when we get underway. Expected to be leaving at

Packing up shore life was like traversing the last 400m of Everest with so many months of effort behind us but with the air thinning and the bitter cold setting, with legs of lead  and every day being the same it was a case of no way can we leave by our chosen date, to perhaps tomorrow, then again tomorrow, then maybe today surely, just a bit to do we will be out in an hour….four hours later and no end in sight. That’s behind us now and although sleep walking we have reached the end of the beginning. We

We are experimenting with the protection of our stern gear by covering it in 100% Lanolin although in our case there was a little perfum added as it was intended for hair care. It adds a shine to the prop. At least we are not cooking with it but there is plenty left over and a long way to go.

Or Anode-r Half Day as it takes a long half-day to fit all of the 16 hull anodes. These are fixed with some mastic sealant to stop them vibrating as they erode and are locked off with medium strength Loctite.                     We have been advised that where the disc anodes become too worn the bolt heads become acive and the anode drops off. Eventually the remaining studs have to be drilled out and then helicoiled to fit anodes again. This information immediately lead us to swap out a couple of older

Look we’ve had twins! Are they identical? Hang on we’ll check. Er no the blades oppose each other. Which one is called Port and which Starboard? Mother!!   Inspirational flash – we photograph everything…do we have an ID photo of the twins before removing them? Yes thank goodness let’s put them back. Of course the very last under the waterline job and the M6 button head hex bolt sheared like butter….are we going back in as planned? Run up the tree house and retrieve left spiral drills, mole grips and extraction set not looking forward to a late night; but

One of many loading sessions involving numerous winched loads up to the onshore 5m deck level. We have lost track of the weight that we have onboarded but there are a few more shipments of this kind to come. So long as a dorade doubles up as a periscope we should be alright.

We have a 450mm trapeze but nowhere to swing to. As the time for last minute tasks begins to expire it’s a question of finding scraps of raw materials to fabricate parts. There was just enough 6mm and 12mm steel bar knocking about on the floor to form the trapeze for the passarelle.         We are part way through making the 25mm steel pin for the transom so we are just missing the bit in the middle, the gangway and wheels.

So we wondered if it were possible, and if it proved to be so, how long it would take a family crew to manage a 60ft yacht and take it from ‘barely coastal’ to circumnavigation readiness? This excludes the many hours of packing up the shore life which eventually became a seriously high pressure job which we currently do 5am-ish to 9pm 7 days a week. We have no idea what day it is because it’s always the same; checking through a project deadline and ticking off tasks every three hours or so – and unlike the IT world this

Leaving the sinking ship…..a laboratory experiment on yacht crews We spent a few days at the Hamble School of Yachting to gain the Sea Safety, Sea Survival and First Aid Certificates required by the ARC. In the pictures we are learning to abandon ship, deploy a liferaft, minimise cold shock, manage a casualty, righting, boarding and maintaining a liferaft, and to put the human body into shutdown for longer term survival. Sea Survival, taught by ex-military specialist John, was excellent. All crew attended and the teenagers found it to be a brilliant and rewarding experience. Admittedly they no longer want

The Ship’s Cat is not going sailing with us and is moving out having packed his belongings. Crew morale will plummet without the ship’s cat chattering away throughout the day. How many other ‘hobbies’ require the total sheding, or shredding, of one’s daily existence. That’s the jobs gone, cars gone, house gone and now the Cat – there is no going back and the months ‘to go’ have slipped rapidly through weeks and now to hours as time becomes ever more compressed!