.That's what I call a Christmas stocking

Look what Santa brought!

Some books here to get into

The weather in Holyhead

Well, hurricane Ophelia passed through yesterday - it was a tense time for all of us, and perhaps especially for those who couldn't be nearby, not that we could have done anything for the boats on the moorings if we had been.

Overnight the wind speeds were apparently recorded upto 76 knots.

Friend and sometime crew Michael visited the harbour this (Tuesday) morning, luckily he was able to catch a lift on the launch and make good the only problem on our boat, which was the mizzen halyard which had blown loose. When we talked he told me could see 7 headsails plucked out of their roller reefers and blown out. I'm sorry for the damage and the distress caused to other boat owners.

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Over ten years ago, when I bought my first boat, I asked Jon Crisp, my erstwhile sailing mentor, to look over her. As he left, he said one last thing, "...put a sail tie around the roller reefer, you never know when the wind will pluck it out whilst you're away and things will be bad." I wish I remember as well everything else he'd said and we'd learned, but mostly that he was still with us, to have the opportunity to retail our own tales of sailing and the sea...

New log book on the way:

So - we used up all the store bought log book, so I made us a new one. You can have a look at it here:

http://www.blurb.co.uk/books/8120511-sailing-yacht-annabella-log-book

They are exceptional value if you happen to have a sailing yacht called Annabella - or if you just want to follow our adventures!

Sun versus the bilge pump

The sun has come out and three of the four jobs have been done - replacing the bilge pump.

Now where's the nail brush?

...at last, the new cockpit table

Now, where's the ice and the lemon...

...now with AIS on the deck plotter.

One night last year, on first watch on a murky night, it struck me how much more comfortable it would be to have AIS targets showing on our Garmin deck plotter - rather than just via the remote mic display from our Standard Horizon fixed VHF set.

Garmin deck plotter + Standard Horizon remote microphone for AIS fixed VHF set

Well, of course we could.
 It just took a lot of motivation, a bit of spare time and the helpful reference of Carolyn Sherlock's "Boat Galley" blog, which had helpfully worked out which wire to connect to which and what settings to make..

Overall - took about 30 minutes, and worked 1st time! :-)

Just to confirm "St Davids" is not dangerous - it was just within 1nm of us. I have made a mental note to turn to AIS CPA alarm off in the harbour and on again at sea - maybe a note in the log...

Really pleased and, of course, thanks to CS and the Boat Galley blog.

Success with bread !

Following on from the mixed success on our recent passage from the Isles of Scilly, I think we have fnally cracked the beer bread recipe and produced a loaf not only worth eating, but actually quite nice!

Instructions are:
Preheat oven - our's is a "Nelson" which was set to mid heat which is  6 on the dial, but I don't  know if this relates to gas mark at all. Move shelf to lowest position.
Oil a small bread tin and prepare a small piece of cooking foil.
Mix 1+1/2 mugs of self raising flour with 1 desert spoon sugar and 1/2 spoon of salt in a jug or bowl.
Add a "stubby" (small bottle) of cheap lager and mix thoroughly then pour into tin.
Put tin into warmed over, when it starts ot rise cover with the foil.
We cooked it for 90 minutes then tuned of the over, tipped it out of the tin and put in for another 45 minutes
Timing is the key thing and this works for us but is the subject of experiment.
Cut and guzle with butter and jam, whilst still warm !

10 and 11 July - Postscriptum

After most of the crew took to the road, other Dave helped me take the boat back to her mooring.
We hailed the club launch on VHF channel 37, and they took other Dave off - now he was going his way too.
Katie, the launch driver asked me if I was coming ashore, I said, "No, not quite yet, I'm going to tidy up and straighten out a few things. I'll see you in the bar later."
Well, mid-morning on next day I was woken by someone gently tapping on the portlight with a boat hook. Katie again, " You weren't in the bar last night and thought we'd better check on you..." I'd slept the clock round, but felt happy and secure that the launch crew had been watching over me after all.

There is a a tremendous feeling of satisfaction in skippering a successful passage, even if it is only
600nm. Annabella may not be a big boat, but she went there and came back in the same number of pieces with which she set out and a happy crew.
**
Whose coming next, wherever we're going ?

Sailing is replete with metaphors, but this one will remain with me for a long time. As we came on to the north-south pontoon a seal (small dark spot - middle of the picture) appeared and cruised round, taking an inquisitive interest in everything. I asked someone if they came up to the marina a lot, "...never seen it before." they replied.

10 July - Landfall

Hoorah ! We're back in our home port, 

The boats cam back ok and so did the crew - they're safe and sound and still talking to each other !

What a crew and what a passage !
**
Wihtin a few minutes of this photo we all go went our separate ways,
By night fall were hundreds of miles apart.
Will we meet again ? Watch out for part 2 ?

day 9 - On passage

We were coming up to within on day's passage from  our home port, in calm / flat conditions we passed northwards to the west of Bardsey at a slow pace. In the early hours a light wind came up which helped us ghost along.
As the sun came up the sense of anticipation grew, and drew the cruise to a conclusion by steaming straight through the overfalls and pas the break water.

Day 8 - On passage again

After two great days in St Mary's and a farewell trip to the fuel berth, we're back to sea, heading north. The weather continues to be fair, the sea flat and the winds light - so there is lost of motoring.  

We were quickly rejoined by the dolphins, who seem to come with us everywhere !

Day 6 - Isles of Scilly

Even on a school day, moorings are in short supply at St Marys, and we probably got the last one free when we arrived just after 060 BST - even if it was for "a larger" boat. About half an hour later, a "larger" boat did turn up, on passage from France. They did a loop rather dejectedly and then we invited them to raft on to our mooring, Very competant sailors but rather less talkative than most of French yachtsmen that we have encountered previously.

More morrings.

The only really bad thnig that went wrong was not bringing an outboard for the tender, so having to rely largely on the launch service to and from the quayside was a bit of a constraint.
*
Ashore, St Mary's is lovely, the weather is always fantastic, the locals friendly and all gods and services easily affordable.
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There is fuel on the quayside, a small supermarket and laundret withn walking distance and a good chandley not far away - although sadly short of rib tickling anecdotes about Port Elizabeth yacht club,
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Rat Island sail loft  is hidden round the back of the quayside. Like all properly run sail lofts it is a temple to sailing and the sailmakers are the high priests. I can't say enough in praise of their helpfulness. No really, proper.

Rat Island sail loft - a temple to sail making

An offshot from the sail loft - as though they needed one -  is Ratty's canvas shop, just off the main street in St Mary's. We bought a sailing / duffle bag of the shelf in blue and yellow but coudl have had more of less any size, configuration and colour if we had time to wait for a few hours. Great value for handmade goods made in the UK, and definately to be recommended.

Ratty's - go there and buy cnavas work!

Day 5 - Land fall - St Mary'

Appraach from the east and south - honestly don't use this for navigation !

Ask anyone who knows, the key to making a successful land fall at the Scillies is the weather.
Moving in our last waypoint the winds were quite light and there was no siginifcant fetch. but we took the easterly approach as the piltotage looked more straight forward.
As we made the penltimate turn toward the north west, as the sky turned from red to blue, we were following at least two other yachts, running straight down the leading lines.

Moorings in St Marys

There are two types of visitor mooring in St Marys - onc colour for less than 40' and another colour for more than 40'. In the end -  and also fairly close to the beginning - we took a 40' mooring, to which in short order we rafted another boat onto, of the proper size from Deauville.
*
Watch out for the harbour boatmen at St Marys - although they didn't mind charging us the full rate for a 40' mooring, when we moved on to a "smaller mooring" the next day there was palpable reluctance to provide a refund. Also no mention of a discount for the Cruising Association, even though we were flying their burgee and (defaced) ensign, which they one might thnk they klnew entitiled us, but we didn't.

Day 4 - Milford Haven up to North Scillies

We turned more or less dead south, heading across the Bristol Channel.

Although the weather remained fair and the winds light, the view of the sky remained hazy, depriving us of one of the great pleasures of passage making  - the great arc of the night sky.

Day 3 - St David's to Milford Haven

Day 3 St David's Head to Milford Haven 

Having passed St David's head in the night passage, we still had a long way to go to the Scillies and we were concerned about the amount of fuel we had left. What could be more natural than to steam up Milford Haven to get some more ?
On paper it looked very tricky, but in practice was much more straight forward than it looked. We were lucky to find the lock open and an easy berth awaiting us.
Equally, Windjammer Marina is the kind of old fashioned yacht chandlers that should by rights no longer exist, by which I mean nice people who know what they're talking about being helpful and selling useful stuff for reasonable prices. To say nothing of the  hilarious anecdote concerning over indulgence at Port Elizabeth Yacht Club !

Full of water, diesel, gas and fish and chips, we passed through the locks again - old hands by this time, and back out, down river to sea - leaving behind us an island of helpful cheery people in an ocean of otherness.

The skipper - still laughing about Port Elizabeth  yacht club.

The lock gates start to open

...and through we go

Day 2 - Porth Dinllaen to St David's Head

By the next morning, of course, the wind had dropped and the sun was in the sky. It was a bit sad to leave Porthdinllaen without exploring it any further, or at least visitng the excellent Ty Coch pub,  but we had miles to make, so bent our course southwards sailing and motoring across the wine dark sea.

Porthdinllaen - viewed  from our visitor' mooring, the next morning

Bardsey Island is a prominent land mark - a full stop at the end of the Lleyn peninsula - and was in our view from mid-morning until late afternoon. For so long, in fact, we thought we'd never leave it...

Bardsey Island - stayed with us for a long time.

About half way across the bay, we were joined by a school of dolphins. Over the coming days dolphins came and went but were some with us more or less all the way.

(02 July)- Day 1 - On passage and off passage

That's us ready to go and flying our new blue ensign from the Cruising Association!

The weather was perfect to set off, with a westerly  F3 and little sea state. Unfortunately, by the afternoon the wind had grown and backed to a F4 right from the south. By early evening found our selves reaching too and fro but struggling to make any headway south, as the wind built towards the top of F5. It looked like being a bumpy night at sea, but luckily we were about 3 hours from the shelter of the north side of the Llyen. By last light, which was 2200 ish,  we had picked up a buoy in Porthdinllaen, had hot dinner on, a bottle open and were relaxing in the welcome shelter of the little harbour. Many thanks to the harbour master for answering the phone mid-evening and offering us free use of any vacant mooring. It would have been nice to row ashore to the excelletn Ty Coch, but we were all too tired.

Progress Day One - HH to a welcome vistors mooring in Porthdinllaen

01 July - Last chance for preparations !

The time for planning and procrastination is over and the time for action is near. It's too late now to change of minds of heart, put things off or find excuses.

Our passage plan - don't use this
for navigation, do your own !

 The skies are cloudless, the winds are light and the weather looks perfect.There are a few small jobs still to be done, gear to be stowed but the crew are heading this way. Gosh this is exciting!

Annabella - straining for the off 

Visit Dun Laoghaire now !

A great visit to Dun Laoghaire over the weekend, and a warm welcome from the National Sailing Club, who hosted the club cruise from Holyhead. Thanks to SY Jibbity for inviting us to raft on.

Dun Laoghiare is a direct passage from Holyhead, has full access and is well protected.

We skipped the full session with live music - as we had to be up and around on the Sunday, but had a great meal and a couple of pints at The Lighthouse.

We'll be coming back here !

Dolphin encounter in the Irish Sea

28 May17. Fantastic encounter with a pod of around 10 - 12 dolphins literally in the midlle of the Irish Sea.

They stayed with us for about 5 to 10 minutes and gave us a spectacular display, swimming through the bow wave, diving under the boat and jumping clear of the water,often two or three abreast.
Fantastic - thankyou dolphins !

Hoorah!

...the lid of the ice box is fixed !

The Kit Bag Scene

The Sail Making Box

We've had the sail making box to carry out some minor repairs.

Just replacing some press studs on the halyard bags..

We've been on a journey

Twilight in Pwllheli

The marina descends in to darkness...

.. and our berth is cloaked in night.

Life raft !

Ladies and gentlemen, bravo to "Waypoint" who just returned our life raft after a three year service, all done and returned in a little over a week. For those of you who are interested, a key part of the service is to replace the items which go out of date - such as the pyrotechnics.
The internal light was replaced as part of the service, as it was going out of date. One rarely gets the opportunity to see this type of thing outside of a crises situation, so perhaps never. and is shown below for information:

We did extensive research before choosing the Waypoint raft, and in the end the choice was based on the the combination of confidence in the design, confidence in manufacturing quality control and someone working the boat show stand who new the detial of the product quite thoroughly, but it's by no means the cheapest. That's obviously not to say that other liferafts are not any good, but that this is the one we chose to bet on, if we had to in a crises. I've become accsutomed to breathing air not water, how about you ?

The sea-cocks shot

Every year, before she goes back in the water, the seacocks are inspected and serviced - usually just by re-greasing the cones and tightening to suit. The last day or so before re-launching are alway a bit frenetic, so to re-assure myself that the jobs has been done - and that all the valves are back together and closed (as they should be when not in use and on the water) I take photos of each one.

Some our sea-cocks

Metal seacocks can suffer from dezincification, when the zine in brass is lost to electrolytic action in the same way as a sacrifical anode, which makes material brittle. Its good practice to check every year for the distinctive pink colour which indicates this process and replace if it is eveident.

Spring in the air

Its dark outside, is cold and has been overcast and showerign all day, but in the distance the oystercatchers are calling to each other again. It spring and a new season is about to start...

Sad news

It was saddening today to learn, rather belatedly, of the passing of Ron Robinson a few months ago.
He had carried out work for me in repairing a good quality Kelvin Hughes sextant which had been vandalised by a postal courier and I later had no hesitation in asking for his assistance in getting the Sestral steering compass on Annabella back to working order. It is still the best compass on board.
I found him not to be an easy man to get to know although we only had brief dealings, but I think once he was confident that one wasn't a complete waste of time, he softened almost imperceptably
and there was trace of a sense of dry humour. Perhaps it was just me.

Another sextant by the way

"Robinson" was able to draw upon a wealth of expereince and knowledge in a field which is becoming incresingly arcane, and I really now do not know upon whom to call.
Life was much richer for knowing him, even briefly.