Just days away now!
Showing posts with label Renown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Renown. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 April 2018
Monday, 16 April 2018
Fancy sailing on Annabella ?
Following on from the success of our passage from Holyhead to the Scillies in 2017, this year were planning another cruise between 25 June and 06 July this year.
This will be a slightly different format, as we hope to do it in 3 x day passages, the first of which will be from Holyhead to the Isle of Man, the second around Man, and the third will take us up to the south of the Solway firth, where we will rendezvous with some entertaining friends. (Then obviously coming back)
We are planning around one week to suit the weather and tides, and can overnight, crack on or linger at any point. There is the option of diverting to Ireland or around North Wales if we have spare time and the inclination.
We are looking for two experienced sailors to make up our crew to four,
Food on board, fuel, mooring dues etc are all included - although it would be ungracious to spurn any unsolicited contributions. If required, we can collect from Manchester airport , or you could fly to Dublin and get the ferry to Holyhead !
***
We're sailing for good company, good food, a bit of adventure and some fun. You would be expected to supply a sense of humour in working order, acquiescence to modern jazz and a basic knowledge of the theory of gas kettles. Message us here.
This will be a slightly different format, as we hope to do it in 3 x day passages, the first of which will be from Holyhead to the Isle of Man, the second around Man, and the third will take us up to the south of the Solway firth, where we will rendezvous with some entertaining friends. (Then obviously coming back)
We are looking for two experienced sailors to make up our crew to four,
Food on board, fuel, mooring dues etc are all included - although it would be ungracious to spurn any unsolicited contributions. If required, we can collect from Manchester airport , or you could fly to Dublin and get the ferry to Holyhead !
***
We're sailing for good company, good food, a bit of adventure and some fun. You would be expected to supply a sense of humour in working order, acquiescence to modern jazz and a basic knowledge of the theory of gas kettles. Message us here.
Saturday, 24 February 2018
Is that spring coming ? Its time to check the lifejackets
Is that spring in the air ?
Well, the days are getting longer even if the weather isn't any warmer.
This time of year - every year - we do an inflation test on the lifejackets to make sure they're in good order.
So every year - about this time - we inflate the bladders, and leave them overnight, just to check no holes or weakness or leaks, and the good news is - they're all still at full pressure after 48 hours.
Wait till you see what surprise we had though ! See the next post!
Well, the days are getting longer even if the weather isn't any warmer.
This time of year - every year - we do an inflation test on the lifejackets to make sure they're in good order.
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| A pile of four inflated life jackets |
Wait till you see what surprise we had though ! See the next post!
Thursday, 15 February 2018
What to do on long winter evenings #7
Well, the workshop could be tidied up abit!
Well, I've been quite busy.
Well, I've been quite busy.
Wednesday, 7 February 2018
What to do on long winter evenings #3
Well I'm stuck well inland and the weather is miserable.
I've been walking about town for the last few days, which is cold and hard under foot, but my mood has been lifted by listening to Carolyn Sherlock's super pod cast from her blog at https://theboatgalley.com/ .
You may remember that she had previously helped (via the medium of her blog) sort out linking the AIS output from our Standard Horizon Gx2200e to our Garmin chart plotter at the binnacle, for which I hold her in high regard, so I highly recommend it. If nothing else, a catchy theme tune and the reminder of summer days with warm zephyrs wafting us along...
I've been walking about town for the last few days, which is cold and hard under foot, but my mood has been lifted by listening to Carolyn Sherlock's super pod cast from her blog at https://theboatgalley.com/ .
You may remember that she had previously helped (via the medium of her blog) sort out linking the AIS output from our Standard Horizon Gx2200e to our Garmin chart plotter at the binnacle, for which I hold her in high regard, so I highly recommend it. If nothing else, a catchy theme tune and the reminder of summer days with warm zephyrs wafting us along...
Sunday, 28 January 2018
What to do on long winter evenings #2.
Well you could add a new dish to your boat cook book, such as this lovely Tart Tatin.
Best done in temperate latitudes though, too far south and the butter will melt...
Out of the oven, and then
...turned out, ready to eat. Yum!
Out of the oven, and then
...turned out, ready to eat. Yum!
De-gloving Incident !
I heard alarming news when I ran into one of my sailing buddies the other day!
Their partner had had a nasty de-gloving accident on their boat at the end of last season, when load suddenly came onto a rope wound around their hand. A painful accident that resulted in a lot of subsequent medical treatment, not a small amount of which was surgical.
Unfortunate and distressing - I don't know the details, but in any case would be hard to be judgemental, but two things jump out :
Firstly - wear gloves at any opportunity, but absolutely always when dealing with mooring or anchoring. We try to do this on Annabella, but it's always when the action starts to hot up that one is tempted to take short cut and give the gloves a miss. We have tried to overcome this by having a lot of rigger style work gloves in the cockpit pockets and lockers. At less than £2 each its not expensive. So far so good.
What if we had that accident at sea ? If there was any luck in the original incident it was that it happened on the pontoon, so medical attention was very prompt.However, you wouldn't have to be very far out to sea for attention to be two, three or four hours away. And off shore !
We will find out what the first aid would be + update the post as soon as we can !
Their partner had had a nasty de-gloving accident on their boat at the end of last season, when load suddenly came onto a rope wound around their hand. A painful accident that resulted in a lot of subsequent medical treatment, not a small amount of which was surgical.
Unfortunate and distressing - I don't know the details, but in any case would be hard to be judgemental, but two things jump out :
Firstly - wear gloves at any opportunity, but absolutely always when dealing with mooring or anchoring. We try to do this on Annabella, but it's always when the action starts to hot up that one is tempted to take short cut and give the gloves a miss. We have tried to overcome this by having a lot of rigger style work gloves in the cockpit pockets and lockers. At less than £2 each its not expensive. So far so good.
What if we had that accident at sea ? If there was any luck in the original incident it was that it happened on the pontoon, so medical attention was very prompt.However, you wouldn't have to be very far out to sea for attention to be two, three or four hours away. And off shore !
We will find out what the first aid would be + update the post as soon as we can !
Sunday, 14 January 2018
What to do on those long winter evenings...
Can't seem to stop doing boat stuff...
New canvas cover for the wheel
...that should keep the birds off !
Tuesday, 26 December 2017
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
...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.
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.
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| Garmin deck plotter + Standard Horizon remote microphone for AIS fixed VHF set |
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.
Sunday, 16 July 2017
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 !
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 !
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
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 ?
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.
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.
Sunday, 9 July 2017
day 9 - On passage
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.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Monday, 3 April 2017
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.
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.
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| 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.
Monday, 30 January 2017
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.
"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.
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.
Saturday, 28 January 2017
... In the boatyard
It about 1850 and dark outside. The wind has picked up, which is driving the wind generator and charging the batteries, it s a bit noisy but at least I can use the cabin lights without worrying. It's very cold, and I may go bed soon, just to be somewhere warm.
Sunday, 15 January 2017
New year, new season, new plan
With the turn of the year its also time to start planning for the new season.
This season we're hoping our long cruise will be to meet up with one of the first mate's friends who lives in the Scillies. Time to start planning the trip now!
This season we're hoping our long cruise will be to meet up with one of the first mate's friends who lives in the Scillies. Time to start planning the trip now!
Monday, 24 October 2016
End of the season - back on the hard again !
That's it - that's all there is.
We'll be out of the water by the end of the week and up on sticks in the customary place. Many thanks to those who sailed with us - we slipped more than 600 nm under the keel - and those who helped in so many other ways. Here's to the winter work !
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