Saturday, 1 July 2017

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 






































Monday, 29 May 2017

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 !

Sunday, 30 April 2017

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..

Sunday, 23 April 2017

Twilight in Pwllheli

The marina descends in to darkness...



















.. and our berth is cloaked in night.

Monday, 10 April 2017

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 For those of you who are interested, a key part of the service is to replace the items which go out of date - such as the pyrotechnics.
The internal light was replaced as part of the service, as it was going out of date.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 ?

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.


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.