Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The adventure begins

An inauspicious start, I'm on gatwick. Hopefully I fly out to Las Palmas tomorrow, Spanish general strikes permitting

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Winterising Watanga

The last two week have been filled with getting Watanga ready for winter.

Engine service , water systems emptied,  batteries removed, all soft goods taken off and stored in the dry sails off, rig detuned,  it goes on and on.

On DLA duty today so spent the day in the garden tidying that for the winter.

Saturday, October 06, 2012

Watanga rests up for winter

As seasons go this has been a busy one and an expensive one.   Busy in that I have done some 900 miles of sailing.  Thats probably the most I have done in a season,  A first in that I got to North Brittany,  A first that we managed to have a 2 week holiday with Lou dialysing on board.  I crossed the channel twice in a season.
Now that she's hauled ashore I can concentrate on preparing for my next adventure.  Crossing the Atlantic with Graham and Wendy aboard Oystermist.

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Day After

Went down to have a look at the carnage this morning.  It's a sorry sight to see so much damage and the wreckers were out in force taking their pickings.   Lots of seaweed for the compost heap just waiting to be collected.








Sunday, September 23, 2012

Mexican Night, Sunday Storm

Highlight of the week was the sailing clubs "Mexican night"   A great laugh and lots of embarrassing photo's if I can get hold of some.!

Well the wind has kicked in and the bay is getting chaotic.   By 1300 there's a small motor cruiser washed up on the public slip by the chippy with a nasty hole in the bottom.  The small boat hire vessels are getting a right pounding and the Coastguard are asking for the ILB to launch to help out.  After getting the crew assembled we find that the sea is too big to launch.  It might be attempted if there were lives at risk, but had to call the coastguard back to say it was untenable. Still the Jetskiers and surfers had a good day!





By 1500 there's boats washing up all over the place. It's almost unbelievable that people risk leaving their boats in such conditions.  

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Watanga Move

Spent the morning running Watanga round to Poole Quay.  Despit it being a beautiful day with light winds and sunshine, there some easterly winds punching in tomorrow.  I was going straight to Ridge but they are apparently too busy for me there. I find that a bit surprising but that's what they said.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Removal Men

Today was spent helping Greg move or remove some furniture from his sisters house in Hampstead.  A long day and quite hard work too.



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Arc

The Arc personalised Polo shirts arrived today,  reminds me I've got to get the last fine details sorted out for the trip.


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Lifeboat Naming Ceremony

The Phyl and Jack naming ceremony at the Lifeboat station was helped by fantastic weather.  Couldn't have asked for more.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

House repaint.

After noticing some of the windows on the west side of the house were in need of repair I have spent the best part of 2 weeks repairing and repainting

I think the light green looks quite good.

Saturday, September 08, 2012

First signs of Autumn

Took this first thing this morning. The valley filling up with mist that was gently rolling in off the sea


Saturday, September 01, 2012

Back to Blighty

A grey start to today,  a tad misty and quite light winds.  As we progress the winds get fresher and we have a fine crossing.   We stayed with Sorrento until about halfway across the channel then pushed on after getting through the shipping lanes.  Eventually reaching Swanage about 1.5 hours ahead of them.The sun was shining  and we managed to unload everything on Martin Jones's pontoon with the help of Greg and Martin.

When Adrian and Jane arrived I went back down to the club to give them a lift up the hill.

In an unsettled week we had managed to have a great time away.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Next stop Alderney

It time to head back home, but not wanting to do the whole lot in one day we have decided to pit stop overnight at Braye on Alderney.  So an early start again, and as usual it's wind against.   We head off in light winds but a big spring tide under us.  It a beautiful sunrise and wer're belting along,  As we pass the Brehon Tower as expected it gets very lumpy, fortunately this only lasts about 20 minutes and the rest of the sail is very pleasant.  We get the tides spot on and it turns just as we reach the end of Alderney pushing us neatly into the Harbour.

After a spot of lunch  Adrian, Lou and myself go exploring, while Jayne has a nap(too many early mornings).




Last meal of the holiday is to be at a pub/restuarant, then back for an early night ready for the passage home tomorrow.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Guernsey Tour



We need to take a leaf out of Guernsey's transport system.   Bus ticket £1  however far you go. With a system that cheap I wonder why there are so many cars.  |Anyway  of we toddle on route 7, thats clockwise around the perimeter of the island.   The bus driver's friendly the passengers are friendly,  first  stop The shipwreck museum at Fort Grey near the infamous Hanois reefs.   Fascinating place and surprising to not how many wrecks there were but how recent some of them were.   We spent about an hour looking around before walking along the deserted beach.





Back on Billy Bus,  another £1 to an eatery  for lunch of moules and frites.  

Yet again onto the bus ( another £1 ) back to the marina for tea and planning.  Three bus rides totalling about 15miles cost us £3 each,   we'd barely get to wareham for that!!!
Off to Alderney tomorrow

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wednesday

Bit of a damp squib of a day today.   We had had a bit of a lay in this morning to recuperate from our journeying and after a late breakfast decided to explore the town,  This was Adrian and Jaynes first time in St Peter Port so all was new to them but hey when do girls not need retail therapy?

Just as we set out it started to rain and carried on most of the day..   It  is forecast for sun tomorrow so we planned for an exploration of the island. At least the cormorant doesn't mind the rain.







Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Off to Guernsey

Having studied the weather very carefully it looked as though today would be the only day that would be comfortable to move on from Cherborg.   The destination St Peter Port.   The plan worked ok up to Cap de Haguebut but travelling down the Alderney race with a fresh Souwesterley was always going to be lively.  Well as it turned out it wasn't too bad, a few bumpy bits but in the main a good ride.  However as we had to do tacking we arrived a tad late at the little Russell and had to fight up the last 4 miles against the flooding tide.



The bonus at the end was we could go staight in to the marina.

Monday, August 27, 2012

A day in Cherbourg


A walk round the town then to the carrefore for supplies, and on to the wine warehouse for liquid supplies.  Back to the boat for a bit of a tidy up,  the boat and ourselves then off for a meal in the Cafe Paris.  Tres bien

Sunday, August 26, 2012

We're off to Cherbourg



Early start today as we had to get to Cherbourg and it's about a ten hour crossing. This was the start of a week long holiday travelling in company with Adrian and Jayne travelling on Sorrento and us on Watanga.  The weather looked nice but the wind is a tad on the strong side but was on the beam so the going was fast.  The sun shone for most of the day, and the wind varied in strength from force 4 to 6. 






Sorrento was having trouble keeping up with the Cat but as we were both ahead on time it was no bother for us to hove to a couple of times to ensure we stayed together. There weren't any other yachts about, so it was no trouble identifying each other.








The sea had quite a swell from the high winds the previous day which kept on making Sorrento disappear.  After 8 hours the wind started to calm a little and it was a pleasant run into port.


Cherbourg was surprisingly empty when we got there with plenty of spaces I guess the strong winds on the Saturday had scuppered many peoples weekend plans.  I had heard that PYRA had cancelled their Alderney race.




Saturday, August 18, 2012

Champions again

A fantastic array of rafts this year,  and some great costumes.  The revamped Kontiki was a little more streamlined this year with out trial design outriggers. What part of a raft isn't a trial I ask you?  Anyway after last weeks sinking feeling, literally,  we plugged the holes added more sealant and waterproof tape and managed keep afloat.  In fact very little water got in the raft at all.  The new outriggers performed well kept us upright and and produced very little drag.




  The Race
We were conscious of damaging the rather fragile outriggers so let everyone get in the water in front of us,  then picked our rowing line by going round the outside of everyone.  The lifeboat crew were well out in front having muscled their way to the front on the beach run.  |The lifeboat gave us a good hosing down as we went past but once we had clear water we could just pace ourselves and pull ahead.  We got to the stone pier in pole position and were gone by the time the lifeboat crew had arrived.  by halfway back we eased off and cruised in to take the honours.





Sunday, August 12, 2012

Kontiki sea trials

We have revamped last years RNLI Raft Race winning raft "KONTIKI" with new sponsons.  The sponsons were fine but the boat, despite a new coat of paint leaked like a sieve.   The danger is that the new sponsons having less bouyancy will not aid the the boat in staying afloat.   A lot of water came in last year  so I'm wondering whether they actually stopped us sinking in the end.




Saturday, August 04, 2012

Regatta Weekend

Busy weekend this.   A general lack of organisation has led to a hasty arrangement of Regatta activities.  I suppose this was bound to happen as club life  has been severely disrupted  by  the ongoing refurbishment works. It's a shame that we are not quite finished in time but hey ho that's life.

The sailing went with not too much trouble, weather was a bit exciting on the Saturday and we got involved in a mayday calll as did several boats responeding to a "persons in the water" call from Portland Coastguard. It turned out to be divers in the water and a false alarm.

Sunday was queiter and after racing we had an official opening of the new training room by Rodney Pattisson  just after Ben Ainsley won his 4th Gold Medal.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Thursday Racing

It seemed like it was going to be a dull evenings racing, as I struggled to get away from buckshore.  By the time the race started it was getting quite fiesty.  On an upwind/downwind course it made for some exciting stuff.  It was almost inevitable that a couple of collisions occured.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Moonrise

Still light at 10:30