So here we go - six weeks to go and time is ticking away. We're still in the water as the yard has delayed us by a week, but the to-do is shrinking and we're still on track to leave on the 19th.

The weather wasn't looking amazing for the first part of the weekennd so I headed over to a friend's house and grabbed our spare sails. Their house has some size to it so I figured whilst we were stuck indoors, we might as well see what was in the bags.

It looks like our spare main is relatively new so I'm going to test fit it when we go back in the water and it might become our primary.

After that, I headed back to the boat and got on with painting. And more painting. And, you guessed it, more painting. It's 99% done now and just needs the final few spots touched up when we haul out.

Grant got cracking and trimmed up the swim platform to make it a bit less prone to getting smashed by any following seas.

Last up, we removed the booms and tidied the lines in preparation for the masts being dropped next week.

So that's it for the moment. We're hauling out in 4 days time, spending the weekend in the slings where I'll get all the bottom jobs done (anodes, rope cutters, watermaker thru hull fitted, tape up and paint the boot stripe, then drop out that oh-so-annoying sticky rudder bearing) then we're dropping the rig at the start of next week.

Anyways, this time in six weeks we'll be motoring out of this marina and heading west. Almost there...

Continue reading

Weekend #1 of our final period of work came and went in a bit of a soggy flash. Lauren made a huge dent in sorting through our food stores and we did another big shop of cans, pasta and rice to begin building our long term stores. Grant's also been making great progress fitting the final bits of wood trim so that left me to get the fore deck and wheelhouse painted.

This is England though, and I should have known better. All was going well to start with and I managed to get all the taping done and the first coat of paint down.

The weather was even playing ball and we had an amazing corona rainbow show itself early on the Saturday morning.

Then the rain and wind hit. 40kts and driving drizzle meant all work outside effectively stopped. I still managed to fit some protectors to the stainless angle I've used for the kayak supports and also get some cleats fitted to the swim platform, but the remainder of the weekend was spent indoors, looking for jobs to do. Honestly, I hate this weather.

Still, anything is better than being back at our old rubbish boat yard and at least we don't dry out here. 

This coming weekend is 5 days long thanks to Easter, so the plan is to get the last of the painting done (deck and handrails), prep the rig for being lowered next week, paint the bilges and get all the 6mm shrouds made up (the 8mm shrouds will get done once the rig is lowered). We're still set to haul out on the 10th April as well so everything is still on track - it'd just be great if the weather played ball and allowed us to finish the work off.

49 days to go....

Continue reading

So... this past weekend we moved from the hell hole of a yard we've been stuck in for the past 4.5 years (see muddy low water photos below), to a new, clean, sparkling, nice place to do our last 2 months worth of work. This is how the old marina looked at low tide....

And this is the long pontoon I've walked down just about every weekend for 3 years.... I can't tell you how big the grin on my face was the last time I walked down this.

I had a few bits and pieces to do on the Friday before we dropped off the car at the new marina, took a cab back to the current yard, packed everything aboard then set off.

The plan was to head over to Cowes for a night but with the wind perking up a bit, a whole lot of stuff on deck and a US Navy aircraft carrier due in the Solent on the Sunday (and all the exclusion zones, etc etc), we motored up to the waiting pontoon in the middle of the Channel to sit tight for the remainder of the day.

Sunday morning dawned and it was time to move into our new marina. I'm pleased to report our solar panels and wind gen did just fine keeping pace with our power usage as well....

Anyway, after a relatively quick motor and holding our breaths over the entrance sill, we got in around lunchtime, tied up, and put the kettle on.

Oh, and I saw this on the way back. It's a DB5 with "Bond J" as plates. Awesome.

So that's it for this week. I have a mate working on the boat for three weeks and I'll be down on the weekends to get the painting done, etc then it'll be time for the final haul out and finish. Still looking good for May 19....

Continue reading

Holy sh*t - two months to go today. Can you believe it? I sure can't. I've had a countdown going on our white board at the flat since it was 90-odd weeks to go, and now we're just 2 months away from departure.

This is the big weekend coming up - our move weekend. I have a mate coming up from Cornwall to help this weekend (and also to get some work done on the boat over the coming month) so we're hoping for a run to Cowes on Saturday, fuel up, then back to Chichester Harbour for a night on the hook, before motoring in to the new marina at lunchtime on Monday.

The new marina have also said they might not be able to haul us out straight away, so I've re-jigged our final "to-do" lists so we're still on track for a May 19 departure. For those interested, here's what's left to do:

- Paint deck, wheelhouse, railings and bootstripe
- 4 coats of anti-foul
- Re-do the standing rigging and fit mast steps
- Move the wheelhouse helm (steering) to the aft deck and sort out the stiff rudder
- Fit rope cutters, new anodes,
- Fix the anchor and steaming lights
- Fit 6 new house batteries
- Have a big ol' clean out and clean up of everything

It seems like a big list, but it's really not. A lot of the jobs are quite easy and I think it's an indication of the amount of work we've done so far, that the above list seems like nothing.

Anyway, the clock is now really starting to tick. Update to follow.

n

Continue reading