Enjoyable weekend and still too much to do

We had a very enjoyable weekend though there is still loads to do. Briefly, there are still too many loose ends to tie up at work but we'll struggle through the next seventeen days.

We should really have been slaving over an ice box or some other such thing but decided to do a bit of a cruise to Fowey. We also wanted to give Audrey a chance to try some night sailing and the tides favoured a late departure so we left Plymouth at 14:30. The sailing was a bit frustrating as the wind was in the NW to W. The further off shore you went the more the wind headed you but then it continued to head you as you got closer inshore. We did our best and even got two thirds of the way across Whitsand Bay before the wind petered out. We enjoyed watching the Aries or "our friend" do the work. We still need to do some work on the Aries. I suspect that the issue is to lubricate the bearings a bit more as things feel a bit stiff but we shall see.

It did get dark before we arrived and rafted up next to the Plymouth Sailing School charter boat. A good sleep later and we headed back. The wind was behind us but very light. For a while, we were down to less than one knot but it was in the right direction. We experimented with the cruising chute but the rope on the snuffer came off and the snuffer got stuck half way up so I stuffed it down the fore hatch. Next we poled out the jib and that worked a treat. We should really have tried wing and wing being mostly dead down wind but it was easy.

The Aries was struggling so we did the hand steering - we do need to look at the lubrication but we still really enjoyed the sail and the weekend in general was also good.

Now just to get the holding tank fitted, finish the icebox and get the lazyjacks made up and fitted. Just two weekends to achieve that. Oh yes, we also have to buy a life raft as there is no point in getting the old one I bought on eBay serviced given that it would then cost as much as a new one.

The holding tank has been particularly frustrating but we now have a temporary solution where we will make up a cover to put over the end settee bit to accommodate it. No one can sit there because of the Bengco charcoal heater. And so it goes on.

Got a Piece of Paper

Well, I am now in posession of a thing called an ICC or International Certificate of Competence which tells those who might be interested that I am basically to be trusted to command 5 tons or so of mixed plastic, aluminium, steel and wood plus whatever else goes into making a boat.

We had a very productive day with Carl from Plymouth Sailing School. Some of it seemed a bit daunting as he was obviously looking for me to prove that I hadn't come to the boat the day before though he definitely seemed to approve of Rivals. I on the other hand had a considerable amount of nerves and could hardly manage any breakfast.

The weather was really rather grim with a steady force 5 to 6 and a bit of seven occasionally, we didn't envy the cruiser race out to the Eddystone at all. There was also a bit of palaver around the entrance to Cattewater with inshore powerboat racing taking place.

Still, we beat over to Cawsand after I learnt a wonderful way of picking up a mooring by lassoing it. I had read about this before but never put it into practise but it is certainly a whole lot easier than coming alonside to windward and trying to thread the rope through from there. I also, on the advice of the RYA guide to the ICC put the third reef in our main for the first time which made for a very comfortable time and hardly any loss in speed though I suspect that we would have been a bit underpowered in any sort of sea. We will however be less shy about dropping it in.

Anyway, it is good to have a piece of paper which I can wave at Spanish and Portuguese authorities.

We spent the night anchored at Dandy Hole and celebrated with a bottle of fizzy wine while the wind continued to howl over head.

Sunday we tried to look at installing the holding tank only to find that the measurements for the height of the beast didn't include the pipes at the top so it won't fit. It is back to square one on that which is more than a bit frustrating.

No photos so I am including one here of the view from Trelissick House down the Carrick Roads with Sarah G anchored off. This was over the Easter weekend.


Finally, we would thoroughly recommend using Plymouth Sailing School should you need any tuition.

Click here For the website.

Got a Test Date for the ICC

This is a bit scary. It turns out that you really need to have some sort of piece of paper to go sailing in European waters - outside the UK anyway so I have had to sign up for the ICC exam. Plymouth Sailing School are doing the honours (for a fee of course).

We will be going round to Plymouth Yacht Haven at 0900 and having what looks to be a blustery day out in the Sound while I demonstrate that I have what it takes to command a sailing boat in coastal waters.

It will also of course be a day wearing a lifejacket which I normally only do in very rough weather and when doing foredeck work in said rough weather.

Lots of stuff done, lots more stuff to do, getting closer

Not much activity here but a lot of activity in the real world. As I write we are 31 days and about 20 hours off finishing work and pushing off on the big adventure. Though whether it is a springboard to further adventure is still to decide.

The season has not included much sailing to date. We had a very nice easter weekend in Falmouth and by design left her for the three days between Easter Monday and a blonde lad tying the know with a pretty brunette for millions to watch. Then the Easterlies kicked in and we spend an unwelcome week berted on a one of Falmouth Harbour Commissions green mooring bouys as well as chafing through our lovely new mooring warp.

While there the Matthew was doing a lot of tooing and froing.

My Mother turned 70 that on the Sunday so she came down and stayed in a hotel while Matthew joined us aboard Sarah G for a very nice family weekend and a good meal in a fish restaurant.


We did finally get her back to Torpoint in a strong south westerly which managed to gust to a good force 7 off Fowey but we enjoyed it the wind being on the beam rather than ahead. It is always nice to have a good touch sea boat though we felt a bit silly hand steering while the Aries wasn't ready for use on the stern.

The next weekend we were down we concentrated on getting Mars as we have christened the Aries working. After lots of three in one oil and then some fancy silicone stuff from the chandler it seems to be doing it's thing.

We are happy that the crew situation for the cruise is now resolved and I am looking foward to getting from Faro to La Linea with Andy and Katrine. They had a very good weekend visit to Salcombe though we were plagued by light winds.

Now, we are concentrating on getting the administration done and the still myriad list of things to fix. Most frustratingly, the windlass packed up. I should have been able to fix it but the bolts and screws holding it shut were all seized solid. Ebay came to the rescue and we now have a shiny second hand Lofrans Royal bolted to the foredeck. At least fitting it was easy enough though I had to block two of the old holes with epoxy and drill new ones. Lots of Sikaflex should ensure no leaks. We also patinted the saloon deck head which we had stripped the vinyl off to see about removing the panels so as to fit the liferaft chocks only to find that is not really going to happen and we will have to drill large holes to get at the bolts from below. That might sound silly but the process seemed sensible at the time!

At home, I have 10 meters of canvas and am trying to work out how to turn it into an awning.

At work, I am manically trying to get everything ready for me to go while booking flights for Audrey and myself. She is going to La Coruna with Iberia and coming back from Faro with Monarch while I am going with stodgy (?!) British Airways from Gibraltar.

In other areas: Our insurers failed to play ball so I have got a quote from Pantaenius which is the same price as the previous one but with none of the onerous restrictions. I am also booked to do an ICC this weekend while Audrey is to send off for one based on her Day Skipper qualification.

Oh and we are spending a fortune on lots of charts!

Aries fitted at last

One of the things I have done to get ready for our planned August departure date is to put a year planner on the wall with planned dates for completion of various bits of work. The Aries was supposed to have been fitted by a weekend in February.

Well, as you can see from the picture below, it has finally been done - at the end of March.


It has truly been one of the more frustrating things I have ever had to do on Sarah G. Every step of the way seemed to be dogged with problems. First, we lost the two horizontal aluminium tubes that are used to clamp the whole assembly across the aft deck. I had to buy a set of clamps off Helen Franklin-Bell as well which I achieved last November. Then, after a lot of exploration we found some predrilled holes in the after end of the lazarette but the new teak toerail covered up where they emerged on top.

Each step seemed to include the purchase of more expensive tools and also a lot of bending over the stern at awkward angles and lots of backache.

The highlight of the purchases were a set of extra long wood drills thanks to Amazon Marketplace.

I used the smallest of the drills to push up from below and all of them seemed to come up in sensible places except the last - the outside starboard one which seemed to be in an odd place. Last weekend proved that it was in completely the wrong place but the one thing I had forgotten to bring with me as the long drill set which put the kibosh on finishing that bit of work for yet another weekend.

We were supposed to be in Liverpool for my friend's wedding but could not make it as an upgrade to a critical system has to happen for work so I took the opportunity to rush down and try to finish things from last weekend.

The most trying bit of work was still to come though. I had managed to get one of the clamps on the cockpit coaming bolted in place but the other had proved too tight to get the bolt with penny washer up from the inside of the cockpit locker.

Describing this is very difficult. There is a bulkhead that separates the lazarette from the aft cockpit locker and it rises up into the cockpit coaming. As the outside of the coaming slopes inward the internal space becomes very small. Now, given that no boat is entirely symmetrical, the port side left just enough room for an 8mm bolt with penny washer to slide up, the starboard side was another matter entirely. This is compounded by the fact that there has been a sort of shelf moulded into the inner aft side of the coaming to catch any bolts that a careless owner might drop rather then let them fall into the locker where they can be easily retrieved!

The eventual technique I used was to use seizing wire fed down from above and wound round the bold about a third of the way down the thread. I then pulled it up and using the long groove (I now understand why the previous owner did this!) along with a pair of needle nose plier to work the penny washer over the end of the bolt without dropping either the bolt or the washer. Needless to say, I left a couple of spare bolts on that shelf.

Eventually, I worked out how to use our little tool for retrieving junk from the bilges to recover the bolts from this ever so useful shelf.

There came a final point where I had both bolts up and started to feed the clamps onto them. This showed up my next problem. I had been forced to leave some of the windings of seizing wire on the bolts which acted as an unofficial lock washer. The lock washer bit was a good thing, extra milimeter or so of bolt was not and I barely had enough length to get up through the top part of the clamp to do up. You can guess that I kept dropping them back in accompanied by much shouting and swearing.

Next, I worked the horizontal tubes in, moved the boat back on the pontoon, undid the main halyard and tied the vane to it as I had visions of hiring a diver to recover the thing from the seabed. Of course, the tubes were not in the right place and I was left with more swearing and a vision of having to drill even more holes in my boat.

After a coffee and a look at the situation, it occurred to me that the tubes were splayed out slightly and that they were really too long as well. I pushed them in a bit after some nervewracking loosening of bolts and things improved. Then I thought I could bodge it anyway but removing the outer clamp on one side and repositioning it to what seemed to look right. The starboard clamp did look different relative to the port one and with a bit of jiggling and banging it did work in the end and the holes even worked properly though the whole structure is under considerable tension. We now have a big piece of combined cast and extruded aluminium hanging off our stern and we look like a pukka blue water cruiser.




The next stage is to work out how to use the thing!

Things have been happening

The last week or two have been quite fraught really. On the positive side, we have located the holes in the toerail across the transom to fit the Aries. Then, after removing the strip of teak across the aft end of the cockpit coamings we also found the holes for the rest of the vane gear so we should be able to proceed with that once we have some blocks of wood to build up the mountings on the toerail and we will finally have a wind vane.

I have also removed two of the hatches and after buying a load of plywood from Robbins Timber in Bristol will be replacing the rotten plywood in them.

I would show photos but forgot to take the camera down last weekend.

On the other hand, we have had a bit of a blow to our plans since Audrey's employers have backtracked on offering her two months off work. Most likely option is that we will still aim to get the boat to Gibraltar/La Linea but she will only be on board for a month while we cruise Galicia and down to Lisboa. I will then seek out other crew for the rest of the trip round to Gibraltar. This was all very tedious but is just one of those things you have to deal with.

We aren't going down this weekend but I will fill up with photos the following weekend for everyone's interest and enjoyment.

No visits but we have been getting bits and pieces

Owing to family and work comittments - my nephew's wedding last weekend and a system upgrade to support this coming weekend, poor old Sarah G must be feeling a bit neglected though we have been getting useful little bits and pieces.

Crucially, I found some out of date charts at bargain prices on Ebay. They will obviously have to be used with some caution as they are around six years old but I don't think that continental drift is going to make them too wildly out of date for planning and offshore purposes. I had thought that they were being sold off by someone who had done cruising Iberia but it turns out it was for a chart agent who sells all sorts of charts in four different categories. First are the cancelled ones at less than £4 each, then the out of date ones uncorrected, next are corrected ones and finally there are new ones at the usual list price of £21.50 for an admiralty chart. With judicious use of new ones where detail is essential and older ones where that is less important we should be able to save a useful sum of money. The ones we got from Ebay are: Cabo Finisterre to the Spanish border and The Straits of Gibraltar.

The wedding was a very enjoyable experience and it all went well. We both of course wish Francis and Mumtaz all the best and that sort of thing and the photos will be available asap I hope.