A Bit of Instructive Fun

One of the mistaken things we bought last year when getting ready for our cruise to Gibraltar was a liferaft which we got on Ebay. It was out of service and it turned out that the price of getting it serviced was going to be the same as a new one after we had paid £200 for it anyway. The odds of being able to resell it were vanishingly small. Freecycle even failed so we decided to see what happens when you pull the cord!

As ever, I think it is an excellent thing to do this in a controlled manner so you know what to expect if you have to do it for real on a dark and stormy night. Not that we want to be in the position of having to abandon ship on a dark and stormy night.

Two things were interesting:
One is the length of the painter/ripcord though I suspcect that this would be less of an issue when afloat.
The other is that it makes quite a lot of sound with a definite bang when the CO2 cylinder goes off. After that it is all over in less than ten seconds!

I have a rather poor quality video and will get that uploaded somewhere soon. These photos show it. I didn't have time to get a picture of it coming out of the canister between dropping the painter and raising the camera.

And here is the video!
Click Here

First time I have ever posted a video but there you go.

News From Others

We got an email from Miss Poess who we had met in Ria de Cedeira last August. They announced their intention to leave for the duration with a terrifying list of things that they had sold and canceled in The Netherlands. Plans are to get to the Med around the end of August so hopefully we will be lucky enough to cross paths.

This does seem to be the year for jacking it in and going off. My half Sister and her husband are in the process of getting their house rented out and commissioning their barge to cruise the French canals.

Our turn is coming anyway.

Getting closer

I have a count down widget on my phone and it shows 111 days to go till 31/08. The time is really getting closer now.

No particular boating news though. The BBQ was, as predicted cold but also very enjoyable. We had particular admiration for the others who had sailed there for the rally. Sailing up the Thames before a NE with the prospect of having to beat back into it would have been an arduous undertaking and reminded us why we decided to sail south!

Still, we now have to start seriously planning for our departure.

Off to a "BBQ" at The Cruising Association

Not a lot been going on cruising wise recently since we got back from Spain. The wind generator tweaks our conscience every time we look at it in the new kitchen and demands to be sent down to La Linea.

We are however off to a so called BBQ at CA House this evening. The weather is a bit drizzly and cold so I think it will be more of a visit to the bar rather than a BBQ. Still, a chance to chat to other yotties so it should be fun.