Good times are here, spring has finally arrived, the warmer weather is now upon us and the tent cover is now been removed, however a slight change to out plans due to certain circumstances our departure date is now looking near the end of May.
Ashby Girl was lifted out of the water where we spent a week on the hard; we decided to stay on her whilst she was having her annual make over, life's hard on the hard (I think a song should be made about this). Since her return to the water her performance has greatly increased, we really noticed the difference especially in the marina where the speed limit is five knots.
Once again we planed a nice trip to Guernsey over the Easter holiday. We decided to leave Thursday lunch time so that we could reach the Alderney race on the correct tide some 24 hours later. There were 2 boats leaving together our neighbour Jon and ourselves there were 6 crew on Jons boat and 5 on ours. All week we had been checking the weather and it was touch and go up until the day before when we decided conditions were acceptable. Jon recently had a new engine fitted on his boat and this was signed off on the morning of our departure. We stocked up with food and drink, weather pretty good, bit choppy and we left just after noon. Jon left first we followed close behind, we just get outside the marina and we get a call from Jon saying he is having engine problems, we remained in close proximity to Jon incase we needed to assist him in any way. We then get another radio call from Jon saying he thinks his engine is fine now so the trip is back on. We put up the sails and are happily flying along at 8 knots we look around for Jon and he still appears to be in the same spot. We then get another radio call from Jon saying he has problems with his engine again and is unable to continue with the trip to Guernsey. We then head back to Jon and towed him back into the marina, by the time we are safely in our own berths it was then too late to continue this trip to Guernsey. We were all disappointed but all feel this is the best decision under these circumstances. Because of commitments Jon & friends still had to go to Guernsey so they took the early morning ferry from Weymouth. We then decided along with our other neighbour Phil to take Ashby Girl to France. We left at four in the morning in darkness and thick fog, the fog was to remain with us throughout the trip. Just before the shipping lanes as the light was trying to break through we had four dolphins swimming with us at our bow, great sight to see and it certainly woke us up. We tried to take some photos but we could only achieve some ripples in the sea. The radar we recently had fitted, worked brilliantly when crossing the shipping lanes, at one time there were over ten ships within close range, but due to fog we were unable to see them, but the radar enabled us to monitor their position and heading and keep us at a safe distance. Had a good time in France, plenty to eat and drink and sight seeing. The trip back was mostly under motor sail due to lack of wind, but the sun was shining so no complaints.
We did wake up one morning unable to breathe and speak due to the domestic battery over charging. The battery and the charger had to be replaced at a cost of £500, nothings cheap on a boat, never mind no beer for Debbie for a week.
Our leaving party is only a few days away and we are busy preparing, we will let you know how it goes in our next update and who made a fool of themselves, this will probably be me. See the photos titled April 2009.
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Above is our new sail - its the nice clean one on the left
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The picture above shows the solar panels located on the gantry, also the container for the kedge anchor.
Well the date of 27th April is now approaching fast and we still have a fair bit to do. We started with a to do list of well over 3 pages long and this was just the major items. The list seemed to get longer as time went by, but now the list is moving in the right direction and we have just under 1 page left of things to do.
We initially decided against having Radar fitted but after speaking with other cruisers that have sailed the Med we decided to go ahead and have it fitted. The only thing now is we need to take a course to learn how to use it, which we are currently looking into. We also just had a new foresail made which is a heavy Gib sail, this is for bad weather, and it's a lot smaller then our existing foresail and is a lot less likely to tear under bad conditions. We are still plotting our course; trying to learn how to splice rope properly, have a ton of reading to get though on all different subjects from legal matters, formalities on entering ports to how our latest gadgets work.
Like most people we awoke one morning to about 6 inches of snow, this was brilliant because every thing came to a stand still and we were unable to go to work. We are now near the end of February and can not wait until Spring, we can then remove our tent cover from the back of the boat, and it always feels great to remove the tent as you know that the warmer weather is upon us. We are having a bit of a farewell bash for friends and family, this will be at the end of April at the Yacht Club.
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Since our last entry we have had some big decisions to make regarding the options of taking Ashby Girl to the Mediterranean. I was a bit concerned to whether Young Debs would be up to the trip and whether she could cope solely in charge of Ashby Girl whilst I took my turn sleeping. Well we have now made that decision and after a great deal of thought we have decided to stick to our original plans and take Ashby Girl to Greece ourselves. We are now planning our route, but this will be very flexible and may alter at any time depending on the weather conditions. Hopefully we will include a map on the site with all the places we have visited and when possible our next destination.
Over the last six months things have been progressing quite well although the weather has still been awful. Once again we had plans to hop over to Guernsey and Brittany in September but due to bad weather conditions we decided to have ten days in Spain at my sister's apartment which is in Peniscola between Barcelona and Valencia. We have never been over keen on Spain in the past but Peniscola was excellent, the weather was brilliant, the apartment was great and we both had a great time.
During August we spent four days in Eastbourne at Sovereign Harbour where the weather was the best it has been all year and we had a great time relaxing on the back of Ashby Girl sipping cold beers and watching all the boats entering and leaving the lock, this is what yachting is all about. Young Debs parents, Stan & Shirley came to Sovereign Harbour on the Sunday, it was good to see them both as they have been a bit under the weather and not been down for some time.
We have got a new neighbour Jon, he is from New Zealand. Him and his brother Paul bought there boat in America and sailed it to the Azores then Jon and a couple of his mates sailed her to Brighton. They had one or two little mishaps on the way but also stopped at some great places. Check out there blog site, you have to take it into account that Jon is very modest and takes most things in his stride, he has an attitude that most people would love.
See Link below and check out Jon's site.
Captain Jon's Site
When Jon first arrived in the berth next to us we were both thinking the worse as all these loud Kiwis approached trying to park there boat in complete disarray, we both thought these lads have no idea and are the complete opposite to what sailing is all about. How wrong we were, when they managed to berth there boat, they all jumped off, introduced themselves and we have never looked back. I would call Jon an adventurer, always looking for the next adventure, mind you when he is in between adventures he is always busy, either away in foreign parts or working on his much loved boat. We have also been lucky enough to meet some of Jon's friends, Captain Dan, William and Smarty to name just a few and not forgetting his girlfriend Linda. They are just like Jon and have some great tales to tell and live there lives to the full.
Although the weather has not been that good over the last six months, we have still managed to take Ashby Girl out on a regular basis, either with friends or by ourselves.
We have also managed to have a few friends visit us for a few beers and parties, this includes, at long last our best buddies Rob & Jacqui. Fat Boy Slim was playing on the beach at Brighton. We had a prime position on Ashby Girl anchored just off shore with well over 100 other boats. Smarty was also there on Jon's boat, we kept the party going on the pontoon when we got back in.
We are still getting Ashby Girl ready for the off. We have fitted the new electric windless, I made a stainless steel gantry on the stern of the boat where the solar panels are fitted, I have put a third reef in the main sail, we are having a new jib sail made which should be with us by mid January, purchased a new tender and also loads of small bits and pieces that are needed for the trip or just needed to make things a little bit more comfortable onboard.
Christmas day we decided to go out sailing and do a little bit of fishing. On returning to our berth Young Debs has to jump from the boat onto the pontoon so that we can tie Ashby Girl to the pontoon, I was at the helm when Young Debs decided to jump onto the pontoon then slipped straight into the sea. I heard a scream but was unable to see Debs as she was below the boat. I then had to make a choice whether to save Young Debs or save Ashby Girl. I had to think fast as I knew that if Young Debs had not been crushed by Ashby Girl she would not last too long in the freezing water. I quickly went below to check the insurance policies, I knew that Ashby Girl was fully insured but I wasn't too sure about Young Debs. Well after checking the small print I decided to save Debs, after all it was Christmas day. I managed to get Young Debs onto the pontoon then had to go and retrieve Ashby Girl, both Ashby Girl and Young Debs were lucky, both were shaken but no lasting damage.
We have now lived on the boat for just over one year, we have a lot of people asking how we live in such a small space, never being able to escape each other, they say it must be cold, they say it must be horrible when its rough, well no, we reply its warm and cosy, when its rough we get rocked to sleep, brilliant.
We will be updating whenever we have news now as we are getting pretty close to the off. We did have a bit of very upsetting news; we sadly lost our brother-in-law Clive in October after a very short illness, Clive was also into boats and it was only in the spring of 2008 that he passed his Day Skipper course, we will miss sailing with Clive.
SEE (e) PHOTOS JANUARY 2009
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Well it's been just over 2 years since we first had this bizarre dream to sell up and sail away. Everything was going to plan except for one thing the weather. We have always had an approximate date of leaving the UK which is 27th April 2009¸ this was of course if all our goals were met. Well since owning Ashby Girl the weather has been pretty awful and this has meant that whenever we have planned a trip, we have always had to postpone or cancel or return early due to bad weather. This in turn has meant that Young Debs has not gained enough experience and therefore would not be confident enough to sail Ashby Girl to the Med. This will not alter our overall plans but we are now looking at alternative ways of getting to the Med. There was always going to be a slight problem of crossing Biscay because our insurance company insists on 3 crew members. There are plenty of options for us and we are looking very closely at all of these before we make our final decision so more on this in our next entry.
Since our last entry I have completed and passed my Yachtmasters course and undertaken a diesel engine course, I don't think I will be taking any other courses and I am sure Young Debs will not take any after her experience on the Day Skipper course. We are still taking Ashby Girl out as much as possible and are learning more about her all the time. We are still kitting out Ashby Girl ready for the off and will continue to do so until we go. The main items we still require are Solar and an Electric windlass on top of this there are still 101 things to buy check and replace. We still both love living on Ashby Girl full time, the winter months were fine and surprisingly we are not missing the house at all. We are meeting lots of new people at the marina and some have been very helpful when we have had needed help or advice.
We did have a few days in New York in May where we stayed at The London, which was a really top hotel and dined in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant which was situated within the hotel. Gordon Ramsey was at the hotel when we were there and he did send us some goodies up to our room. We had a fantastic suite within the hotel, really large, one thing we did enjoy was the bath, and we spent hours in there. The Brighton Festival was also in May where there was lots going on throughout the month and the climax was a large firework display held on the marina wall, we had a prime location where Ashby Girl is berthed.
As you can see from the photos titled 2 years on July 2008, we awoke one morning in April to find everything covered by snow. There are not that many photos this time due to the fact that both holidays were plagued by bad weather. Our main holiday was in June where we were going from Brighton, to the Solent, to Poole, to Alderney, to Guernsey and then on to Brittany. We managed to sail to the Solent where we stayed a couple of nights, had to return back to Brighton due to bad weather a few days later we tried again and went to the Solent stayed there for 3 days before we returned due to bad weather.
By our next post which will be in January 2009 we should have a lot more information as this will only be a few more months before the big off.
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Its been a good 6 months and so much has happened. First the best news, we have our yacht, Ashby Girl, also we have sold our house and living on the yacht full time.
When we returned from holiday we made arrangements to view Ashby Girl at Poole. We had kept in contact with the owners and their son from when we first became interested in Ashby Girl. The owners, John & Pauline had returned to the UK whilst we were on holiday. They had Ashby Girl taken out of the water for her annual clean, this ment that we would not be able to see how she performs in the water, however it did mean that she could now be surveyed.
We went to Poole the weekend after we returned from holiday. We met the owners, John & pauline at the yacht. As soon as we saw her we knew that she was the yacht for us. We spent a few hours on Ashby Girl while John & Pauline showed us every part of her and went into considerable detail about Ashby Girl. John & Pauline were a great couple and you could tell that they were very honest and reliable. Both parties agreed on the sale and it was just a matter of paying a deposit and arranging for a survey to be carried out. John & Pauline came down to our house the following weekend where we sorted out the paperwork, arranging for Ashby Girl to be relaunched into the water and the final details and this included when we was to take over the ownership of Ashby Girl and when we were to sail her to her new home Brighton Marina.
It was Friday 13th that we travelled to Poole to meet John & Pauline for the change over. They left as alone to go on board to see our new yacht, there waiting for us was a bottle of Champagne a homemade cake and a card to wish us luck for the future. Once again they went over every detail for us before leaving us to it. They were both quite upset to be handing Ashby Girl over to her new owners, especially John, but this is understandable as they had many happy sailing memories. They are a great couple John & Pauline and we shall we forever grateful to them.
We stayed on Ashby Girl that Friday night and was leaving nice and early Saturday morning. We intend to stop at Pompey Saturday night and head to Brighton on Sunday. When leaving we managed to run aground within a few hundred yards, great start. After a poor start the sail to Pompey was quite straight forward with the wind in our favour all the way. We eventully moored at Haslar marina after spending a considerable time trying to find our berth. That night Debbies aunt and uncle Mike and Carole came over to see Ashby Girl and we also popped out for something to eat. Early Sunday we set sail for our home port of Brighton, this time the wind was right on our nose and it was quite rough, we had to motor a fair bit. When we eventully arrived at Brighton we were both absoulutely shattered, we moored Ashby Girl before relaxing on the back with a well deserved beer.
The rest of the year we have sailed Ashby Girl as much as possible, we have also had lots of family and friends visit and every one has said what a lovely yacht she is, most weekends when its been warm we have had visitors of some sort. We did have a week off in September and we were hoping to take her over to France, but as normal in this country the weather wasn't that good, instead we just had lots of days messing about on the water. We are slowly getting Ashby Girl fitted out for when we finally depart these waters. So far we have have fitted a large chart plotter that is linked to the auto helm, a wind instrument that obviously measures wind speed and direction, a holding tank this is a tank that holds our waste untill we can dispose of it out at sea, a hot water system and shower, a Eberspacher diesel heating system, radio etc. We have still lots more to have fitted but this will all be completed in time.
We put our house on the market and it sold very quick, so since December we have been living on the yacht full time. To our surprise living on Ashby Girl has been very good and very comfortable. We have been getting to know quite alot of the berth holders and now a five minute walk to the shops can take a couple of hours, mind you young Debs does like to talk.
Look at the photos titled our yacht and see the captions below the photos, there are some good ones of young Debbie up the mast.
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