03/12/2009, Island Harbour
Hi All,
Well, we have been home for over a year now and at last Ba has had an operation that we hope will make her fit again. It has been a long uphill struggle for my poor lady so we are hoping that this will do the trick.
After a lot of help from Sandra at Tradewindsin Bequia, we have managed to receive our belongings safely back home. It took a long time and cost a fortune but we felt it was worth it. Even my guitar found its way to England and we hope to have that back some day soon too.
We are not committing ourselves to anything permanent for the foreseeable future as we need to ensure that Ba's health is properly stable and that she is back to a good level of fitness. So, after a few weeks of convalescence, we are taking Wight Mistress to Holland for 3 months just to nose around and generally enjoy ourselve. Most of you will already know that we did a 'there and back' delivery of a new Nautitech 44 catamaran from Ijmuiden Seaport at the entrance to the Amsterdam Sea Canal to the Southampton Boat Show and, on completion of the show, back up past Den Helder and right across the Waddenzee, through the Konverderzand Lock at the east end of the northern dyke, then into the Ijselmeer and a couple of miles to Makkum, where we delivered her back to her owner, safe, sound and clean. It was a lovely trip. We have just been offered a delivery of a fairly new Beneteau 41 from Island Harbour to Dublin in a month or so's time. We are looking at it carefully. Ba may not be able to come so I will be looking for crew to do the task.
In case you didn't know, last week, while teaching on a very new Sealine F34 flybridge cruiser, it caught fire in the engine room, so we exercised engine isolations, anchoring and putting out a MAYDAY call in quick succession. The emergency services were brilliant. Because we anchored, the boat 'weather-cocked' into the wind and we were picked up
bone dry and smoke free off the foredeck. We stayed around for the 2 hours it took for the boat to eventually sink. It took a whole hour from the start of the smoke and into the fire phase before the gas cylinder going up.
It didn't explode as one might expect, it gave off a 2 metre-ish jet of flame for about 3 seconds and that was it. So, the Sealine gas stowage design is good. Anyway, we made the local news that night; we are in this week's Isle of Wight County Press (www.iwcp.co.uk) out on Friday as well.
That's it for now, must dash and feed my lovely lady.
S
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Whew, thought I had lost this lovely picture but managed to find it., AND the sun is shining
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10/13/2008, back in Island Harbour from Holland
Hi all,, sorry, this is a bit barse ackwards but I thought i would put it in for you. I promise I will BUFFS.
Just received this lovely picture of our eldest grandchildren, Keira and Harley and we thought we would share it with you.
Latest. We were employed at zero notice to fly to Amsterdam and sail a brand new Nautitech 44 catamaran to Southampton for display at the Boat show. Everyone was so please with our ability to get up and go for it that we were asked to do the return trip as well. We collected Salty Cat 2 from Southampton last Sunday and sailed her to Calais for a night stop and refuel, then punched a north easter (maximum steady force 8 for a while) up to Den Helder. We continued without stopping through into the Wadenzee (the tidal, northern part of what was known as the Zuider Zee) and through the easternmost sea lock into the Ijselmeer and on to a marina at Makkum, where we delivered her safely to her owner. We then spent a couple of days in Amsterdam and then went on to Haarlam to see the Corrie Ten Boom house. Didnt get in but we intend to visit it on our way back to Schiphol Airport on Tuesday. We then went from Haarlam to The Hague and on to Gouda for the night.
This morning we drove down to Brugges in Belgium. What a truly beautiful place to visit and one we would definitely recommend AND on we are definitly going to return to.
We fly home on Tuesday and yours truly has a week off before teaching for a few days (I think).
more soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,, honest...!
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