Hi the storms have past for the minute, so today the Admiral has been code crunching on the web pages and ported us (didn't feel a thing) to new web hosting place which is better (apparently) than the free ones. Drop her a line or leave a note in the guest book if you like the pages we'd love to know what you think.
So onto today's blog topic! The traditions of life afloat is what I'd like to pontificate on today.

Firstly Emerald's countdown tradition..... And then the Ship's bell.....
So the countdown.....



Admiral Thompson and I have been working in jobs we don't particularly like (ain't that always the way) in order to make our dreams a reality of sailing off never again hopefully to put on that work suit and tug the forelock to people who think they are important (but aren't!). So to help us keep things in perspective I decided that by the companionway hatch we'd count down the weeks to freedom so that we'd be reminded as we headed off to work in the morning why we were going. I started counting down from 100 weeks to go and we are now at 78 today. (the picture says 79, all will be revealed)

The Tradition is that on Friday evening once the work clothes have been put away, we pour a G&T for me (must be Plymouth Gin) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Gin and a Sloe Gin for the admiral, and we have a drink, remove the post it note and replace it with the next number, so this evening it will go to 78....almost a quarter of the way through!!!

Once the old number is ripped up we ring the ships bell, and the weekend begins ;-)


A footnote on the bell is that it was given to me in memory of my father, Thomas Wright by his brother in-law James Seawright. We had it engraved with the ship's name Emerald and an inscription on the back
' Presented to
Colin J. Wright
In memory of his Father Thomas Wright
by James Seawright
26th December 2005'
My Uncle Jimmy was in the RAF during the second world war, and then worked in the fire-brigade in Northern Ireland for many years. This bell was his retirement gift from his colleagues, so it is especially precious to me as my Dad had been pestering him for years to get us a bell!
Skip going clear.
Slainte Dad