Hiya to those who keep checking our site and thanks for keeping in touch...

FC's sitting out on her mooring in Falmouth as we speak, and as it's been 6 weeks since Colin's op, we might actually take her out this weekend. It'll be great to swish off her barnacles and get the wind in her sails again. She needs a bit of a clean, but I'll get Colin onto that as soon as we board!

We're just back from France visiting the OVNI factory in Les Sables d'Olonne where they're building our new boat. She is almost complete, looking absolutely stunning, and she now is the proud owner of a name - P�lerin - which in French means both basking shark, peregrine AND pilgrim... so considering she's French, and our shark-related background and pilgrimage future, we thought this was as near you'll ever get to the perfect boat name!!

She'll be proudly on display at the London Boat Show at Excel (at the North Sea Maritime stand), so come and see us if you're there. Now time is being spent spec'ing up all the equipment we'll need retrofitted, oh, and getting a couple of new camera's....

We've established our new partnership, under which all our work, whether separately or jointly, will live. Our partnership is called Wave Action, and will be a conduit for all our marine and environmental passions and may even result in some work if we're lucky..! Our web-site is nearly up and running (www.wave-action.com) so if it's not live quite yet, then it will be v.soon. There will be a blog associated with that site, but will be more work focussed so we intend to keep this one so as to keep in touch with friends...

So adieu for now shipmates...
Lou

Photo above shows FC minus rudder - a very sad sight.

No post for a while, so having work to do on a Saturday gives me a good chance to be distracted into doing a new post...

Would you believe it - FC has finally just been lifted back into the water with her shiney new (& bloody heavy) rudder!!!

It's only taken 4 months (note: sarcasm...) to allow the insurance firm to mess us up completely (whilst still not paying up). Eventually it became obvious we'd have to take the financial hit, and so gave the green light to getting her rudder stock rebuilt by a combination of professional talents down here (Sandy and Chris - thank you so much, v.good job done). She was lifted back in on Weds of this week, and now sits bobbing merrily on a mooring.

Myself and John will be sailing her back to Falmouth on Monday (Oct 15th) - which as the more astute of you might notice is a south-westerly passage, and guess what the forecast is giving for Mon? South-westerly!!! I blame Dave of course, as whenever we had to beat into the wind, it was always Daves fault (now he's living in Italy, theres no way he can defend himself - sorry Dave but tough luck!). Colin would be on board as well but is recovering from a hernia op earlier this week, poor duck.

Anyway, it'll be so nice to be on FC again, and feel her once more enjoying the waves and weather. She's not a boat that likes to see other boats going out on passage when she has to stay in port - so she'll be absolutely raring to get going on Monday... me and John might have a job on our hands keeping up with her!

On a sad note, Colin has just finished writing up the spec sheet on FC as the time has come for him to sell her on. Even when writing those words, it doesn't seem right - we, and hundreds others, have had such fantastic times sailing and living on her that I can't quite imagine life without her... it'll break Colin's heart I know.

Anyway, the spec sheet will start to be circulated soon - there are a few people who've shown a potential interest in her, so nows the time to let us know if you too would like to own the wonderful creature that is FC! Send an email to info@wave-action.com and we'll send through a copy.

There have been several sightings of large-ish groups of sharks around the SW during August and September - and you can imagine how frustrating its been for us not having a boat to go find and photograph them. Of course all eco-tourism boats were booked up solid, which is great for them, but not so great for us trying to get our bums on their seats! Never mind.

So FC is finally coming home - we'll hopefully have her around for a wee while to enjoy some freedom sailing before she goes to her new home. It's been so sad not to have sailed our final summer around the Sea of the Hebrides, but thats truck driving for you!

Be in touch soon - might even get some Fowey-Falmouth passage photo's loaded up.

salty hugs
Lou

OK, pick yerselves up, brush yerselves down, start all over again...

As we no longer have a boat in the water, we've been making the most of some free time, which has been fabulous - we've done a little racing in Falmouth week (in a lovely old working boat called Winnie - thanks Arthur!), we've been camping and body boarding, the house now has a brilliant blue vibrancy (see photo above, with Mick and Larry) that knocks you off your feet as you get closer, Lou's discovered gig-rowing, and we're hoping to catch a bit more working boat racing this week in Fowey.

Whilst in Fowey, we'll take a ferry ride over to see FC on the hardstanding at Polruan - we're getting her a new rudder constructed, which should be ready in about two weeks (fingers crossed). [Don't ask about the insurers, not our favourite people at the mo.] However, it'll be so nice to get her out on the water again, and be able to spend some quality time setting her free again, with wind in her sails...

In the meantime, we've also spent quite a bit of time finalising the spec for our new OVNI 435. We seem to have been finalising the spec for ages now, but we must be nearly there, surely? The factory have closed for August (well, they are French) but apparently our aluminium pieces have been cut out and are awaiting the initial welding from which her form will start to grow.... so-o-o exciting!!

Many thanks for all who've sent through such kinds words of encouragement about FC and our cancelled shark season... it did help, and we'll let you know how she is as progress is made.

Right, now off to Fowey while the sun is out!
L&C x

Our season is over...

We should be in the Sea of the Hebrides right now, searching the hotspots for sharks, enjoying the great Arisaig hospitality, the Heather ale, and fighting midges - but instead we are sitting in our office in Falmouth working out what people do in the summer when they don't have a summer-based shark project to run.

The prospect of a 6-week rudder reconstruction looms. In the interim, we cannot afford to charter alternative yachts on a weekly basis in western Scotland, so unfortunately we've had to cancel all the volunteers due to sail with us for the rest of the season. In doing so, it means we don't get that final year of shark observation data. All in all, a real shame...

So we'll paint the house instead!
Lou

We're still in Falmouth, and Forever Changes is still out of the water in Fowey, following her rudder shearing off mid-passage three weeks ago. We should right now be on our way up through the Irish Sea, enjoying dolphins and Dun Laoghaire race week, whilst delivering FC up to Arisaig for the second half of the shark surveying season... but you can't go nowhere without no rudder!

We miraculously managed to find a charter boat to use for the last two weeks of season in Cornwall - but the boat was definitely not set up for the kind of work we need her to do, so although it meant that the volunteers didn't get their holidays cancelled at the last minute, it did mean extra strain on Colin, Lissa (1st wk) and Larry 2nd wk) as first mates.

So, with extra time on our hands, I'm fitting in a few extra bits of WWF work (Belgium last week, Dublin this week) and Colin was up at Fowey yesterday, dismantling what's left of the rudder, rudderstock and steering mechanisms. FC is looking ever so forlorn, with all her eco-friendly anti-fouling test patches on show for all to see!

One good thing is that the rudder plans have arrived from Argentina, and Colin's up to talk to a rudder constructor (yes, there is such a job) to discuss our options. If it's a relatively easy job, then it might take just a week or two, so we can get FC back in the water and deliver her up to Scotland to resume the survey season without having to cancel too many weeks (four cancelled so far). On the other hand, if this becomes a big job, involving rounds of insurance claim iterations and big outlays of cash, then the rest of our season could be in serious jeopardy. Although we're hoping for the former option, we're having to prepare ourselves for the nightmare situation where our final survey season is cut short, which has major implications on completion and writing up the full shark research project...

Fingers crossed everything goes according to plan and we should have a clearer idea in the next few days.... Wish us luck!

Lou x