Learning all about tidal diamonds
This afternoon Jenny’s studying was all about tidal diamonds. A little bit heavy going at times but by the end of the lesson she had grasped it.
I was watching over to make sure the workings out was correct which to be honest was a good bit of revision for me as its been quite a while since I’ve had to put the theory into practice as the majority of our sailing over the past couple of years has been inland!
We are both looking forward to putting into practice what we are studying.
This week we have been watching the Cowes regatta live racing via Livestream on our Roku tv box and also the sailing in the olympics. I have also enjoyed watching the windsurfing racing as a few years ago we were both into windsurfing in a big way. So much so that I even had wave boards on the half landing at home (before we were married and shared a house lol).
C & J
Cowes regatta starts today
For many years now we have followed yacht racing, from The Whitbread round the world yacht race as was, through to the racing machines of the Americas Cup, but one we have attended a few times has been the Cowes Regatta on the Isle Of Wight. It probably started when I used to work over in the Isle of Wight back in the early to mid 80’s and carried on when we used to holiday down there as our kids were growing up.
Nowadays we get to follow it online using Cowes radio and a great app for iOS, Livestream which broadcasts live video for the whole week. (See the pic above for a screen shot).
Well the regatta was supposed to have started at 0930 this morning but there has been a 2 hr delay due to a lack of wind! If you fancy following it download the app (it’s free) and search for Aberdeen asset management and start watching. And if you have Apple TV you can watch it on your big screen using AirPlay.
Get the ice ready and your preferred tipple for some great racing action.
C &J
Passage Planning – Collision Regs – Symbols
The postman has been 😀
Three more books have arrived to help out with our planning. The first two, the symbols and abbreviations and the collision regs we already have but our copies are a few years old so we thought it best to update them. Not a lot of difference apart from the prices!!!
The third book, Passage planning is a new one to the collection and I’ve already started reading this one this afternoon. The weather outside can’t decide what to do today, so I’m swapping from being sat outside in the sun, to being sat inside watching the dark skies and showers. Looks like some clear skies coming so once this post is uploaded I might be back out there reading the book.
I had the privelidge this morning of passing on some filming tips on one of the Facebook pages we are members of. It’s always nice to be able to pass on a bit of knowledge to someone else, I’m pretty sure that there will be some questions posted by us in the months to come so it will be nice to get some answers in return. Instant Karma!
No studying tonight as Jenny has a meeting with the girls from her netball team along with a meal so it’s a night in for me, ideal time to read more of the books.
Our food and drinks kitty has been paid today for our charter in October. There are 8 of us chartering two boats 4 on each, and will be leaving Plymouth on the Monday for a five day sail. Destination to be decided once we get a bit closer and have up to date weather forecasts. We are expecting a bit of rough water though 😳.
C & J
Ionian pilot guide arrived
This book arrived yesterday. We bought it after a couple of recommendations on You Tube. As we have posted before we are sailing in the Ionian in April 2017 and this book will give us some ideas on where to go and what to see.
We spent an hour reading through it last night and already have started to come up with a brief plan of where we want to go. A lot will probably depend on the weather when we get there in the time we have available but we’ll plan a few alternatives as contingencies.
We ordered the book Sunday evening from Amazon and it arrived yesterday afternoon, another great service from Amazon.co.uk.
Last night Jenny spent a couple of hours studying her dayskipper course, working out heights of tides, etc. A bit heavy going but another 100% test score at the end of the session. Although home study isn’t quite the same as classroom based I’m really impressed with the quality of the content of the course she’s doing. The one good thing is that if you don’t understand it at first, you research it until you have a full understanding, unlike a classroom where you can sit there and get away without a full understanding. False economy when you’re paying for the course! Tonight is secondary ports.
C & J
Navionics – iPad – BadElf Pro GPS
So a short update on Jenny’s progress with her Dayskipper theory first of all.
She has subscribed to Navathome – an online Dayskipper theory course. I have been going over the course with her as a bit of a refresher for me, but she answers all the questions herself. So far her continued assessment has been 100% for each of the different areas. We spend a couple of hours at a time going through the sections. She is now going over heights of tides, secondary ports and tidal diamonds. A little bit heavy going, but I must admit i’m enjoying doing the revision/refresher of it all.
A few days ago it was an introduction to charts, more of that to come.
We are both really looking forward to our charter in October from Plymouth. We have someone who is skippering as we dont do our practical course until April over in Greece. We’ve then bareboat chartered it for a further week afterwards.
So in the meantime, i’ve bought ourselves a water resistant/shockproof case for the iPad and loaded it up with Navionics UK and Mediterranean charts so we can start planning where we will be going. Linked up to our BadElf Pro GPS we have a portable back up chart plotter we can use anywhere. I’ve been having a play with it and i’m quite impressed so far, and speaking to people who use this set up, they swear by it.
A few more items have been ordered in the way of reading material and i’ll post those when they arrive, although one of them should be here later today.
We are booked in for a few days in Poole during the Southampton Boat show to make a weekend of it. Looking forward to this show as I haven’t visited it for a few years. Hopefully the weather will be nice. Watch out for a bit of a video of the show.
C & J
Update on our sailing plans and whats been happening this week!
Well firstly, whats been happening this week? Well without putting to much of a downer on it Carl has been pretty much out of action with illness. He started on Thursday last week feeling a little bit off it. By Saturday it was really getting to him to the point where he ended up coming home early and by 5pm he was in bed. He stayed there until Monday, eating only a slice of melon and a slice of toast. Tuesday he managed to get up and lay down outside on a reclining chair in the shade. Just standing up was an effort, I cant remember seeing him so ill.
Today he has looked a bit better and managed to eat some proper food, but he is still quite weak. He’s lost 10lb in weight since last Monday.
We are riding down to Slovenia on our Harley Davidson starting Sunday for 9 days so hopefully he will be fully fit by then.
Update on our sailing training.
So Carl did his Dayskipper and Yachtmaster theory a few years ago, and since then we have had a few trailer sailor boats. Although from the experience and previous theory exams Carl has, he wants to do the courses again with me for revision. So this week, I have signed up for the Dayskipper theory course. It’s an online study at home course by www.navathome.com I have six months to complete the course and take the exam. Then we have booked a practical Dayskipper course with SailiIonian.com for April 2017. We are both going to do the course and exam and have also booked the boat, a Bavaria 41 to charter for the week following our course. We will be doing the course in the Ionian sea, Greece. We’re both really looking forward to doing it. Before that, Carl will be doing his VHF marine radio exam and we are both looking at doing a marine diesel course over the winter period. That should leave us all set up for purchasing our own yacht early next year. In the meantime, we will be doing as much sailing in the Parker 21 that we can fit in, and not forgetting the charter we have booked in October this year.
Lots to do & lots to learn, but with a worthwhile target.
Hopefully we will be putting together a new video once we are back from Slovenia.
Jenny x
Just back from Gran Canaria getting ready for Slovenia
So our travels continue. We have recently arrived back from Gran Canaria. We bought a timeshare at a beautiful place called Anfi Del Mar around 16-17 yrs ago. Its an abolutely fantastic place but we haven’t visited there for a few years due to our extended holiday vacations in America over the past few years. Well we decided to return there a few weeks ago, and my oh my, did we have a great time. We have already planned to go back in May next year.
While we were there we met up with some friends we haven’t seen for a few years and it was just like we saw them last week.
Here’s a pic of the marina:
In a couple of weeks we are off again, this time across Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany down to Austria and then on to Slovenia where we will be staying for a few days at Portoroz near the border with Croatia. I’m sure we will be riding down to Croatia to visit some beautiful beaches there. We are riding down on our Harley Davidson motorcycle. The plan was to ride across France but we’ve had to re-route due to the fuel problems they are having there at the moment. We are really looking forward to the tour.
We’ll be sure to post some pics of our trip.
A quick update to our sailing plans. We have a yacht chartered in October from Plymouth for a week which we’ve already mentioned in a previous post. We are just in the process of booking a couple of weeks in April/May to get Jenny on a Theory and practical day skipper course over in Greece. We will both do the course as it will be a good revision for me and we can both enjoy sitting down over a glass of wine discussing the days training. (before we go back to Gran Canaria). We will spend a week doing the course then charter the boat for the following week. The plan is to then start the selection of our own boat and hopefully be on it by September.
And don’t forget, if you would like to help us out on our adventures and get rewards in the meantime, please consider becoming one of our Patreons. Once we are on our boat we will be doing random drawers of our supporting Patreons to come and spend a week with us aboard our boat. Be one of the first.
Carl & Jenny.
A time lapse shot on one of our canal trips last year.
As you know we love sailing, what you might not know is that we also love the life on a canal boat. Since our kids were little we have tried to get at least a week every year away on a canalboat holiday. We have a timeshare which allows us to do that, but on this video a cousin of ours (who owns this particular boat) had just had it refurbished and wanted it given a shakedown cruise. As we were more experienced we offered to take it on a weeks cruise. On the return journey we did have a bit of an engine problem, but luckily it was only half a mile away from a local marina with a repair yard so we were under way again within a few hours.
Here’s a short time lapse of a couple of hours travelling down the Trent and Mersey back towards Shardlow. We have been really lucky in that every time we have been on the canal boat the weather has been really nice. This day was no exception.
Welcome aboard Kwa-Heri.
C & J
A short film from our hols!
Here’s a bit of a test film we put together whilst we were on our cruise last June. We sailed from Venice to Dubrovnik, then over to Greece and Turkey and called in at Split in Croatia o the way back. Our ship was the Norweigan Jade.
This short film was put together using clips we filmed on the iPhone 6 plus in Venice and Dubrovnik. It was all edited in iMovie of the iPhone.
Just a bit of fun to try out the potential of the filming using the phone. Hope you enjoy it.
Charter booked for later in the year
Well thats us provisionally booked in then! Dates confirmed for our bareboat yacht charter on the South West coast with a group of friends later in the year. And for those of you who are non sailors, bareboat doesn’t mean no clothes lol!
Eight of us have booked two boats to sail from Plymouth later this year year. If we get a few more then we may get another boat as well. At the moment we have two boats booked. We will be boarding on the Monday and have to have the boats back by Friday, so plenty of time to get in some practice on the Atlantic coast. We are really looking forward to this as it will be our first time on this side of the country. Watch out for the video later in the year.