Posts in Category: Day to Day
We get out on the boat :)
At last, the boat is back in the water, repairs have been done and it’s sailing time again. So as the weather forecast was given out to be blue skies, warm with a fresh breeze we decided to have another trip up to the sailing club to spend a few hours chilling out, out on the water, what better way to unwind and free up a bit of stress?
As you will see in the video, the conditions couldn’t have been much better. We arrived half an hour though before the safety boat driver was due a lunch break and as that was the only safety boat out on the water (Severn Trent Rules) we could only sit on the mooring until he came back an hour and half later. No problem, it gave us a some time to have a cup of tea, chill out and sunbathe in the cockpit.
We eventually set sail and had a great afternoons sailing. We had a couple of incidents, Jen almost went over the side! The video doesn’t make it look as close as it actually was and if I hadn’t have grabbed her she’d have been swimming lol! The other incident, which we didn’t get on film was when the starboard jib sheet came detached from the jib just prior to tacking. We were getting close to the shoreline as Jen was frantically trying to tie it back on, we needed to tack to starboard. I brought the boat to a neutral position as the wind was starting to get up a bit and I didn’t want her getting knocked overboard. I furled in the jib using the roller reefing while Jen tried to tie a bowline back on, We were getting into very shallow water now and the depth finder was showing just over half a metre underneath the boat! We got it sorted and I steered us back into deeper water. It was the subject of a laugh afterwards, but a bit nerve racking at the time. Good experience though and as they say, “character building”.
Hope you enjoy the video, and if you do please subscribe to our You Tube channel.
Carl & Jenny.
Latest video now online
We had a drive recently up to the sailing club to see if the boat (Parker 21) had been put back in the water after it was damaged during the Isle of Wight round the island race. It was late in the afternoon but the boat was sat on its mooring, but it was too late to go and have a sail. So we planned to go and have a chill/de-stress day pottering about a few days later.
The weather forecast was for light to moderate winds but probably wet. Well the day came around and as you’ll see in the video, it wasn’t the most ideal of sailing weather….no wind at all and throwing it down with rain!
So, we battened down the hatches, and had a theory training session.
Please have a look at the short video we’ve put together and if you like it give it a thumbs up, and if you’d like to follow us on our journey from novice sailors to liveaboards in 2017 please subscribe to the channel.
Hope you enjoy it, now off for the morning yoga and meditation session.
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.
50th Birthday update
So following on from the previous post, my Dad was let home from hospital and got back home after a few hours.
Me and Jenny went out for my birthday dinner, we found a restaurant which was offering free meals for whoever’s birthday it is so we made the most of it.
A full rack and half of ribs!! It was beautiful. Jen had the 3/4 rack with chicken fillets. We would definitely recommend this place and will be going again.
After lunch we called in on my 103yr old Grandad who was recovering from a fall just before Christmas where he broke his hip. He has been in a rehabilitation centre for a few weeks and will be going home tomorrow so thats good news.
Afterwards we went to spend a couple of hours with my Mum and Dad, where we shared my birthday cake, and very nice it was too.
It was time to get home as we were having our friends over for a couple of drinks. When I was 40 a good friend of mine who has since been taken from us, bought me a bottle of champagne. I always said I would keep it for a special day. Well today we opened it, raised a glass to Dave and enjoyed the bottle.
So, overall, despite a bit of a dodgy start to the day, I had a great birthday, spending time with friends and family, and thats what it’s all about.
Cheers everyone.
Carl & Jenny.
50 years young today!
Well today is my birthday, yay. My 50th to be more precise! My God, where have all those years gone? Half a century sounds a long time but tell that to any 50-year old and they’ll probably say it feels like no time at all. Many people have established themselves in their chosen or given career and made small but significant accomplishments in their lifetime. But for some, their careers are just beginning. For us its a final year in the change of the rest of our lives. Its hitting home now that we only have just over 12 months to put everything in to gear for buying and moving aboard our boat. I’m sure we’ll have more things to do at the end of the 12 months.
In the meantime we are off to celebrate my birthday. Me and Jenny are going out for a late lunch and then the plan was to go up to my parents for tea. My Dad suffered a massive stroke 4 months ago and it has left him paralysed down his right side, speech problems and other issues. He has always been really fit and active so this was a massive blow to us all. My Mum is coping (just) but it’s very hard for her. So this evening we had planned to take a cake up and have a small celebration of their little boy becoming 50!! That was until we had a phone call this morning. He’s been taken back into hospital again, (he’s only been out three weeks and already had to go back once). Apparently he stopped breathing for a short time although now he is okay. So the cake might have to be had at the hospital if they keep him again. It’s worrying times but we have a strong close family and will get through it. Hope they let him back home today though!
So, for now, we’ll go and have some lunch and wait to see if we are visiting the hospital or keeping to the original plan.
Carl