Sailing Again - Briefly!

The Solent - very empty in February!

With the windows back in we just had to go sailing. Just a short hop to Cowes and back but it was great to have BV sailing again after over a month and a half stuck in port.

New curtains finished and fitted

The reason for such a short sail was twofold.  We wanted to get some more preparation jobs finished, plus the weather forecast was for strong Force 7 winds from the NE. Great for going west but not so good for getting back on Saturday in time for a social engagement on Sunday. So we sailed as far as Cowes and did our chores there.

The time we spent was very productive. We were able to finish refitting our new curtains. We have made them with a black-out material as the liner which we hope will help prevent me from waking up the moment dawn breaks. It's much thicker material too so that should help if we need to shut out the sun to keep the cabin cooler in the summer or indeed retain the heat better when it is cold.

Bow protector fitted

We have also managed to finish a few other ongoing projects. When at anchor with wind against tide we have often found that the chain rubs the stem and scratches  the gelcoat. Sadly a blue hull shows those scratches quite clearly. Perhaps polishing out all of the scratches when BV was ashore has given us the impetus but we have finally got around to finishing a padded and shaped bow protector. So, whilst onboard over the past few days we have spliced on the securing lines and put whippings onto them to mark where we need to tie the lines to the stanchions. It seems to fit well and will hopefully stop the anchor chain from damaging the hull in the future. Bundled up though, it is quite large so we will need to decide upon a location to store it.

We did, however, decide upon where to lash the passerelle. You can just see it between two stanchions on the port side in the photo at the top of this blog. We have now spliced on most of the securing lines; just one more line to make up to support the end of the passerelle and that too will be another project completed.

Fun with string

Ropes have been a bit of a theme this week as I also spent some time splicing the shackle onto the new halyard. It has taken a bit of research to decide upon the best splice to use as the cord is Dyneema which needs a different technique to the braid-on-braid I am more familiar with. Aside from the core taking all of the strain, which is the primary difference, the mantle on this brand of Dyneema is particularly tight so, after several attempts, I have concluded that there is not enough space to tuck away the short mantle flap neatly inside. Fortunately, we have manged to find instructions for a splice that works with the flap sewn and then covered with a couple of layers of heatshrink tubing. Not quite as neat but much better than the alternatives which leave the core exposed to damaging UV light.

With the main halyard completed there are still the other halyards and the topping lift left to do before the running rigging is finished but, having now confirmed the splice to use, they should be cracked in a day's work.

Whilst I was playing with splicing the halyard, Nicky was busy starting the packing. The big pile of spares has been moved onboard from home. They were definitely a bit of a concern as we wondered where they would all fit. As a result, a major part of our work over the last few days has been working out a much more efficient use of our storage space. Through that work and repackaging the larger spares we have managed to find space for all of them. We have even brought back a couple of boxes of maps, books, spare linen and other gubbins that we have been carrying around onboard but just don't use. From being worried about space we now, very pleasingly, find that we have several empty lockers. The challenge will be to keep that space clear and not to fill it up with new pieces of superfluous kit as we move on to packing clothes, books and food.

Light at the end of the tunnel

This entry should be accompanied by the telephone call equivalent of elevator music; hours and hours of it! This blog is primarily a modern photo album, plus a brief written record, that we can look back on to remind us of the trials and tribulations associated with our plan of abandoning normality and setting off to explore the world on our sailing yacht. Therefore it should reflect the time Nicky has spent on the phone during the last two weeks trapped in telephone call queues waiting to talk to real people. Very fortunately for you readers, I don't yet know how to make this blog come alive with mundane elevator music whilst you read it. So, you will just have to hum the most irritating song you can think of whilst you read and, about every minute or so, interrupt your thoughts by chanting, "your call is important to us and will be answered as soon as one of our advisors is available to talk to you".

Why all the frustration? Well, I guess it come down to the 'abandoning normality' part mentioned in the previous paragraph and, more precisely, insurance. Most insurance policies seem to allow for just a few weeks away for a 'normal' summer holiday. They don't cover for our planned extended periods of time away from home so, over the last couple of weeks, our house insurance, contents insurance and travel insurance policies have all had to be cancelled and new ones researched, the small print checked, and the new premiums paid. Even our yacht insurance has had to be changed. Most bizarre as, in many ways, the waters of the Mediterranean we are primarily arranging cover for are significantly less risky than our current sailing playground of the tidal English Channel. Fortunately there are a small number of companies that offer cover for people spending longer periods of time away; it's just been a difficult couple of weeks tracking them down.

Paserelle: nearly ready for a test walk

As well as the new insurance policies, and surprisingly easy to arrange, was a new bank account that will allow us to pay in Euros (or US dollars) without being completely fleeced on exchange rates or transaction charges. The convenience of using your existing credit and bank cards when abroad for just a few weeks makes sense but if you are abroad for months on end, the extra costs would add up significantly. Setting up a Euros/Dollar account was therefore a must for us, and it only seemed to cost about half an hour of elevator music.

Aside from the boring paperwork and admin, we have also made significant progress on BV. The varnishing of the cabin doors has been finished and they look fantastic. Amazingly, we succeeded in rowing out to BV in our rubber dinghy, with Nicky sitting on all three six-foot wooden doors laid across it, without either doors or people getting wet, so the cabin doors have now all been refitted. The paserelle is also almost finished; just the securing lines to splice on and it will be ready for bow or stern-to Mediterranean-style mooring.

At the same time we have been getting rid of masses of superfluous junk which we seem to have collected in the house over the years. That will certainly help if we need to come back and move house at short notice. Nicky's car has been swapped for a smaller one and mine is about to go as we don't need two. In and around that, we have completed a host of smaller BV jobs. For example, we have made a large flag roll to stow our ever expanding collection of courtesy ensigns, as well as repairing some of the older frayed ones.  We have even had cut, drilled and fitted a new perspex shelf for the fridge which had been damaged ever since we bought BV. Several deliveries of plastic storage boxes of various sizes have also arrived at the the house; I suspect that Nicky is about to go into super-organised packing mode!

























The best bit of news, however, is that the windows have been repaired. Looking at the immaculate new bead of sealant around the glass made it clear how perished the old seals were. Despite the unexpected upheaval we are really glad that we have got this work done whilst we are still in England. There are very few companies that refurbish marine windows in the UK so tracking down one abroad, with all of the potential language difficulties, might have been very hard work and would definitely have held us up.

Even better, now that Barry the shipright has refitted the refurnished windows, we can go sailing again.


































The list of outstanding jobs is diminishing rapidly; there is definitely a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.