Not Dead Yet

Regular readers of this irregular blog will probably have given up on me. I am entirely to blame and can't claim too much work, too many family commitments or even a surfeit of sailing as excuses for not blogging through the summer.

The real reason is that there hasn't been enough of the right sort  of sailing - but I'll come on to that in the next edition of this blog....

In a lock, somewhere
between lochs

You may recall the excitement of towing Tarquin and Vagabond north. The Purser and I joined Sail Caledonia on the raid through the Great Glen.

The Purser at rest

The wind was behind us for the whole way which made coming to rest in the various locks and alongside the various pontoons tediously difficult with the result that Vagabonds gelcoat is a bit the worse for wear.




The points that spring to mind (apart from the bumping and bashing) are:

• forgetting to engage the shrouds with the spreaders when raising the mast.......
• the tow car getting a puncture on Sunday in the Highlands.......
• an exciting cross wind sail across Loch Ness, where, despite a reef in the main and a total crew of 3, a 35 kn gust lead us to spend an uncomfortable couple of minutes (or so it seemed) looking down onto the water, the nearest Vagabond has been to a capsize yet 

and

• a downwind sail at about 6 knots under foresail only

All too soon it was over and we were up at crack of sparrow what's it to take the Purser to Inverness airport and Vagabond (on Tarquin) was under tow across to the West Coast. As a gesture, we paused in a lay by to let the traffic build up pass. I failed to notice a large pothole on the exit from the layby - it knocked a trailer tyre off the wheel rim, buckled the wheel and (of course) deflated the tyre. 

Praise to the electric jack, the wheel was changed in a jiffy and we arrived without apparent further ado at Balvicar, where the wind and rain raged incessantly. At this point the trailer brakes proved defective and required major adjustment. The local merchant could not source a new tyre but did straighten out the wheel and put the old tyre back onto it so we sort of had a spare.

The weather forecast was atrocious for the next week...
The Owners Agent and I were due to go to Albania in 10 days.....
So I trailed uneventfully south and stored Vagabond and Tarquin (V & T) in their usual barn space in Bucks.