Post LBS Blues

It's now a couple of weeks since the London Boat show ended.

With Vagabond safely tucked up on shore, on her trailer hiding under her tarpaulin* but about 400 miles away, I had to go and support the Swallow Boats stand to get a mid winter** "fix".

Fortunately Matt*** had brought "the company" BC23 to the show, so the fix was more than adequate. I prattled on about how great the boat was and what I was doing with Vagabond, vaguely hoping to get a few more followers to get this blog going viral (fat chance you all say..) and generally enjoyed myself. 

And then there was the retail experience. No, I didn't buy some enormous white plastic thingy (with a sort of Royal title) that drinks more diesel in an hour than my old house boiler used to in a year. Vagabond now has (when I get to deliver them), two splendid mooring warps**** from English Braids (EB had sent someone to the GXSA and given us a good talk on ropes and the quality thereof) and I bought myself a floating waterproof portable GPS DCS VHF (that's a radio that knows where it is and can tell the emergency services). I'd realised that, in the event of a capsize ***** (Heaven fore fend), although my "fitted" radio would still work (being in the cabin and all), the aerial would be under water, so the only reception would be by suitably equipped fish or other under sea denizens (including, perhaps, a passing submarine of one Navy or another).

This purchase was funded by the generous contributions of the Banker, the Irish Lass and the long suffering Owners agent. Thank you all, you know who you are.....

I've also been given the matter of my survival some thought, in the event of the aforementioned inverted boat situation.

The rotten weather we have been having recently must be affecting my outlook. It's either that or the notes that I have received from the organisers of Sail Caledonia telling me that the water of the freshwater lochs of the Caledonian Canal (Loch Ness, being one of them) are VERY COLD, for it has occurred to me that it will be a good thing to have a radio that  floats and works when it's wet but, should you have to make use of it, (like in the face of an ongoing IBS ), it would be a good plan to be able to stay vaguely alive long enough for the emergency services to turn up.

So I've bought a "survival suit". and here is a picture of me wearing it.

Now I know that it's not the latest fashion (unless "industrial" or "official" are new styles) and that I'll never have a career as a model but it does seem quite warm and it does have some built in buoyancy. As someone said to me last week: "It's made of boil in the bag material", so I assume that it's not "breathable".  All it needs now is my name and title stencilled on the front and the boat name stencilled on the back and it will look very official.

I can see a strong demand for showers and washing machines coming up - the snag is these might be in short supply in the North of Scotland ******.

That's enough for now - I'm off to London with the Owners Agent to collect the Cabin boy and Cabin Girl whilst the Banker and the Dublin Lass have a lovely time in some posh French ski resort.....


Notes, explanations, translations and apologies

* The herbalist reported this to be the true state just before Christmas.

** Well, almost. Lot's of getting into and out of a BC 23 whilst extolling the virtues of one. Sadly, no sailing.

*** Designer for, and owner of, Swallow Boats

**** Longish Ropes with a loop at one end

***** This is where the wind blows the boat over  and is usually the result of the helmsman not paying enough attention to the weather conditions or has been pressed to sail in unsuitable conditions because the on board crew has to be a certain port at a certain time to catch a train or plane to go home and it's Sunday and there are no buses......

****** I'm not implying that the inhabitants of Caithness and Sutherland wash neither themselves nor their clothes, it's just that there are not that many people about "up there" and not many places where these facilities may be available to "johnny foreigner" (or any other visitor).

Vague plans for 2014

Sorry to wake you up. It's almost the shortest day. Soon the number of hours of daylight will increase and we can start dreaming of balmy sunny days and light breezes wafting over the ocean. Although I think such weather may in short supply in Scotland in May.

You may recall that I promised you a map. 

Here is one, taken from one of my many route planners. 

The starting point, Balvicar (near the bottom). Then north to Fort William and along the Caledonian Canal. Continue North along the East coast of Scotland, turning West (either through the Pentland Firth or continuing north of the Shetlands). Bump along the top to Cape Wrath, before turning South. Then, (depending of the weather) between the Isle of Skye and the mainland or down the Minch, then dash across the the Sound of Mull back to Balvicar. 

All I've to do now is negotiate the "time off" with the owners agent.... 

 

Committed to a start date for 2014

My regular reader will recall that I was wondering what to do, now that Vagabond and I have been awarded the Ruby Cup by the GXSA and no doubt were on tenterhooks waiting for my pronouncement.

Here it is: 

Vagabond and I have now registered to join Sail Caledonia for the jaunt (raid?) northwards along the Caledonian Canal next May.

This will be the starting point for a circumnavigation of Scotland in the widdershins* direction.

Sail Caledonia starts in Fort William and finishes at Inverness.

After the final party, my hangover, Vagabond and I will try to find the bit of sea where we abandoned our voyage from Lossiemouth to Inverness****. Having picked up the thread (as it were), we'll turn north up the east side of Scotland to Wick and then, depending on weather, tides and all that sort of stuff, turn West along the "top" of Gt Britain ****** to Cape Wrath. Then south, passing all those wonderful places like Lochinver, Ullapool, Gareloch and Loch Ewe. Depending on how brave (or foolhardy) I feel at the time (and weather and tides etc) we may visit the inside of the Outer Isles and, eventually, back to Balvicar.

Yes, I know: I'll publish a map of the proposed trip in the next edition.

For those of you really interested, here's a link to the Sail Caledonia web site :
http://www.sailcaledonia.org/
‎


* anticlockwise **
** turning left every day ***
*** unless anchored near (not on) **** an island, when it might mean turning right......
**** or tied up to
*****  Remember to turn right out of Inverness, it's up an estuary
****** or the bottom, if you have a Southern Hemisphere map with South "up".

Silverware

To the first meeting of the Gerrards Cross Sailing Association on Wednesday night for this winter session.

Cripes!

They've given Vagabond and me a cup for our adventures so far.  

OOer....

Now what do we do??

Bedding down for winter and the beginning of a new rig

Off to Balvicar at 08:30 last Thursday, to make sure that Vagabond was settled for the winter.  Arrived, hot and sweaty (the car, not me) about 9 hours later, to find Vagabond apparently quite happy under the tarpaulin.

Pottered about the following morning, replacing the piece of string that controlled the jib roller mechanism with one of a smaller size. Several times now, I had tried to furl the jib in strong winds, only to find that there were insufficient turns on the winch to fully furl the sail, despite the winch being "full" when the jib is flying. Replacing the furl line with a smaller size has let me load the winch with a couple more turns. Sods law suggests that the next thing that will happen will be that the furl line will break under the strain. It's bound to be during some critical event........

I waited for the post - the day I left for Scotland, Swallow Boats had dispatched to me, c/o the boatyard, a couple of D rings - but they didn't arrive on Friday.

Off to the local pub in the evening, to be entertained by a duo singing Andy Williams songs out of key......The beer and food were OK but the noise was beyond suffering so back to the Herbalists daughters cottage to the book.  (How many apostrophes should be in that sentence?)

Next morning saw me varnishing the rails and checking one or two things. To my surprise, the after ballast tank was still full of water. No wonder the tow from Lossiemouth to Balvicar had been a nightmare, with the dreaded snaking cutting in at about 45 mph...Just to help matters, various rollers on the trailer prevented me from opening the drain, so my arms got some much needed exercise using the pump.

By noon on Saturday, the D rings had arrived, complete with instructions for positioning them on the cabin top.

Matt (owner of and designer for Swallow Boats) has introduced a new, stiffer rig for the Bay Cruiser 23. It was on display at the Southampton boat show and includes an extra set of stays and spreaders on the mast. Big boat stuff....He and I had discussed rig stiffness after Vagabonds interesting voyage from Holyhead to the Isle of Man last year and I like to think this new rig is a result of that conversation but there again......



Drilled holes in the cabin roof

Covered for the winter

Anyway, I had decided that it was worth considering as a retrofit on Vagabond. So, on  Saturday afternoon, taking the Power Drill in hand, I set to work drilling six holes in the cabin roof.......The process involved removing the cabin headlining, drilling the holes, cleaning the foam core way from around the holes and refilling holes with epoxy, before redrilling to size and screwing on the rings.

I got as for as filling the holes with epoxy before the weather turned awful and I covered Vagbond with the tarpaulin for the winter.

The following morning the weather was still poor, so there was no point in staying. I pointed the car south and all was fine until the M6 froze solid for half an hour or so, just south of Stafford....

Resting place for the winter

I realise that by now my regular reader will have chewed her/his finger nails to the quick, waiting to know the answer to the question "where is Vagabond?"

Please contain your excitement, the answer will be revealed in a few moments.

In mid August I left the kitchen fitters in charge of the kitchen and the owners agent in charge of the fitters, reclaimed the trailer from the farm and headed north.
The M40 and M6 were (relatively) empty and we zipped along until the end of the M9 at Perth. Then commenced the crawl along the A9 from Perth to Aviemore. I have vivid memories of being driven along that road in the family Morris Minor in the late '50s and am convinced that some parts of it have not changed. Eventually we branched off along the Distillery trail to Elgin and on to Lossiemouth.

More than twelve hours had elapsed since leaving home.

Vagabond was still afloat in the Marina. The Marina manager had left her keys at the Steamboat Pub, where the beer was most welcome, although I had to wonder what a Scottish pub was doing selling London Pride. What's happened to 40 shilling?

The following day, I took Vagabond round to the slip and lowered her mast. The slip looked steep and slippery, so I opted for a lift out rather than trying to get her out on the trailer. (I must get a front tow hitch made up, so that the weight of the trailer and boat is transferred to the front driving wheels when pulling the rig up a ramp).

Duncan (the harbour master) was delighted to play with his huge boat lift and threw in a "free" high pressure spray; in next to no time Vagabond was on the trailer, dripping water from the ballast tanks, as I dismantled this and that and tied down that and this, ready for towing.

In the middle of this I discovered that the splice at the top of the port stay had almost failed.

Everything had been fine when I inspected the rigging when at Stonehaven where, at low water, the splice had almost been at eye level.

I assume that the splice had started to fail during the beat to windward in my aborted attempt to reach Inverness. It looks as if my decision to turn back to Lossiemouth was quite right!

Resolving to discuss the matter with Swallow boats at the earliest convenience, I carried on getting the boat and trailer ready and by 12:30 we were ready; I went off to find some lunch whilst mulling over whether to bring her south or take her to Balvicar.

The answer was obvious really - leave her at Balvicar where she would be ready to resume the voyage next year in the wonderful Western Isles. But I would need a week or so to get her ready for the next year and this would mean more time away from home. I consulted the Owners Agent.

And so it was that Vagabond was towed across Scotland that after noon. We followed the line of the Caledonian Canal and the traffic was so slow that we didn't hold any one up, eventually arriving in the boatyard after tea. Vagabond was parked in a corner and wrapped in a tarpulin. The keys were given to Mike and Morag who were charged with keeping an eye on her for the next six months or so. Perhaps I should rephrase that: "tasked to keep an eye on her" would be more accurate; I'll be the one to be charged!

The following morning I drove home, with Freddie in the boot for company. The kitchen was almost finished and the next phase of the alterations had started with a chap called Tigger knocking out the partition walls on the ground floor.

So the second part of the voyage round Britain is ended. Next week it's the 100th birthday followed by the Southampton Boat show (where I have offered to "help" Matt on the stand).
Then there's the allotment to knock back into shape, the pocket handkerchief garden here to do something with and a few days in Florence with the Owners Agent.

I might be allowed north to check Vagabond out during October.....

Camping at home

Vagabond I have now been separated for almost a month and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. I assume she's still afloat and will find out next week, for I'm going to rejoin her in Lossiemouth. However, events dear boy have overtaken us (as one of pur former Prime Ministers used to say) and we will not be continuing the voyage this year.

The builders arrive at the end of next week and the Owners Agent insists that I am at home to supervise them whilst they remodel the ground floor.

Then it's the 100th birthday. My mother has rallied. The family has been summoned and about forty of us will converge on her old peoples home during the first week of Spetember. The Palace has been notified and we are assured that the official birthday greetings will be conveyed by Special Delivery on the appointed day. (Not quite a Queens Messenger but probably the nearest us commoners get to one!)

By the time the party is out of the way and the builders have finished it will be mid September.

The last month has been put to good use - the old kitchen has gone, the live electrics found behind the plasterboard have been nutralised, new electrics fitted, the walls replastered and the new floor laid. I have become even more familiar with the local recycling centres.

We are now camping at home, with the old sink unit outside, making good use of bucket, the microwave is in my "den", the fridge and a camping gas ring are in the garage.

Next week the kitchen fitters start work. The Owners Agent will supervise this, not I, so I can take the trailer north to take Vagabond out of the water and take her to her winter quarters. At the moment, I am undecided whether to bring her back to the barn in Buckinghamshore, or take her to Balvicar (where we finished the trip last year) and leave her under a tarpaulin.

Watch this space.