You may be wondering why this shot figures in a sailing blog. Well it's to demonstrate the other challenge I have to address before casting off. The back garden is something of an unruly jungle thanks to me spending so much time prepping the boat but also due to years of neglect. Somehow, I just never noticed all the little trees and bushes were growing until... I must now belatedly dispatch the worst offenders before departure otherwise the jungle will have completely taken over by the time I get back. By the way, that's my eldest son Charles not me! I don't mind climbing masts but I draw the line at swinging a chainsaw around 20 feet up a bloody fir tree.
That mission was a success by the way....
I tackled some more today but had to retreat to bed with a nasty upset tummy. I'll leave the details to your imagination, except to say it is worse 🤣.
Anyway what else is there to report? Well if you've read my post of 28th February which went on and on about the now cancelled cruise to the South Atlantic, you will have read about my plumbing problems. Well, they took a turn for the worst last week and because the NHS unsurprisingly cancelled my Urology appointment, I now have to go private! I just hope expensive investigations and radical intervention can be avoided. The charming and very young GP I saw on Monday gave me cause to hope that additional meds will keep me going.
Back to sailing matters. Departure from the Medway (the state of the job list, the weather and the prostate, allowing) is set for 1st/2nd July for a shakedown cruise to Plymouth/Falmouth, then hopefully all being well, we'll depart for Madeira. We're avoiding mainland Spain and Portugal because of the still on-going Orca incidents. Bonny's keel hung rudder is probably less attractive to Orcas than modern designs, but I don't want to risk it. Also the Hydrovane rudder will be extremely vulnerable to the attentions of those inquisitive creatures.
Our itinerary has been updated too. I really was very disappointed to can the South Atlantic objective. It was after all something of a consolation prize for forgoing a full circumnavigation. Therefore when Mick mentioned the possibility of heading for Canada after the Carribean I thought it a brilliant idea. It will add a completely different dimension to the venture.
Lots of challenges to be sure, including finding the right time to head north so as to avoid hurricanes and the worst of the North American Spring storms. Too early means a greater likelihood of those, too late a greater risk of hurricanes.
Then there's the Gulf Stream to manage. It can provide a fast track northwards from the Florida Straights as I discovered on Arctic Smoke in 2017 - we clocked 10 knots over the bottom on occasions en route to the Bahamas! However, it's a deadly fast track in strong, or even moderate northerly winds. The wind against the tide creates a very nasty confused sea - I suspect, a bit like the Portland Race on steriods and of course the area covered is vast.
Today's marine weather forecasts provide a lot of information on ocean currents as well as the weather but of course one needs an internet connection to access them.
Of course that will eat up the £s and so the Satphone will only be used when essential. We certainly won't be able to afford to ring home every day!
In addition to the Satphone, Gizmo and weather forecasts, another much more basic piece of kit will be needed. A thermometer! Why? Well, if you recall your school Geography - you'll remember that the UK weather is so mild because it's bathed in the remnents of the warm Gulf Stream. So if we want to check whether we've escaped the Stream's warm embrace we just need to measure the sea temperature!
The jobs are slowly getting ticked off the list. Many of these have been electrical or related and Mick's expertise have been invaluable.
One, still to be done is to replace the cabling to the steaming/mast head light.
The existing cables that run up the mast to this, are domestic flex - not ideal on a boat especially when at the base of the mast one of the cable had clearly suffered an accident and had been rejoined with a normal terminal block and had been left totally unprotected. Its amazing that it survived the passage back from the Azores in 2021.
I was sure I had a replacement light fitting on the boat but I couldn't find it. Then I tackled the shed....
.... and low and behold....
It was in the deepest darkest hole and had clearly never been any where near Bonny. It must have been Arctic Smoke's recesses I was thinking of.
Working on a boat on a mooring on the River Medway, rather than sailing one, has its compensations....
🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
