IOW Trip Tuesday

Tide and wind dictated where we were going today so back down the Solent to Alum Bay we went. Forecast was not great but it stayed dry most of the time.  It was surprising that although we were sat at anchor in an almost flat bit of sea that there were large breakers along the shoreline. After a spot of lunch we went ashore, not an easy task as we had to time our landing so as to get in between the breakers on the shore.

Once ashore we used the cable car to get to the top then the bus to get to the old and new Battery's (National Trust) for a bit of sight seeing. Good view of the needles from here.

Back to Yarmouth in evening for a meal ashore.

IOW Trip. Monday

An early start today as we have to get as close to St Mary's Hospital in Newport as we can in order for Lou to get to Dialysis.   We planned on getting to the Folly Inn and then by taxi to the Hospital.  Plan worked but cost of the cab was a bit high £12 each way.

Folly Inn on the Medina river.

While Lou was dialysing I went walkabout and found the Quay at Newport which had a surprising number of yachts in it.  So I made a few enquiries and found that it's perfectly feasable to get to Newport as long as the tide is right.

Isle of Wight Trip Sunday

The tides were about right for us to make the trip from Swanage after racing on the Sunday afternoon. A lovely day for it with a nice following wind. We left about 3pm and got to Newtown Creek around 7pm sailing all but the last few hundred yards.  Here we stopped for the night.

What a week

What a cold? Why do they vary so much? When I started coughing over a week ago I thought it was just another winter cold. No not quite this ones a different kettle of fish. Not quite debilitating but it wears you out. After a week most of the symptoms have gone but this persistant cough doe's you in. By the end of the day, your ribs ache, your head throbs and you just want to sleep. Talking to friends, they all cheerfully declare that they've had it for weeks, Seven and a half is the longest claim so far. Well I hope it's not going to be as bad as that.

Shopping?

I'd been out in the morning helping Nick T get my old rowing boat to the sailing club. Za had said he was getting fat so he has decided a spot of rowing would do him the world of good. Well once he'd launched I left him to it and went back home.

Around 1.00pm I suggested to Nicky that we should get some supplies in. Now bearing in mind we had not had much for breakfast we reckoned that we should eat before we shopped, the old adage "Never shop when you're hungrey" came to mind. So we dined at "Beavers cafe" after which Nicky said we'd have to walk to Ocean Bay to burn off the enormous all day breakfast she'd just eaten.

We got to Ocean Bay and being such a nice day we thought we'd carry on and see what the white triangle was at the other end of the beach. As you can see it is a pile of white rocks which someone has painstakingly erected. There are no white rocks for a several hundreds of yards so it must have taken quite a time to build

Looking back we realised that we should get back before the sun left the sky as we had still not been to the shops. By the time we'd shopped and got home it was 5 o clock.

Time for tea already.

Fencing completed

It hasn't been the best weather for it but at least the rain held off for most of the time. We used metposts for ease of replacement but because of the soft nature of the ground we set them in concrete with the sockets just protruding to allow drainage. Time will tell if this is the right choice.

We also changed the security light on the garage and put a new alarm on the house. Mended all Lukes broken guitar leads and made a couple of new ones.

In Granpa's house we fixed his broken shaver light ( down to a bad design )

Rendering all done

There are very few manual jobs that I cannot put my hand to, so today was time to have a go at external rendering. I can plaster to a reasonable standard so I thought this would be a very similar. Well I was wrong,

Ok the technique is the same but it's so much heavier. It played havoc on my upper arms and wrist. By the end of the day I couldn't get the pressure on the float to make the muck stick to wall. It is also a lot harder to get flat. Fortunately Luke was not too worried about that as he plans to paint it then maybe grow some vines up to create a mediterranian feel.

Scratchcoat goes on

Today we cleared up the area from yesterdays bonfire and got down to removing the old pebble dash. We kept any original scratchcoat if it didn't fall off. No sense in wasting effort is there. Went to buy some materials then got down to work. Bearing in mind I've never done rendering before it came out quite well. By the time all that was done it was nearly dark. aren't the days short this time of year!

A sad end for the summer house

Dad on loan for Jobs at Lukes house.

Improvements to Lukes garden are to include a decking area in front of the garage. First job on the list is to render the end of the garage facing the house to give it a more asthetic look. However this necessitates the removal of the old summerhouse which I loving put together over a period of a few weeks, many moons ago. None of your B&Q stuff here, this was proper tenon joints, screwed and glued all made from scratch.

Well it took about 10 minutes to reduce it to a pile of timber, some rotten, some good. Then about 5 hours to burn it all, which in the pouring rain was quite fun.

Lacey

This rather glum looking thing is Greg's new puppy that they have named Lacey. Very well behaved and almost house trained. The photo doesn't do it justice as when it's not asleep it bounces around trying to ambush Bailey (Gregs other slightly older pup)

Back in the water

Whoo hoo. At long last she's back in the water. After a week or so of bitterly cold east winds, everything calmed down and as you can see, it was a lovely evening to put the last bits of antifoul on the centreboards. I get the last lift of the day and he guys at the yard lift her to about six feet off the ground. They leave her there overnight which gives me about three hours before dark to get the last bits done. .
You can see the difference in draft quite clearly in this shotNext day we set off with four aboard Robert, Mike Greg and me. Stop off at Dorset lake to drop Mike and Robert on Yeta then travelled back in company. .


After a gentle start we ended up with a reef in and were about to put a second in as the wind rose to 25 knots off Old Harry As we entered Swanage Bay it settled down to an easier 17knots as we moored up.

Busy week ... Again

Well, again a week has gone by without a blog entry. The move went well on Friday, a warm and pleasant day. We were on the go from 8.00 in the morning till about 10.00 at night and absolutely knackered by the end of the day. Saturday we woke with stiff muscles and sore body parts where we had injured ourselves lifting and carting. We only had the van for a day, and we should have recruited more muscle as there was still lots to move. Thank goodness for the carrying capacity of our Previa. . We had motored down on Saturday for a surprise 50th birthday meal for Greg, the meal was a surprise, not the birthday. And then came the snow. To be honest there wasn't much of it in Swanage. However there was a 10cm layer back at the house in Heston.

Movin' House

Haven't blogged for a week, as we have been so busy. 30 years of accumulated tat to sort out, much of which much is now in the council dump.
It's going to be strange when we come back to visit Luke and Sarah. They will no doubt be decorating in a style that we wouldn't have chosen, but thats a good thing. It was also quite revealing how many little defects in the house you've just put up with over the years. The creaky floorboard, the unpainted pipe on the radiator, that sticking door, the unfilled screw holes from when you took down the shelf three years ago. Now they all stare at you and say "five minutes work/effort would have put me right".

Anyways, three more days and everything has to be packed and ready to go. Must stop writing and start packing.

Rudder noise solution?

The gemini forum is regularly speckled with entries complaining about rudder slap when at anchor. This is a consequence of the raising rudder design

The Bearing Casing (pictured below) is the part that swivels and this sits in a slot. That slot has a fairly generous amount of clearance, about 2 -4 mm. In certain tide / wind conditions or even the wash from passing boats is enough to make the casing "slap" within the slot. Now if you reduce the clearance then you will have the danger of seizing the mechanism. There are various workarounds, the most popular being thin wedges pushed into the slot. Well here's my attempt at a solution. I have attached to the casing some rubber cups which bridge the gap without seizing the casing in the slot and at the swivel point some rubber tube again either side of the casing. These rubber cups are the items you place in the feet of your furniture to protect your polished floors.

Until we get back in the water theres no way of knowing how effective this will be and I'm guessing I might have to employ stronger rubber but then we are back to the problem of siezure

Jobs on the boat

At long last I have been able to get to the boat to some work on it. I resecured the shore power socket. Cleaned the rear port cabin as there was some mould building up in there. Re - installed the water tank and tightened all the water connections. I have long suspected one of the joints has been leaking as I get water in the port bilges. As there are no though hull connections below water line in this side it must be rain water or water from the tank. Investigations continue.


As the weather was dry I decided not to delay and got the antifoul applied. Blakes Tiger plus did a very good job last year with only a small layer of slime evident at haul out at the end of the season. it was a bit of a rush as light was fading towards the end of the job. Not perfect , as the masking tape didn't stick in a couple of places. Ooops! Waves on the waterline.

It's been a rainy Weekend

It's been a miserable weekend and now it's over I can get down to some work on watanga. Lots to do as launch time is looming. I want to get it back in the water as soon as possible. The wind speed seems to have given up, the rudders are going to get a hush kit. Hopefully I have thought of a modification to silence them. Theres water tanks to refit all the soft furnishings to go back, and I still have to find out where the rain water comes in although I now have a couple of ideas. The stanchion bases are a favourite leak site and also where the shroud plates pass through the cabiin roof. so there a bit of work ahead.

Diet that infamous word.

I have been at 12-13 stone for some time now and while it's not obese I am aware that I'm still over weight. From age 17 through 35 I weighed exactly 10st 4lb and it didn't seem to matter what I ate or drank, the weight just stayed the same. However I was playing Rugby and squash and training once or twice a week.

Now there's nothing like stating publicly that you are going to diet to doom it to failure but here goes. I weighed in at 12-6 this morning and would like to get to betwen 11 and 11-7 for the summer. I also have read that you should aim to lose weight slowly so at 1-2lbs per week I aim to hit the top target 11-7 around June time .

This article on fat and diet http://members.shaw.ca/bodybuilding/Fat.html seems to make sense and I lke the idea of not stopping eating so lets see what happens.

High Tides and Storms

The sea was as high as I have ever seen it at Swanage today. With very strong winds from the southwest the sea in the bay was relatively flat. However there was still a significant swell coming in despite the offshore wind direction. The studland ferry suspended operations at high tide. The ferry was fine but the road leading to it was awash at times. It's not often you would be able to drive upwards onto the ferry.!


The pier head building was getting an impromtu pebbledashing as the sea surged across the road at pier approach and the Police decided to close this to traffic. The Mowlem too was getting a right pounding.

At Buckshore, the tenders on Slippery ledge were being jostled by the waves. Just as well they were all tied down. The sea was washing under the boats on the beach but local club members were there monitoring the situation, ready to move boats if necessary.

Another rush Weekend

The weekend's here again, Hoorah. It's almost like when I was working, slogging through the week only wishing the weekend was here. Still I keep telling myself it will all be over soon, house sold, other place rented, Sitting on the boat wondering where to sail next.

Still there's a social on this weekend with a meal and music from Jim Etherington to help us through the evening.

Sundays another blur of candidate interviews, the end is getting close only a few more to do. Frankly this is the best part of the membership job as you get to know everyone.

Have spent a lot of time today investigating the web for suppliers of various parts for the boat.

Putting up a new fence

It is sad to think that for over 25 years we have got on with our neighbours. For all that time we have had a shared alleyway between the two houses. Now we have decide to erect a high fence to hide the slum that was the house and the jungle that was once a beautiful garden carefully tended by the original owners. The place is now rented accomodation, and while the neighbours are pleasant enough, neither they nor their landlord give a monkeys about the state of the house or garden.

New Members

Dashed back to Swanage on Saturday night as I was interviewing for New Members at the sailing club on Sunday morning. This takes about 30 mins per applicant depending on how chatty thay are or how many questions they have. Everyone seems quite keen to help out this year. It's good to see enthusiasm in an applicant. No bad vibes from anyone yet. Had a sore throat by the end as had so much explaining to do.

Monday Back to London on the coach leaving Swanage at 7:30 am, back to work on the house. I need to start thinking about ordering bits for the boat, and scheduling the work in that needs to be done.

London Dinghy Show

About 25 members of the sailing club travelled to Alexandra Palace in North London to support the club as we had been shortlisted for thre RYA sailing club of the year award. As well as keeping an eye out for a bargain or two!

It was all very exciting, Swanage Sailing club had made it to the last five in the country to receive the award. We didn't win but it was a great honour to be up there amongst the finalists. Top honours went to Gurnard Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight. We were secretly relieved as once we saw the the size of the trophy we realised we would have to have a new trophy cabinet!!!

The floor finished

Well thats it done but in hindsight maybe we should have hired a cement mixer. Luke and I both have backache now.

Next onto fitting the doors, door furniture and refitting the alarm.

We are off to the dinghy show tomorrow, Swanage Sailing Club are in the top five shortlist for club of the year. There's a good contingent of us going so should be a good day out.

Luke hard at work, leveling the floor

30 years of not throwing stuff away!

All the bits and bobs that were banished to the garage are now piled up in half a garage. Theres no room to move. I will miss having the space to do stuff here. It's been a garage, a car repair shop, I've built a rowing boat in here, built furniture, mended bikes. Why am I selling it again?

The floor

Project Studio

With Luke now wanting to extend his music publishing capabilities further, we have gone into project mode and are extending his studio. This involves refurbishing the garage which has been in a state of disrepair for some years. The end and side walls of this end of the garage were cracked and ready to fall down. So after propping the roof up, I helped it on it's way. You can just see the bow in the side wall thats being held in place by bracing.






Then you rebuild it, adding a brand new door.

Yes I know the courses are not level but I felt more important to be able to "stitch" the bond into the side wall when the time came.

Once the walls had been built and the room was all cosy we put up 4" of acoustic lagging followed by two layers of 12mm plasterboard. The room became a lot quieter almost as soon as the last piece was up.



A hole was sawn through into the mixing room and a frame put in and sealed with caulking. This frame was later triple glazed.







Then the whole room was dry walled using the direct bonding method




Then we added the electrics all surface mounted

Next the floor!!!

Haven't even thought about the blog for months. As I have started a diary I suppose the next thing is to resurrect this. We have been away to guernsey, Watanga's longest journey to date and certainly the longest time away from home.

Guernsey was great, we went for the Regatta which had all sorts of things going on, Races concour's de elegance, sea shanties, sail pasts. Plus a host of evening entertainment. Survived the channel crossings, but found them a bit boring.

The Islands were a fun place to sail around with lots of pilotage challenges. That in lay terms means there were rocks everywhere and you had to be on your toes with the navigation.

Happy Christmas everyone, I hope you all had a great time, we were certainly busy, as is custom we hosted the whole family on Christmas day. That was 10 of us. I had the dinner preparations worked out like a military operation. Happy to say I nailed it spot on. Never been so happy with the way everything went. We were all so stuffed we didn't have tea and only a very light supper.

Boxing day was a funny one for me I got up went for a bath jumped out to find Nicky going out the door. Where you off to, I asked. To meet the relee's at Brentford was the reply. It was at this point I realised it was the middle of the afternoon, not 10 o clock or so that I thought it was. Should have asked for a watch this xmas.

Of to Swanage today sometime. Get ready for all the Parties. Well three anyway, should be fun
I'll try to get some stuff done on the boat as well.

Four Days to Xmas. Tommorow is shopping day for all but the perishables. I must make a list. The house is a tip the seond bedroom has two more walls to plaster and then decorate. I ain't going to make it. Never mind it was a good try.

Just saw the secret millionaire on TV. What a great tv idea, and what a nice thing for well to do people to get involved in. Sadly what a terribly put together program. Yes we get the drift from the title that the millionaire may be undercover but do we have to be reminded by the narrator every 5 minutes?

The more I work the more it piles up. After watching the floor fitter work laying my new laminate flooring, I was inspired to be more efficient and positive in my DIY work, and to be honest it's working. Having taken 6 -- 8 weeks to finish off the back bedroom, I have steamed ahead on the front bedroom. I have to replace the lighting wiring with modern stuff then skim the walls with plaster and it's ready for decoration, 5 days and counting. This may have to be postponed a while whilst Xmas preparations take over. It is a worry as I haven't planned the food and we've 10 people sitting down to the table oo-er. I don't mind the cooking it's keeping it warm and ready for serving that the problem.

Must buy some presents too.

It was meant to be a quick trip to Swanage for a meeting on tuesday and take the living room carpet up on wednesday. Things as usual took longer than expected and I didn't get back until Friday.

It was great to catch up with the guys from the MES department (a bit of a reunion) We went to the orange tree in Richmond. Graham, Paul, Mark. Julian, Elaine, Matt, Clare, Lucy, Ruth, Roger and myself.

What a windy week! Can't help but worry about the boats and if they are safe and standing up to the conditions, It's going to be blowing like this for the next week at least.

Meanwhile the Back bedroom is now almost finished. The doors has to be hung, also the curtain rail. bits of fitting and painting to do then we can move in and go on to the next room.

Xmas finish for the project is not going to happen. There are too may other things to do. Now wishing I hadn't gone into the trimaran syndicate. Another drain on my time is the membership secretaries job., I have no idea how much time that is going to take. Must organise my time better and not waste so much time with idle browsing on the internet.

What a busy weekend that was. Even so it was also relaxing. The Dinner and Dance was a great success this year with good venue, good food, and a great band. Little too much to drink but that is just par for the course. The AGM was much as it always is with no great changes and the usual turnout of regulars. The rest of saturday was watching sport on the telly. New Zealand demolished the welsh and South Africa beat the English.

Sunday in the active sailors meeting saw Greg take over as sailing secretary but little else changes. Tougher rules on winter berthing. Well no, thats not quite true, the rules have always been there, we have just been lax in applying them.

More interesting was the possibility of becoming a part owner of a 42 ft trimaran, We picked it up and moved it on Monday. It has seen better days and although it is very tatty it is basically sound. First job is to beef up the repaired rudder and then see how well she sails. Then it's a matter of deciding weather she is a white elephant or a worthwhile proposition.

Yippee we're off to Swanage tommorow. A busy weekend ahead with Club Dinner dance Friday, AGM Saturday, and active sailors meeting Sunday. The back bedroom is nearly complete now. Jobs to do are New Door to fit, doors on the fiited cupboards, carpet, curtains then move in.

Nuff of the boring stuff, what's all this about supernannies for out of control kids and their families. Presumably on the National health. and imposed by the courts. What is missing is a lack of control to start with and this is missing because the government pass laws that prevent us from smacking, prevent police from disciplining and generally let the younger generation get away with just about anything. Now I only had occasion to smack my kids a couple of times when they were young (they're both bigger than me now). By the time they had pushed the limits of misbehavior too far and they had been adequately warned they received the punishment. They then knew the boundary and the consequences. I believe that this is why they never had to be smacked again.

Why is it so many teachers get assaulted by kids nowadays ( I never once heard of it when I was at school). Because there is no retribution, they can get away with it, and from a very young age they know that and play on it. I was caned at school which was not at all painful, it was the wait outside the headmasters office was the worst bit. what can the head do now? Warn repeatedly then expel. Derrrr that what they want ... not to go to school!


Enough ranting. I have two fine sons who have grown up God fearing and well behaved, I hope I played some part in that, but for the most part I think it's luck.

At last things seem to be progressing on the decorating front. You work all day, each day and nothing seems to change. The room still looks a mess and it's hard to keep focused, still they say it's all in the preparation. But now the paint (undercoat) is on and I'm on to building the cupboards, suddenly the room looks brighter. No more plaster dust to breathe for a while. Things are not being helped by a cold I've caught which along with the weather is making me feel lousy.

Must start to do some work on my various websites, Nicky has suggested some modifications to the Watanga site, to make it more readable. The Swanage Sailing Club site is up for it's annual revamp. Over the years it has got messy, (structurally that is) and has become a mixture of old and new styles. Average screen resolutions have gone up over the years so it's time to take advantage of that and fit more on the page.

After I've finished this room.........

Phew it's Friday, well Saturday already. Have been in Swanage since Tuesday, decided it was time to take a break from house renovating and get on with winterising Watanga. Now thats easier said than done as I've never been in this position before and apart from not knowing what to do, when you find out it's what do you do first. When presented with the list of items that need checking they all seem to want to be done first.

I decided that the engine being the most expensive replaceable item ought to come first. Changed the anode and extracted a couple of impeller vanes from the heat exchanger. To warm the oil I led a feed from the galley tap to a bucket (large) removed the raw water inlet pipe from the sea cock put that in the bucket and fired her up. at 1400 rpm she had run the tank dry so a quick tank swop and emptied the other as well. Just before it ran out I mixed antifreeze in the bucket and let that draw through. Used a pump to empty the engine oil, replaced the filter and refilled with fresh oil. Taped up the exhaust.

Need To Do Check / clean air filter. change fuel filter, change impeller.

Serviced the sonic leg

to do reseal lower bearing block with instant gasket send prop to be repaired.

Emptied and blew out all water pipes with air pump

discovered and fixed water leak

How to test the RCD on your consumer unit

It was the classic laurel and hardy scene. I was on a stool painting the wall with a PVA glue solution. I step sideways onto a trestle, the trestle wobbles, I panic jump to the floor, the pot of glue solution (about a pint of) goes over the wall, my shoulder, my arm and the window. expletives follow. Then I watch as almost in slow motion, the solution runs down the wall into the electrical socket and all goes quiet, well until there are a few more expletives.

Then a voice from downstairs says...... you can guess

Meanwhile I'm trying to disconnect the socket to flush the glue out, clear up the mess and stop my shirt becoming part of my arm. -

yes of course I realise the TV's not working!!!!!

Oh and by the way the RCD on the consumer unit works fine.

The Fireworks are cancelled. At a time when the government are pushing for safety on bonfire night and that, rather than let fireworks off yourself , you should go to an organised display. What do Hounslow council do, they cancel the well established firework display in Lampton park. Why? Due to lack of funds apparently, the council now feel that bonfire night is not cost effective. I hope residents of Hounslow remember this on election day.

Meanwhile diy continues apace, spent Thursday stripping all the wallpaper from walls and ceiling, Friday cutting out all the live plaster and refilling with bonding. Saturday continued with finish plastering. I am not the worlds fastest plasterer but I'm starting to be pleased with the results. I must be getting better at it. Downside of the plastering is the tennis elbow has flared up bigtime, I've still got three walls and maybe the ceiling to do!!

All this work is making me look forward to my next visit to Swanage.

The sudden cold snap is making me panic. Last night it went down to about 3 degrees and tonight it is already 2 degree and falling. After all this warm weather i took a chance and didn't drain the water systems on the boat. I just hope that there is no damage. The engine should be OK as it has antifreeze but the various pumps and the water heater are a different matter, it could be a costly mistake on my part.

Back here in London, Reg went for his cataract operation today and seems to have fared quite well, Nicky is staying in with him tonight. His follow up appointment is next friday week. Nicky says she will ask if he wants to come to Swanage for a few days to rest.



Refurbishments coming along. Framework to hide cylinder now in place, started stripping the walls and ceiling, there will be quite a lot of plastering to do soon as the old stuff is pretty naff.

Never was much good at writing diaries, as you will note I have now missed 3 days on the trot, mainly cos I've been too busy. Swanage on friday via chandlery to order new part for the windlass. Evening busy making lists and familiarising myself with the stuff I want to do on the boat on Saturday.

Sat

Get various bits together for working on the boat, then off to Watanga.
The leak that has been manifesting itself as pools of water under the bed mattress and mould on the cupboard door I have traced to the baby forestay mount. Had to cut the headlining to get to the nuts of the deck fitting. Only a minimal amount of sealant found and lots of water, and the backing plate going rusty. The complete headlining is soaked. Reseal with large helping of sikaflex ( may never be able to remove backing plate now) Set up heater in forward cabin to try and drive water out from headlining.

Serviced the windlass ready for new part when it comes in. Removed several gallons of water from rear lazerettes. Think this is rainwater entering through rudder lift mechanisms( there has been a lot of rain).

The racing season ends tommorrow, so spent the evening at the sailing club, the last race party. Bangers and mash, Jim Etherington singing and too much beer. A good night.

Sun

Take part in the last race, not much wind, excellent start first over line at start, but fell foul of the avarage lap curse. I was far enough ahead to have to do an extra lap, then wind died. So go from possibly first to last in one foul swoop. (This will only make sense to you if you understand how average lap racing works.)

Lousy journey back to London, very heavy traffic, I guess it's the half termers going home.

Today

The clocks going back have messed with the body time as usual, Woke quite refreshed at 7:30 today. I don't normally see much before 9:00 as a rule.

Made some good progress with the jobs list. Mended reg's taps, fitted some isolators, and fixed the outside security light. Put up the false wall in back bedroom to hide the fireplace.