The Sea

Brush strokes – good enough – sometimes

/ Bill

Blue Mistress is slowly coming together.

Because we won’t be back in the water before Easter, I have had time to tackle the planned jobs and some unplanned ones as well – like painting the floors of the quarter berths.

I now know why I avoided this for so long. It meant forcing my 42 inch chest five feet down two 38 inch holes – cleaning, sanding and then one, two, three coats – shoulders hunched, arms outstretched, pushing an open paint-pot before me, having to work out how to use my right hand accurately and then how to worm my way backwards without touching the fresh paint.

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Vanuatu – Cyclone Pam

/ Bill

The New Zealand Herald has a report from one of their reporters in Vanuatu this morning – here. The video clip shows the destruction in Port Vila. Sadly, there has been loss of life. I understand wind speeds were in the 300km/h mark.

Yesterday, Webb Chiles carried a photograph of the damage in the harbour and a first hand description of the harbour itself – here

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Speak up for the horses

/ Bill

You carefully pilot your ship into harbour at the top of the tide. You wait until the tide goes out and there is clear ground around the ship. Then you bring the horse and a cart to offload into. The cargo is heavy – coal, or slag, so you harness two horses in tandem to haul the load across the beach and up to the stores.

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Same walk, different view

/ Bill / 1 Comment

We walked down to the Prince of Wales Pier in Falmouth and took the ferry to Flushing. From there we walked to Mylor Bridge, then along the water’s edge to Restronguet. My companions saw the daffodils, the camellia, the fading snowdrops and the unfolding daffodils, the Cornish violets and the yellow gorse. I saw . . .

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Winter refit 2/4 – rubbing strakes and rudder post

/ Bill / 2 Comments

(. . . continued)

Blue Mistress has a grp hull but there is a certain amount of woodwork that needs watching. In retrospect, it has been overlooked more often than not because the amount is small. This is not clever.

Blue Mistress is moored fore and aft on a trot mooring. She is facing west. The sun rises over the stern, travels round the port side and sets over the bow. It means the starboard side of the boat gets less sun and less opportunity to dry out, Water builds-up along the angle where the rubbing strake butts against the hull, the damp persists, algae forms,  water soaks in. Continue reading →

Nobody told the albatross

/ Bill

I have just got back from London having attended Roger Taylor’s lecture at the home of the Cruising Association at Limehouse Basin in London.

Roger is the self-styled Simple Sailor . He has written three well-received books about his voyages first in his Corribee, Ming Ming, and now in her successor, Ming Ming ll. In 2009, he was awarded the Jester Medal by the Ocean Cruising Club “for an outstanding contribution to the art of singlehanded sailing.” The large number of members present was a fitting testament to his endeavours.

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