Happy birthday to me

It's my 50th birthday today - ulp. Not sure if I want to be in my 50s, but there's not much I can do about it. I had a beautiful birthday breakfast tray, with champagne, the first rose of summer, and my toast and Marmite in the shape of an "L" - it's a Roman numeral, you know.

Ben wrote me a poem. It says:

My mother
Words cannot describe the wonderfulness of my mother,
And although she gave birth to my brother,
I think she's great and I love her,
And I couldn't live with another.

Sam's last day at work was yesterday, so we were able to have a very relaxed morning, a very nice lunch at the Lindsay House restaurant in Eye, and then Sam, Ben and I went for a walk along the beach at Walberswick. Of course, we couldn't resist looking at the boats even though it was supposed to be a non-boat day, so we crossed to the Southwold side on the little foot ferry, walked up to the bridge, and walked back on the Walberswick side.

Ben always has to go paddling when we go to the seaside!

I also received two fabulous bunches of flowers - one from the boys (and Sam) which came from the florist at Eye and was delivered into my hands as we walked into the restaurant, and another from my much-loved aunt and godmother, Sonia, all the way from Cornwall (via Interflora).

Sea trials

Yesterday we successfully concluded our first sea trial. Well, river trial anyway. A slow mile or so up to Pin Mill, into the spring ebb (i.e. strong currents) and a wind gusting up to 20 knots, and a very fast mile back, with Chris, an engineer who is one of Lindsey's chaps, sitting below listening to every beat of the engine. No engine problems at all.

Minor problems uncovered:
  • The fuel gauge doesn't work (probably a loose wire somewhere)
  • The wind indicator instrument was out by 180 degrees - Sam has corrected this with a bit of electronic tweaking but has something crucial been wired upside down?
  • The speed indicator (log) isn't working because we haven't lowered the paddle wheel into the water yet - oops
The heater ducting and other engine piping is now finished, and the aft cabin (pictured above right) is once again a place where one can recline luxuriously (albeit with a slight smell of diesel) - the next picture down shows the back of the engine under where the pillow is - believe me, this is very neat and clean.

We're also making magnificent progress in the galley (pictured below) - now a fit place to cook a meal. Not quite sure about the bottle of acetone though.

Three cheers for Thomas Mills

Ben has now finished school - he won't be returning until after the October half-term holiday. This is a momentous occasion but has been made very painless by the response of Thomas Mills High School who really couldn't have been more helpful. On Thursday we went again to see Ben's head of year, Mr Wheeler, who handed over a not-too-huge pile of books and list of work for almost all of his subjects.

According to my calculations we have work for Science, Maths, English, French, German, DT (Design Technology), History, Geography, Latin and RS (Religious Studies). Missing are PE (but I feel confident he'll get plenty of exercise), Drama (but we do have A Midsummer Night's Dream for English so can put on a performance on board) and Art (perhaps he can illustrate the journal his English teacher has asked for). Some of the teachers have been quite creative (for DT he has a CD of design software and has to design his own boat), others less so (not sure that Sikhism or the history of black Americans is very relevant to the voyage).

Still, three cheers for the school who could have made life so difficult, and instead have been immensely positive and helpful.

Our plan is for Ben to do a couple of hours work each weekday right through the summer, as this will be much easier to manager than a longer school day. I also hope to teach him the basics of navigation as this includes a whole lot of other aspects (geometry, geology, geography, arithmetic and meteorology, to name a few). I'm planning to take along my little-used sextant, together with a helpful almanac etc downloaded to my Palm, so perhaps he can help me with astro-nav - I certainly can't understand it!!!

Taking its time

It's a strange thing that doing anything on the boat takes four or five times longer than you expect.

On Wednesday Sam went down to fit the heater ducting with Lindsey. They spent a couple of hours aligning everying and then found that the new duct hose doesn't fit - it's 55mm and should be 63mm. Sam succeeded in tracking down the last 6-metre length of 63mm hose in the UK and is fitting it today - I hope! We have never really used the heater, but perhaps we will, who knows, as it will work so well with the new ducting.

On Thursday I went down with a borrowed pressure washer because our neighbours further down the pontoon, who also have a Storm, told us it was the ideal way to get the very tatty decal off the side. I discovered that the two of the pins on the washer's three-pin plug were bent at an angle of 45 degrees, and when I tried to straighten them, they sheared off. I took a spare three-pin plug off a light, fitted it, changed over the fuse, plugged it in, started washing and the water hose blew off, because the hose wall is too thick to be held by the patent fitting. I called Sam who suggested a Jubilee clip (fortunately we have several dozen spare ones lying around from all the work on the engine). This worked, but sadly the pressure washer didn't actually have any impact on the decal at all. The only thing which works is acetone, which is horrible stuff, and I estimate will take about 20 hours's work at the current rate to remove the decals on both sides. Then Sam phoned me to check on progress and my phone battery went flat.

Today I am staying at home waiting for a special Saturday delivery promised by TekTanks for the b***** holding tank. I don't know how late Saturday deliveries arrive, but it's now 13.16 and there's no sign of it. I am convinced it won't fit - nothing else has fitted so far...

Tales of Tiare

Many of you will know that I sing with a small a capella group, Rough at the Edges. My friend and co-singer Sally has been keeping me up to date with the adventures of her brother, Ben, and his wife, Emma. They have bought a 41ft yawl - Tiare, built in 1959 - in Hawaii and flew out there earlier this year to get her ready and set off on a voyage to Samoa. Their first leg - I just checked it on my PC Planner software - is to Palmyra Atoll, about 900 miles. Our first leg, to Ramsgate, is about 52 miles. Clearly we are not having an adventure at all.

They finally set off on 10 May but had to turn back within three days because Em was terminally, appallingly seasick. On their way back, against the tradewind, their wind vane steering sheered and then their engine suffered a serious decline. They are now back on a different island, determined to press on.

This evening I've been reading about their adventures at some length on Tiare's website. I am filled with admiration for their adventure and their courage, but also with a certain small feeling of smugness that at least we know we can sail Kalessin as far as Fecamp, because we have been there before. Also of course we are very old - our total crew age is 145. Ben and Emma probably total barely sixtysomething. That must be why we are so timid and hesitant...

In spite of the difference I recognise so many of the things they are going through. My favourite so far is the quote from one of their neighbours in a marina, who told them that B.O.A.T stands for "Break Out Another Thousand".

Footnote: I have read today (25 May) that Ben & Emma plan to come back to the UK and ship Tiare to Europe. My heart goes out to them.

Hello Dominique

I'm writing this from the lovely house of Piers (my brother) and Dominique, where I am delivering some fish. Our very small pond is full of goldfish which have, rather surprisingly, produced yet more goldfish. We were concerned that over the summer, with the sun beating down (hah!) and no fountain running, there might be more fish than the pond can support.

Catching the fish was something else again. The pond is only about 3m x 1.5m and 50cm deep, but it's amazing how effectively they can hide in among the plants and fountain stand. In the end I had to uproot a water lily to give me room to swing my net, and managed to catch six fish, transported to Griston in an enormous brewing bucket. I went the long way around to get the straightest roads, and wished I had a back window sign for the impatient drivers behind, saying "Warning: fish in transit. Gentle manoeuvres imperative to avoid slopping fish out of bucket".

Reframe (it's an NLP thing)

Taking a more cheerful view of the negative points below:
  • More time to do stuff ashore - and a drought looks less likely
  • At least Guy will be out of my hair all week - why am I complaining??
  • err... well, listing the books brought back lots of great memories
  • We don't really have room for a windsurfer anyway. And we might not have much opportunity to sail it.

One of those days

It's not a good day today.
  • The weather is awful, which doesn't help, and it looks like being cold, wet and very windy all week - including Wednesday when we were planning to take Kalessin out for a sea trial.
  • I have just discovered that Guy has GCSE exams every day this week except Monday, and not just on Tuesday, which is what he told me - just as well that I checked.
  • Having spent numerous hours of my time listing Sam's 215 motoring books, which we were hoping to sell to a specialist Norfolk bookseller, he has come back to me with a very nice but apologetic email saying most of the books are of such low value he can't take them, and he can't find anyone else who is interested either.
  • I nearly bought a windsurfer yesterday on eBay and someone outbid me in the last five seconds of the auction. Not quite sure if we really want a windsurfer (two in fact) but it looked like a good deal.
There are some things on the good side:
  • The new Delta anchor has arrived by courier this morning and looks immaculate - thanks again, Adrian.
  • Lindsey ran the engine for 45 minutes on Sunday morning without problems, hooray!
  • Sam has nearly finished fitting the extra tap in the galley - we just need to connect it to the forward water tank. Unfortunately the first hole he drilled for the tap fouled the batten which holds the sink in place, so now we have a nice extra hole - Sam suggested we could put a vase of flowers in it.
  • Yesterday (Sunday) I took off the old windlass, refitted the cleaned dodgers, and mended the tears in the sides of the aft bunk cushions.
  • On Saturday we bought some fascinatingly useless stuff at the Ipswich Boat Jumble, including the Admiralty tidal atlas of the English Channel for 50p (price new £8) and Norie's Nautical Tables for £2 (price new £18) - now all I have to do is dig out the sextant and acquire a current nautical almanac - not sure if Reeds has the right info or not!
  • Last week I managed to book three return flights from Seville in October with Ryanair at 49 euro cents each. With all the charges in place, that's about £38 for three of us, which is not bad going even if we spend an extra £100 on overweight luggage.
    Mind you, at the current rate, I'm not at all sure if we will ever make it to Seville...
I must go and do something cheering, if only I could think of something. Still, writing this all down does help, so thanks for reading.

Nothing to do with sailing


Hooray! Sam is now contributing to this blog (see Time running out, below). That's three-quarters of the family in.

And here is the fourth family member on his way to his high-school prom yesterday with his girlfriend, Beth. Impressive, huh?

Edit: Also see their limo arranged by Sam, below. Many thanks to American Dream of Norfolk!

Blown away

The work on the engine should be finished by the weekend which means we can finally move Kalessin out of her expensive marina berth and on to the Pin Mill mooring.

But will we want to? We're currently getting force 7s and 8s with another depression coming through on Sunday and even stronger winds forecast. Pin Mill is pretty sheltered but not quite as safe as a nice, expensive marina... Anyway we plan to go to the Ipswich boat jumble tomorrow to pick up some last-minute bargains. Trouble is, with the forecast as it is most of the East Coast will be there - unless the promised rain keeps them away?

I've just been reading about Dee Caffari crossing the finishing line after her wrong-way circumnavigation in Aviva. Hooray for women sailors, and to my former employer for sponsoring her. However, Richard Harvey (Aviva's CEO) must be a bit miffed that she seems to have lost a crucial "A" from the boat name... so some of the best published pictures have a huge brand reference to AVIV. (Although strangely the BBC item seems to have restored the missing letter!)

Very disturbing to read about the chap lost overboard from one of the Volvo ocean race yachts in five-metre seas in mid-Atlantic - they got him out of the sea quite quickly, but couldn't revive him. On second thoughts, perhaps we should stay here in this nice safe house?

Holding power

We already have two anchors - a CQR for the front and a Fortress, which folds flat, as a spare or kedge, or to use from the stern. But diligent reading of our various pilot books for Atlantic Spain makes it clear that we really need another anchor for the front end.

Sam identified a Delta as the best shape. (For those of you who don't know about anchors, the exact shape of your anchor, and what bottom it holds in, is a subject for endless discussion among sailors). We failed to get a Delta on eBay because I wasn't entirely sure what condition it was in and I came over all stingy at the last moment. Now we have tracked down a slightly lighter, and hopefully newer, Delta which I hope will be on its way to us from Berkshire shortly. Thanks, Adrian!

I'd like to thank you all

At the end of this month I reach my 50th birthday. On Saturday we had a family celebration in Woodham Walter to mark the occasion - early so that various holidaying family members could all be there.

It was an absolutely lovely day, and I'd like to thank Lucilla, Mark, Felix, Miffy, Paul, Alison, Max, Piers, Dominique, Alex, Anna, Pam, Alistair, Patricia, David, Alex, Tom and Henry, and of course Sam, Guy and Ben for being there, and extra special thanks to Frank and Patricia for laying on the event and being the best parents in the world. (sniff).

And here I am cutting my cake!

In the water...



Kalessin is now in the water - she was launched on Thursday. Going down to see her is rather depressing for me though, because there's still work to be done to the cockpit locker and the aft cabin, and that means nothing can be put away or cleaned. On Friday, the main cabin looked like this (right). By Sunday she looked a bit better because I sorted out several dozen packs of bolts, screws, washers, grommets and split pins from various surfaces.

Still to do:
  • Fit holding tank (on its way from TekTanks in Hampshire)
  • Fit windlass (on its way from Germany, supposedly)
  • Fit water pipe connecting front water tank to new tap in the galley, which isn't fitted yet either - Sam says this is an easy job :-))
When all of these are complete I can clean up inside and start moving stuff on board.

Not launched


Today was supposed to be the day Kalessin went in the water. Well, technically she was supposed to be launched on Monday, but that was just down to boatyard slippage.

Sam and I were down at Suffolk Yacht Harbour bright and early and spent the morning sorting out final things. Lindsey Rufford, our engineer, was also on board making final arrangements to fit the rudder. At lunchtime, as promised, the boatyard crew arrived with enormous crane, lifted Kalessin and tilted her savagely forward so that the rudder could be inserted at the rear.

The rudder went in fine - but the new rudder bush was just 3mm too big. Nothing Lindsey could do on site would make it fit. He has taken it away to a friend who has a lathe. With luck, the boat may go in the water tomorrow, but we won't be there to watch.

I went off to Fox's chandlery to buy a lovely new pair of bright red jib sheets. We wanted one red and one green (port and starboard, to help me with my rather vague understanding of left and right) but sadly they didn't have any green rope in the right size.

It was a gorgeous day - perfect for an early-season sail. Not for us, though.

Clearing out

We originally planned that this sailing trip would last a year, and one of the attractions for me was that it would give us an opportunity to get rid of lots of Stuff. The sort of Stuff which fills up your cupboards and shelves, which you're slightly emotionally attached to, or which is bound to come in useful one day.

I've been trying to persuade the boys (all three of them) that it's still worth doing this. I've cleared out the linen cupboard and recycled a number of old curtains from taller houses which will never be any use here. I've given away numerous old pairs of trousers which I will never wear again. I've persuaded Sam (I think) to part with some of his heritage collection of old motoring books. And bravest of all, I've spent the last two days clearing out Ben's bedroom. The result has been three black bin-liners full of total junk, and three or four boxes full of toys to be given away or sold. Even now, Ben still has quite a lot of stuff in his bedroom... but at least it's all now there for a reason.

I've learned a few lessons from the clear-out too. For example:
  • any food, if left long enough under the bed, turns into a small pile of brown dust
  • never give a staple gun to a 12-year-old, especially if you value your carpet
  • sticky substances in any science set will spread themselves all over every surface
Guy's bedroom next...

Criminal records

Yesterday I had to take a whole lot of ID documents to Tollesbury, so that Fellowship Afloat could get Guy ok'd through the Criminal Records Bureau disclosure check. I do hope that if he had a criminal record I would know about it. Of course I am very glad that the checks are done, but at an outdoor centre there must be a much higher risk of falling overboard and drowning than there is of being molested by a paedophile in the next Wayfarer. Sometimes we seem to pay more attention to the second risk than the first.

Fellowship Afloat is housed in an old lightship, Trinity. With a spring high tide and glorious sunshine it was looking wonderful, and I wondered why we are chasing all the way down to Spain when our own east coast is so lovely...

We are not alone

By total chance (I was looking for big pictures of sailing yachts on Google images) I found this account of a couple who sailed a Westerly Longbow (a 31-footer built in the 1970s) from Ipswich to Portugal a couple of years ago. They claimed to be beginners, but they seem to have gone for it and enjoyed it. I hope we can learn from their experience.

Planning 101

Today Ben and I created a big planning sheet on one wall of our bedroom using brown paper and dozens of post it notes. I hope that IBM Consulting, from whom I learned this advanced planning technique, would have been proud of us.


We put a few items in "finished" just to cheer ourselves up. On the other hand, if we put in all the tasks we've completed over the past 18 months or so, it would have filled the whole wall.

Merry Christmas from just me

Video of photos made for Sam's funeral    Dear friends and family As I hope you all know, this year has been a difficult one for me. On ...