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April thru June 2005
Eek, sorry for the lack of updates during these months... work kinda got on top of us and I've just not had any time to write anything. The boat was steadily getting readyfied for the trip, and I had a lot of logistical stuff to do for 'work' work - the good news we are getting there (slowly) and are planning to sail away around the mid/late June.
1st April 2005 - Congratulations Sarah and Paul!
Well, Uncle John will be pleased about this one ;) The Hammonds beat the Tyrrells to the alter, though deservedly so, as Sarah is the oldest so should naturally be the first ;) The wedding went without hitch and was very enjoyable. Congratulations Sarah and Paul, I hope everything works out well for you both :)
6th March 2005 - Happy Mothers Day Mother!
Hope you're having a nice time in Madeira!
6th March 2005 - Doss day
Ele has gone to Formby for the weekend leaving me some time to get on with my ever increasing pile of work to do. So having realised quite how much there is to do before we can leave (let alone the work on the boat I have at least two months-worth of 'work' work to do) I decided to use my time wisely and do..... nothing. Well, actually... sleep. I managed 14 hours of sleeping last night/today :) And then to make me feel better I bought some expensive Stilton and Walnut 'Ravollini' from M&S and stuffed my face with it. I also bought a 'Fat Free' yoghurt, which contained 0.2g of fat... how does that work? Maybe if I complain to M&S I'll get another Fat Free yoghurt free. Uh, maybe that's what they mean - you pay for the yoghurt, but the fat is free ;)
4th March 2005 - Dead Pets
At the invitation of Ele's friend Scarey Clarey, we went to see some local punk bands play at a local dive, 'Heav'n and Hell' on Fleet Street. I remembered the venue as Kitty o'Shea's Irish Bar, or Shitty o'Shea's as we used to call it, which was a pretty poor name for it, as it used to be quite a nice bar back then (nearly 10 years ago!) serving a good Guiness. Then about 5 years ago it became an illuminous 70's theme bar which I visited once - and now it looks appropriately neglected to make it an almost perfect venue for grimy student bands. Several reminders of the venue's history still remain, including garishly painted restrooms, and the jukebox, which still seemed to be playing classics from the 70s. The bands were quite entertaining - The Dead Pets are actually a reasonably established band, but there was a poor turnout, and the PA system blew up halfway through their set, much to the dismay of the singer, who in true punk order promptly punched the soundman! They still managed to put on a good show though.
4th March 2005 - rewire phase one complete!
I've spent the last couple of days installing and wiring up the new battery charger/inverter, isolation transformer, battery monitor and associated control panels and gubbins. This entailed a fair amount of work, since the boat didn't have a battery charger previously, and had never had any 230v AC ('mains') wiring. After two days of drilling, sawing, crawling around in cockpit lockers, chasing wires through nooks and crannies of the boat I never knew existed, screwing 8-() and swearing, it all seems to be working ok, and at last we have full batteries and can leave the lights on and play loud music as much as we like :) I still have to bond our AC earth to the ships ground, and then wire the isolation transformer in before the charger, which will allow us to use shorepower without dissolving our propeller.
The transformer is so heavy that it wouldn't mount where first intended, and instead had to go in the cockpit locker. Infact it's soooo heavy that now the boat has a slight tilt to the left!!!
Hello! Aquainting a heavy blue metal box with it's new home.
1st March 2005
Geesh, March already - we had been hoping to leave the UK around mid-April, but at this rate it looks like we wont be ready in time :( Better pull my thumb out...
21st Feb 2005 - weakest link
Thanks to our good friend Mr Robert Foxx, Dartwarrior.com has now been linked to. Damn, I'm gonna have to raise my game now cos there's a chance that someone other than my Mum might visit ;)
In reciprocation, you can visit Rob here.
18th-21st Feb 2005 - Hamburgers
Yet another business trip - this time to Hamburg! The highlights were meeting this little guy, and being reunited with my elder brother Felix the Viking:
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little snowy dude waiting patiently outside a restaurant
| scarey! seperated at birth?!! Felix (left) and me! |
and just to prove that we do actually work on our business trips, here is Gus preparing for a seminar at Stefans new studio and a family photo of Gus with our European Distributors, MasterSounds
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| Gus (left) and Stefan
| (left to right) Erik, Thomas, Linus, Gus and Arnd |
14th Feb 2005 - VTD
Happy Valentines Day us! Ele cooked us a nice meal, and then we watched two episodes of 24. Ele has now fallen asleep, so I'm taking the opportunity to update the site - and they say romance is dead ;)
14th Feb 2005 - Wind-powertastic
I ordered our wind generator today :) It's a 400watt model, called the D400 from Eclectic Energy, and can output over 30amps in a strong breeze. In 'normal' weather we hope it will generate enough electric (possibly supplimented by a solar panel or two) to run the fridge, laptop and lights. Now I have to find a long pole to stick it on the top of!
Captains Log - 13th Feb 2005
Last week Ele and me decided that I had not been eating enough again. Whenever I do a supermarket shop I always stock up on plenty of 'snacky' food - things like pot-noodles, battenburg, eccles cakes, and lots of crisps :) Ele on the otherhand doesn't buy such junky food, and prefers to cook with fresh vegetables and strange ingredients which are unknown and unedible to me. As Ele has done most of the food shopping recently it means I've been doing without my between-meal snacks, and as such have been getting regular bouts of the shakes (a condition I suffer from when I don't eat enough!). So early last week Ele decided she would buy me all the nice things I like, and I spent the latter part of the week grazing my way through it all... the outcome of all this is that one of the gents cubicals in the marina has been blocked and out-of-order all weekend... sorry guys, it was me!!!
13th Feb 2005 - Severe gale force 9
Twas a bit windy last night!! The forecast was 'force 5 to 6, increasing severe gale force 9', and I think it was right! The wind was also on the beam, meaning we were rocked and buffeted from side to side all night, the worst gust waking me as I nearly fell out the bunk, and causing the toothbrush-beaker to fall into the sink and the washing up to slide around the draining board! Some other people were more unfortunate than us though - a couple of boats had their roller-furling Genoas come un-furled, and they flogged themselves to shreds. I noticed one had come loose at about 4:20am, but apon examining it I decided it was not safe to attempt to re-furl or drop the sail - a huge unfurled Genoa in a force 9 could easily whip you overboard, or punch you black and blue, even in the safe confines of a marina. It was really saddening to watch it flogging around, knowing that by the morning it would be torn to pieces, and I lay awake for quite awhile tring to think of some way to safely lower the sail, but it was all twisted around the forestay and would have needed a lot of manhandling to get it down. Maybe with 3 or 4 strong pairs of hands it would have been possible...
11th Feb 2005 - New Gadgets :)
Ooh I've been spending again :) First off was a Halfords car amplifier, rated at '250watts' (although that's 250 'marketing' watts of course - actual RMS watts is about 55W per side - still plenty to keep the neighbours awake ;)) and will allow us to watch DVDs on the laptop with decent sound, and to play music on my second purchase of the day, an iRiver mp3 jukebox. I've just transfered my entire CD collection onto it, and it sounds great. The main reason I bought the iRiver over any other mp3 player is because it plays OGG Vorbis files too, which for the uninitiated sound a lot better than mp3 :)
The final gadget of the day was an external d-link wireless network antenna - this has been clamped to one of our stanchions and means that we finally have broadband internet on the boat, hurray!
Of course, whenever I go spending crazy I feel over-materialistic and think that maybe my money would have been better donated to Band Aid or some other charitable cause - so the next time I see someone collecting for charity I'm gonna surprise them by stuffing a note into their tin, rather than the usual assortment of shrapnel which purposefully sounds more than it is :( I think that anyone who can afford to buy expensive gadgets without worrying about the price should contribute a 'gadget tax' to a worthy cause :)
The new d-link outdoor wireless antenna - fast internet at last!
10th Feb 2005 - cup of tea anyone?
I finally got round to emptying our disgusting keel watertanks, with a view to cleaning and readying them for taking plastic tanks when we replumb the boat. I think these photos from inside the tank illustrate rather nicely why we have never used the water in the keel!!! The dark blobs are furry little mould domes, and the brown sediment in the bottom is presumably from the rusting fittings... I had originally thought we may be able to just clean the tanks, but I don't think so now!
10th Feb 2005 - crap website
Sorry about the general crapness of this site! I promise I will revamp it sometime, and hopefully Ele will contribute too, which should improve the quality somewhat. I'll also sectionalise it, so all my wingey whiney rants can be put in a 'rants' section, and avoided. I know it's quite boring to read other peoples rants, but I personally think it's better to write them down (and upload them) than to force them on the people around you!
8th Feb 2005
Apparently someone decided to jump into the Albert Dock on saturday night. Word has it they hit the water and never re-appeared. Police divers have searched the dock but found no trace... we're half expecting to hear a 'thonk' in the night as the poor fella surfaces underneith our boat!
24th Jan 2005 :(
Received sad news from home today regarding our next-boat neighbours Bernie and Dave. They, like us, had recently sold their house and bought a boat, and were planning to sail down to the med early this year. This is the email I received from Ele:
bit weird and sad on the woz today.
just after i got back and was on the boat, there was some noise outside. some people were outside dave and bernie's boat. then an ambulance arrived, and some crying family (one person, the daughter i think was hysterical and screaming). Some police arrived a bit later,and there was lots of standing around and people getting on and off the boat, filling in foms and stuff i think, and lots of family around. Saw Bernie getting off and looking upset. Then the ambulance went and some people in long coats came along. then they took away Dave in a black bag on a stretcher. Oh dear. Was a bit upset.........
18th - 26th Jan 2005: LA Winter NAMM
I'm off again, leaving poor Ele on the boat by herself yet again :( This time it was a business trip to Los Angeles for the Winter NAMM Tradeshow. The show only lasted 5 days, but we (myself and Gus) decided to go for a week so we could have a recovery day at the start and a holiday-day at the end! This is the snazzy Benz we rented :) Well, if you're gonna do LA, you may as well do it in style! Actually, the C240 turned out to be very luxurious, but about as fun as a paper-hat on a rainy day. Being an automatic it was very sluggish, impossible to wheelspin, and the most fuel inefficient car I've ever driven! I can honestly say I had more fun driving the Renault Megan in Spain, though probably didn't look as cool doing it ;) Next time we're getting the Lamborghini ;)
Gus by the most fuel inefficient and over-rated car I've ever driven!
17th Jan 2005: Accounts, accounts, accounts, boatshow, and accounts
For the last two weeks I have been in Lechlade with my Father, finally sorting out the company accounts. 2.5 years-worth of invoices, bills, bank statements and reciepts to sort through - all crammed into 12 days! Well we got there eventually,
[rant] no thanks to the wonderful Line50FC software from Sage. Wow... I like using this software about as much as I like programming Apple computers... and as if the >£1000 price tag for the software isn't enough, if you want to ask them for any support (or even just view the FAQs) you have to pay another £500 for a 'support contact'!!!! I would highly recommend anyone looking for accounting software to try ALL the alternatives first (quickbooks, tasbooks and MYOB are all highly recommended). And if (and only if) you really require _full_ multicurrency support (including the ability to set foreign pricelists for products), should you consider the Sage Line50 range. It is a rip-off for what it does, and as soon as Quickbooks or MYOB tidy up their foreign currency handling I'll most likely say goodbye to the Geordie-bloodsuckers for good ;) [/rant]
Ele managed to make it down for the London Boatshow, and we had a peep over our 'next' boat, the rather tasty Island Packet 485. I also thoroughly bored everyone by insisting on visiting every single stand featuring battery chargers, batteries, wind generators, solar panels, instruments and tranducers, holding tanks, water tanks, pumps, fridges, radios and even sinks :)
7th Jan 2005: Piccies :)
I suppose there should be a picture of the boat and us on this site? Well, here's a couple, until we get some more interesting ones!
Christmas 2004 and New Year 2004/2005
We had a nice relaxed Christmas and New Year this year - Christmas eve and day was spent in Formby with Maureen and Gordon, and on boxing day we went to Ele's dad's for post-christmas dinner before driving south to my folks'. I was doubtful whether my extended alchohol detox period would last over the festive season, but it did, and so it was my first sober christmas for a very long time! Infact I can remember the last sober Christmas and New Year - I remember watching 'This is Spinal Tap' at midnight while my parents pranced around the street with our neighbours singing Old Lang Syne - and learning from their antics I've followed their example every New Year since :) I couldn't help feeling that my lack of alcholism this Christmas may have dampened the spirits a little, but I hope Maureen and Gordon had a good Christmas anyway... I did :)
New Years Eve was spent playing party games and eating stupid amounts of sweets at Richard and Louise's house - at midnight we went to Ed's restaurant to toast in the new year - a more reserved celebration than our traditional house parties (which I rarely remember), but it was nice to not be one of the drunken fools stumbling down the high-street, and even nicer to be able to get up early on Jan 1st 2005 and walk up Moel Famau. It was sooooooo windy at the top that it was difficult to stand up! And we made it back down just before the rain arrived.
I'd like to thank my cousins Sarah and David for their kind Christmas pressies this year, and also thank them for kindly donating their allocated christmas-pressie-budget to the Tsumani Relief efforts ;) Infact I'd like to suggest that maybe in the future we all donate to a charity of our choosing instead of buying each other choccies or other luxury (but yummy) items... whaddyafink? And for anyone who hasn't donated yet... click here
23rd Dec 2004: Christmas shopping
Ele has gone to see the musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' with her mum this evening, so I took the opportunity to pop into town for a bit of last minute Christmas shopping. Thankfully I am not trusted with doing most of my Christmas shopping, and so Ele had already done most of it for me. When you only have a couple of things to buy, and you're not really in a rush, I think Christmas shopping can be quite enjoyable. Agreed, I wouldn't want to do it every day, but it's been a long time since I was last in town and it felt quite relaxing to be pulled along the pedestrianised streets by the flows of people. There's also some satisfaction to be gained from remaining relaxed and cheerful despite the hoards of stressed and moaning shoppers. My karma dropped slightly in Argos when yet another bag-laden person pushed in front of me at the collection till, complaining to the person next to her that she had already had to wait for 25 minutes to pay, and now was having to queue again. She had order number 440, I was 409.
Another challenge when Christmas shopping is managing to regulate your body temperature. I was wondering around in two thick jumpers, a coat and scarf, which was ideal for the blustery walk from the marina to the shops, but upon entering each shop it would only be a matter of minutes before my layers became uncomfortably hot. Removing the scarf helped a bit, but I found that by standing perfectly still and slowing my breathing and heartbeat I could maintain a comfortable body temperature. This is ideal for queueing situations, but not very practical for most other shopping activities!
I had a dylemma when buying one of Ele's pressies - she had mentioned that she would like a particular book, by a particular author, but she had explicitly stated that she didn't want the hardback version, only the paperback. Unfortunately, said book has only been published in hardback, and isn't due in paperback for some time... what to do?!! I got the hardback version, but will have some quick explaining to do on Christmas morning... Whilst looking for said book however, I stumbled across a copy of Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum' - a book I have been wanting to read for years, but have never managed to find before. I even got 10% off as it was the last copy and was a bit scuffed. I can see why I am not trusted for mainstream Christmas shopping, I just get sidetracked and buy myself things instead! Wandering back through town I decided against doing some much needed clothes shopping (for myself), deciding that the day before Christmas eve was probably a daft time to be umming and ahhing about which pair of jeans fitted better. I noticed that mannequins are available in all shapes and sizes these days - one shop had a range of womens crop-tops proudly displayed on mannequins with pot/beer bellies, and another shop was displaying biege cotton kammoeque trousers on a mannequin with a J-Lo ass.
Back at the boat now, had a nice summerfield quiche for tea, waiting for Ele to return, no doubt reciting every song from the show!
22nd Dec 2004: Mixing water and electricity
Our boat, like most, has limited supplies of essentials on board. We have about 40 gallons of fresh-water (and 80 gallons of stale ditchwater), and 108 Amp-hours of electricity. When we turn on a tap, the electricity is used to power a pump, which pressurises the water so it flows out the tap. With limited supplies of both water and electricity I've been having a secret little bet with myself as to which would run out first... the water, or the electricity to supply the water. We were getting very low on both, but last night just as I was brushing my teeth the water pump slowed to a crawl, and then stopped. There was just enough electric left to run the lights till bedtime.
So as I'm writing this we are running our engine to recharge the battery. Before long we'll be purchasing a wind turbine and a mains charger, so that we can charge the batteries from either the wind (preferable), or the marina electric supply in the absence of wind. It's blowing 30+knots today, and the wind turbines on the other boats are wizzing around, but until we join the green environ-friendly renewable energy club we'll just have to obtain our electric by burning diesel :(
21st Dec 2004: Dry again
Thankfully the forecabin has dried out now. Two days of towling down all the surfaces first thing in the morning, and then running the fanheater and dehumidifier has worked wonders. Tonight we have dry beds and a warm, dry cabin to sleep in :))
19th Dec 2004: GPRS sux
I had hoped to do some work today - we had received a good number of orders over the previous two days, and I wanted to take our customers money! However it was not to be, as the marina apparently doesn't offer wireless internet, and our boat seems to be out of GRPS coverage. I checked my emails though my orange dialup, but at 9.6kbps it was too slow for processing any orders, so that'll have to wait. I shall, however, have to find an alternative speedy internet service pretty quickly, as my work is fairly dependent on it!
Spent the day shuffling things around the boat - tried the diesel cabin heater. It lit first time and heated up quickly, but alas it wouldn't regulate the flow of diesel properly, so unless you gave it a 'squirt' of diesel every minute or so, it would go out. The problem seems to be with the safety-regulator valve (similar to the flame-failure devices in gas stoves) - it wasn't detecting that the burner was hot, and so wouldn't let the diesel flow. I'll dismantle it sometime to see if there's anything obviously out of place, but I suspect it needs a new safety-regulator...
After a nice Rissoto for dinner (first meal to be cooked with meths!), we went to the pictures to see 'a series of unfortunate events' - quite good for a Christmassy, family friendly film, but not as good as some Carey films, and nowhere near as good as Labrynth!
Ellen MacArthur awoke one morning whilst crossing the north Atlantic (I think, or maybe it was the southern Ocean!), to discover 'ICE' (a huge iceberg looming over her boat). On arriving back to our boat this evening we also discovered ice... lots of it, covering everything - the cars in the carpark were already iced up, the ramp down to the pontoons was an icy deathslide (despite having been gritted), the pontoons themselves could have been home to Torville and Deane, and our non-slip deck pads had become non-non-slip deck pads. Note to self... careful not to slip - falling in icey water bad idea...
And the icey weather has created another problem in our fore-cabin too - the condensation which _was_ on the windows, walls, cupboards and ceiling, has now dripped down the sides of the forepeak and soaked our beds! Tomorrow I will remember to clear the condensation from the surfaces, and then run the fanheater and de-humidifier in the forecabin methinks! The cold I can tolerate (as long as I have a nice warm bed), but damp and cold should only be for people for like Ellen MacArthur... ;)
18th Dec 2004: Chilly morning, Xmas party shananigans
4:20am: The wind had obviously shifted and somewhat increased in strength. I could tell this by the fact that one of the halyards (which I had securely bungeed out to the stays) was managing to gong against the mast. After trying to ignore it for several minutes I donned my coat and sandals and went out on deck to fix it. The main halyard (though still bungeed out) was bowing in the strong wind and the top half was slapping rhythmicly against the mast. Taking no prisoners I took a warp from the deck-locker and lashed the halyard right back, taking the line to a cleat at the back of the boat - If that doesn't stop the racket, nothing will!! Back in bed I lay for a while listening to the other sounds of the boat. A creaking from the side of my berth, where presumably the forward-spring warp was rubbing over the toerail; an occasional squeek as the fenders buffered our motion against the pontoon; and the continuous, but quite soothing gentle whistle of the wind...
It was still cold when we awoke in the morning, and all the surfaces in the forecabin were covered in a layer of condensation. I had heard that condensation is a major problem on boats, but I was surprised to see so much of it considering we had been running the de-humidifier solidly for the past 6 weeks! Item added to Christmas wish-list: 'Window Squeegee'!
Such is our busy and hectic lifestyle, that despite the huge lists of 'things that need doing' aboard, we spent the day at Christmas gatherings - Louise and Richard's for Christmas buffet and an assortment of games, then on to Sacha and Jane's for Italian food and a film. Jane also had a spare hot-water bottle, which was greatfully borrowed :)
17th Dec 2004: Shore to Ship
Finally we are aboard! The house was vacated by 5pm, and after checking every door and draw in every room, and looking under every piece of furniture for any evidence of our having been there for the last 3 years, I set the alarm for the last time, and shut the door behind me. It felt rather odd closing the door, leaving the keys inside - something I had managed to avoid for three years, but now there was no going back; it wasn't our house any more.
We had spent the last week clearing, packing, and dumping all our belongings. All the absolute essentials for living had been packed into about 6 large bags, with a further vanfull of 'quasi-essential' items. Another van-load had been tipped a day earlier, and all my office gubbins had been put in storage. Our fish had gone into temporary accomodation in Formby, and my boards and unwieldingly large speakers were being looked after at Cathedral Close. Driving to the boat we had serious doubts about whether we'd be able to have space for our possesions, and so we set about the task of carefully stowing everything aboard. The weather couldn't have been better for moving... gale force freezing winds, rain, and hailstones - I went on deck to transfer some diesel from the main tank to the Taylors cabin heater tank, and got so pummeled by 10mm diameter cubes of ice that I had to abandon the job and just run the fan-heater instead. By midnight we had made sense of the chaos, and donning our 'camping' PJs (jogging trousers, jumpers, socks and hats) we went to sleep in our new home.
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