Back of the Wight...or not!

Our plan to sail south of the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth to Yarmouth over the late May bank holiday was frustrated again by weather- as have most of the LSC's late May events over the last five years. But this time the weather was really awful. I left my berth on the Beaulieu River at noon on Saturday on Silver Tide with Richard Taylor and Patrick MacCulloch as crew. We enjoyed a fast albeit blustery sail with a SW force 6 on the quarter and covered the 12 miles to Portsmouth in under two hours.

Keith Irons, 04.06.2011 | Posted in comment

JOG Race to Deauville

Over the late May bank holiday weekend Juno took part in the JOG offshore race to Deauville. We normally sail with a crew of seven but this weekend we were down to six crew. Then one crew member found that the traffic at Hindhead on the Friday before bank holiday was so heavy that he would not be able to reach Hamble in time for the start!

Graham Broadway, 30.05.2011 | Posted in comment

Week One, Amber Sea

First week over, I am staying in a motel in Boothbay Harbour, Maine, as I can't stay on Amber Sea (Moody 38 CC) until she is launched.
 
Checked and serviced all the seacocks, cleaned out the engine heat exchanger which was full of rubber bits from the two impellers that melted and broke up when the pump went and the engine overheated. The new AIS is fitted under the spray hood, another safety feature for dodging big ships!
 
Paying craftsmen to do these bits while I pass tools, get in the way, and learn.
Next week I will rub down the ant-fouling patches from the repairs in Tortola and re-patch with coppercoat, which should arrive on Monday. Then she can be launched and the mast and sails put back on. May well be close to ready by the end of next week.

Malcolm Lewis-Jones, 04.05.2011 | Posted in comment

A month in America

To those of you who wondered where we’d got to, the answer is Knapp’s Narrows, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We’ve travelled all of 50 yards from where Tomia has spent the winter. The past month has sped by, on all sorts of boaty doings, improvements, repairs; we have now been in the water for four days, and may well get sailing again any day now...

Celia Mason, 04.05.2011 | Posted in comment

RORC Cervantes Race from Juno

Juno under spinnaker

Juno took part in the RORC Cervantes Challenge held over the early May bank holiday weekend. I am usually on board Juno on the Friday afternoon but this Friday was my wife's birthday and so I drove down after an evening meal in a local resturant which meant I arrived in Hamble at 2300 and was assigned the blow-up mattress on the cabin sole, all the berths being occupied by snoring crew.

Graham Broadway, 03.05.2011 | Posted in comment

RORC Easter Challenge

RORC Fleet approaching leeward gate

After several weekends of practice sails Easter was the start of Juno's competitive season. Instead of the usual Easter cross channel race with JOG to Cherbourg we opted for some "round the cans" racing in the Solent. This is in preparation of the Fastnet race later this year.

Graham Broadway, 27.04.2011 | Posted in comment

Tribute to Phyllis

Phyllis Mackay pictured at a Halloween party with MLJ in Lanzarote

I met Phyllis Mackay in Gibraltar when "Boot" the Blue Waters Rally administrator approached me for a berth to Lanzarote. She then introduced us, and we got on immediately. Phyllis checked out of her hotel and moved aboard "Amber Sea" that afternoon.

Malcolm Lewis-Jones, 24.02.2011 | Posted in comment

Pirates of the Caribbean

YO HO HO! and a bottle  of rum (or two or more....). This is the film set where they tried to hang Jack Spratt in Wallilabou Bay St Vincent.

If you'd like to follow him (sailing not hanging), why not join the crew? You'd be much more comfortable as we've chartered a Leopard 42 Catamaran (4 double en suite cabins)

John Hanford, 17.02.2011 | Posted in comment

Winter at Lake Balaton, Hungary

 It is hard to believe that I have had two summers sailing on Lake Balaton already. I suppose time passing so quickly is a sign of getting older. Maybe because I am older, I haven't missed sailing in UK waters. I am often asked by Hungarians if I miss the sea  and I can honestly say that I haven't missed the times that I was cold, wet and frightened. Call me an old softy, but I much prefer air temperatures in the 30s and water temperature in the mid-20s.

 

Not that the Balaton hasn't got its own dangers. It is hard to imagine how quickly a blissfully calm day can suddenly change. Squalls and gales can suddenly come hurtling down from the hills on the north side of the lake, and although a well-found boat won't capsize or sink one can be painfully aware of the one thing lacking here: sea-room. There is no heaving-to and sitting it out

 

Jeremy Francis ..., 17.02.2011 | Posted in comment

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