Keeping in touch.....
Final Plans & Departure
The Principle details for our travels:
1. Enjoy the journey and take no risks.
2. Anchor safely or pick up buoys whenever possible.
3. Take time - no rushing and get back safely.
1st February 2024 - As our plans to sail the West Coast of Scotland still cannot proceed at present, we have decided to undertake an extended cruise this year(2024) covering the English South Coast, starting at Brightlingsea and travelling leisurely to the South West coastal areas, something we had loosely planned for last year but..... No firm plans yet but we could start in mid-May with a return to Brightlingsea in mid-September 24. One or both of us will need to return home every 3 weeks or so throughout the cruise so careful planning of stopovers with secure, safe berthing and easy access to good transport links will need to be considered.
3rd April 2024 - We are forced to change our latest plans owing to matters outside of our control which have unfortunately resulted in a shortening of our south coast extended cruise plans for this year. We are now firm on the start of our cruise date which will be Saturday 13th July (realistically this will be a day of final provisioning, checks, etc.) in order to be clear of the Solent during Cowes Week as its no place for a cruising yacht at that time as we have experienced previously) with a return to Brightlingsea by no later than 14th September although even this could change again for reasons outside of our control. So we are firming up plans based on the above dates giving us a 9 week window to work within - a realistic and worthwhile time for a very much needed cruise.
3rd June 2024 - Now only 6 weeks till we set off and still a number of items to be completed ready for the big day, hopefully nothing too serious. The final cruise plan is already drafted and relevant stopover details tabulated, the journey from Brightlingsea to the Solent is pretty much set but beyond that will remain flexible to some extent as there are options that will be decided later.
PS - We have now ticked all the boxes and we are free to go!!! - Departure Sunday 14th July returning by 14th September 2024, a full 9 weeks of cruising.
21st June 2024 - Only 3 weeks to go and time is moving on very quickly. We are being lifted out this coming weekend for a power hose and coat of anti-foul. Once that's done we can replace the engine wet exhaust system that has recently shown signs of its age and started to perish and drip water in the starboard aft locker. The 76mm dia. stainless steel reinforced rubber hose is just over 5m long and is going to take a lot of persuasion to get installed, it has to be done before we go anywhere though so will need to get straight on it once back on our berth in the harbour.
It looks like we will only be returning home once now during the journey to do necessary tasks, this is very good news because it's going to be very expensive travelling home by public transport and was going to seriously disrupt our extended holiday cruise.
Planning the trip is well advanced now with just the final courses and tides to check and save on the plotters with associated way-points. We are really looking forward to getting going now and getting into the zone with our 9 weeks on the water! It's been a real struggle getting this far in so many ways and we desperately need to throw off the lines and go.
When Christina recently asked me what I was looking
forward to the most, I responded - looking back over
my shoulder and seeing Brightlingsea disappearing
astern (no disrespect intended to Brightlingsea in any way)
I just need to get on with it now.
28th June 2024 - last weekend we were lifted out by travel hoist and had the hull power hosed by the yard staff at Morgan Marine, a coat of anti-fouling followed and we were back in our harbour berth. The next days followed with the original wet engine exhaust system being removed and replaced successfully but with many bruises and aching muscles from the confined working locations, in the hottest week so far this year. Our Mariner 3.5 HP outboard engine was also checked out ashore by Andy Gunsford the local Mr Fix-It for all things mechanical, turned out the problem with loss of cooling water flow was that the thermostat was intermittently closing off completely for no reason. A replacement was fitted and problem solved. While this was being done we have been using a Honda 2.3 HP that Paul Davies a longtime friend, had very kindly donated (for a small donation) at the end of his boat owning days and it proved very useful after sitting in our store for over a year. We were hoping to see if it will squeeze in the space below the Starboard aft cabin bunk as it is very light and will be useful as a spare in the event of another problem with the Mariner. The good news was that it fitted perfectly in the aft port side stern locker - on the solidly built ply shelving that was now obviously always intended for this purpose!!!!
This weekend saw us patching up the stitching on the two leather
steering wheel covers that have all but disappeared leaving the leather
covering flapping in the breeze and not look good at all. As it worked out,
Christina did a fantastic job of sewing them up and they look far better
than I had expected.
Our almost 8 year old grandson Oscar (Right) who will be joining us for
our 9 week extended summer cruise this year - he is going to learn a
whole lot of new stuff on his travels and will hopefully enjoy and long
remember the experience. Our gratitude goes out to the head teacher and
staff at Brightlingsea Primary School for their support and giving us the
authority to allow Oscar to have time out from his school terms to enable
us to do this trip and for him to join us in our special circumstances, it
could not have gone ahead without all their help.
6th July 2024 - Only 1 week to go now and we have been feeling the pressure but hopefully no more major jobs. We are now starting to feel the departure date is in sight and we can relax a little.
13th July 2024 - we left the harbour and picked up a buoy in Pyefleet creek on the other side of the River Colne so we could have a peaceful night ready for an early dawn start without the more limiting tidal constraints in the harbour.
14th July 2024 - We left Pyefleet at the crack of dawn, heading for our first stop at Ramsgate.
14th August 2024 - Dawn departure 15th Sept. 2024 - Safely back home
15th September 2024 - As planned, we returned exactly 9 weeks after departing having covered 702 Nautical Miles over the sea (801 statute miles) and spending 124 hours at sea. My intention of regularly updating details and photo's of our journey in this blog were sadly not achieved at the time but will be retrospectively added now we have more time and inclination, realizing that those more regular and the professional Blog & Vloggers have to sacrifice a lot to keep their audiences happy while we managed to keep family and close friends regularly informed with a WhatsApp Group Chat updated almost all sailing days (often from the helm) and many between. This was carefully managed/controlled so it didn't allow any responses that would have made it very cumbersome. That proved a good lesson for any future web Blogs!!!.
Having returned to our berth at around 2.00pm after leaving Ramsgate we felt tired but not wanting to end it any sooner than we had to, so we offloaded some of our baggage and perishable food supplies to our nearby home ashore but just had to return for another final night on board Pantalion. we then started steadily re-adjusting to the normal routines of life ashore which after a full week or more, we were still feeling very wobbly on our feet and I was struggling to walk in a straight line. NO, nothing to to with the drink!!!
Please go to the "Our Journey" Tab to follow our progress, more details and photo's as we add them.
