skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Southampton boat show allowed me to look in detail at some of the items I was interested in, in particular the Sea Brake.
After watching the video on the Seateach stand and seeing the item hung from the ceiling and on making a closer inspection, I was soon reaching for the credit card to purchase one Sea Brake. I also bought the required warp and tackle to complete the setup.
I am really pleased with the quality of all the items and very impressed with Stuart who sold us the equipment.
Stuart also demonstrated the Parasail and quoted us a price for a suitable sized one for a Mahe 36. We are still waiting to see the Spifurl from FP before we make our minds up on what we want for down wind sailing.
Well I have just had my first night school on the RYA Ocean course at Fleetwood nautical college. The course tutor Alan Ollerton has some 46 years of experience and at our first meeting that clearly shows. It was good to see a few other friendly faces in Paul and Alan who did the Yachtmaster course last year and are equally as enthusiastic as me in the in the quest to expand their knowledge, with plans to put it into practice in the not too distance future.
The first evening was just a gentle introduction into some of the topics we will be covering on the course and believe you me I am glad we are starting at the shallow end. I am a big fan of GPS, no doubt about it, but I also have a huge passion for what we are about to be taught. Marine electronics have clearly made a large impact on the ability for any person with a basic understanding to make effortless passages safely!
I am intending to use the sextant at every opportunity in recording our passage making. The plan being that I will keep a daily log, which will be based on the manual calculations using the knowledge gained on this course, whilst Jo will be keeping an eye on my progress, using GPS, the agreement being if we are not were I say we are then a simple suggestion or hint should correct my endeavours.
Asking Alan to suggest some reading material to supplement the course was quickly followed by Tom Cunliffe – Ocean Sailing, which came as no surprise, two minutes on Amazon and the book should now be on its way.
We had our first house viewing on Monday night, a couple who have already paid a deposit on another incomplete house on the site. They seemed very impressed and from the discussions our price is reasonable, so I think they are trying to negotiate a deal with the developers. We'll have to wait to see how those turn out, but it suggests that our house is a good deal, so hopefully it's just a matter of time. However, the news on the world financial markets don't seem to be helping house sales at the moment. The estate agent said they will let us know, so for now we wait...
I also spoke to the National Marine Correspondence School to check on the progress on my first assessment, as I have very little time to complete my exam before my subscription expires. The very nice lady that I spoke to in order to change my address, told me not to worry myself about the deadline for completing my Yachtmaster theory course and has given me a two month extension for free. I was very relieved with that and very impressed with their customer service, which is so sadly lacking in many companies these days.
An excellent weekend was had by all at Southampton Boat Show. We met my parents and their friends Steve and Debs at the gate at opening time after a very early start for our journey’s from North West and North East respectively. We were very excited to get back on board, as will probably be very clear from the last few updates, indeed our guests were struggling to keep up as we progressed over 2 footbridges and across the entire show to reach MI Cats berth on the pontoons. Karen very kindly gave us sometime on the boat uninterrupted to show everyone around.
A very big thumbs up was given by all. I think it is fair to say everyone was overwhelmed by the size, quality and value for money of the Mahe 36. Alex, Kevin’s daughter has given full unreserved approval for her cabin at the port bow and my dad is already making plans for stowing himself away in the anchor locker! Kevin and I really enjoyed the opportunity to show everyone around, it’s great to have so much support for what we are doing. Steve and Debs who have done some sailing before but on monohulls were particularly surprised by some of the benefits of catamarans, especially the salon above water level, the additional space in cabins, cockpit and saloon… so much so they were collecting brochures the next day…!
We did a lot of research over the two days, we visited all of the exhibitors for the kit that we are looking to buy to see all the items we have researched on the internet. We definitely confirmed the Raymarine choice on the electronics. We had a bit of a turnaround on the tender and outboard however, we saw the Zodiac and Honda stands and confirmed the excellent build quality and features of the tender and outboard selected by Kevin previously. 
However, now we had chance to measure up the boat for storage of a 15hp outboard engine and 3.1m rigid hull inflatable boat. The tender would fit well between the hulls, but we really wanted to make sure that we could remove the outboard for security and to protect it from the elements. Also, all reports we have read and visual evidence suggests that rubber boats do not survive well stored permanently on the back of the boat on davits. Finally, extensive measuring up by Kevin suggested that the outboard would not fit where we were planning. Therefore, we started to turn back to our original idea of buying a tender and outboard which could be deflated and stored. So, when looking on the Honda stand at the tender and outboard deals we decided to go for one of their aluminium slated floor models (with a boat cover) and to get it now, so we can have a play!!
In what seemed like perfect timing after a worrying week of headlines for house sellers about Northern Rock etc, we had a call mid-morning on Saturday to arrange a viewing for our house on Monday night. So, now we could really relax and enjoy the weekend. We all went for dinner with Karen and her partner Paul and Kelly from MI Cats on Saturday night which was a great end to the day. In fact, thanks must go to all at MI Cats for their wonderful hospitality and endless tea through the weekend as we found it hard to tear ourselves away from the Mahe!!
There has been a few updates in the last few days which seem to have come quite rapidly, to ease the growing impatience. We had a telephone call on Friday night about Kevin’s Land Rover Defender from a nice man called Rik who was very excited to come and see it. Saturday morning at 9.30 he was on his way here and by Monday lunchtime the banker’s draft was ready. Monday night Kevin and I drove to Chester to deliver the truck. Rik is apparently giving up the corporate lifestyle to move to a remote area of France to try his hand at property development. So, it’s another of our possessions which is going to a great new life.
We have also finally received our Home Energy Assessment report via the addition of the graphs to our house brochure, although it seems that we got a must try harder, grade C (scale A-G). I was rather disappointed as we hoped that this would be a good selling point for the house as it by far the warmest that either of us have lived in. Closer inspection, driving to the estate agents to collect the accompanying report which they did not think to send to us, revealed that apparently the average rating for the UK housing stock is a grade E. Well, perhaps it’s the year on year increases in exam grades setting high expectations (25% A grades I think this year!), but I’m not sure that this will be a great hit with most home owners. Ours was apparently the highest the inspector has yet awarded (79), B grade is 81 and above, which we could have achieved by covering 25% of our roof area in solar panels (approx cost = £4k), for apparently a saving of £29 per year!
After a telephone call to the Energy Inspector, it seems we could never achieve an A grade no matter how much home work we did, as we are downgraded for having 3 external walls of a height of 3 storeys (we are in a 1 year old end terrace townhouse). So presumably, you’d need to live in a flat to get an A. However, the immediate problem is that the vast majority of the house buying public will not be privy to this information especially as ours is the only house at the estate agent which has had a HIP done and as such, we are apparently legally required to display the graphic of the results on the house brochure. I guess the only answer is to provide some text in the brochure to explain the result, so people are not put off by our C grade by a lack of any comparison. I can’t help but feel that there is going to be some serious kick back by the general public when these assessments start being used more widely. To put this into perspective, Kevin has trained at the UK Centre For Alternative Technology, we have 100% low energy light bulbs, A rated appliances and a condensing boiler in our house. We have not once switched on the central heating this winter because the house is so warm and we are still using a summer quilt since last summer. A 1920’s house which the inspector visited last week got a rating of between 20-30 and apparently the inherent way it was built means that it would not be able to improve on this. Having previously lived in a 1920’s house with drafts bad enough to blow my hair whilst standing in the bedroom and permanently cold despite radiators too hot to touch, I can understand the aims of these reports from a global warming perspective but I sense trouble nonetheless…
Finally, I have managed to complete assessment 1 of my RYA Coastal Skipper/ Yachtmaster Theory course to the National Marine Correspondence School for submission. I started the course at the same time as Kevin started his by evening class at Fleetwood Nautical College last year and for a long time it worked really well, we would do our homework independently and cross check. Although, I always said that my chart work was more authentic to navigation on board as I was completing mine on the rickety train across the Pennine’s on my then daily commute from Leeds to Preston. Sadly, work has got in the way with my course, working an average of 12-13 hours per day and catch up too at weekends. Still, I was determined to get my assessment in before my year’s subscription ends and so I can receive the second section of notes. I don’t think with the Southampton Boat Show this weekend that I will manage to complete the course in time, but a re-subscription is cheaper than a week off as I am self employed. So, I may decide to complete the course more leisurely when we get underway. I would say however that I am very impressed with the quality of the course from National Marine Correspondence School and would highly recommend it to anyone considering that option.
So, we finally get to go on board a Mahe again on Saturday, which we are all very excited about to prove this wasn’t all a dream. Plus, it might quieten down Kevin’s almost daily “I want my boat now!” pleading!
Last night I went to sign up for my RYA Ocean master theory course at the Fleetwood nautical college, which is now booked and the next 6 months on Tuesday night will see me spending 2 hours trying to improve my knowledge and seamanship.
The college normally trains people who are interested making a career out of a life on the ocean wave’s officers of the watch etc, but they also run the RYA courses. The facilities are some of the best in the country.
We are quite lucky to have an absolutely fantastic facility on the door step and have made full use of the professional services offered.
We have noticed how slow the page had become since the addition of the route map so we have removed it to a link, for those that are interested.
During our research we have found a great way to view the route through Google Earth where you can fly to each of our ports of call. This can be saved in a very small file which can be imported into Google Earth as a temporary file, but I haven't quite worked out how we can add that to the blog. However, if anyone would like to see, please send us an email: kevjopenney@googlemail.com.
Other news, our first house viewing did not turn up! After getting in late on Friday, up early on Saturday for the usual cleaning and tidying, we received a call at the time they were due to arrive to say they couldn't make it.
We are on the countdown to Southampton Boat Show now, my parents are booked in to join us there. Really looking forward to seeing the Mahe again and seeing how all of our kit choices will fit in.
Kevin's also been receiving daily downloads of grib (weather) files. He was looking tonight for the Cat 5 storm (Hurricane Felix) approaching the Yucatan pennisula, except...it wasn't on the grib files for today. They were giving nothing more than 30 knot winds in that area, whereas the weather reports are predicting 165 mph (140kts) soon. It would appear from what we can find out that the area affected is quite small at the moment and seems to be below the scale of the grib forecasts. Interesting lesson to take from the sofa rather than from the cockpit I think!
