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It’s been a while since I updated the blog, I have been trying to get my head around celestial navigation and with the arrival of my new toys, sextant, sight reduction tables and universal plotting sheets, then I feel the need to update you with my progress.
After a long delay with a British company on ordering the above equipment and on chasing up the company to see were our order was and not getting any satisfaction, we decided to have a look elsewhere and came across Celstaire, who are an American company, I sent then an email with a provisional order for the equipment and got a very prompt reply, which was a good sign of things to come?
Ken from Celstaire, indicated that all the equipment was in stock and could be shipped as soon as I placed the order, without any further hesitation I placed the order on Thursday morning and by Tuesday morning the equipment was in my possession. Exactly what I ordered and it all came neatly packaged and in one piece. I can highly recommend this company and I am very impressed with the service and products they offer ten out of ten.
If you want to have a look at the web site please follow the link: http://www.celestaire.com/
Tuesday night is set aside attending the RYA Ocean class at Fleetwood, we are now getting down to calculating a fix from noon sights and sun-run-sun sights, which from my point of view is one of the main reasons for attending the course, the idea being we have an alternative way of calculating our position other than relying on GPS all the time.
To assist with the course I have bought a couple of books, Ocean sailing - Tom Cunliffe, Ocean Yachtmaster - Adlard Coles - Pat Langley-Price & Philip Ouvry, both of these books help in different ways, due to the different approach in the styles of writing.
Last week Paul who is also attending the course at Fleetwood and myself were ‘shooting stars’ with the new sextant on the car park after the class. By coincidence the latter part of the course on Tuesday night was spent doing star recognition. I am really impressed with the sextant, which as far as sextants go is the whole horizon version, not traditional split view horizon. I am sure the traditionalist out there will be booing at this point. I am very happy with it and that’s what matters!
As part of the course I am trying to develop various sight reduction sheets for each of the celestial body’s and so far it really is helping me to piece things together, I would recommend anyone who is interested in this approach do the same thing and develop your own method, which you can remember and reproduce.
This weekend was Jo’s birthday and we now have a rule about buying each other presents, which is it must be something that each one us would find useful on our adventures. Saturday morning Jo was the proud owner of a new hand held GPS Garmin 72, a complete set of admiralty Caribbean leisure charts, solio solar panel, freedom flashlight and a large quantity of rechargeable AA batteries.
There must be something about sitting on a train before dawn commuting across the country to work that makes me think of our trip, as once more this blog comes to you on route. Progress has been relatively slow of late hence the lack of updates recently.
One very visible sign of our plans though is a very neatly arranged pile of rolls of charts (maps of the sea). Our primary means of navigation will be a chart plotter which is a specialized computer that displays charts against a real time position from GPS like a sat nav but also interfaces to our radar and depth sounder. The main advantage being that these charts are easily updated as buoys or sand banks move and ports and marinas are developed etc. However Kev and I both prefer to use paper charts for plotting and this also gives a back up in the event of electronics failure. However charts are very costly when you are buying on the scale required, either paper or electronic and buying two complete sets can be prohibitive. So when Kevin was offered an opportunity to buy a complete set of paper charts and about 40 pilot books (guide books to coastal areas) we jumped at the chance! The charts are out of date but on the premise that the land doesn't generally move it's a reasonable back up when used with caution. Also I'm planning a new hobby of manual chart updates from the Notice to Mariners lists of changes. We also have a hand held GPS which links to a laptop plus secondary more up to date chart software. Solar charging for the laptop etc etc - when you start off in technical diving where you need to carry everything you need for an emergency with you plus a spare you learn to be prepared!
I'm sure that it's a feature of all travel plans that looking at maps causes excitement, so I'm sure you can imagine the Christmas like effect of sorting through about 50 completely random rolls of about 1000 charts! I'd arrived back from visiting family late on Saturday to find the study full of charts - I think it was about 8.30 on Sunday morning when we started still in our dressing gowns to look through....well about 6 hours later we were still going all other plans out the window! However, by then they been sorted first roughly into oceans then the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean piles were sorted into folios for each leg of the journey plus a few extras to accomodate route changes and all had been catalogued (I must have been a librarian in a past life!). The best bit was unwrapping each roll though with accompanying squeals of "Cool - The Galapagos!″ or the Panama canal or the Suez etc etc! You just don't get the same excitement from the electronic version. There is still a large pile in the loft which covers areas we won't visit this time, but we're storing these for the next lap! All the charts to be used are still sat in the corner of the living room. I think we're both enjoying the reminder!
Other news is Kevin's sextant has finally arrived after the one I ordered for his birthday was out of stock then stuck in customs for weeks after arriving from China, so we cancelled and ordered from Celestaire in the US. This worked out to be good timing for Kevin to do star sightings during his RYA Ocean course on Tuesday. He was also showing me Mars last night and others, which was fun, I can't wait for night watches on clear nights.
Finally, wedding preparations are gradually progressing. I have got the dress and booked the registrar. Need to pick menu options and do invitions next, though I think the wedding list could be the hardest as toasters etc may not be very helpful so we need to do a list. I understand that some chandelries do offer the service or alternatively I have been to a couple of weddings where contributions to travelling has been suggested.
Oh and I nearly forgot my other milestone met, I have finally loaded every CD we own into our new iPod. Which you may not think of as a big achievement but I assure you has taken hours! Plus it saves us storing CDs and gives us a great variation of music on passage. I gather that the talking books are the thing to have on night watches too.
Last weekend we went to La Rochelle to meet up with Karen and Paul from M.I. Cats to do a factory tour and have one of the company skippers to take us out on a Mahe and show us what it can do.
Karen and Paul meet us at the airport, we then had a brief car journey around La Rochelle, Paul giving us the guided tour of places of interest. After the tour we all agreed to sit at the side of the harbour for a few refreshments whilst discussing our itinerary for the next couple of days.
First item on the agenda was going to be the sea trial conducted by one of the company skippers, then we would visit Didier from Pochon (Marine Electronic store in La Rochelle). We have already decided not to fit the factory standard Furuno electronics, opting instead for Pochon to fit the Raymarine equivalent. After discussing the electronics we would move onto the factory to have a tour round the facilities.
The night ended with a few more refreshments and a quick walk around the inner harbour of La Rochelle, which is a wonderful place and as time went on we grew to like the place even more.
The morning soon arrived with bright blue sky, brilliant sunshine and a healthy offshore wind, good, we wanted to see how the boat would handle under these conditions. Karen and Paul arrived on time at our hotel to pick us up and take us to the harbour for the sea trial.
We arrived outside the Fountaine Pajot office, which is facing Europe’s largest marina, a forest of mast’s as far as the eye can see. We went inside for coffee and introductions to Valerie on reception and Thierry Billard who does the after sales management. Thierry did not look to stressed out, which was a good sign of things to come. After coffee, Alain the skipper arrived to take us out on the sea trial. We made our way down to the boat, which after some major re-shuffle of surrounding boats and some very impressive boat handling by Alain, we were off out of the harbour to conduct the trial.
Alain was talking about the England and France world cup rugby match, which was a brilliant ice breaker and we all soon relaxed in each others company, clearing the harbour Alain decided to raise the sails, yes with this wind we will defiantly need to reef at least one, allowing the skipper to show his and the boats metal. Alain thought differently no reef, full sail, wow, hang on for the fair ground ride, the boat turned around and set off like it had just been fired out of a catapult. Alain demonstrated how well and how fast the boat pointed to wind, we were racing along and the boat was as steady as a rock, with full sail and the strong wind the boat was healing slightly, which was expected under the conditions and handled like a dream. If I had any slight doubts about our new purchase, which I don’t, they were soon dismissed within a very short time. Words fail me to describe the awesome experience and every credit to Alain and the boat. Talking to Alain about his tactics, he assured us he would not do this further offshore and if you want to sell boats this is how you do it. The experience was fantastic and it could not get any better than this, or could it?
After the sea trial we had a quick stop for lunch then onto Pochon to meet Didier and talk about our choice of electronics to be fitted to the boat. Didier spoke perfect English, which was good as my French is embarrassing poor. Within a very short space of time both Jo and myself were completely at ease with the decision to use Pochon to do the installation as the boat is being commissioned just before sea trials.
We then set off to go the factory and see the boats being built. The factory was a short ride out of La Rochelle and on the way to the factory we passed a truck with a Mahe on the back along with police escort heading the other way, which brought a smile to everyone’s face.
On arrival at the factory we were signed in and given visitors passes, Paul had a quick chat with the manager and was told that so long as we were accompanied with Paul and Karen we could wonder round the factory at our leisure. Having worked in factory environments, I was surprised at how clean and organised the setup was, basing my previous experience on, working at TVR in Blackpool and memories of the body shop, which was at best organised chaos and a very unhealthy environment, not a place to spend to much time in.
We were very impressed with the staff who just got on with the job at hand and all seemed to be hard at it, with very little evidence of management. The quality of the work was evident in every department. The Mahe line was our first port of call and straight away you can see that this is a very important range for Fountaine Pajot, good, because we are buying one. Rarely these days do see people take pride in their work and the mixture of male and female workers was also a surprise, as many female as male, which must make a better working environment.
We started at the top of the production line and worked our way down, seeing every stage of manufacture. All the work being carried out was very neat and tidy, you can’t ask for any more. We also went into the other production lines, which were of equal expectations.
Out in the yard there were Mahe’s everywhere you looked, it was fantastic, buying a boat is a big financial undertaking and you need to be sure that you have made the right decision. We have!
After the factory tour, back to La Rochelle for some more refreshments, we had a meal out in one of the many local restaurants. In general the food and service is excellent and a good night was had by all.
The following day was time to go home, our flight was booked to be later in the afternoon, giving us time to wonder round some of the local chandlers and spend some time in La Rochelle to find our bearings. Wondering round the marinas, no matter where you looked a Mahe would be present. We liked La Rochelle that much, we changed our flight to be a day later giving us more time to enjoy the local sights.
If you are thinking of buying a Mahe, but aren’t quite convinced take some time off to do this factory tour, you wont regret it.
Last Sunday saw the maiden voyage of our tender (inflatable) Indefatigable at Knott End. We arrived at the car park at the seafront and proceeded to unload our boat (in pieces) from the boot of our little Fiat Punto. I'm sure there's advertising mileage there for both Honda and Fiat. Obviously it didn't seem to fit back into it's bag or the boot quite so well later, but they never show you those bits on the tv!
The aluminium slatted floor turned out to be the ultimate flat pack, quick to assemble, not quite so easy to fit into the floor of the tender. The instructions were obviously in 10 different languages, with the English sections not making much more sense than the rest. Anyway doubtless to the amusement of the surprising number of visitors to Knott End on a Sunday in October, very soon the pile of random pieces soon formed a boat shape. We carried her down to the water and took her for a spin. The smaller engine we opted for won't win any speed trials but can be stored upright in the anchor locker and so reduce the weight to carry off the davits on the transom and make us far less attractive to thieves.
There were quite a few boats heading out of Fleetwood for the usual dash round the buoy during the couple of hours that the lock gates open at high water. It felt great to be out there too even if our vessel was slightly less grand. We did a bit of manoeuvring practice with Alex who clearly preferred the wheel of our last boat to a tiller that you have to point to the opposite direction to where you want to go!
As pathetic as it may sound we'd been really looking forward to getting out on the water on our little tender. A day off to have fun. It was fantastically relaxing to be out there. The sun came out for a beautiful sunny afternoon, we were also joined by a flock of oyster catchers overhead. They were an amazing sight as the light caught individual birds exposing the white then dark side of their wings as they flew, creating the effect of a ripple spreading across a sun drenched pool of water. Then they were gone, I realise how much we miss dashing around and what a great deal more we'll experience as we travel.
It is certainly the difficult phase of the planning at the moment. We always knew that it would get harder before it gets better and it is certainly difficult trying to juggle the many arrangements with full time job, travel and evening courses etc.
My main preoccupation continues to be the house sale particularly with the constant headlines about potential price drops etc at present. Viewings in general appear to have dropped off and yet it seems as though every other house locally is for sale. We clearly timed it just wrong in putting our house on the market, in terms of the credit squeeze impacting the UK from the States. I even looked at the website of one of these guaranteed quick house sale companies on Saturday morning in desperation to get some sort of definite timetable to our plans. However, calculation of the 80% offer that they make shocked me into realising how hasty we are being.
So, we have decided to look into renting our house instead of selling, as we have had the house for only a year and the site is not yet complete so we are not really making the most of our investment having spent on furnishings etc. It would mean that I would have to see out my contract til Aug 08 to make up for the delay in the release of equity. However as much as it is not what I'd like to do, it's a small price to pay in the grand scheme. Apparently there are approximately 10 people queuing for each available rental locally, so it seems a good option. Though rental rates still seem to stay beneath the level that the property value could make in interest, so it's still a gamble on a rising UK housing market. It will also mean us having to sell Kevin's house instead but that will definitely be easier as it is a good starter home.
Finally, before anyone else asks no we haven't booked the wedding yet! I'm also aware that it apparently takes longer to adjust a wedding dress than to build a house. I'm trying not to get drawn in to the wedding hysteria, but it seems every one has fallen for the hype that it is required to order flowers several months before they are even planted etc. I've been a bit reluctant to commit to the date until my contract end date was confirmed as I wasn't sure about spending the first few months of married life apart. Obviously that also gives an excuse to put off my non-existent wedding dress diet a bit longer too, as I'm clearly not quite so ambivalent about the hype! As I thought I wasn't applying quite enough pressure to myself yet so starvation seems the necessary extra. No I haven't finished my Yacht master theory either due in November either before you ask! Though I did get up and go for a jog yesterday morning at 6.15 in the dark and the rain and now walking up stairs is painful! You're right I finally am loosing it!
Still we fly to La Rochelle for our factory visit tomorrow, so that will be a great relief - subject to the rugby results! At least all the boats we see will be preordered otherwise I think the temptation to cut out the hassle and just go might be too much...though I think even a slightly larger tender outboard engine might be enough by March to tempt us!
At the boat show we visited the Garmin stand with the intention to purchase a PC interface cable for my hand held Garmin GPS 72. After a very brief conversation with the people on the stand it became apparent that they did not have any interface leads.
One of the Garmin reps gave me his business card and said send him an email and he would post one out to me free of charge (Yeah right), today the cable arrived in the post and good to his word, it was free. Excellent service!
The main reason for this is to use the PC/GPS in conjunction with Google Earth.
Download the latest version from google, pay for the upgrade 20 US dollars per year, which will then interface to a GPS, Garmin or Magellan - I recommend Garmin, most of you will already know were this is going…
Once installed on the PC, go to the menu at the top of the screen and select Tools, go to the bottom of the menu Options. On selecting Options. Go to the tab, which says Cache.
Increase the Disk Cache Size to 2000 MB, maximum size.
Locate your home port on google earth and zoom into the area as close as you can get, then start to pan around your chosen cruising area, again zooming in to the maximum resolution, try adding place markers as you go and make a route.
Unplug PC from the internet and take on board the boat, fire up google earth on the PC with GPS attached, yes I know its not connected to the internet, you will see a warning from google earth, read the warning, smile, and select the No button to continue.
It's brilliant and works a treat, this is going to be a great way to visualise our progress and add pictures to our blog. We will be using the usual Admiralty paper charts for plotting our route and will have a chart plotter as a back-up.
This has to be the best 10 quid I have ever spent and I hope others find this useful.
We are on a roll with our blogging now. This is another mobile update just about to pull into Leeds station after a 4.30 alarm for me and poor Kevin to drive me to the station at 5.15am. The joy of a one car family! Although we are both early risers usually anyway so I think it's good to have a bit more time together. The topic of conversation for this morning's journey was the merits of additional water tanks and / or filters over a water maker - spiraling into a generator to run the water maker. I am actually struggling to think what normal couples must find to talk about everyday! Luckily we have added to our sailing friends last week after meeting Jonny and Kate through a sailing forum. They leave July next year and will be doing a very similar route. They also live in Newcastle (where I work) and have their boat in Fleetwood about 20 mins from us. I went for diner with them last week and it was great to talk through our reasons for the trip, frustrations over Home Info Packs etc!
This weekend we had planned to meet them at their boat Newtsville to have a look and for Kevin to meet them. Unfortunately for our plans but fantastically in every other way England beat Australia in the Rugby Union World Cup quarter finals. So I'm afraid that a few too many beers were consumed with our friends Jill and Phil who were staying with us. I'm told it's the nerves that caused it! Either that or it was our endless sailing plans, but they seemed to take it well enough. So with results of the other shock defeat of New Zealand that really rounded off dinner!
It has been sometime since the last update and the complaints have been heeded! I thought it especially important to have one available for the Monday morning blues in the office (I’m sure that’s not just me!).
I guess some of the reason for the lack of updates has been a lack of progress in general. After being fairly optimistic following our first house viewing, we have heard nothing back and have had to assume that the potential buyers are not interested. They had seemed to be in a perfect position to buy our house, but have obviously decided not to. Our marketing has also been hindered by the removal of our For Sale board by the developers, we did sign a restricted covenant agreeing not to display a board and after a couple of requests by letter they decided to enforce the contract themselves by removing it. I am getting seriously worried now that the sale of the house will slow down our departure and potentially my leaving work. After lots of stressing by me, we have decided to press ahead with plans and hope it all comes together in time. Kevin’s contract finishes in March 2008 anyway, so we should still be in a position to pick up the boat, we just might have more dual living for a while. I guess there is still a long time to go, so I shouldn’t be panicking yet, I will just have to stop being so impatient for now!
We were originally planning to head to La Rochelle for our factory visit at Fountaine Pajot (boat builders) at the beginning of October, there has been a slight change of plan and we are now booked in for the end of next week. We are really looking forward to this both as a holiday and as a chance to progress our plans. We are planning to do some window shopping in La Rochelle at the many chandlers there to see if we can buy in bulk the basic kit we need to buy (spare anchors, fenders etc) which will save us quite a lot of hassle in terms of transporting. We have our shopping list prepared so we will take that with us and see what we can negotiate. The other option is the London Boat Show or other local chandlers. We have also got a quote now for a company in La Rochelle to supply and fit the electronics we want through MI Cats who have been very helpful in coordinating these arrangements. The marine electronics company have access to the boat during production and will be able to fit the electronics while it is off the water and the mast is down etc with an onboard warranty. This is obviously a much easier option to take and the importance of that the week after we get married shouldn’t be underestimated! We are reviewing the prices at the moment, as Kevin fitted all of our previous electronics, but it does involve drilling holes through the hull and climbing the mast on a brand new boat, so we are definitely leaning in the direction of handing it over to them!
It was Kevin’s birthday last week and as agreed only “useful” presents were allowed! We’d discussed that I would buy him a sextant, which one to be decided when he’d started his course at Fleetwood. Unfortunately, this plan back fired when the chosen model (Astra III B, All View) was found to be out of stock throughout the UK and Channel Islands! Anyway, as this was the chosen model, Kevin has had to wait for the back order, but he did get some charts of the Canary Islands which has been great to make it all seem a bit more real again.
