Another Saldanha Cruise
“Cruising should be fun. If it isn’t you’re not doing it right” – Cap’n Fatty
mal de mer, Saldanha Bay, West Coast Cruise
Uncategorized
Navigation & Comms
Electronic systems aboard ‘Blue are pretty basic and will most likely remain that way. The reason for this is two-fold; marine electronics are expensive and the more power-hungry devices one allows on board, the more charging and battery capacity is required. Currently the navigation & communications suite comprises of the following: Lowrance Elite-5 plotter/fishfinder running Navionics chart s/w Samsung TabA …
Is this all pointless?
One has to sometimes question why! Why build a vane for a boat that is never headed offshore? Why build a vane in a life where this damned lock-down stretches interminably on? Why waste time, energy and cash on a dead-end dream? Perhaps one measure of a person’s life is the ability to engage in frivolous projects when perhaps there …
Boat projects in lock-down
Preface: This post is still extremely draft and dis-organised. It’s part of an evolving concept development and at this point in time serves more to document research findings and decisions. It will, in time be cleaned up and more fit for public presentation. I’ve been thinking for a while now that a self-steering wind vane system is high on the …
Bristol Channel Cutter
Towards the end of the South African summer is a good time to be in Cape Town, boat spotting. At this time of the year there are numerous transient cruising boats docked in the marina, crews preparing their boats for the voyage onward across the South Atlantic. Anyone who knows their cruising scene and sees a BCC immediately thinks Taleisin …
Rebuilding the anchor locker cover
A job that’s been on the list for a very long time has finally begun. Of course, I should have tackled the problem as soon as it became apparent but I didn’t and now it’s possibly many times worse than it might have been. The anchor hatch cover consists of a hardwood frame closed off by hardwood backing. Epoxied to …
Cruising the Baltic
It’s late in the season here in the Gulf of Finland and I wonder what the plan is with the sweet little Swede? To set sail back home at this time of the year means almost certain encounters with the autumn Baltic gales and icy conditions. Perhaps the plan is to winter the yacht here while the skipper returns back …
No longer exhausted!
Finally, after much to-and-fro, up-and-down and backwards-and-forwards, the new exhaust in in! Back in August the exhaust union gave way in the shipping lanes and, in disgust, I parked the boat for a while. It’s never a good idea to procrastinate because in the end it took quite a while to extract the bits and pieces from the boat and …
Going nowhere in particular
Gentle breeze, flat water, birds, whales. Living the life for a change.