Serious Story, with a Funny Follow-on

A sailing couple nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by fumes from their generator, when they were anchored off Brightlingsea. I know that there's a danger of death from fish and chip fumes when anchored off Southend, and yes, the message is serious. Reminded me to check my carbon monoxide alarm.

Anyway, what really cracked me up was the comments that readers left - typical small town points scoring. What a laugh - I didn't know that people from Kent had webbed feet. Full story here:

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/8982483.Sailing_couple_nearly_die_of_carbon_monoxide_poisoning_during/?ref=rss

Extreme Capsizes...this is something else....

...and really entertaining!

And Here They Go, Auckland to Hawaii...

A  good picture of them with sails hoisted, and the full story. I wonder that the local authorities let them go, having heard how keen the NZ authorities are on yachts' seaworthiness and equipment...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/4887140/Sailing-the-Pacific#share

Boat Building as it used to be done, Pacific Style

How the Maoris did it...

World's Largest Sailing Ship

I caught this item on the blogosphere. 141 meters overall, green credentials - wood build, wood interior, built for a Turkish company. She dwarfs Maltese Falcon, and appears to be a four-masted topsail schooner with a gaff mainsail...assuming the aftmost saile on this monster schooner is still known as the mainsail. And, the masts are all the same height (just as on Blue Hound, but the comparison stops there...)

Maltese Falcon has the so-called Falcon rig (an evolution of the Dynarig) with sail engineering that will take her very well to windward. From the pictures, this new one looks like she could be handy to windward (ish), as schooners go. There's always a problem - the after sails have to be sheeted harder to maintin the flow, and the more masts you have then the harder it gets...

She's a bit too big for me I think ...The full story is at Jameslist

Funny what you come across!

As part of my quest to be able to store the crew's c##p for wider waters, I got the holding tank into place in its assigned locker - a good fit - this weekend. During my research into active carbon filters (I'll need one for the holding tank breather), I came across a video which cracked me up. I'm going to make my own filter - the activated carbon is readily available - and once I've finished I'll post the details here. Anyway, I thought I'd share the video with you. It's adult only (not sexual) and maybe you'll find it as funny as I did, though I'm not going to embed it here. The sound track is hard work (at least for me), and you need to persevere through the first couple of minutes. There really is another world out there....oh, and the comments are a hoot too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0cM3yLHk8E

This year's plans?

Well, what's it to be this year? Looks like a visit to Greece, then maybe back to Sicily - I've never been to Greece. Maybe Kefalonia and Zakynthos?

First though, I've got a small job to do - fit a holding tank. I've got the tank now - a good fit for its destination locker. Problem is fitting the breather vent and active filter - I don't want water coming back in, and the foredeck gets wet. Need to research it and keep it simple....