First Trip 2010?

A grim winter now past! First trip - just a tootle up and down the Hamble with a radio journalist who is preparing a short piece for an arts festival, but at least the cobwebs are away. I'll be posting the audio piece on http://www.blue-hound.com/, sometime in April.

It's good to be mobile again!

Sun and Hurricanes

A beautiful sunny morning on the river - spring is in the air methinks!

I've just been reading about research into future hurricane patterns - it seems that they will become more intense and less frequent. The research is based on output from the IPCC - though their output is under question at present. Anyway, it is an interesting read. See more here at Physicsworld

What will 2010 hold?

Thoughts at present about heading to the Canaries for the New Year (2010/2011). My beaten path has been to go via Brittany/Galicia/Lisbon/Algarve. This year I'm thinking seriously about going via the Azores - one direct leg.

Schooners don't go too well to windward, and Blue Hound is no exception; though, with the yankee and forestaysail she's much handier than with the genoa.

Still, the Azores in one leg is highly dependent on wind direction for me. We'll see!

Talking to a friend last night who is doing a two-hander direct to the Faroe Islands. Now that's a toughie!

Winter's here

This week has seen the cold weather hit here, down to +1 overnight on weekend (on the river), and this morning a cold and drizzly easterly. Got to get some fuel today as genny now doing about 5-6hrs a day running heating.

Will be seeing some of my 'trip-to-Brazil' sailing pals today, looking forward to that. Their boat in the Baltic had engine problems in the summer. The yard engineers in Sweden couldn't solve it, but I worked through it with them over a few days via Skype, isolating and testing various parts of the fresh water cooling system, and we beat it!

Calmer at last

A quiet day today - it blew 9 here yesterday, up near Swanwick, and apparently 90kts+ recorded in Solent. The tops were being blown off the waves here in the Hamble :-(

Went and got some fuel today, reattached the aerogen bracing stay which had worked loose in the wind, a few deck jobs and then watched replay of England scraping home against Argentina. It's good to be Welsh!

Weather :-(

A bad blow forecast here tonight. Have been out today in the dinghy to have my car tested. Lots & lots of rain. I'm still pondering on the heater conundrum and wondering whether to go for a blower heater or just a plain oil fired heater, naturally convected. I'll see what's cooking on ebay this weekend.

sailingsoulmates havenplace blue-hound

Aerogen

Getting cold now. Missed out on a couple of heaters on ebay - they are going for silly prices, or is it just me?

Good news is that aerogen is working ok and refitted after test harness removed. Not much wind though. B****y typical!