Well that's Lady Jayne back in the sea again, now the real work starts rubbing down and painting to get ready for the start of our season in early April. Managed to paint the hull and antifoul despite the rain (tricky business when you live in Argyll) Electrician booked for next week to fit the new toys.
with the antifouling done at least now the other jobs can be done afloat. April is'nt far away though, so I hope you don't have too much to do although with a boat there is always something!
Planning on getting 'Sorcerer' out next month for antifouling, anodes and a couple of other maintenance jobs which will probably end up being half a dozen!
Good luck withn your haul out. We never seem to get to the end of the jobs list either!
This year I am fitting a new helm pump and ram and new hoses so I can commission the new autohelm which was fitted last year. I have also changed the sounder from the old cathode ray Furuno to a LCD one with a bigger transducer. I also have a new stereo and PA system and additional lighting to fit - it never ends!
Been getting used to LJ again after the winter layoff. The new Furuno scv 585 is brilliant clear images and if the fish ID is correct a real useful tool. The autipilot is functioning but not perfect, probably have to re-calibrate it again when I have time to see if it will improve, keeps swinging to stbd before correcting but does hold a course - eventually. The new stereo/PA make life a lot more fun though time will tell if ''marine'' means west coast of Scotland proof - doubt it somehow but we will see.
All we need now is some decent weather and a few folk who want to venture out to see the wild life or catch some fish. Caught this Pollack myself yesterday, not bad for an early season fish and one of our guests photographed this nosey otter about 4 ft from LJ as we drifted through the Ulva Sound.
Great to see LJ back in the water and all well with her.
Now you have your new electronics there will be no excuses for not catching fish you know. You will soon sort the autopilot and then you can have fun.
Thats a nice pollack you have there. I managed to get out the weekend before easter and catch some Ling and a few days prior to that some cod. It was cold but beautiful. Looking forward to summer as we are planning to go sharking!
since last summer my wife Chantal took over Tommie's steering wheel (and degrade me to sailor) Very soon questions came like: has that sailing boat over there right of way ? and why ? what's that black thing on that yellow buoy ?and so on. As you need small licence 1 in Holland for boats over 15 mtr, or faster than 20 km/hour for inland waters, and conditional large licence 2 for sea arms like Westerschelde etc. she decided to follow the course licence 1 and I am very proud she passed the first official exam, what cost's me a bottle of champagne. Still she is not allowed to sail the 16 mn. from our marina in the Westerschelde to the north sea alone on herself as for that trip she need conditional large licence 2 where navigation lessons as chart plotting incl. current and wind on a nautical chart, tide calculations, position calculations etc. are involved. I must honestly say, spoilt by gps, I forgot half of it, but helping her brings back most of it. I am curious if I have to buy a bottle of champagne again comming winter. Crazy is you don't need a licence for boating on the north sea, so sailing from Holland to England and crossing one of the busiest ship fairways in the world can be done without any knowlege.
last sunday an English sailor told me you don't need a boating licence in England, is this correct ????
Yes crazy as it may be, any idiot can buy a boat and get on the water in the UK. However, if you want to use a boat for commercial purposes you have have all sorts of licences, SCV certificates medicals and so forth to comply with. You can be boarded at anytime and inspected by the coastguard and if in serious breach can be tied to the dock!
Happy boating and yes, you had better save up for another bottle of champagne!!!!
The weather down here has been awful for a while so my re-launch date has been put off for another week.
Have managed to get two coats of antifoul on 'Sorcerer' in the last couple of days, so thats the worst job out the way.
The large round anodes that are recessed into the port and starboard aft section of the hull bottom are doing their job well and would probably be fine until next year but they are being replaced anyway....no point in taking chances!
Rain forcast again now after two dry days so polishing may have to be delayed a little longer, then she is ready to go fishing.
Sorry to hear you weather has not been very good, ours on the other hand has been fantastic, almost wall to wall sunshine,light winds and very little rain (we used our allocation up over winter). Only has 2 days off for strong winds since we started and the forecast is brilliant for as long as we can see (don't want to rub it in or owt)
. You will soon sort the autopilot and then you can have fun.
