The wrong lead!

I was just sitting down here, under our improvised boom canopy, (a tarp sheet with off cuts of rope), Rum and coke in hand, (Havana Club of course!), and thought, i'll put those great photos of us sailing, the sails up, the beautiful views of the upper reaches of the River Cleddau, of Shoestring heeling gracefully under canvas...

Got the laptop ready, got the camera out, then realised I had the wrong camera lead in my bag so can't connect the blasted thing!

I'll call into Mum tomorrow and ask her to post me a spare one... THEN i'll say how great our sailing went until we hit a sudden Force 7 with wind and hail! All fine, Julie and myself at the helm with sails down, motor on and a cup of tea in hand.

But i'll wait until I can download the photos!

Sailing!

Just to say hello from sunny-wet-sunny-WINDY-sunny-wet Pembrokeshire.

Now have wifi internet working aboard so will blog more later.  2 very successful day trips out sailing under our belt, and all technical problems fixed!

Photos on their way soon!

Drinks Cabinet: Havana Club Rum

My favorite! It's the best rum I've tested so far. I'd say Goslings and Appleton estate come in a close second, but each of those are "in the mood for..." drinks, where as Havana is simply an anytime rum. -Except while working or driving. Well maybe while working.

Havana Club is a brand of rum, made in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. The brand was established by José Arechabala in 1878. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the distillery and company was nationalized by the Cuban government.

Today it is still 50% owned by the Cuban government and exported by Pernod.

It's flavour is nothing like the chemical tones of a Captain Morgans. It's got a nice spice and caramel taste, which when mixed with coke does not over-power and retains it's nice light flavour.

This one I actually have two bottles of onboard, one in the drinks cabinet, and the other hiding in the bilge -for after any visitors have cleared us out. -Thats becoming a bit frequent actually, but it's always in good company so doesn't matter.

I'm going to have to try some other drinks over the next few weeks, maybe a Gin or Scotch. We're also real-ale fan's but fitting an ale-tank and tap on board maybe a bit too far... or is it?

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Bit more expensive this one, usually around £16.99 a bottle, available almost anywhere.

Tideway sailing

Last Sunday we met with Ju and Julie for an afternoon of dinghy sailing at Surrey Quays' Tideway Sail-ability center. Its a small and very welcoming sailing club with an emphasis on sailing with disabled people.

Out for fun on the dinghys was Shaun (helm), Michael (1st mate), Anne (new crew) and Myself (Skipper), together with Ju and Julie who are members of the club. King and Mum came along to watch. -King as always busied himself being a celebrity and demanding attention from everyone.


My experience in dinghy sailing was limited to my first sailing lessons in toppers, so 'down-sizing' looked like a fun option. Their boats are designed to be sailed with everything in reach and a joy-stick helm. -Being used to a Tiller it confused me completely.



After we had an initial talk through the sail controls and a quick sail-bending session, we were let loose. Within meters from leaving the pontoon we came from quite blustery to no wind at all. Sailing was reduced to snail pace. I did manage to heal once though, briefly.

Anne and I was challenged by Julie to a race around the buoys. After accepting, in very minimal wind, I waited a few minutes and then said "Let me know when you want to start". About ten minutes later we had drifted our first lap. Pleased to report we won, it was close and took a good half hour to get back to the pontoon, 50meters away.


After sailing we all headed off to a post-sail-pint at the Wibbly-Wobbly-Bar further down on Greenland Dock. -Great food, and even King was welcomed; he fell asleep in the middle of the floor.


Friday night, (tomorrow), we're off for two weeks at Shoestring to get some SAILING done on her, Ju and Julie are coming down for a week, so we'll show them some REAL sailing... hopefully, weather reports say 1mph winds! I'll try to post some articles on here later once we've got ourselves sorted at the Marina's wifi.

Finished! -well almost!

At last! We've finished the re-painting... all right there is some varnishing to do on the newly stripped hatches, some woodwork to do on the cockpit and of course we have one side deck that needs the caulking finishing.... but it's 99.9% done!

We went down Thursday night, after a long drive arriving at Neyland at 4am! King and MW unpacked while I made sure the yacht was warm and beds were made.

Friday we had a bit of a relax, going out to Solva for lunch in the car, then a run on Broad Haven beach for King. -We bought him a pet life jacket from Mrs Hayne's at the Brunnel Chandlery. Then relaxed for the night.

Saturday was up early to finish painting. Port, starboard and aft decks now done, cabin roof and fore-deck re-painted for a bit extra protection and the hatches in the front and rear decks were stripped then coated in dark silkens varnish. I've also installed two moisture traps to reduce condensation while we're away, i'll let you know how that goes.

We finished the work off on Sunday morning, before driving down to Dale for a pub lunch and local ale.

Sunday after noon also saw a welcome visitor saying hello from the Yacht Omega, also moored at Neyland, and readers of this blog. -Hello!

We've bought the materials to strip and re-varnish the cockpit at somepoint, but all that can wait until we've done some sailing! Two weeks time we're down for two weeks holiday!

I did bring a camera with me but of course forgot to take any photos of the finished look -i'll get these next time. - We now have wifi aboard from OceanWave.

Just as we were packing two disasters hit, King cut his leg -now healing well, and the bilge pump electrics decided to drop out. I think the second battery is either fused internally or VERY flat for some reason, so I'm chancing no pumps for two weeks until we get there to sort it out!