12 months adrift....

JunkDory

Can't belive it , its now been one year since we uped sticks and left Ullapool, pointing the bows south on an open ended adventure. When we left we had no real fixed plan we just new to head south and take everything as it comes... And that is just what we do and we love it. Adventures and experiences unfold at every junction we come to, no planning could ever organise such a trip. You obviously need some sort of planning, for the safty of the boat and crew, but this is usually only a month/day/hour or so ahead of where we are. We have met quite a few boats in the early stages of a 'trip' who tell us grand plans of "going  around the world" and i have to wonder how many of them atually do so.

 So then, in the first 12 months away from 'home', we have spent 6 of them cruising on board Hestur and 6 of them in Bristol (a new city to us).

I thought I would go through the log book and tott up some figures for 6 months cruising:

Total nautical miles:   2582nm

Best days run (24hours):   135nm
Brompton (folding bike) miles: 117

Nights at anchor: 120

Nights at sea: 18

Nights on pontoons: 5   (all in south Cornwall  and free of charge in winter)

Nights in marinas: 19   (14 of which have been here in Madiera)

Nights on random moorings: 18 (all free of charge)

Paraffin (for cooker): 25 litres 

Engine hours: 241 

Diesel used: 275 litres 

Fuel consumption: 1.1 litres per hour

Hestur has required very little maintenance over the last year, the biggest thing was to
find and fit a new Windlass as the old one (a Lofrans Royal manual) gave up - it was already 15 years old. I bought second-hand Simpson Lawrence Seatiger555 for £500 then had to spend another £235 to get a new gypsy to fit our chain.  Despite the expense it really is the RollsRoyce of manual windlasses.  I sure would not have an electric one. We have 10mm heavy gauge chain and 20kg (44lbs) Rocna . Grips like hell.

We scrubbed and applied new antifoul in Falmouth and now the varnish work on the rubbing strake could do with a refresh. The rig needs very little attention, sometimes having to replace the odd bit of cord (usually the yard to sail lashing where it rubs on the mast) . One oil change on the engine. 

Our tender could do with a repaint but that can wait as i don't mind it looking a little scruffy as it may stop people borrowing it! I have recently chanced the mast head light bulb for the LED type which saves a huge amount of battery power while sailing overnight. 

Porto Santo

Blue water at last!

Here Charlotte is painting on the harbour wall Porto Santo.

Had great run from Lisbon 512nm in 95 hours.....

Spain

A ha,
We seem to have made it to Spain!,
Here is a quick movie i made! Went Via France then north coast of spain and now we are in Coruna.

will add more when i have chance......

Finished in Bristol...

So its been a while since the last post here, it all been going on .... Where do i start?! Better start with where I left, in Bristol.
Tim and i finished the 17' Gartside Yawl with great results if i may say so myself. She is a fine boat to sail and look at, as with all of Paul Gartside's boats.
After the Yawl was finished myself and Ben Punter laid a new teak Deck on a 42' Swan yacht. This took us through to mid May.

I have to say working with Tim Loftus (& Ben) at the Underfall Yard Bristol was the best, great guys and great work - also all the other top people in
the yard from Star Yachts and RB boatbuilding (WildSailing.com) Cheers and I hope to be back some time. Bristol in general was a really fantastic place to stay,
so much going on from sailing in the docks, climbing in the gorge , great cycling , much music, caving adventures...... the list go's on!

Yard Mews

Its been all go this winter at the Tim Loftus Boatbuilding yard . Just before the Christmas break we finished framing up the Cubbage Wood boat. Two days of steaming and bending in one hundred 35x25mm oak frames. We have now left the Cubbage as the planking stock need more time to season as it was freshly cut only months ago. To stop us getting cold we are building a new Paul Gartside Design (see this months 'Water Craft' mag - available all good newsagents...) Its a 17foot Gaff rigged Yawl day sailer. All the details on the boat are very well thought out and beautifully designed. It has looks to die for with sleek low freeboard, plum steam  and 3/4 decked not to mention the stunning wine glass transom. Once the backbone and moulds were all in place Tim started the planking while I have been making all the spars and components for the interior fit out including rudder and centreboard box/centreboard.

8mm Larch planking with 22x12 frames every 150mm (not in yet).....  3 planks to go.

Sawn oak Stem assembled with 9mm copper clench's. Rabbet has been cut.

Building Again - a new Junk is being born.

Well I thought we were heading south to go on Holiday! We seem to have been too late in the season for getting much further south than the Uk - sure we could have but it would have been a rush down the European Atlantic coast and the weather systems were never looking great for the Biscay area so a few battering's were going to be inevitable , no thanks Mr gale.
While we were hanging around Falmouth various fishing lines were dropped in front of us with some very tasty bate that we could not resist. We took the bate and were hauled directly into Bristol docks.

I am working for Tim Loftus (www.timloftusboatbuilding.co.ok).  I arrived just as Tim was popping out over two tons of lead from a steel mold for the ballast on a new 25foot sailing boat.

Tim has designed the boat himself for Tim Start. Tim carved a half-model then lofted this full size on 8x4's which now form the side of the temporary shed we are building in. The rig ... wait for it ..............yes it's goiing to be a Junk Rig . perfect.
The construction is very traditional - oak backbone and frames with Larch planking (Carvel). not a drop of epoxy anywhere  . err.. maybe on ply deck.

 It gets more interesting as Tim Start has a woodland in Shropshire where all the timber has been taken from and he is very involved with the building of his boat too. So,  at the end of the day he will have basically grown and built his own boat . This is living the dream.  The new boat will be called Cubbage  Wood,
We have now finished the backbone and are hoping to get all the frames steamed in by Christmas. The pictures should show more about the construction than i can explain. Pictured on the left is the stern post fastened through the wood and lead ballast keel.

Here is a nice picture of Tim Start admiring his lovely new boat 'Cubbage Wood'. To the right you can see some of the larch stacked up ready for planking and the temporary molds are in position showing the outlines of a fine ship.
To add to the good work we are still afloat - living on a narrow boat in the docks. Charlotte has a great studio in the city center - see http://starboardlocker.wordpress.com
Hestur is patiently waiting for our return in April/May2013 in Falmouth Harbour.

Lands End, Lizard , Falmouth.

Well lots has been happening, sailing, biking, sunning, storming (round the Lizard..!) we ended up leaving the boat for about a week on the Menai Staits (Thanks to Denise for kind lend of mooring). We had a very fine time here where Erle and Carloe watched over the boat when we were not there as well as entertaining us when we were, thanks so much. More friends Di and Paul also were very hospitable feeding us and taking us to local music session, great times. 

We visited my parents in Shropshire where we collected our latest ebay indulgences - Brompton folding bikes. O yes . A pair of them.

 Once I had welded up a seat post extension and oiled the chains we were ready for their first test ride of 65 miles. 

Timing had been perfect to join in the first day of an 800+ mile ride to Turin ending up at the ‘slow food festival‘ 

The ride has been organized Maddy Corbin (my brothers Partner) in memory of a dear friend Philippa Corbin, and to raise awareness of depression. A very worthy cause - please look up  www.slowridetoturin.co.uk to fine out more.  a few days ago all thirty cyclists (including ma Mum and brother) finished the ride including  over the alps (you cant avoid these!) and battling headwinds (sounds like sailing). The biggest well done to you all for the ride and raising all that money for the ‘Charlie Waller Memorial Trust’ and ‘The Human Givens Foundation’.   

The Brompton bikes coped very well for the first day of 60 odd miles winding up and down through the lovely Dorset countryside from Axminster to Swanage. We are sure they are going to be fantastic for exploring ashore from the boat - we had some great rides around Anglesey never mind just nipping out to the shops (minutes by bike hours by foot).

Anyway back to Sailing the junk. We left the Menai straits on the 21st october heading south. It took 48 hours and 200nm to get to St Ives Cornwall (nice round figures arnt they!)

We had thick fog and not much wind for the second part of this. Also dolfins following us for 8 hours during the night (about 20 of them) amazing as great fosferesents (sp) made them sparkle. Also poor garden type birds joined us for hours at a time lost at sea in the fog. 

We anchored off St Ives for the afternoon and went ashore for a pasty yum. In the morning we set off on a favorable tide for rounding Lands end. We decided to push on and get around the Lizzard and in towards Falmouth. We had a f6 headwind (NE) so it was a long rough battle through the night around the Lizzard. We finally picked up a visitor mooring on the Helford river at 8am and went to bed. We had a day or two exploring the delightful area around Halford. 

We met a friend of a friend, Tim, on board his junk rigged boat ‘Santiana’ which he is currently trying to sell as he is building a new junk with trees from his own woodland with Tim Loftus, a boatbuilder friend of ours. Small world. I hope we will see him again In Falmouth to talk some more junk! 

Another short day sail into another strong headwind up to St Mawes where we dropped anchor. Its free to anchor here which was a nice surprise even though we were asked to move a few yards for some reason. Very friendly harbour staff.

Goiing across to Falmouth this afternoon where there is lots to see and do.

We have now got to plan the next stage of our voyage - we are real late in the season now for heading further south (across Biscay) so we are looking at various possibilities ...........