Aug. 28, 2006 - Holy Island

Aug. 28, 2006 - Holy Island

Bank holiday weekend, we set of from Blyth at 1400 hrs to sail to Amble for the start of the bank holiday weekend, we had arranged to meet Davy and Andy at Amble and then sail to the island on Saturday. Once out at sea we raised the spinniker and settle back for the trip which went without hitch, catching Thumper as we went. Whe we arrived at Amble we found the Derek, Peter, Allan and Julie, Neil and Lesley, and Davy and Sheila were also at Amble for the weekend. We all met at the Marina arms for a meal and a couple of drinks, then off down the street, the occasion was Dereks 58th birthday (as if we need an excuse to drink).

Saturday up early to catch the tide to leave Amble but also to get the push through the Farnes on root to Holy Island.We had to motor to the Island with the wind on the nose. passed through the islands doing 7knots.

Arrived Holy Island 1230hrs and picked our spot in the anchourage. Had to relocate once because of the iresponsible placing of someone else's anchour.

Had dinner (hme made shepherd pie) on board thumper with Davy and Miller. The evening passed with a short walk and a rest in the Manor House meeting Pat and Thelma two old friends from years ago. An uneventful night even though I had to do anchour watch, we held fast but others were on the move all night due to tide and wind. We decided to leave the anchourage at 1100hrs heading for Newton but the weather forcast was to change so headed home to Blyth and a night on the beer with Peter Nich.

Aug. 22, 2006 - Next step

Well the next step of the process is now complete. The house is finally gone, and we moved into our small appartment on Friday 18th of August, in the middle of a thunder storm. We need now to tidy the place up and get it to a state of low maintenance so it can be rented out while we're away. The up side of moving from a large house into a small apartment apart from the obvious (spare cash to finance the trip) is that when we have to move onto the boat in April of next year we arn't going to be missing a large comfortable home that'll probably get trashed by who ever rents it. We have put together the final shopping list of safety kit, it's our intention to go to the Southampton boat show and do some hard haggling to get the best prices. Still having to keep everything quite at work, and still need the answers to a couple of big questions. It's coming up to bank holiday weekend and the plan is is the weather remains the same I hope to get to Holy Island as it's the Coquet clubs bbq on the beach, and as we've not sailed any great distance this year with the move and weather it would be nice to get away for the final bank holiday of the summer.

Jul. 6, 2006 - Plans

Just returned from holiday in Sri lanka, Had a fantasic time meeting some wonderful people. But it's back to work and further planning. First things are to order the engine control cable we snapped the weekend before we went away. We've got a weekend of parties coming up at St Peters in a couple of weeks, bad heads and stomachs to look forward to from this. After that it's put the shopping list together for the missing equipment and sort out any remaining problems with the house move and get everything boxed up. Should be moving by the middle of July. I'll get some pictures from St peets to put on here.

May. 6, 2006 - Tamara just out of winter refit

Apr. 17, 2006 - Easter Weekend at Amble

Friday night 14/04/06.

A lively sail to Amble with strong westnorth west winds made the arrival all the better.

We left Blyth around 1200hrs to arrive at Amble with the tidal gate of 1600hrs. Ambles a great little place with excellent entertainment in the pubs, live music, live fights, and that’s just the women, On the approaches to the harbour entrance you have two choices of the inland channel or around the back of Couquet Island, with the skies darkening and the wind rising, we went for the inland passage which is very shoal and you’ve got to pick your way through with caution. There’s a 15ft bottle nosed dolphin back at Amble and last year followed us in on several occasions, but this was not to be this time. He, I’m assuming it a boy, likes to swim along side when your up on deck reefing the sails, he swims on his side looking up at you with what looks like a smile on his face, as if he’s pleased to see you. Sailing short handed we had to rig centre springs from the main winches to catch the pontoon and pull the boat up against it in the strong winds, however thing don’t always go to plan, a last minute gust of wind on the bow caught the boat and forced us to miss the birth, the second option birth had to be taken as this would present the stern to the wind and allow the bow to swing in. Once along side and made fast the bevy’s start to flow in earnest, Only one other boat Island Fling from Blyth had made the trip, We decided that a drink in Walkworth would round the night off  beautifully, a brisk stroll along the river and meet up with a friend with whom I had worked with for the past four years, had a real good laugh with Tony, several drinks later some where around 2300hrs we decided to go home with the intention of carrying on to Eyemouth for the Saturday night, assuming that everyone is sober enough to sail, first  tide of tomorrow 0430hrs.

Saturday 15/04/06

Guess what!  missed the tide by about four hours, whatever! Ambles a nice little place to spend Saturday, Anyway the wind did it’s usual and went south instead of North and was forecast for force 5, this would make the anchorage at Newton very uncomfortable, Met up with Tony and the Girls later, and decided to head for home. Arrived back at Blyth at 1800hrs a good lively sail home that saw Debs downs in the saloon, a touch ill. Once along side and secured we decided to stay on board that night and sink a few more bottles of the red stuff. A BAD DAY AT SEA IS STILL BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT THE OFFICE.

Apr. 6, 2006 - Tamara's engine after rebuild

Apr. 5, 2006 - The History

We were sitting in an Irish bar in the centre of Cuzco in Peru, (Paddy's bar on the corner of the square, if you've ever been there.) We had just returned from the seven day Salcantay treck across the Ande's to Machu-Piccu. We were talking about our next adventures with the group one of which was Frank, a young 29 yr old Irsh man, when I said, "When I get home I'm buying a yacht and gonna sail the world". Frank replied "so you've sailed before" "nope" I said "but thats what i'm gonna do". Here we are two year later the owners of a Moody 33 that we've spent a lot of time and money refitting, and two year on course's to become a qualified coastal/yacht master. The plan was to go away when I reached 50 and could claim a company pension, that went out the window in December, and we're now planning to sell the house and leave early next year 2007 for the Med as a first stop off.

I hope to be able to post some photo's of the refit shortly and of our adventures this summer, before we leave.