Travels, adventures and family …
Some shots from yesterday – a windy, sunny day on Peter Jones X112, “In X Celcis” – crewing in the annual Round The Island race – around the Isle of Wight. About 1,700 yachts took part, with an average of say 10 crew per boat, it’s the UK’s second largest sporting event in the UK as far as participant numbers go, second only to the London marathon. Who’d have thought it eh.
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
John Masefield (1878-1967).
It’s all done! After a few weeks’ slightly nervous wait, the title for our new boat has arrived! Up until this point I was still not 100% sure that the California DMV (basically like the DVLA here in the UK, but they also deal with boats) would accept transfer to a non-resident, but we’re in the clear, and she’s ours. Proper exciting stuff, and a lot less painful that I was expecting. The DMV office at Corte Madera didn’t ever have more than an hour’s wait, and I used our work address in the city as my “home address”. It does mean that she’s a US registered vessel, and with me being a UK resident we may, in some distant remote port, have a few questions to answer to over-enthusiastic customs officers … but the other option of registering with the SSR (Small Ships Register) here in the UK would mean that I’d need to get a cruising licence to keep the boat in the US. The cruising licence is only available for a year, and whilst you can just renew for further years, you need to have the boat outside of US waters for at least 15 days between renewals. Which from San Francisco is actually quite a challenge – it’s either Mexico, Canada or hanging around offshore for over 2 weeks. I was very, very tempted to plan for an extended cruise down to Mexico 12 months from now, but with my work commitments that’s not really going to be an option. So, the Stars and Stripes will fly from our stern in place of the Red Duster. We’ll live with it. For now.
So, Rose and I are busy making plans for Things To Do when we move on board later this year; my list containing things like “fix masthead light” and “fit gas detector”, and her list having “paint locker doors” and “change curtains”. We’ve got to be careful we don’t end up just having “pink” and “blue” jobs around the boat though!
Trying to figure out what we’re going to keep and what we’re going to get rid of as we move from a house (albeit very small one) is a challenge. We like to think we’re pretty light on “stuff” – but we’ve still accumulated too much over the years. Rose’s vast art library and art collection is going to have to thin down somewhat; we only have one sensible sized “wall” on the boat, and the marine atmosphere probably isn’t going to be great on books, even in California. I’ve not got much stuff, but what I do have is very big. Surfboards, bikes, kitesurfing gear, snowboard, climbing kit … I think we’re going to have to find a shed to keep some of this!
Took a quick walk after dinner and caught some dramatic light – looking out over Temple Meads station from our place in Totterdown, Bristol. Check out all the gushing chlorophyll – these plants have been GAGGING for some sunshine.
A direction to steer in, because you need to know where you’re headed. Someone to help you drive, because you can’t drive all the way by yourself. If only it were as easy as just flicking on a switch!
First experiments with kite photos from Rancote.
Got a little distracted by kite flying as the wind picked up on the downwind run with the spinnaker up… Powering along at 6 knots; broached towards the land with only a couple of hundred yards to the rocks. Engine on; up into the wind to get the kite (the one with the camera) down, then charged off downwind to get the spinnaker down behind the main. All’s well that ends well!
Tom and Serena joined us for the evening, having driven down from Bristol.
View of Salcombe at dusk from visitor mooring #10, as we swing around with the wind. Picked up Tom and Serena who’d driven down from Bristol for the day, had a cruise around the ria on the dinghy, went ashore for some fish and chips, then had a peaceful night on board.
Salcombe was a lot quieter than the last time we were here; probably due to the forecast for the Sunday being damp and calm. This meant that we had a buoy to ourselves – always nicer not to have to raft up to someone else and deal with fenders, ropes and the squeaks and bangs throughout the night. Rob the harbour master came by in his launch, took our £12.60 mooring fee and left us with some biodegradable washing up liquid and a Salcombe handbook (I’m guessing it was Rob, unless he’d nicked someone else’s life jacket). Salcombe is one of the most forward-thinking places I’ve been to along the south coast; this year the fees are even recorded on an iPad, transmitted back to the office, and a receipt printed out while you wait. And I go to sea to get away from technology!
Priddy walk, Mendips. Dodging the rain clouds on a very windy day! Parked the car at Priddy, headed south to Deerleap for an amazing view over the Somerset levels, round to Ebbor wood and Ebbor Gorge, then back to the pub for a meal. Mmm.
First experiments with taking pictures from a kite. We took Tony’s boat out from Weymouth and cruised over to Ringstead. You can see the isle of Portland top left. Fixed the GoPro to an HQ power sled kite, set the camera to take a picture every 5 seconds, and chucked it up! We’re about 50m high here.
With Kate, Oli, Fin and Eliza at their place in Ottawa. They’d been collecting maple sap for a few weeks from the tree at the front of their house. When the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing during the night, the trees pump sap. It took about 8 hours to boil 80 litres of sap down into 2 litres of syrup – towards the end of the process you need to be watching the temperature of the mixture like a hawk, and when it gets to 103 degrees you’re done. Tastes so good. Was lovely to spend the weekend with old buddies.
Road and Ocean 