On the fourth day of Christmas (2013) ...

We came home :(

I was more than somewhat surprised to find it was getting light and nearly half past seven in the morning when I awoke. An undisturbed eight hour plus sleep is such a rarity for me these days.

After a coffee and a nurdle on the smartphone, I made fresh coffee and disturbed the better half. I'd have left her to sleep longer but as she is due in work tonight we needed to crack on.

Bacon buttys for breakfast soon ensued followed by offloading the bags, opening all the things that should be open, closing all the things that should be closed, turning off, on, up or down all the things that needed turing off, on, up or down and other such complex activities. And people say "oh, yachting, must be nice to do something simple and old fashioned like that". Yeah right!

A final job was to fire up the engine briefly whilst pouring antifreeze down the intake filter to protect the heat exchanger through the depths of winter (I hope!) and then we locked up and hit the road home.

A sub-2hr journey was good and we spent much of it in discussion about plans for the short, medium and long terms. The work/life balance isn't perfect at the moment but we need a good few years of reasonably high income yet to sort out our long term financial security. One or two ideas occurred to us that might move things forward a bit quicker than would otherwise be the case which we're going to look into

Now it's back to normal ... or what passes for normal hereabouts anyway!

On The Third Day of Christmas (2013) ...

We didn't do a lot!

It had been quite a wild night with F9/10 gales offshore and gusts of up to 50+ knots blowing through the moorings. I'd had to don my lifejacket, being Mr. Sensible Skipper, and wake Jane up to keep watch whilst I went and sorted out a loose halyard on the boat next door but other than that nothing untoward occurred although we were bouncing around somewhat.

Once it was light I took a turn around the haven and popped over to the yacht station to make sure several friends boats were OK, all was well. Mind, I wouldn't have wanted to be aboard a boat on the river, glad we decided to go for the marina berth over winter

Breakfast was so late it became officially brunch after which we stirred our stumps and gave Erbas a tidy up below decks. We both had a bit of a doze for a while and then it was time to get the lamb casserole on the hob after which we retired to the pub for a beer or three.

In bed by eleven, asleep soon after. Bliss!

Boxing Day 2013

We started the day by trying the new frying pan to produce a sausage and egg butty for me whilst Jane breakfasted lightly on jam and toast. The frying pan is excellent!

Then it was off by car on a shopping expedition aimed at improving the heating arrangements. We both dislike the fan heater, it's noisy and gives me a headache whilst Jane feels it causes her to get the sniffles.

We found a 1.5kw two tube halogen heater for just £25 in B&Q which looked ideal. Whilst we were at it we picked up a cheap dehumidifier too although we suspected it was cheap for a reason!

A visit to Poundstretcher generated a large carrier bag full of bits and bobs we needed for not a lot if money and then we bimbled back to Fambridge via the back roads.

That was a goodly chunk of the day gone and by the time we'd sorted ourselves out it was well into the evening. We headed of to the pub, taking great care on the slippery pontoons, only to find no sign of life.

Oh well, back on board and with time getting on it was tinned curry and rice for dinner followed by episode two of "The White Queen" and then bed

Christmas Day 2013

We slept quite well apart from the midnight rainstorm and awoke to our first ever Christmas alone as a couple - and we've been married for over thirty years!

We've always spent Christmas with my family and our children at my parents, apart from one year when we hosted the gathering of the clan!

After a light breakfast, toast being the order of the day, I braved the chill outdoors to fetch Jane's present from the car. Yes, honestly, some nautical cookbooks and a rectangular frying pan really was to her liking! (The cook books had been requested, the frying pan was a surprise)

Pressys!

My present is insulated trainers, because I'm always suffering from cold feet! Unfortunately the supplier failed to deliver them in time so they are currently a virtual present!

With breakfast and presents out of the way, I got down to the business of dressing the ship with flags having bought a signal flag set as the boats Christmas present! After some faffing about it looked pretty good in the winter sunshine

Dressed Overall, although there were no takers on the offer indicated by the hoist to starboard

Ingredients and pans at the ready

And now it was time to cook the dinner. This would be a challenge on a two burner spirit stove but I'd come up with a cunning plan!

At the heart of the meal would be a spatchcock, or in French a poussin. An immature chicken with the sternum removed in other words. With a single wrap of foil to prevent it from burning, this went into our double skillet for thirty minutes being turned over half way through.

Two burners are all you need!

Now I added the first of three cheats on the form of some mixed ready to roast vegetables which we'd bought frozen in a large bag. I'd decanted sufficient for our needs into a container along with two more containers containing two helpings of steaming vegetables and four frozen Yorkshire puddings!

After another half an hour or so the steamed veg went on and the Yorkshires were added to the roast. Thirty minutes later and voila! A pretty decent roast dinner for two!

The bird was cooked to perfection (roughly 90 minutes and turned several times over a fairly low heat for double skillet owners). The roast veg and Yorkshire puds were tasty if perhaps a little soggy. 

Dinner was accompanied by a decent red wine and followed by watching the first episode of "The White Queen" on DVD, our youngest and his girlfriend having bought us it after we missed episode two when it was broadcast

A phone call home to my parents and brother fulfilled family duties - the kids mostly seem to be working today, it's a sign of the times I guess

.

We skipped tea, and spent the evening playing monopoly on the laptop before retiring fairly early after a very nice day.

Christmas Eve 2013

After grabbing a few hours sleep following work, we were both up and about shortly after midday so after throwing an astonishing amount of gear into the car we set off along the A14

The roads weren't as bad as I'd feared, the traffic was quite light and the weather much improved after high winds and heavy rain overnight.

We made excellent time and were soon on board and sorting ourselves out. I don't do Christmas decorations so after deciding that our mast isn't quite tall enough to signal "BAH HUMBUG" with flags I settled on "NE14W" instead. Bearing in mind that "W" is "Whiskey" in the phonetic alphabet you should be able to work that one out!

By the time I'd sorted that out and raised the ensign too it was getting rather chilly outside so enough was enough. As dark descended we lit all the oil lamps and settled down to chicken casserole from the tin. A drop of bubbly stuff for Jane and a wee dram for myself ensued but a wild party night was not to be and by eight we were both sound asleep!

The peace and tranquility was disturbed, as indeed was my sleep, around midnight by heavy rain which lasted an hour or so, once it blew through I was away with the fairies again.

Never mind, it'll soon be Christmas!

December Weekend 2013 - Day 2

Today was never going to be wildly exciting! A leisurely start over a generous round of bacon butties and gallons of coffee was followed by some plumbing investigations.

The purpose of the excercise being to decide where to locate a sump pump to automatically empty the sink drains 'cos faffing about with a push button under the v-berth in order to empty the galley sink is a total pain in ... well everything really

After some scratching of the collective bonces, we decided that the best spot is under the cabin sole in the saloon and even better that much of the existing plumbing can be used in situ so it's going to be a pretty easy and straightforward job

Whilst we had the relevant section of floor up anyway I pulled the log impeller and whipped the blanking plug in it's place. The impeller was pretty clean anyway but no doubt benefited from a scrub and wash in hot water to remove any klingons. In the process, I deliberately let the water pour in until the auto switch on the main bilge pump kicked in to test it. It works. 

Although it had started out bright and quite pleasant, the day was turning increasingly foul weather wise so we took advantage of a lull in the wind and showers to chuck our kit into the car and after shutting down, switching off, switching on, switching over and various such like excercises we made an early-ish dash for the road home.

There may be a photo or two eventually if and when the bosun gets around to sending them to me (hint hint)

December Weekend 2013 - Day 1

After picking up the workers from the big shed, I loaded up the car and headed over to his abode to load up the bosun.

We had a decent drive down in the lighter Saturday morning traffic and arrived to a sunny, quiet and bitterly cold welcome at the marina.

With the kettle in regular use all day we set about reorganising the packing of the new inflatable dinghy and the contents of the port cockpit locker so that the one would go into the other. It didn't look good at first and nor did the plan B option of stowing the dinghy down the quarter berth. However, with the floor slats removed I found we could roll the dinghy up into a narrower package which would fit in the locker. Result!

As expected though getting the dinghy in was at the expense of taking the liferaft out. There's really nowhere else to stow the valise liferaft other than on deck and it's several years overdue for a service in any case. I'll take it home and shed it for now pending a decision on what to do about it - probably the best option long term being to change it out for a canister version and find somewhere on deck to mount it.

Having worked out how to put the dinghy away, we now got it out again and set about a trial inflation in the cockpit. It can be done without too much difficulty although I found, for the first time but not the last today, that I was struggling physically by the time I'd got it pulled up with the stirrup pump.

With it blown up there was only one thing to do - go play with it! Attaching the outboard was a doddle, I'd already put fresh petroil in the tank and I was soon zooming up and down the creek on a solo test flight.

Glen then clambered aboard for a two up test which went equally well although with two fat gits on board a third person would have to be a midget! Feeling very pleased with my purchase, we tied up and had a coffee and some lunch before I made a third run to practice approaching the stern to board.

Then we hauled the dinghy out off the water and inverted it on the foredeck to dry out a bit. I'd hoped it might stow there inflated for short runs and pottering about but whilst it will squeeze between the mast, stays and pulpit rail, just, it leaves no space spare at all making access to mooring lines, anchor, etc impossible.

After some idling below decks, and figuring it wasn't going to get any drier before dark anyway, I deflated and re-packed the dinghy on the foredeck (which worked better than doing it in the cockpit) and stowed it away.

Glen did take some photos but they're on his digital camera so will have to wait until we get home.

After a bit of a breather, we headed for the pub, a meal and some beer. It wasn't a late night though especially as I was still struggling for energy and any sort of effort was leaving me out of breath and out of sorts. Ok, I'm not the fittest of people but this was ridiculous!

Hopefully an early night would sort me out assuming sleep was forthcoming. That was by no means certain as it was a fairly wild night with winds gusting over 40 knots and much squeaking of fenders and groaning of mooring lines.

Never the less, within minutes of climbing into the v-berth and once the initial shivering had stopped I was away with the fairies!