January
We toasted in the New Year with nervous statements about our plans for this year. Will we be able to bring everything together for the June departure we have been talking about for so long? Ever since our 6 week cruise in 2002, we have been gearing all our activity towards June 2005 and our plans to go off sailing for as long as it's fun and we can afford it (credit L&L Pardey). There is still a lot to do. In 2004 we downsized our property and had talked about converting our new place to flats, but conversion costs to comply with building regs are too onerous and costly. However, there is still work to be done on the house and we aren't sure who is going to do it. The builder-friend-of-friend seems to be less and less keen although he won't just come out and say he doesn't want to do the work; we don't want to sack him to cause offence to the friends.
Eventually we give up on builder-friend-of-friend after final chance to get in touch. Find new local builder 5 doors down the road who is available and gives a reasonable quote for the jobs we want doing. He can start in 3 weeks. RESULT!
We go to the London Boat Show. Credit card takes a hammering on boat spares - like a spare tiller pilot arm for the electric autopilot and some absolutely gorgeous (and v. expensive) lights for the fore cabin.
Terry starts work on Roam. He wants to put some copper anti-fouling on her to minimise the requirements to scrub and renew the anti-fouling and haul out costs. This means stripping the hull back to the gel coat. He starts with some stripping chemical but after 5 days of scraping he has hardly made a dent in the job (although quite a few dents in the hull!) and admits defeat. The boatyard organises a slurry blaster with lots of empathetic noises about the time he has wasted, but admiration that at least he tried.
February
Building work starts on the house. Mess and dust everywhere.
Hull blasted and looks good.
Work commitments start to get in the way of departure jobs. We can't tell our employers that we are leaving at the end of May before our statutory requirement to give just 4 weeks notice. We feel a bit mean about this after over 30 years of service to the same employer between us. having taken advice from an employment organisation, we could not take the risk that they would force us to leave before we wanted to and thereby removing entitlement to some work-related bonuses. We need every penny!!
Trying to juggle work, builders, boat jobs and departure plans start to fray tempers a bit.
March
Me painting house interior, Terry painting hull. that's all we seemed to do all month. the weather was actually unseasonably warm and sunny, but I didn't see much of it.
April
More Boat work. Terry is responsible for the outside, the boatyard for the engine and interior. Terry is winning on the jobs completed stakes. the inside looks like a whirlwind has gone through the cabin. I still have work to do on the interior lights. I have to fit the led task lights obtained at LIBS in January. i have also ordered some LED sets from a US website after reading an article in a US magazine called Boat Works about converting existing lights to leds. the idea being that leds use about 10% of the power as regular bulbs. the article looks simple enough.....we'll see.
We go to Beaulieu Boat Jumble. I don't know how we can still be spending, but the list of spares and bits is endless. things do get crossed off, but then 3 more come along to replace them. We find a sail repair set (2 palms, thread, needles, roll up bag) for a fiver, some courtesy flags (hope we will be needing them soon), some chain for the kedge anchor, sail battens to help make the windscoop - boo ha sucks to the chap who wanted £5 for his; some reinforced pipe to make a protection cushion for the upturned dinghy on the deck and more and more.....
Roam is due to be re-launched the last week of April, but the new heater and engine have not been completed. The yard say they will do it when she is afloat. oh well. We also have other distractions like friends over from the USA who we just want to go and party with.
April 28th: Terry and Fiona get married at Totnes Register
office.
May
Gloria and Marcus have been and gone home after their trip. We went to Devon for a few days (thanks Cliff, Karen, Jeff and Lesley) and took them to the Southampton v. Norwich Relegation battle last Saturday. Both teams had to win to stand any chance of Premiership football next season. Terry is a life-long, Saints die-hard and is shaking like a jelly with pre-match nerves. The match was a classic, especially for the neutrals. Norwich scored first after about 7 minutes - disaster! Saints equalise from the kick-off. By half time it's 3-3 and Saints defence look like they have gone shopping or something, they certainly aren't in evidence on the pitch. The 2nd half continues with end to end football and chances for both teams. 2 mins to go, Saints score!!! there is 3 minutes of agonising injury time, but Saints hang on (for once) for a 4-3 win. The atmosphere in the ground is fantastic. Definitely one to remember!
After a Bank Holiday Monday, Tuesday 3rd May is R-day - Resignation Day. We have both had informal chats with our respective bosses who are both shocked and pleased for us that we are going to do something special with our lives. We both start getting emails and phone calls from colleagues as the news filters through. It will be sad to leave all the people, but we hope we can keep in touch with our friends.
May 7th: Party Day. after some further frantic preparations, shopping, cleaning and tidying the party begins. Thanks to everyone for coming and taking the time and effort to join us. We had a great time, eventually going to bed when someone said it was getting light outside at 5am! In case you didn't hear 'the Band' that was billed was unfortunately taken ill and could not make it - get well soon Colin. But thanks to Jerry for bringing the equipment for the karaoke and sound system. Also sorry it was so cold when the sun went down.
I'll post some pictures soon to remind us of the fun and frolics. if you have any you can share, please email them to me at roam@roamsail.co.uk.
Sunday May 15th, last day of Premiership Season. for the first time ever all 4 bottom clubs are fighting for survival and any combination of wins/goals could save any one of them. Unfortunately Southampton lost to Man U and West Brom survived by beating Pompey 2-0 (apparently many Pompey fans turned up to the game in West Brom shirts). It was a very long evening in the Low/Gordon household.
May 21st: FA Cup Final. Arsenal v. Man U. Terry takes the
lads on a shake-down cruise over to Cowes on the (last?) annual cup final
weekend.
a bit of a blustery weekend, but everyone survives, except Jerry. Jim and
Gary apparently talk in some language that just contains betting terms and
is completely incomprehensible. but they persuade Terry to take some kind of
a spread bet on the last penalty taker on which Terry wins £12 or something.
Arsenal win final 5-4 on penalties. I always said Jens Lehman was a
fantastic keeper!
May 22nd: Terry noticed that the engine seemed to be overheating very quickly and the water flow from the exhaust had reduced significantly. Martin at the yard helps us to track down the problem to the exhaust elbow - just about the most inaccessible thing on the boat. eventually we get it off and find it is indeed just about completely blocked with carbon deposits. the solution is either to grind out the deposits or get a new one. we tried to find a replacement, but it seems this was custom made and nothing like it exists off the shelf. PBO recommends carrying a spare(!). This is a major problem but i would rather it happens now than in a months time when we are away from services and people we know.
May 28th: phew, after several hours of being folded into a locker with my hands and fingers stuck up parts of engine i did not know existed, and terry wishing his arms were twice as long and ten times stronger, we finally get the engine to run 'normally' - ie a good flow of water through the exhaust and not over-heating. we have had to replace the exhaust injector with a new one as it seemed the old one had choked up beyond redemption. that meant we have had to replace and reposition other engine bits to accommodate the new injector, but lets hope its worth it.
To be honest, departure plans are getting a bit behind schedule after this problem. we had thought we might get in at least a few day sails in this time, but not to be yet.
May 29th. We decide to test the engine with a trip to Cowes. We motor all the way there with a decidedly 'cool' engine (fab) and have a great sail back, although we seem to have forgotten how to tack as we keep getting in each others way. And we had to do a lot of tacking as the wind was coming right down Southampton Water. The sail quite knackered me out, how will I cope with it day after day?
Next problem...the VHF radio is not working. I think the deck connector is probably where the problem is, but fitting new co-ax connectors is a notoriously fiddly job so may leave to the boat yard who still have to finish the heater, radar wiring, fix the head-lining...which were all supposed to be done by the end of January!
May 31st. Strange feeling today...last day officially employed by FedEx for both of us. They have had nearly 31 years of work out of us combined, that's a long time so it makes it a huge wrench to leave. I was a bit choked earlier today when emailing thankyous and goodbyes. I wonder what it will feel like tomorrow?
June 1st. First day of being unemployed since leaving uni over xx years ago! (for me anyway).
June 2nd. Shakedown cruise to the Old Gaffers Festival in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Had a good sail down Southampton Water, but wind and tide against us in the Solent, However we hugged the North Coast and managed to beat along at about 4 knots. Had a great weekend in Yarmouth. All the usual suspects were there including the Casablanca Steps, who have had the same routine for the 5 years we have been going.
June 6th, Back to Rampart Quay. We have decided that the VHF doesn't work. We replaced all the aerial and co-ax to the radio, but still cannot receive anything further than about 500yds. It's supposed to receive over about 30 miles! The VHF we have is probably the original, so it must be about 25 years old and has decided that it's had enough. It weighs a ton, so that'll be more stowage capacity then! We bite the bullet and buy a new DSC vhf (thanks to my CT friends from Fedex). Fortunately it works when i plug it in!!! Solent Coastguard do a radio check with me and I am heard loud and clear. hurrah.
June 7 & 8. We have decided that we will aim to leave on Thursday, so now we have to load up the boat with all our stuff. What a job!! But Terry does sterling work finding space for everything and infact there are a couple of spaces that are empty, but then I remember we don't have any food on board!
June 9th. Departure Day.
Only our clothes and
books to go on board. i have no idea how we have managed to get it all on
and in. We lock up the car on the drive and go down to the yard. The boys
from the yard, Amanda and Brendan from Alliage (another Rival 34) and Lyn
come and have a beer with us and wave us off. It wasn't till we had gone
that we really appreciated them all turning out to wave us off.
We motored down Southampton Water and then turn into the Solent for another beat. Even so heavily laden, we had a good sail until the wind died about 2 miles from Yarmouth, our first stop.
Logbook 5: Portugal - Atlantic
Logbook 2: On Our Way, Devon & France
