Grand Slam

"I name this ship........"

The sun shone and the wine and beer flowed. We finally got round to having the dinghy naming party and it turned out to be a reasonable day weather-wise. Plenty of people turned up and a great time was had by all. I think we ended up with 30+ on board and consequently the bow had lifted about six inches out of the water. I suggested that we try and see if we could get everyone on the dinghy but no-one seemed interested!

The dinghy was duly named "Grand Slam Too" to commemerate Wales' second Grand Slam win in far too few years. We had to borrow another welsh flag (off John - another welsh ex-pat up here in the frozen north) as the scottish one was a bit big.

Pam had found a helium cylinder in Costco a couple of days earlier so we had decorated the boat and dinghy with balloons. The instructions said to inflate them a couple of hours before the party which seemed a bit strange. Little did we realise why. At least a quarter of them went bang!!!!! with the sound of a rifle shot - not good for the heart if you were standing within a hundred yards of the boat. Obviously the heat of the sun was inflating them above their limit.

So we are now in the final throws of getting the boat ready to go Friday. All that is left is getting the provisions on board and getting the drinks cabinet fitted (ETA now when we are over in Oban).

Thanks to all who turned up on Sunday - now what else do we need to do before Friday........?

Talk about lying down on the job!!

Talk about lying down on the job!! This is the location for the new drinks cabinet which is due to be built by Rob by a week Friday!! That's when we are leaving to take the boat round to Dunstaffnage on the first leg of the trip down south.

At the moment it is a few bits of carboard stuck together with sellotape but just think what it will be like when we get all the glasses and spirits in a nice cabinet. That will keep Rob busy for a few nights.

Don't ask what the "mini-greenhouse" (on the right) is!

Rob finnally got it all measured up after the brief sail we had on the weekend. Managed to get the spinnaker up to practice gybing it with the sock. Not bad - probably easy to handle with 3 people (if not 2).

Current plan is to set off end of next week to get to the west coast either via Orkney or the Cally canal depending on the weather and get round to Oban by the 1st June to get lifted out and antifouled. After that we will be off to Ireland for a month or so and hopefully a trip down Ireland's west coast.

The boat is now pretty much ready with the ssb radio now working well and all the other bits on the back of the transom. Looks a bit busy - and not a lot of room for anything else. For anyone who knows the Marina, you will notice something missing in this photo - the Forth Road Bridge! This was taken last Sunday with the south of England basking in 25 C temps. We reached about 12 C with an annoying easterly wind bringing in the har and reducing visability to not a lot. Role on the summer.

It's official

Well here it is - Anna bought Rob a hat to celebrate his success at Southern Sailing. Obviously compulsory attire for the sail this weekend!

We've finnaly got back on the boat and well on the way to getting the ssb radio fitted. 2 days hard slog and we've managed to get the copper ground strip and the ATU installed and all the associated wiring. If only I had taken the duogen down to the boat I could have got the antenna installed - need to measure how long the blades are so I make sure they dont hit the antenna - but I didn't so I couldn't! So that's the plan for tomorrow and Monday along with a sail to try out the new headsail.

3 weeks to go before we push off for the west coast so it's all systems go.

We've been away for a week!

We’ve been a bit slow in keeping the site updated over the past month – reason being that Rob and I went down to the Solent to do a Yachtmaster prep week and exam and we had to do a bit of swotting before we went! Good news is we both passed!! No surprises there then! ….thank goodness.

We decided to try Southern Sailing given the universal good press so ended up in a rather cold river Itchen berth on a rather old and tired Yamaha 33. I never knew Yamaha made boats but this was one of the few that ended up over here – not too dissimilar I guess to a Sigma 33. Southern Sailing describe their boats as tired and old and that’s no exaggeration. We had to laugh the first evening at the windvane giving off a greenish hue – turned out to be the tricolour mounted the wrong way round. Not funny though was the duff battery meaning poor starting and almost no heating (in a very cold April).

The course however was great with a good banter going between the crew and even getting Richard (the instructor) to join in. We spent five days criss-crossing the Solent sussing out all those tricky entrances we could be asked to negotiate at night time. The temperature was baltic. Although there was very little rain, the wind was easterly – straight from Siberia and by the end of the week was up to F6-7.

It was really interesting to sail in the Solent, quite a bit different from up here on the Forth. The biggest difference was the lack of rocks! There are almost none down there, with sand and mud being the order of the day. The other big one was the tide up and down the rivers and right through the marinas and pontoons. We’ve got it easy up here with minimal tidal flow when you are parking your boat. I can also see why the round the island race is so popular given the intricacies of the tide and winds in the area.

By the end of the week, we had had a thoroughly good time and Geoff and Bob, the other two students (in addition to Robert and I) were a great laugh. Shame that on Friday afternoon we were sitting waiting for the examiner to turn up.

The exam was done and dusted in 24 hours in mostly F6-7 winds with heavy rain and no improvement in the temperatures. We all passed – and the preparation that Richard gave us proved extremely useful. Both Robert and I also learned a lot during the week, which will help us greatly in the coming years.

After the drive back up to Scotland, we were both well and truly knackered and a good rest is needed this week.

With the YM out of the way, the plan is now to get Grand Slam kitted out for the extended trip south to Portugal. Plan is to leave late May. First task is to get the ssb radio on the boat (with a new antenna and ground system to put in) and get the radar and life-raft (just back from service) back on the boat. Rob’s working on the drinks cabinet. There may be just enough time for the odd sail! We’ve now got all the paper charts and pilot books and just need to get the electronic charts. Money, money, money……

Man Overboard!!

The following was provided by Ken Brown (sailing on Erin) recounting the Man Over Board experience during the Dunbar trip a few weekends ago. Thanks Ken!!

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The weekend of 29/30 March cruise from PE to Dunbar with a stay over on the Saturday night was enjoyed by the crew of the 3 yachts: Erin, Grand Slam and Tosca. The strong westerlies of the Saturday morning meant that unless we reefed Erin we would be there in no time at all, and as this was Tosca’s first time, we tried to go at a similar speed.

Having a G&T after 12 noon was most relaxing. We entered Dunbar in the afternoon, and with a neep tide of only a couple of metres we made sure there was no need for adjusting shore lines and more importantly we didn’t bottom out at night time.

After a few liquid refreshments, hosted by John Murphy of Erin, all 3 crews head up for a meal into Dunbar. This was followed by a return to Grand Slam for a drink before bed time. The next morning, some were slower than others to stir, some had to be convinced to get up with the smell of a cooked breakfast!!

So to the return journey. It was westerly on the nose most of the way back! Robert was skippering Andy & Pam’s boat Grand Slam. You could tell he didn’t want to mark the boat as it left the harbour with a look of concentration on his face. Dougie & his Mrs in Tosca headed off with their engine. So did we once the breakfast was consumed and the dishes were washed.

After leaving the harbour, it was in to the wind, sails up. This was to be the first of many sail raisings ahead of us. (The term whores knickers springs to mind!)

We headed for the Bass Rock keeping pointing as high as we could to clear the headland at Seacliff. Before long we settled in watching the other 2 yachts ahead.

As we approached the stone monument at the outer edge of the rocks at Seacliff, a place I have dived on many occasions for lobsters (and big ones at that), we spotted a yellow shape just floating, and no more. I said to John that looks very much like a hooded jacket with arms and its not empty, so with all hands on deck we tacked on a 180 and took a closer look. Unfortunately as we passed it it was a full yellow suited body face down in the water. As conditions were pretty calm, we decided on a stern recovery. So it was sails down and on the second attempt, Ewan, who we roped to the stern grabbed the upper section of the body. Now Ewan, like a few of us on Erin, is not short of upper body muscle (must be something to do with those  sails and round the cans on the winches), so he got the first hold, I got the second, and Karl joined in. This was heavy individual, ( although as I recall Ewan being more verbally descriptive )as we landed it on board we feared the worst as we didn’t know what state it was going to be in when we turned it over! So we did to find that plastic outline of RNLI across the face of a plastic dummy filled with around 100kg of sand!

At this point we called it in on Channel 16, Aidan being as specific as possible that it was a dummy we had recovered. The Coastguard asked to speak to North Berwick RNLI who explained that they had put the practice dummy there early in the morning and they would join us forthwith out off Seacliff.

A 4 manned orange inflatable could be seen heading out from the beach to intercept us. As they came alongside we had a bit of a laugh and handed over their buddy – some dead weight!! With the excitement over, sails hoisted once again we proceeded to catch up with the others. Grand Slam had taken the tack all the way over to the Fife side and Tosca was hugging the south shore line. By the time we caught up with Tosca it was on the east side of Fidra. They were doing fine, so we tacked out into the Forth and had some lunch.

We tacked back in off Aberlady to check on Tosca once more to see if they wanted any extra crew on board to help sail back rather than motor, but they were fine, so we put our sails up and carried on.

We tack again and headed for Oxcars. On entering PE we went back to Erin’s normal berth, where Robert helped with the shore lines, keen to hear the details of the recovery!

Its one thing practising with a fender – its something else with a dead weight of  100kg!

Maybe its something one should practice more often with!!

So "Grand Slam Too" it is then

Looks like we have a new name for the dinghy then! I managed to be away in Saudi for the weekend so missed all the fun - what with England winning and all that. I understand Wales also just about won. Pam was beseiged with text messages of which the winner was:

This was Rob and Anna saying "Come on Wales".

Well what else can you say when your team was beaten by Italy and only just missed the wooden spoon by 2 points. So now we can have a boat naming party for the dinghy - to be formally christened "Grand Slam Too". Plan is to have it some time in April (when it warms up) rather than next weekend in Dunbar - as we have enough of an excuse then to have a drink anyway.

Archie will be the guest of honour as he thought up the name.

One thing is for definite. We are not going out this weekend. It's going to be cold. It reminds me of a Mike Harding's soliloquy - Akroyd's Funeral.

Some brass monkeys outside sung carols soprano,

You could 'ear 'em cursin' and swearin'

As they wandered 'round lost in the cold and the frost

They couldn't find their bearings.

Northerly winds of 30 Knts+ does not sound like fun so we will leave it to next weekend and see if we can get down to Dunbar.

Congrats to Wales

Well yesterday was a mixed day for the results with one half of the family happy with winning the triple crown and me - well let's just say tomorrow is going to be a bad day in work!

So today we celebrated the win with a short cruise down the river and started by hoisting the Welsh flag.

Don't be fooled by the blue sky! It didn't last. It never does up here. We motored through the bridges to catch up Erin who had left a few minutes earlier but were forced to radio them to get them come back and take a photo. This they duly did but despite an hour of post-sail techno effort, none of the assembled "experts" could transfer the picture from John's phone to Pam's. Maybe in a few weeks. Till then you'll have to make do with the one we took from on-board!

OK - now we are still on for the naming part for the tender, with Triple Crown now a real option but Grand Slam Too or Wooden Spoon (despite Scotland's heroic win over a c**p England side - they must beat Italy next week to avoid ending up bottom) our preferred names. Next weekend will be the crunch!

It was an interesting sail. For most of the day it was cloudy and grey with 15-25Knts......and this is a shot you wont see very often, Erin with two reefs in. 

We did however see our first flying fish of the season. As Erin was beating back up towards us to take the photo, we caught site of a purple flying fish - we estimated around 6 feet long, flying at around 30 feet heading away from the shore and directly towards Erin. After a bit of discussion we worked out it was probably a dolphin shaped helium balloon which had escaped from some distraught childs hand on shore.

John however helming Erin did not have the luxury of a few minutes discussion - the first he saw of it was this purple fish shaped object coming round the outside of his genoa and banging off the main before nearly getting caught up in the backstay. As they were just about to tack, the rest of the crew were too busy with their other duties to fully comprehend what was concerning John. I don't think it was nearly as big as we had discussed but it must have come as a bit of shock to John. Afterwards we worked out it had probably come from Sea World  - so if anyone reading this has lost an errant dolphin, it is now probably on the Isle of May.

  It was cold and despite these photo's giving the impression of a nice sunny day (we only got the camera out when the sun was out) we made it down around InchMickery and then beat back up the channel.

This is a nice shot of Inverkeithing (no that can't be right - there are no good shots of Inverkeithing). So back to the Marina and tie up the boat well ahead of the big storm forecast for tomorrow morning - although it looks like Scotland is not going to be too bad - other than snow.

It's time for a sail

Well the weather relented and we took the boat for a spin. The gale force winds of Friday and Saturday had died down and even the sun came out. A chance then to blow off the cobwebs. A very pleasant sail downwind under the bridges and down past Inchcolm and Oxcars but a bumpy beat back up into the wind and tide with the wind rather gusty and variable in direction. Up to 20 Knots it was time for a reef or two.

Plans are now in hand for the boat naming party - for the tender! Contenders for the name are "Triple Crown" or "Grand Slam Too" depending on the Welsh results over the next few weeks, but the fall back is always "Wooden Spoon" once England beat Scotland next Saturday.

We are not going to hear the last of it from Pam if Wales win on Saturday but at least Rob seems resigned to the wooden spoon!

So a good day out. Nothing broke! The log is working fine after it's clean out. The AIS and GPS all now working well. 

Next trip out - Sunday 9th with a bit of luck.

Welcome to the new Grand Slam website

After a year of inactivity, we have finally got around to sorting out the web site. Over the next few months we will be setting it up so we can track our progress this year as we set off to warmer climates. Bear with us as we get all the pages working - and the boat ready to go!