Recent content by solent clown

yes, we would break the trip up if we were doing it again, but it was a delivery trip so the way home was on an absentee cancelled delayed, stolen by aliens train, shame as we would have enjoyed the scenery more second time around and a bit more relaxed about things.

stove already built! We also ordered one of those chinese diesel heaters. In our shed everything is 12v save a kettle,and hopefully the chinese diesel heater will do the trick instead of a fan heater.

Torch, our old faithful

yes we are more of that view being competant dinghy sailors and tourers, we have sailed and camped all over the place in a dinghy, but a bigger boat makes most things easier, if less immediate and involving, and involves a whole new set of challenges beyond the raw theory and practice of sail...

Channel crossing is pencilled in for next spring! Head torch, yes we have some, as well a torches that clip onto clothes, useless as you tend to cross your arm over the beam! We are very keen to continue learning and gaining experience, so we take every opportunity to get out we can...

we still have the dinghy ;-)

yes I hear you buddy. The Trident was great and very forgiving, but just to small. I was constantly smacking my head, and inside was just too cramped for our level of use. Hopefully the new old boat will do us for some time to come.

This was the first trip where I really felt the cold, even though as well wrapped as usual I think the tiredness, long dark night and fear all conspired to make me a bit shivery at times. All was fine once the sun came out but it took it's time. Things I would have done differently, well I...

We finally went for it at 1 am this morning, after all the issues with the boat with the prop busting etc. All fixed at our expense as it seemed the right thing to do. The night part was both charming and terrifying, and all the better for it. I was caught out once for a moment by what I...

cool, at least that bit turned out ok

Our man reckons they will probably be be damaged, and apparently the nearest place to fix them is Germany. :ambivalence:

I know someone who has direct experience of driving this exact ferry, and it sisters for decades. His take on this was as follows "with a crossing spring tide it always was an awkward harbour to enter. The problem with fog is it is difficult to detect or observe. You can know the tide is...

when you turn an engine over slowly by hand there is more opportunity for compression leakage past the rings and anywhere else that might not be 100%. Faster rotation is a whole different story

We are awaiting our 50watt panel with a PWM controller, and also an MPPT controller. When they arrive I will be testing with both controllers. First with just one panel, then next week with a second when we source it. I am looking to test empirically differing set ups with these panels and...

My question was simply about cleaning this one out, but as you ask, up until now we have only had bottles on board. With this bigger boat we will have a properly plumbed in sinks etc so may set up the system to allow us to do washing up, washing and showering. We do not anticipate being on...