Every spring for as long as I can remember, I have brought our life jackets home from Whimbrel for a clean and service. We keep two spares for people coming aboard for day sails or for longer. I wipe the outer covers using a scourer and cloth using a spot of lemon surface cleaner and…

How many sailors clean or wash and reproof their boat’s covers? Looking at craft seen around me and on my yearly travels, I have say that it’s likely to be not many, but I may be wrong… Let’s face it, cockpit covers, sail covers, other sundry covers and sun protectors all cost money. Modern washing…

With the fair weather experienced in Essex at least, I was able to begin dealing with repairs to Whimbrel’s varnish work. Repairs were only needed to areas of cabin side beadings. The flat surfaces have stood up to the winter very well and continue to look good. So, overall, I have been happy with my…

We need a new red ensign my mate told me a while ago. The fly had been sewn up and the colour is badly faded. It’s quality is dubious! ‘It looked piddly…’ she said. I had got a small 3/4 yard size last time… So, I looked around the web. Most had no information regarding…

Recently news broke that Fairline Yachts was in trouble again. This was after a fall in sales from around £48M to around £42M. Another group had taken over the concern in between times. The ins and outs of the pain being felt by investors is far above my head, but they know the risks… It…

There are things, as all boaters know, that can be dealt with during the darker and colder time of the year. All that is needed is the ‘will’ and a place to do it. I had no constraints for washboards and the locker door. but for the cockpit locker seat tops, an approaching week of…

I was alerted to the film, ‘The Long Memory’ by a fellow sailor during last autumn. I quickly discovered that it was based on a book by Howard Clewes, author and film script writer. Howard Clewes was born in 1912 and died in 1988. His early life was in York – far from the silty…

A bit of a delight was found under our Christmas tree, a present from my dear mate, a book. The book, Arthur Ransome Master Storyteller, By Roger Wardale, has been around for some while, however, it’s title hadn’t fell my way. Christobel said that she found it while we were away on holiday in Norfolk…

The start of the year was punctuated for us by the failure of our propeller key making it imperative for a lift out. This was our first at The Blackwater Marina. It all went swimmingly well and the team listened to my ‘foiballs’ about chocking up… Beccs, the manager, kindly gave me a telephone number…

The cockpit sole boards aboard Whimbrel have needed to be stripped back for a couple of seasons. The paint layer thickness was becoming excessive (notoriously tough resistance to sanding!) and in places adherence was breaking down. As an experiment, I had applied a single coat of a different non-slip paint from Teamac as I was…

There are many areas where a conservancy fee is ‘normal’ such as the Broads, inland waterways and river areas above the tidal limits such as the Thames and Medway in the south, but this news in the link below of what Peel Ports Clydeport wish to do is a bit of a shocker, or is…

Reading the article below reminded me of a ‘man overboard’ incident from Whimbrel with my good mate, Christobel, being the victim. We were berthing in Limehouse Marina during Easter week, April 2017. We had gone up for two reasons – to see a Passion Play at Trafalgar Square and see the tall ships which congregated…

Whilst on holiday with the Mate based in a cottage in Holt, N. Norfolk recently we came across by complete accident a lovely museum dealing with boats of the Norfolk coast. The museum, a working boatyard as well, is based at the former artillery training ground at Stiffkey. The site has all sorts within its…

The first tender to Whimbrel was a little 8′ Tepco GRP moulded dinghy. It was a great carrier with a full bilge, but sweet she wasn’t being a bit of a tub. In time after the demise of our Mirror dinghy, the tender was refitted with a dagger board and rudder made from the Mirror’s…

I had taken the two part pole for booming out the Whimbrel’s headsails home for refurbishment as the ‘main’ part looked distinctly crabby. Once dismantled I set too with a heat gun to strip the main pole of varnish. I quickly discovered the dreaded rot. The pole had to have a section cut off its…

Now, if you had said to me eighteen months ago: ‘You’re going to sail to a new home soon…’ I’d have laughed outright. The mate would agree for she too, with reservations, was enjoying the camaraderie of the part of the Island Yacht Club we inhabited. Weekend work party was a time to meet people…

During the early summer a film was released about ‘Wind, Tide and Oar’ by a film maker and ‘ardent’ supporters of the non use of propulsive power in the boat’s belly. The mate and I attended one of numerous showings of the film aboard the Sea-change Sailing Trust’s barge, Blue Mermaid, which had received a…

The mate had expressly asked for a visit into Tollesbury – it would only be an overnighter: tomorrow will be our penultimate day. Besides, I wanted to ‘raid’ the local butcher’s shop for a proper pork chop, cut to order!m. Our ‘last supper’ tomorrow night. We were only moored in West Mersea, so it was…

We were bound up the River Medway from Queenborough to Upnor. It was a calm start with just enough puff to fill main and Genoa. We crept slowly away from our buoy, gradually slanting across tide towards the shallows. Soon after beginning to reach up Saltpan, a rapid increase in the wind strength persuaded me…

It has been a very long time since we last had a night’s stop-over in Lower Halstow Dock, back to before Edith May’s days. I’d contacted Geoffrey Gransden to clear our visit: the Edith May was away sailing up the East Ciast. As we came abreast of the chosen mooring position astern if the TSBs…