Cearcal a’ chuain
Gu bràth bidh i a’ tionndadh
Leam gu machair geal an iar
Far an do thòisich an là.
[C Macdonald/R Macdonald, Cearcal a’ Chuain]
Yes, I’m always drawn west, but hadn’t been for a while, so wanted to get out there and cover some ground (water?) with Fly and did, logging some 330 sea miles over the ten days from Saturday 9 to Monday 18 August… (more…)
Three years ago we had a Facebook discussion about boarding/swimming ladders for Impalas and I finally got one sorted for Fly this year… (more…)
It’s quite simple; for podium places at Admiral’s Cup, you need boats with matching names, so Jolt 3/Jolt 6, Beau Geste/Beau Ideal, Django WR51/Django JPK etc. To win you also need sail numbers matching the lengths of your boats, so MON 52/MON 42. You heard it here first, thanks! ;-)
While the gaps between my blogs get bigger, I’m still here and, bar the increasing timescale, what I wrote just three blogs but nearly three years ago is remarkably similar to how I might have started this one: (more…)
I’m ‘supposed’ to be trading my sailing know-how for Amanda’s in kayaking and we’d hoped to go sailing yesterday…
Amanda lives about 180m up the road and Ruth lives right in between (a neat 90m from either of us). Amanda’s a Sea Kayak Leader and Coach who’s keen to do some sailing where I’m a lifelong sailor getting into kayaking, so Ruth suggested we could help each other. What a good idea!
But a forecast short of wind said ‘kayak’, Amanda suggested the single-day circumnavigation of Lismore we both wanted to do, so that’s what we did. (more…)
Let’s start at the end and finish with the beginning today…
I’ve wanted to take Fly up Loch Etive for years, had the perfect combination of neap tides and fine conditions, but hadn’t considered the temporary platform: (more…)
Time for a sailing blog!
Sometimes things get blogged and sometimes they don’t but, months after I last blogged about anything and nearly a year since I last talked about sailing here, the impetus finally comes from a September cruise I couldn’t have done when I was still working. (more…)
Since Fly spent 2006–18 and 2020 ashore with just a short 2019 season afloat, there were two things I still hadn’t done with her since 2005 and just had to do this year, these being to fly a spinnaker (any spinnaker!) and spend one or more nights away at anchor. And it’s good to be able to report both these boxes now ticked… (more…)
At last, the belated update to July’s Retiring to Fly post I’ve been wanting to make but unable to do sooner for various reasons including teething problems getting the new sails fitted and ready to go… (more…)
Some 15 months ago I started to half-heartedly get back to a few wee jobs outstanding from Fly’s big refit as it became increasingly apparent that Covid-19 restrictions were likely to prevent me launching with enough of a season left to make it worthwhile, and wrote:
So I was looking forward so much to getting Fly in the water this spring after 13 full seasons ashore followed by that late, late, post-refit launch last year. But now we all know this year’s just not like other years, who knows what’s happening?
And, now we all know what happened, I’m aiming to catch up and get her back in the water again ASAP. But isn’t this July again, you might ask… why so late and what’s changed to make it worth it this time? (more…)
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