Yacht Cha

2007-09-01T13:02:00.000+01:00

Must Blog! Must Blog! The Summer has been pretty poor in England, in fact the wettest since records began! So boat trips have been minimal. Normally by this time in the season we would have logged 20 trips, this year it is only 7 so far, so as often is the case we're hoping for an "Indian Summer". We have been to see the seals a few times, and our older son Martin took several nice photos of them.

2007-05-14T12:21:00.000+01:00

At last we're afloat again, and having been back in for two weeks, we still haven't had a trip! Here we had May in April, now we're having March in May! It has been raining and blowing a Hooligan for two weeks. Today Matt and myself were able to take the boat to get diesel and water, in between the showers, so that when the family visit later this week we can (hopefully) take them for a trip to see the seals.

2007-03-07T20:23:00.000Z

March is here and soon hopefully we will start to fit our boat out ready for the new season. There's always plenty to do by way of maintenance and improvement. Our family in Israel have just had one of their holidays, this one is Purim. They spent some of their time on the beach of the lake that we call Galilee.

2007-02-01T17:14:00.000Z

What happened to January? We spent three weeks of it in Israel, visiting our family. It was our elder Granddaughter's sixth birthday, and we went to enjoy the festivities at her kidergarten, this will be the last such event for her, because next year she will be in big school, off the kibbutz. The weather was nice, like English spring, daytime 19/20c, but the nights were cold. Ten days in we caught the "Israeli 'Flu", and have only just recovered. It didn't spoil our holiday too much, ironically this was visit number 13 to Israel.

2006-12-14T20:05:00.000Z

My apologies, I haven't blogged in over a month! We have been very busy, "Cha" was lifted out of the water at the end of November, and put to bed for the winter. Not that we will be idle however. In January we visit our son and family in Israel, for our elder Granddaughter's birthday, but when we get back there's all the work that I should have done on "Cha" this year, but never got round to it!
This will include scraping rough bits on the bottom, re-coating with epoxy tar, and priming, also a big project is to paint the engine which is a bit scruffy just now. By the time that's all done, it will be time to launch again.
So in the meantime, in case there's no time for blogging, A very Merry Christmas to all, and a peaceful and healthy New Year!

2006-11-19T18:20:00.000Z

Last week we had a short holiday in Cornwall. We wanted to see the Eden Project, and also the Lost Gardens of Heligan. We flew from Stansted to Newquay (45mins), and stayed in a really nice B&B near Bodmin. The weather was - well Cornish, but the rain didn't stop us doing anything.Both places were spectacular in their own way and we had a great time.Maybe we'll go back again in a year or two, to see how they are getting on. You can learn more here:-http://www.edenproject.com/
http://www.heligan.com//flash_intro.html

2006-11-05T18:25:00.000Z

Yesterday we had a visitor, for the first time the container ship "Emma Maersk" entered Harwich harbour. Here is the press release showing her formidable dimensions.

On Saturday 4th November 2006, the Port of Felixstowe will welcome the inaugural call of the record-breaking 'Emma Maersk', the world’s largest container ship.

With a declared capacity of 11,000 TEU, the 'Emma Maersk' is able to handle a significantly greater number of containers than any other ship currently in operation. It has a length of 397 metres, over 31 metres longer than the next longest container ship, the Maersk ‘G’ classes, and a width of 57 metres, 15 metres wider than any other container ship. If the containers on board were lined up end to end, they would stretch approximately 42 miles.

Built at the Odense Steel Ship Yard in Denmark, it has a gross tonnage of 156,907, and a maximum draught of 16.5 metres. Its engine yields 110,000 Horse Power, equivalent to more than 1,000 saloon cars.

The vessel is longer than the height of some well-known landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, which measures 320 metres, and the Empire State Building, at 381 metres. It is four times the length of a normal football pitch, and has arrived at the Port of Felixstowe during the peak pre-Christmas season, laden with goods for the High Street. Amongst the gifts on board likely to be filling stockings this Christmas are Playstations, MP3 players and digital cameras.

It was getting dark when she arrived at Languard Point, but after a bit of fiddling about I managed to get the above picture.

2006-10-31T21:54:00.000Z

All my life I have looked across Dovercourt Bay, and seen the Naze Tower, which was built in 1720 as a lookout tower, by the Corporation of Trinity House. Last Sunday, I was able to climb up inside and take some photos of the area, as it is now open to the public. It was nice to be able to take a picture of where we live from 85 feet above the ground.....110 steps to the top Phew! If you like you can see more about the tower, which is threatened by erosion of the cliffs, here:-http://www.stacey.peak-media.co.uk/Walton/WaltonSep2006/WaltonSep2006.htm

2006-10-09T11:30:00.000+01:00

Meet "Big Hilda" She's a Moody 33, and we bought her in 1977. We owned her for 10 years, and cruised extensively around the North Sea, to France, Belgium, Holland and Denmark We sold her in 1987 to a friend, John, who kept her in Holland for many years, before bringing her back to UK a couple of years ago. He named her "Polyphon".We have many happy memories of this yacht, during which time our sons grew up, and acquired their own love of the sea.

2006-10-03T10:34:00.000+01:00

On a totally different note, my son Martin, who lives in Isreael, sends us pictures and movie clips of our 3 Grandchildren. Yesterday we received this one of Mika our eldest. We found it very moving, it was taken at the festival of Yom Kippur.

2006-10-02T12:52:00.000+01:00

Still in reminiscence mode, and sifting through old photos, I found this one of "Sunseeker". We bought her in 1987, and sold her in 1991. She is a Moody 36, and a very solid, seaworthy boat. We sailed her to Denmark in 1990, and had several crossings of the North Sea, and the picture shows us lying in Burnham on a boy's weekend.We reluctantly sold her in '91 when we changed to a motorcruiser, with the intention of cruising inland Europe. These adventures can be seen on our website http:// yachtcha.com

2006-09-26T20:31:00.000+01:00

Today is a day to remenisce. When Paul sent me a load of old sailing pictures a few days ago, one of them was or "Straggler". We owned her for four years from 1973 till '77. She was a Shipman 28, of Swedish design, but built in Limerick Eire, where the company founded an offshoot to take advantage of tax concessions.
In her I made my first North Sea crossing to Ostend in '75, a fairly lively ride if I remember. We reluctantly sold her because our growing family did not have enough room and we graduated to a Moody 33. She was sold to Tony, and he kept her at Walton for more than 20 years, before selling her and she returned to Ireland, Tony bought a smaller boat. This picture was a chance encounter, when we were out bound for a weekend with the lads in "Sunseeker" our last sailing boat. I will tell her story another day.

2006-09-21T20:37:00.000+01:00

Today was a very lucky one for me. My good friend Paul, also my most valued crew member for over 30 years sent me a CD with a shedload of photo's of some of our cruises from quite a long while ago. I will put them on our website soon, but meanwhile here's a taster.
It has prompted me to think about a job I've been putting off for a long while, to scan and therefore preserve my old cruising pictures. Maybe this winter will be the time.......

2006-09-14T15:13:00.000+01:00

With my computer freak hat on, I thought that I would tell about my Security Group. Among my friends, over the years many have run into trouble with viruses and spyware. We now have 56 people on our list who regularly receive updates from me on recommended programs.
At present I am recommending as Antivirus, Antivir from avira.com it is high in the league tables for free antivirus progs. Remember if you decide to change, uninstall your old one, 2 antiviruses don't like living together.
For antispyware, the minimum you need is Adaware, from lavasoft.com, Spybot Search and Destroy, from safer-networking.org and Spywareblaster from javacoolsoftware.com.
I cannot give any guarantee to keep you spyware free, computer techs charge £45 per hour and have insurance which I do not, but if you'd like to join, post me your email address here. If there are changes to the progs we recommend I will post them here. Good luck with staying clear!

2006-09-11T22:09:00.000+01:00

Concerning computer things, my second addiction after boats. I spotted this item about the latest Hacking scam:-
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2019234,00.asp
So make sure that your antivirus is up to date, and you have antispyware, that is also up todate. I'll give a few more tips on the subect in the next day or two.

2006-09-10T17:51:00.000+01:00

Today, I slipped away for another little trip. Nothing exciting, just down the creek and out to sea a short way. The weather was really nice, warm sun and light SEly wind. The world and his wife were out, in fact I have seldom seen so many boats in the Walton Channel. I therefore kept well out of the way, because we only draw 80cms I can keep close to the bank.
When I reached High Hill # 4 buoy, I reluctantly turned for home. It was spring tide, so I was whisked back to our berth in a very short time. I was helped alongside by my neighbours Ted and Colin, who then came aboard for a cup of tea and a yarn, so I had to phone home to admit that I would be home late for lunch....never mind, Beloved is used to it! 5 nautical miles.

2006-09-09T15:51:00.000+01:00

Friday Sept 9th. Had a brief but enjoyable cruise today. The wind was fresh from the E, so we decided to go inland, across Horsey Mere, and into Kirby Creek. En route we met Martin E in his barge yacht, evoking memories of an earlier age.
We passed Honey Island and saw several seals basking in the late summer sun.
When we reached Hamford Water, the "Secret Water" of Arthur Ransome's book, we reluctantly turned for home. We were away for only 2 hours, and only covered 5 miles, but for us that's enough. Above is a chartlet of our trip ( apologies to the Admiralty!) as you can see at low tide, most of this area is high and dry.
We look forward to the next one.