Sailing with Tarskavaig

As we are now land bound in Scotland and there could be fates worse than that, and as Aros Mear remains marina berthed in Mexico, we have been blessed with a week's sailing the Inner Hebrides. Andrew Thomson thought we should join him on his new Hanse 40. He was firmly instructed to escape the Clyde and experience the pleasures north of the Mull! Initially there were just two of us on board and made it to Lamlash for the first night. Tarskavaig sails well. With a good nights rest we set sail for Gigha for a long leg. Sailing was good but with a lot of tacking to reach Sanda and catch the fair tide. We raced along the south coast and closed the Mull of Kintyre near to shore. I had wanted Andrew to experience some of the overfalls. Failed as there were none in spite of a good flow! The wind dropped for the run up to Gigha which we reached after dark. There was enough light to pick up the red can on the approaches to the anchorage at Ardminish. I have good stories about this place from the past, but not now.

An early rise at 0500 saw us off to a good start to sail on to Craobh and then Oban.
We made good progress until the wind failed again and against a foul current but making for the east shore we picked up slack water and made Craobh in good time. Old friends in the office were a bit surprised to see me in this fine new boat, but that apart I wanted Andrew to meet the staff as he plans to charter from there next year.

Mid afternoon we set sail to pass through the Cuan Sound and initially to Puilladobhrain. That was not to be as Andrew found that a nut to the stem-head roller had gone for a swim so we headed to Oban to pick up a mooring. New crew in the morning and on to Loch Spelve for an idyllic night in the SW bay. With Gitte and Ken on board we seemed overstaffed. However the boat is geared for this number and their special skills.

The Garvellachs called us next. What a day to chose! It was perfect, blue seas and skies, white clouds and views that could not be bettered anywhere. Even Columba's mother seemed to be there to greet us (as she is, under a stone cross). From there we sailed the Corryvreckan and Dorus Mor with no frights from the swirling waters.

Andrew had managed to sort out some temporary repair to the anchor roller so we were able to avoid the fearsome midges occupying the sea lock at Crinan. Passage through the canal was without incident except for some French trying to learn the ropes! Again it was a lovely day until we emerged from from the sea lock at Ardrishaig. There was a sailboat milling about with a gigantic blue flag on the stern; a ring of stars and the Union colours in the upper corner. I have to confess that I was horrified that anyone could so deface our own flag. I slept little that night. May be that is why we had to sail the first part of the next morning in fog so that we would not be faced with it again.

A good sail around the Kyles settled me eventually and so on to Kip and a berth.Andrew has a lovely boat and ideal for charter with its easy sail management.

New Master

Well it has happened and I am pleased to say that Aros More has indeed a new Master and I could not be more pleased. Iain (he can reveal his full identity in his own time)is just the owner I had been looking for. He plans to use her to her full potential and will be ably assisted by his wife Susan. I wish them both the best of luck and will be there to help should this be required. In managing the transfer Nick Stratton Yachts could not have been more helpful. Thank you! Parting was not easy but I did not expect anything else and I will be the first to say Aros More appeared in peak condition making me very proud.I am certain that the Lord looked kindly on this sale as on every at every visit to the boat by Iain and even when accompanied by Susan the weather was warm under bright blue skies. Extraordinary but we were on the west coast of Scotland!For the first time since the early seventies I am shore bound except for an 8 foot fibreglass dinghy, but there you go.

The next phase is to find the next boat and a trip to Mexico is again on the agenda for mid November. There has been snow on the hills so it is time to go looking for the sun and warmth again.Will keep you posted. Thinking of you Iain, Susan and Aros More.

Looking for a New Master

As we pass through the coldest winter "since records began" and global "warming" takes effect Aros More has been snug at her berth in Craobh Yacht Haven, Argyll. We had 18 degrees F but the sea provided the necessary heat sink and all has been well. Except for the usual weathering of the varnish work she looks good waiting anxiously for her new owner. When she does go there will be tears I am sure. I had Miles Stratton from Stratton Yachts on board yesterday taking pictures for the advert. Seeing them on the web, I am really wondering why I am selling! However if we want to up-size for more adventures we must go through this trauma. Though I say it myself, she is a great boat and will do any new skipper proud especially should he /she wish to go far afield across the seas.

I have tried to remain on top of any maintenance which really has not been out of the ordinary except for the Aerogen which I have replaced with a new one. The bearings had given up. Craobh is a really excellent marina and whenever I go there the skies seem to be blue and yesterday with new thick snow on the Mull hills and inland, the scenes were out of this world. Returning home was slow with the repeated stops for yet another photograph.





The advert can be seen on this site:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_detail.jsp?&units=Feet&id=2167397&lang=en&slim=broker&&hosturl=nickstrattonyachts&&ywo=nickstrattonyachts&

Rains in Maine

Hooray Aros More is afloat and Skipper is happy. Some hard work ashore with a dead line ensured that we were ready by 0530 on the appointed day. There is no travel hoist at the yard but with a low loader designed to run down a ramp all was done in jig time by Allan Drinkwater competently and with no fuss. Even the engine started on the turn of the key, proving that I can still bleed the fuel system. Bill ,the yard owner, was there of course and so too mine host, his brother Ted. Felt very much under test!

The first job was to get the generator working and once the beast was back in its "bunk" she started like a dream and has passed many hours already under test so let us hope she stays that way. On the few sunny days I have completed the external varnishing so that Aros More is as pretty as a picture, at least on the outside. In the cabin it is a different matter as I have started to refurbish the woodwork using a mixture of sodium hydroxide and a dilute acid. I was advised to hose down the wood after treatment but that is too much of a good thing. It sure works anyway. Arty will be pleased to know that the "mantle-shelf" is beginning to gleam. For the unintiated that is the area for everything that does not have a home excluding the fixtures of compass and radar.

While all this is going on Ted and Bev work away on their schooner Koulka fitting tanks, pipes, varnishing and making new seats and covers. Their son Scot when he is not making snow ploughs, yes I mean snow ploughs, at the rate up to 50/60 per day is also involved. In between we attend Republican meetings with a view to make radical changes in the political system. At home we are fighting corruption and loss of self government to the fascists in Brussels, while here they are also having to deal with parties that cease to recognise that there are electors who were made promises that are not honoured and are being faced with huge monetary rescue packages that can not be afforded. There is also the concern about the emerging nations and immigration. Our problems are so similiar. Guess what, politicians here also pass laws that they have not read!

On that note we will go back to sea in the morning!

Maine

Have been here a week and working hard on the boat. She has been well cared for over the winter and once I have sorted out the yards tricks with the pipe work systems are beginning to come together. Next week should see the launch. I am having to send the new Avon inflatable away for repair as the fenders are falling off. Its is to be a guarantee job and again I have found the folk here just more than helpful.

I am staying with friends, Ted and Bev Cowan who also have and Endurance in the back yard awaiting completion but in the bay they also have a 50 ft schooner. If it is to be a fine weekend I will take time off for a sail and gladly, never having sailed in such a splendid ship before. It is a family affair as the yard is run by Ted's brother Bill and his wife Jody.

My first few days were enhanced by the great performance of UKIP. The web is so helpful when there are such cataclysmic affairs of state! Interestingly Obama is heading for trouble.

Gitte is due out on the 22nd and soon after she arrives we should start to make for the Azores. Here is hoping. In the meantime she is to be found, as ever, on the golf course.

Parlimentary Crisis and EU

We are indeed in incredible times with our esteemed elected representatives being discredited. What an extraordinary situation that led to this fiasco! We have a bunch of highly intelligent individuals, many of whom are lawyers, who have been allowed to set their own salaries and expenses and have now been found out with their fingers in the till and snouts in the trough (an apt analogy with the imminent swine 'flu crisis causing us all to be "scared to death"). They are all running around in ever decreasing circles to disappear, we hope, to you know where. We are also told that they are ready to commit suicide.

While all this is going on the country has no money as Prudence has retired to a nunnery after spending all our spare cash, some £1.3 trillion, on ludicrous expansion of quangos and battalions of civil servants, to say nothing of the £40bn given to the EU daily and compliance to the thousands of regulations and directives that are spewed out by the EU Commission. This is I remind you is an unelected body of appointed failed politicians. The cost of these regulations has been costed at between £113 and £133 trillion annually. Gordon Brown denies that he is responsible and this may be true in part, but, by Jove, he has made matters much worse. However he is going to save the world so all hope is not lost.

Where do we go from here? We have the three "main " parties firmly wedded to the EU so depriving us of self government. The Tories do make noises about renegotiating our position in the EU and this they have said many times before. They did nothing of course so that I do not trust David Cameron one iota. That leaves us with one party only of "nutters and fruitcakes" that pushed the Lib Dems into third place in the last EU elections and which offers the only alternative with a option of self government again. There is no doubt that the United Kingdom Independent Party has gained in strength from then. They are now level pegging with Labour and Lib Dems in the last opinion polls at about 17%.

So what do you do? Do as Lord Tebbit said,"Do not vote for a main party in the EU elections. Vote for one of the lesser parties." Being a Tory eurosceptic there is no doubt to whom he is refering!

Good luck and vote for freedom and sovereignty.

Brown is Saving the World

Hello Everyone,

Here we are at the end of January and days are now getting longer again. Someone tells me that we are going through a crisis so I have had to think it advisable not to go into debt in spite of the advice from the World Saviour. Having fallen for Pincoya the Island Packet in Mexico it is with a heavy heart that I have had to think again. Aros More must be sold first, unless Premium Bonds deliver the goods or The Royal Bank recovers thanks to my investment and faith! If Aros More is not sold by the end of April we will sail her back home and refit here for the market. Being such a fine boat and my very own baby it is time for her to be launched into the world and make her own way. There are adverts on the three sites including Google. Typing Endurance in the search bar will bring up the link to one site, http://www.yachts.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=102045 in addition to the one below