Saturday, May 14, 2011

Hard Work to Start the 2011 Season

Hello again to everybody from us both on Nimrod, sorry it has taken us a while to get this first blog of the year to you but we have been very busy with boat jobs to get Nimrod ready for our planned travels South – more later.

We spent the winter in Victoria Dock, Caernarfon, safely tucked in the corner of the dock, sheltered from all the winter threw at us.  We started the winter with 60knt gales, endured over 10 inches of snow on the decks up to Christmas and spent most of March in glorious sunshine – plenty of variety then!!!.  We also had quite a few parties, visits from friends and family, the sad loss of our dear friend Jan and in between we even managed to get some jobs ticked off the “To Do List”.

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Jan, who passed away 8th Dec with her partner John

Winter in Caernarfon – 6” Snow!!

We want to express our thanks to all the Caernarfon Harbour Staff for making our stay safe and enjoyable, for taking our post and for looking after Nimrod when we were away, with a special mention for Mark who always went above and beyond the call of duty to look after us and the rest of his customers.

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New Years Eve aboard Nimrod

Laundry Time – A bit Big for Sue’s Yellow Bucket!!!

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The Girls from Oswestry

The Boys from Oswestry

We managed to drag ourselves away from Caernarfon on 7th April heading for the Isle of Man with our first stop being Amwlch on the North coast of Anglesey for an overnight stop.  As usual we had no wind so we motored up the Menai Straits, under the bridges and through the Swellies before heading up the East coast, around Point Lynas and into the cosy little harbour of Amwlch.

An early start the next day (sounds very familiar) and we were motoring out of Amwlch at 0600hrs into a cold, calm and foggy Irish Sea.  Visibility less than 1/2mile so much concentration was needed on the radar display to make sure we missed anything that might have been out there – we passed one target at just over 1/4 mile away according to the radar and we could not see it at all!!!  Being at sea in the fog is definitely not much fun, you can’t relax at all and you are, literally, sailing blind relying totally on the radar, chart plotter and instruments.  Fortunately the fog finally cleared about half way to Ramsey and we could relax a bit – still no wind so it was down to Hinge and Bracket, our diesel engines to get us across to the Isle of Man.

We were heading for Ramsey and fibreglass expert Chris Machin to make a new bimini cover for Nimrod.  After 9hrs across the Irish Sea we were welcomed into Ramsey by Martin and Keith the Harbour Staff and we tied up on the scrubbing grid in the Harbour. The grid enabled us to check everything below the waterline – fortunately only the expected jobs to do underneath – we don’t like surprises down there.

The main job is a new plywood and fibreglass bimini cover over the cockpit, the existing canvas cover is over 7 years old and the stitching is starting to fail in lots of places as well as the canvas not being very waterproof any more – time for a change.  We could have had a replacement canvas cover made but canvas work does not last too long in the Mediterranean sunshine so, after talking to Chris, we decided to go for the more permanent solution of a fibreglass covered plywood construction.

We thought it would take us 2-3 weeks to do the job but in the end it has taken over 4 weeks of long hard days to get it to look as good as the rest of Nimrod.  First we had to join 5 sheets of ply together with glass fibre bandage and filler to make a 12ft square ply base, this was lifted on to the boat and marked around the existing frame, removed and cut to shape then put back on the frame.  The ply was clamped down to the frame to get the right curves and then edging and screen sections were bonded to it and a skin of glass fibre was laid on the top to maintain the curve.

Across the harbour we lifted the whole thing off and moved it into Chris’ workshop for laying up the GRP on the inside as well as filling and bonding all the curves between roof and edgings.  This meant lots and lots of grinding, sanding, filling, sanding and finally even more sanding – even Sue donned her overalls and helped out with the sanding, even if it did turn her grey!!! (sorry no piccies).  All the sanding and filling was necessary to ensure the finished surface was as smooth as a baby’s bum ready for painting – any little blemishes show up like beacons when you spray paint especially white!!!

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Fixing all the Ply Bits Together on Board

Windows Cut and Primer Coat Sprayed

We have just finished putting the final top-coat on and the cover is now all finished and ready to go back on the boat, unfortunately we can’t get back across the harbour to the wall outside Chris’ shed until the next Spring Tides, next Monday/Tuesday.  We can lift it back on top of the frame on the boat, screw it all down, fit the polycarbonate windows final few little jobs and we should be ready to head off on our travels South.  Pictures of the finished job next blog and also some idea about our plans for this summer.

Hi all Sue here

As Chris has said quite a lot has happened since the last blog. I intended to do so much over the winter months but they seemed to fly by. From October to December I spent a lot of time at the hospital in Bangor visiting my dear friend Jan, who sadly passed away on 8th December. She loved life and being on Nimrod, we will miss her very much.

I have also spent a lot of time at the dentists, not my favourite place to be, but I fingers crossed after all that pain and a very large bill I’m all sorted now!!

We had a great New Year on Nimrod with six friends, two of whom, Pru and Mike, we met in Norway and they came to stay with us for New Year. Chris cooked a five course meal which was fantastic, all washed down with lots of wine and champagne. Then we spent New Years day in Holyhead Sailing Club where a local group called the Coffin Dodgers were playing.

We had lots of friends and family visiting us over the winter, hence many parties on board, which was really nice and lovely to see them all. We visited home several times as well and tried to fit in seeing everyone, sorry if we missed anyone but it was always pretty hectic.

Caernarfon was a lovely place to spend the winter months but all too soon it was March and we were of to the Isle of Man to prepare Nimrod for her great escape!! I’m really looking forward to sailing in warmer climates, not to mention all the wine tasting in France!!

My daughter and granddaughter visited us in April. I told Chris I was booking the week off and had a lovely time going around the island on buses and trains with them. I actually spent my birthday,24th April, on Peel beach, building sandcastles and paddling. I’d forgotten how much sand a two year old can cover everything in!! We had a great week though and it was sad to see them going home. The next day Chris produced my overalls and my holiday was over.

Chris has worked really hard and we are nearly ready to get going again. He has also acquired a canoe so is busy patching that up at the moment. I’ve been busy supply shopping and sorting our clothes out, hopefully we will need more shorts than jeans from now on.