Harmony

Harmony

Sunday 12 April 2015

Where is Harmony?




Looking at my last post I see ! didn't explain that Harmony is on the yard at DRB Marine at Rosneath, on the shores of Gareloch just north of Glasgow. It was along drive up there and an even longer drive back!

The weather was truly awful and although I got plenty done inside the boat the outside will have to wait 'til the next trip.




Pre season tidy up

Sunday morning 12th April,

Drove all the way up to Gareloch on Friday leaving at 4am and arriving at 12.30pm. No problems, lovely weather, just fantastic. Probably the only trip up here that goes so smoothly.
Arrived to find lots going on in the yard and met some of the local characters and introduced myself to Jean - who is in charge. The weather was hot and fine, even worked in a T shirt.
Started by opening up the boat and moving the cushions out to air on deck then got down to cleaning a couple of months of mould off the vinyl, locker surfaces etc. That took the rest of the day. Cooked supper fell into bed.
Saturday carried on cleaning then painting out all the lockers and aft berths. The weather had turned windy overnight with rain and hail squalls coming in from the west. Luckily the boat is bow on to the incoming weather so it is relatively easy getting in and out of the hatch.
By keeping my wellys under the boat and only using deck shoes on the boat I have kept the inside clean and dry by changing footwear as I come and go. Not many people working on their boats I guess because of the weather.
I have cleaned the cooker, it is shiny,shiny - discovered my kettle leaks, not badly just enough to leave a puddle on the cooker over night.

Today I will explore the electrics and do some work on the outside of the boat - assuming the weather cheers up.
I'll post some videos when I get home.

Wednesday 8 April 2015

I once had an Otter

This little boat gave us many years of fun sailing in the Carrick Roads and up the Fal. It came from some sailing friends, the Brighams, who live in that outlandish county of Cornwall.
Not much more than 3m. this boat could sail or be pushed along by an outboard (like the one in the edge of the picture). We towed it to all sorts of bits of water. Eventually sold on to some people on the Severn back in 2004. 
Have a look at this website put up by one enthusiast.

I didn't get another boat until I took the plunge with Harmony.

East Coast trip

Thanks to Dylan and Keep Turning Left I sailed twice on Harmony last year. The first was to help Dylan deliver her to Anstruther ready for a trip with his family around Scotland.
Dylan enjoys blogging and is handy with a video camera so I will pinch as many of his videos as possible from Youtube.

He has just uploaded this one about the trip Chichester to Firth of Forth - sorry it is on Vimeo I don't know how to insert it into the blog.

Roger Ball whose website is A Gentleman's Yacht joined us for a really great trip. We had decent weather for most of the trip.

Here is a few of the pictures

 Dylan at the helm
 Passing the Farnes

Roger at the Galley


My first big boat

I finally did it, I bought Harmony - not because of this advert but because I enjoyed sailing in her so much - thank you Dylan