Crew's Log: Stewart, 31/05/11

After a frenzy of emails and shopping and arguments with train companies, my son and I are ready to head for Portsmouth to collect my brother's new yacht, Catweasel. She's being moved from her previous owner's mooring at Hornet Sailing Club to the slightly less glamorous but, Hornet being a Forces only club, infinitely more available Wicor Marina at Fareham. All being well and good, all should be well and good, however my record aboard Catweasel does not shine like a beacon in the night...

Erroneous action the 1st, day 1 - Catweasel runs aground:
Yes, I was at the helm but no, it was not my fault. No seriously! With Lewis Hamiltonesque misfortune I was a victim of circumstance and blamed by those who should know better. All I did was turn to starboard - the mud shouldn't have been there! It turned into me!! Stupid mud. It didn't make no never mind though, as we managed to "kedge off" - something that I learned by observation and participation to mean "send the idiot who got us into this mess down stream to drop the anchor directly over a submerged power cable so we can winch ourselves off the bottom". If I'm honest, I'm not 100% sure the involvement of the power cable was intentional but then I'm only crew, and working hard on maintaining my blissful ignorance.

Erroneous action the 2nd, day 2: Catweasel catches fire:

Yeah, so this one was my fault. I lit the meths stove while we were motoring and forgot that I needed to unlock the gimbals. What was iffy while motoring became damn near disastrous when we raised the sails and headed into the Solent. Thankfully Philip, the previous owner, was aboard to save the day. He's probably wondering what his baby is going to suffer at the hands of her new crew.

So that's a howler per day aboard and tomorrow will be day 3, unsupervised, apart from by Tom the cabin boy, in one of the UK's busiest harbours. Tim, it has to be said, is a tad nervous.

captain's log preparation

6th February 2011

Starting this diary, maybe I should say ships log? now..now being the 6th February 2011. Am sitting in Champs Bar in Budapest having moved here...wait....time to back up some,

The first working day back from my NA2010 trip i was made redundant. officially my last working day was the last day of 2010 but i was on garden leave for the last 3 months.

Picture time - here's me roughly 9 months ago when I started to "plan" this

What to do, what to do - never being much of a realist I figured it was time to fulfil another lifetime ambition and sail around the world :) I have sailed in the last, many many years ago, so the concept doesn't daunt me but where to start.

So up with a plan I came.

• First I'd move to Budapest, more for the new outlook than any cost of living argument but €2 vs nearly €4 a pint of beer didn't hurt.
• Next I'd take a number of sailing courses to get some formal qualifications - those courses being "competant crew", "day skipper - coastal" and "VHF radio license".
• Finally - sail around the world.

Easy :)

As of the time of writing I am booked on "competant crew" and will be heading to Brighton in a few weeks for a week of live-aboard training.

At the same time I am researching boats and building a very loose network of contacts and forums. I hope to meet a friend of a friend in Southampton in a few weeks and, with luck, this week, I'll have lunch with a Serbian who runs a sailing center in Croatia.

My current thinking for boats is a Westerly Centaur and a budget of £5,000 to £10,000. The more I read the more options I open up but it does seem as if I am "limited" to something between 21 foot and 30 foot.

As for route - I am building in check points - so around the UK (did I like it? yes/no), then around Europe (to the med and back rather than north), and then around the world.

Right now I am probably doing this solo, not through choice but through a lack of a partner - if I am lucky I'll find someone who shares the same goals but I am not delaying

Anyway, for now, back to surfing the web looking for gems of knowledge.

Current questions -

1. what is the difference between a sloop and a ketch? (twin vs single mast)
2. What is the rhumb line? (In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, i.e. a path derived from a defined initial bearing. That is, upon taking an initial bearing, one proceeds along the same bearing, without changing the direction as measured relative to true north.)
3. how much water (per person) do i need to take with me on a trans-atlantic? 2l per day per person
4. how long will it take to sail around the UK? N/A - plans have changed
5. How much is a water maker? far too much and I have no holding tanks anyway
6. What type of radio should I get? 2....a VHF for the boat and a handheld VHF powered by AA batteries for the grabbag

 18th May 2011

Well, a hell of a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial. I'm currently sitting in Charlie P's in Vienna having just flown back from the UK where I completed the RYA Day Skipper course. This was the second RYA course I've taken (the first being compentant crew) and, subjectively, I reckon anyone with sailing experience could skip the crewing course as it covered the essentil basics such as mooring, handling under engine and sail, safety and so on. The Day Skipper focussed more on navigation (passage making, creation and so on) which was/is definately my weak spot. I'm glad I did both though, they provided me with (over)confidence :).

So..what else is new, ahh yes, I've bought a boat, a Contessa 26. I'd narrowed my chouice of boats down to the Centaur, an Albin vega, a Cobra 750 and the Contessa and then searched around for a boat in my budget. I bought Wiskiwoo, a 1969 boat, based out of Gosport, and spent the last two days of this week (16th and 17th May) sailing her. She's a wet boat, certainly compared to the Benatau 36 I'd spent the previous week on, but sleek and she's mine, mine I say, all mine!!!!

Here's me & Catweasel (I'm the one in the red jacket, Catweasel is the boat shaped one wearing blue) and the previous owner doing the formal handover...about to inbibe a few at the Master Builders.

breaking this to scoff food, tbc







and here is me now...June 1st..working on my sailory goatee