Thank you to Judy and Steve, superstars of the sailing Fair Isle YouTube channel for making me look so good in their latest episode
Hanging out in hurricane season | Ep124youtu.be
I have also noticed the Remigo, I’ll be interested to hear of your progress John.
Most of us are aware that, if you can get the boat up to almost 2 knots, a light genoa and/or battened mainsail will add the best part of another knot. But you need to sit to leeward…
Yon Remigo does look like the ‘beezneez’, until one registers the price. And the price of spare parts. Speaking of which, have you considered the cost of a replacement battery pack….?
I’m reading your book what a story and what achievements, I would be very grateful for the link to your supplements please.
Tad Roberts has some enthusiastic stability discussions re Bayesian underway on his Facebook page –
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009398593049
And there is a long running thread on the YBW Forum with lots of other views and theories – I added a comment as well (on page 20!), in the link below.
https://forums.ybw.com/threads/bayesian-s-y-sinks-in-palermo.611709/page-20#post-8486284
Love your posts.
This one let me down. The email notification includes part of the first line after the title. It stopped before the ‘pit’ of cockpit. Horribly disappointed by the promised, but missing salacious material 🙂
Small boats are more fun We have a (small) 35 footer (with a removable cockpit table) 35 foot is realy the upper limit we think. Hoisting your mainsail wihouth a winch is also an indication ( but we are very happy with an (non electric) anchorwinch)
And the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la, have nothing to do with the case…………..
You can also sail them solo…you are living proof of that and when it comes to painting or varnishing them, there’s a lot less to do, as in the case of my wooden 25ft gaffer. With lower freeboard you can nip forward, lie on deck and scoop up a mooring buoy without a boat hook. And because of your shorter LOA you can leave the boat to herself long enough to do so. Ditto reefing down I can leave Betty II sailing herself while I roll in the mainsail canvas from the mast-deck. Another bonus of low freeboard is that I can clamber back aboard having jumped over the side for a swim: there’s a step in the transom-hung rudder to assist.I’m the only person of my five-strong family who actually enjoys sailing so a bigger boat would mean more empty berths all inviting the stowage of further unwanted kit.
John I’m 79 yrs young, and my son bought me a copy of your book Old man Sailing. I loved it. My wife and I starteddailing in dinghy in 1975. We have not been serious off shore like you, we achieved an ambition in 2017 and sailed anti clock round GB east cowes to east cowes. I’ve/we have still got a few adventures left in the tank. So you had better let me know about your health suppliment? If you see us out there give us a shout. All our yachts are called Bloto since the first one. We are currently Bloto-4 if you cant remember the name we have a unique lemon coloured 31 ft hull.
Regards fair winds
Perry and Simonne Mason
Bloto
East Cowes
This is a story by “Sailor James” from his site “Sailing Tritiea”. Part way across the Pacific to Hawaii, he hits a container with his rudder. Don’t ask me how but that’s the only conclusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZXXKj0p0s Enjoy.
I thought that containers now have to have water-soluable seals so that they will sink at some point regardless of their contents?
How you keep going amazes me. But keep going.
I suspect I’d be rather more troubled by the idea of hitting a sleeping whale. The internet tells me there are a lot more of them about now than just a few decades ago, and I’ve had the initially-startling experience of a family of the huge Sei type surface close alongside an Antigua cat I was delivering. They were likely just curious. I was musing on the fragility of fibreglass.
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I suggest that you stop worrying about that modern-mythical container. I’m 71, my day job is in the management of container ships and in my entire career ships that I have been responsible for have lost no containers at all.
To stay afloat once overboard a container would have to have positive buoyancy because containers are made of steel and are not watertight. Positive buoyancy is possible if it’s ab empty reefer container or if it’s full of consumer goods in expanded polystyrene packaging.
So if we take the ten year average of 1553 containers lost and guess not unreasonably that 10% of them might be in those two classes then that’s 150 boxes lying in wait for you – and then you will have to hit a corner casting.
Like I said below. “All Is Lost” didn’t do us any favors….
A question John. I think you are using the phrase “The Container” to reference a container vessel. Having seen the Robert Redford movie “All Is Lost”, what are a cruisers defenses against hitting an errant container? Or is this a case of “Jaws” syndrome where the odds are ridiculously low of encountering a great white but the movie scared us all?
Sounds like you have diesel bug. There are a few treatments around. One type is a dispersant which ‘dissolves’ the crud so it doesn’t block the lines, the other is poisons which kill the stuff. Either way you’ll need to keep an eye on the fuel filter and change it after treatment.
I bought a Westerly Conway in the 90’s which came with an old, large, plastic yellow toilet the like of which hasn’t been seen since. It blocked a lot, so we decided to replace it with something more modern. I unplumbed everything then realised it was larger than the door to the heads, the door from the passageway to the saloon and hatch to the cockpit.
Clearly Westerly fitted the toilet then built the boat around it…………….(they don’t build ’em like they used to).
So, with a 5 pound hammer I set about smashing it up into small enough to pieces to remove, not realising it had some form of reservoir / holding tank in the base, a base that still contained a gallon or two’s slurry mix of the last 20 years added contents…………..I will leave the rest to your imagination but definitely not my best days ‘yachting’.
Thanks for a pleasant read. Oh the things I am missing not having a boat.
Working on the principle adopted by Lynn and Larry Pardy and not having an engine in the first place, is great – until you need to get into a harbour urgently in a flat calm or you’re stuck in the middle of a shipping lane in the Dover Straight. Then, of course, the vessel with an engine and the willingness to tow you into safety is great – always assuming that their tank is clean!!! I was last in Prickly Bay in 2013 and it was hot, but pleasurable.
Enjoying your postings!
Outstanding work and should be entered as a right of passage event for yachtsman it seems
Perhaps Mr Maley had a very small friend from the outset …
My father had a similar issue on his folkboat and recruited my help by holding me upside down in the stern locker ….as a small boy
Might explain a few things as l got older …
Never too old to learn ! Happy drinking.
hang on I’m pulling for your adventure
Sounds like a fun afternoon.
Just spent the day sailing on Windermere, need to grab some dinner then get back to your book, Old Man Sailing on my kindle in the cabin
Keep up the good work!
Sounds like happy days frankly in the sun.
Believe me it sounds like bliss compared with U.K. at the mo
Ochone, ochone! Third-world problems…. and ‘going native’.
Hi John. I don’t have a UK bank account but I read your wonderful book and gave it 5 stars. Thanks for the great reading, and you definitely don’t “do boring”.
I live in North Wales. It has been raining here on and off since November last year. I am fed up with it. it is affecting my sailing on Bala in my dingy. Are we going to get a summer in North Wales?
Funny thing…I just saw Bomber Harris the other night on Youtube…John Thaw is a favorite of mine!
John, I actually bought a copy, read it and really enjoyed it. Well done and best of luck with keeping cool.
Steve from Stroud 41 Club
I really appreciate your first hand account of the sailing life……Just bought another of your books……keep living the good life….Best Phil A
Hi John, I’m glad you dodged Beryl. Blame the rock mishap on Elon. I ‘m reading your book, excellent, and an eye opener for me… those symptons you described were too familiar… I took the test and I also have ADHD. Thanks for the enlightment and good luck with your repairs. Yes, I’ll leave many stars on Amazon.
Hi John,
glad you dodged Beryl if not the rock; maybe some sort of stainless strip on top / ahead of the repair ? Now how do I get a copy of your book please ?
Hello John. Good to hear you managed to avoid the hurricane. I must a copy of your biography. I wrote 36000 words of my own, then thought “ who would want to read about a guy who lives in a Citroen Picasso”. Safe travels. Tony
John, another self deprecating and enjoyable read. When this happens to me I satisfy myself that it could have been worse! Keep ‘em coming John. Brilliant!!
I’m glad you missed Byrel. I thought about you a lot during that time and hoped you went pass Carriacou. That rock shall now, and forever more, be known as “Passmore Rock”.
John. I really enjoy your travel experience updates. This is is also a study in how to cruise the Carribean during hurricane season…… looking forward to your next installment…. and ….. I’m reading the book !
I like your headline. Very expressive. Does the damage put your structure at risk?
Thanks for quoting my review John! I hope Samsara heals soon and don’t be too hard on yourself!
I have been watching Beryl’s progress, glad to see you escaped the worst of the blow, it’s certainly coming early this year.
Now that’s a publicity stunt – eat your heart out Ed Davey
Don’t feel too bad, John. I did that last year and in a place I’ve been dozens of times. And as far as I know, I don’t have a good medical reason for it like you do!
Dear John, bumped into you today in the laundry at Power Boats boatyard. Thank you for the book, from a Rival 38 owner!
I’m pleased you got that call right – but not half as pleased, I guess, as you.
Good luck, John. We will be thinking of you.
Always a trade off with technology vs peace and tranquility… problem is once you have it, it’s almost impossible to turn off. I’m guessing eventually Starlink will be standard issue on boats and rv’s like XM radio.
So glad they interviewed you and we discovered a new kindred spirit!
Hi,
Sorry to respond in the wrong place, but for some reason I couldn’t find how to respond in the health section, and would love to know how to get the supplement that you described there. Thanks!
Hi John,
I remember forty years ago, we met by chance one summer evening in the Divers Inn – the yachtsman’s watering hole at Bray Harbour. You were sailing single handed on Largo, your Rival 32, and were keen to participate in the annual ‘Round Alderney’ race the following morning, but only if you could find a crew …. after a few beers Peter Ongley, an old school friend of yours, and I were up for it.
Piloting the Alderney Race and the Swinge, with its notorious currents and off lying rocks, is not for the faint hearted, but racing close inshore within meters of the rocks to pick up the favourable back-eddies came close to white water rafting. How we never hit anything remains a mystery, but I’m sure that if there were any barnacles on your keel they definitely got scraped off!
Great to read your blog and your latest adventures!
With best wishes,
Richard
I remember that! Really dumb…
My friend Richard has been following Fair Isle for a long and mentioned their encounter with you on Saturday 14 September. I looked at your blog and ordered your book on Saturday evening . As ever good old Amazon delivered the next and I started reading your lovely book. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve just finished reading it 6 pm Monday 16 September and throughly enjoyed it .
My favourite holidays have been sailing with friends or family. Unlike your good self I have never had the yearning to go single handed , I’m sure I don’t have the necessary skills or inclination to do so. Your comments on never being bored by a seascape really resonates with me.
I’m very interested in your comments about health supplements and am interested in knowing what you take and would like to know what you take and where you take get it from.
My friend Richard and I have sailed a lot together but have now hung up our sailing boots ( age 77 ) . My only hope is that our daughter would like a family sailing holiday and invite me along .
I’ll get another of your books soon.
Kind Regards
Rod Dawson
Great interview really enjoyed it.