Back to ‘Swiftwing’  2015

 

36.50.29N  76.17.76W  Norfolk Virginia.

 

Following our return to Scotland from ‘Swiftwing’, in late May 2014, we had a very full and varied summer at home.

 

Bev had been contacted to work as a locum District nurse on the Isle of Coll again and I  returned to ‘Tarka’  TT 101 as a lobster/velvet crab fisherman, enjoying good weather and big landings. In total we were on Coll for two months.

 

We also had a Land Rover ‘ Safari’ to the Western Isles in our trusty, rusty, Land Rover; and competed in the North British offshore sailing championships with Allan MacLean,  West Highland Week with John Mactaggart, as well as a week cruising with Jim Leask,  island hopping up the west coast.

 

 

We also performed a bit of a sad task last year. My friend David Andrews died suddenly, leaving Pat, his wife with their Allan Buchanan 46, ’Sandmartin’ in Rochefort, on the Biscay coast of France. The boat needed to be lifted out of the water, pressure-washed and anti-fouled before being surveyed in order that the insurance could be renewed and ‘Sandmartin’ sailed back to England.

 

Bev and I flew down to La Rochelle and met up with Pat and travelled the twenty miles to Rochefort in a taxi. Pat was concerned that the engine, though winterised, hadn’t been started in over a year, and of course, on turning the key…nothing. It took an hour to trace the problem to a well hidden circuit breaker. Once re-set she started with no problems. Just as well as ’Sandmartin’ was booked  for lift out in La Rochelle in two days time.

The following morning we locked out of Rochefort at 6 am in darkness, but as it is illegal to sail the twelve miles of the La Charente  river to the  sea in the dark, we came alongside a waiting pontoon. After a very nice motor down the river in about five knots of current, we rounded the Ile D’Aix, set the yankee, full main and mizzen and had a very pleasant sail to La Rochelle.

En route we sailed through a large racing fleet and as it was a particularly warm sunny day, entering Port des Minimes, the largest marina in Europe (4,600 berths so we were told) was a bit like going down a motorway the wrong way, there were hundreds of boats in the channel.

 

‘Sandmartin’ at La Rochelle,  pressure washed, anti-fouled and painted awaiting the arrival of the surveyor from England.

 

 

 

The following morning we lifted out, I pressure washed ’Sandmartin’ and between us Bev and I scraped, sanded and anti-fouled below the waterline then painted the topsides in fresh white yacht enamel. Following a successful survey, we re-launched and sailed her back to her berth in Rochefort before driving David’s car back to Blackpool.

 

 

 

I returned a week later with a crew made up of friends and we sailed ‘Sandmartin’ home to Glasson Dock, via Ile de Re, Ile D’yeu, Belle-ile and Ile D’ouessant, or as we spell it, Ushant. We arrived back in Glasson a fortnight after leaving Rochefort, not too bad for a voyage of close to one thousand miles, partly through the Bay of Biscay.

 

 

 

 

On 10th January we again boarded the ‘Queen Elizabeth’ for our return trip to New York. Instead of having gales for five days of the trip as we did in 2014, we had gales for the whole trip, with the weather calming down about eighteen hours from NY.

 

We arrived at ‘Swiftwing’ on the 20th of January to fairly warm dry weather with the yard owners saying that usually by this time the worst of the winter is over and that by late February we would be in shorts and T shirts.

All very well, we had a number of days working outside in T shirts before the worst winter in living memory descended on us from the frozen North. The Yeocomico River froze, we had deep snow and ice on deck and hot water bottles in bed at night.

 

Looking forward on ‘Swiftwing’. The Yeocomico River frozen beyond the travel hoist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, this did not stop us working on ‘Swiftwing’ and about the middle of March she was surveyed, including a full x-ray of the hull, mast and rigging and was given a clean bill of health for another five years. A testament to Bev’s hard work is that when she was launched ‘Swiftwing’ looked like a million dollars with gleaming paint and varnish all round. I managed to get the use of one of the yard workshops complete with huge and antiquated machinery and was able to build new locker tops, cockpit seating and picket fence around the cockpit in inch thick, teak rescued the year before from the deck of a large motor yacht due to be broken up and burned.

On  23rd of April we said our fond farewells to Dug and Marion, our friends who own the yard and set sail from Krentz Marine Railway for the last time, setting course South for Deltaville. Swiftwing has been in this marina for almost five year

 

 

   

The cold weather didn’t stop the work on ‘Swiftwing.’ This is the re-cycled teak that I rescued from a large ‘Colonial’ motorboat which was to be broken up and burned.

That’s all for now.