St. Mary's Loch

Luing

 

This was our second visit to the traditional small boast muster, that is held on Luing. Although the weather was fine for the weekend, it did get quite windy at times.

 

The weekend is a mixture of sailing, music, entertainment, eating and general socialising.

 

 

Cookers and Navigation

 

When we bought the boat it came with a GRP cooker box, which slides in/out from under the doorway, this is not an ideal place to cook. It creates condensation in the cabin and also traps the user if something goes wrong. However, the cooker holder looked useful, so finally I got round to making it fit to the outside, by use of a wooden fixture, so it hangs off the winch. 

 

We have always kept things simple on the boat and have not fitted any electrics such as a ChartPlotter.  A handheld one is quite expensive, so a simpler solution was sort. An old iPhone 5, waterproof case and a homemade plastic clip, which will go over either a weather board or onto a halyard bag provided a good start. With both MemoryMap and Navitronics loaded it seems to work very well.
 

 

To help keep the phone charged a solar charging battery was obtained. Only time will tell if this combination will work. In the past we have only used the phone when approaching a destination and use old style "paper" charts during a trip. This should keep the battery use in the phone down to a minimum.

 

Aedon A8 Portable Power Bank 20000mAh 2-Port USB Solar Charger

 

 

Fine Weather Continues

If weather stays like this for the rest of the year, we're in for a treat. Five days a Coniston soon went by, only light rain on one day and a variety of winds, meant we had a good time.

Warm and Sunny

It may still only be March but is was warm in the day and frosty at night, with a clear sky all weekend.

Anchor Storage

When not on the bow of the boat, the anchor has been stored in an old plastic laundry basket in the aft locker. This took up quite a lot of space and has now started to fall apart. Therefore a solution was needed. The frame shown here hopefully will stop the anchor moving around in the locker and prevent it causing any damage to the boat.

 

 

Some winter mods

 

 

This was my first experience of using West Epoxy. There are some good instructions, which can be downloaded. http://www.westsystem.com/ss/use-guides/. How strong and durable it is, only time will tell once the new season begins. The flare storage tube is made from plastic drain pipe, something we have always done while sea kayaking.

 

The crew had repeatedly complained about the "knife edge" on the cabin's entrance, so a piece of hard wood was added to try and make this more comfortable. The hair dryer worked well to keep the area warm while the resin cured. The picture has a "blue tint" because the winter "tarp" was kept on during the process and helped keep the warmth in.

 

 

The finished edge.