Engine Troubles and Dolphin Bubbles!

Last night we were sitting in a quirky, little pub that just juts out of the rocky cliffs around Dartmouth Marina. The walls were lined with gaudy nautical trinkets (the topless mermaid ashtray was my particular favourite) and there was a slight old man, musty smell that seemed to linger just out of sight. Yet there was a roaring fire behind us, a heaving plate of food in front and we were showered and safely moored up so all was well... which was lovely, especially after the problematic past few days!


The journey from Southampton was challenging to say the least. The engine had been problematic the entire way. Jarvis solved it taking on water (a simple circular metal clip needed tightening), however it has since done a 180 and is now stubbornly refusing to pump water in to cool it down. It has been progressively getting worse and will currently only run for 10 minutes at a time (Mr Engineer man has his head in there as i type, fingers crossed). Thankfully we were still able to get to Dartmouth on schedule as it has been super windy meaning our trusty (and well serviced) sails are now starting to pay for themselves (YEY). Yet it has also meant that we have been rockin' and rollin' the entire way making for some pretty sicky stomachs. Even all of our anti-sick gizmos and gadgets couldn't help so it was grin and bare it and float off into wonderful daydreams of what kinds of food we would eat when we arrived (Tia= Tikka Masala Curry. Jarvis = Chilli Burger).

We did have a highlight however, that has officially put the duckies down the list. Yesterday we saw DOLPHINS!!! I honestly wouldn't have thought you'd see them in waters this cold but there they were.Weird ones with white patches all over them; Jarvis is questioning whether they have dandruff?? Yet the little family of three hooked and dived along side and under the yacht for a few hours before deciding we were not that exciting anymore and swimming away and out of sight. Sadly no photo of them due to feeling rubbish but have since found out they are called "White Beaked Dolphins".


Our official "Boat of the Marina" spot is back again, and for Dartmouth it was not a hard one at all... Noah and his Ark was an obvious winner!

I would like to leave you with some photos that have definitely made me smile. Jarvis is not quite as keen as I am on writing but what he lacks in excitement with words, he makes up for with super happy pictures. Observe!!

• Lots of delicious food face (my home made veggie lasagna):-

• And the first sighting of beautiful blue skies in three days makes an erm, scaringly happy Jarvis??

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out!

Quack Attack

Now it's not quite waking up to dolphins swimming along side in the baking sun; but we did see a pair of little ducks circling the stern of Croc Bones when we first popped our heads out into the morning sunshine today (oh yes, we have sunshine).

Now we figured we are going to be going to lots of marinas all over the world, seeing lots of boats of all shapes and sizes and thought it would be a good regular spot on the blog to show you what is sticking out for us in the weird and wonderful! Therefore, I would also like to introduce you to the first winner of:-

"Boat of the Marina"  

For Southampton Ocean Village Marina it is, (drum roll please).... 'Orion'

...this little beauty could be seen from a mile off with its burning colour scheme. Definately makes up for any rainy winter day and for the smiles it brought amoungst all the other dreary white boats its definately our winner for Soton Marina.

Good start to the day all round :)

Tia and Jarvis, over and out

Welcome Aboard

We are currently sitting in Ocean Village Marina, Southampton. Toasty, warm and happy.

I guess that kind of spoils the surprise of everything really. All the questions of: 'did we get everything ready in time?' and 'how did that final 10 days go?' or ' did we actually leave?'.
Well we did leave; on the 20th of Feb just as planned (mini Mexican wave and celebration to us.... a whoo hoo)... but we did not get everything ready in time and the past week has been a mass whirlwind of phone calls and fixings, travels and training. Running to one place and then sprinting to another.

After our arrival 'surprises' on the boat when we returned from Perth a few things got better; I totally made amazing curtains (if I do say so myself) and the gas cooker just needed a new pipe so we finally had cooking... but sadly most things got worse.

 

Awesome Curtains

The Sails, super important right? One might say numero uno priority with it being a sail boat and all and yet we foolishly left them as the last item to be checked and boy it definitely taught us a lesson. Our nice £35 sail service ended up actually costing £600 to repair the outer edge of the Genoa sail. Ouch!! This was coupled by the price of the new front batteries... £200.., more mooring ropes needed, and few dozen other items tallying up.. more ouch!

We mostly spent the 10 day countdown in two locations. Jarvis on the boat - being a fix-it man extraordinaire (There is nothing that man and a spanner cannot fix), and me at mum and dads. The time was regularly dotted with what became 'the dreaded phone calls' (bam bam bam). These most often started; "erm.. we have a problem...". The temptation to not answer by day 5: very strong.

Jarvis was not the only bringer of bad news. Whilst pulling together the final documents before we left I double checked our Visa requirements for the US and found we needed to go to the embassy and apply for a special Visa as we would be arrive by private boat. Another hefty charge, the loss of a whole day in London, a "erm, we have a problem" phone call, and finally finding out from the embassy that they would need to hold our passports for 5 days before we got them back.

*Enter our wonderful, kind friend Mim who has offered to have them delivery to her in Southampton for us and then when we get there we can pick them up*

Yet our bad news piece de restistance was trying to obtain our Ownership certificate. That beautiful piece of paper that would finally say that we are now officially called Croc Bones, and that the name Chelsea Flower was lost to the seas forever. I was informed that the certificate had been delivered to our old address in London whilst we were in beautiful Perth, but on arrival it wasn't there. It wasn't at the Post office, none of the old housemates had it, the only person who could have picked it up was our old Landlord who, conveniently, lost the ability to answer the phone after we told him we were going to pop around to pick it up.

Certificate status : LOST

This was a problem indeed. We officially cannot enter any other country without this (and we would still be called Chelsea Flower), so a few frantic phone calls later and a lot of pleading to a very nice man in Cardiff and a new one was being issued for free, but wouldn't get to us in time.  We were at T-minus 3 days for leaving. *Re-enter Mim who offered to accept this too*. Marvellous Mim to save the day again.

Certificate status: IN TRANSIT

All fine and dandy. Problem solved. Except one. The re-issue would be in the old name!!! Apparently we were meant to have received another final form to fill in before the new name would be official and now we did not have time to do it. On being told this I called Jarvis toot suite as he was in the process of removing the dreaded name... you can see the current state of things below. At least on the plus side it really isn't Chelsea Flower anymore :)

Chels Lower...hey, its better than the original!

Day 1 finally arrives - 20th Feb
So the day finally arrived. Goodbyes were said and lots of hugs were had. We shopped, we packed, we stressed and then finally, we sailed. Chelsea Flower/Croc Bones, officially left Harwich and started the adventure at 5:30am on the 20th Feb and went down to Ramsgate. Not too many problems, a niggle here and there and a very long day but all good. The highlight of the day was a super yum pub dinner. I know, i know spending money when not necessary and all, but it was day 1 and we needed a celebratory treat.

Day 2 - 21st Feb
Plan was to Sail from Ramsgate to Dover, but we ended up doing a very long sail and went to Newhaven Marina instead. 16 hours of sailing, and it was rough sailing. Choppy seas, feeling sick and tired and then the gas went so no hot food. Apparently it had been leaking this whole time, and going into the back cabin. Very happy we found this out now and didn't accidentally put an end to Mark (the guy who is going to do the first crossing with us). All up a bit rubbish and manic.

Day 3 - 22nd Feb
A happy day.  We got gas before we left. Then sailed from Newhavenbestest showers ever, plus all the facilities are in an old giant lime green ship called Minnie Mouse. I kid you not!!

Day 4 - 23rd Feb (Today)
Another good day! Only went from Portsmouth to Southampton. We had a few morning niggle;, the accelerator handle snapped off and the boat had actually been taking on water and the entire bilges were full... humm. Well spotted Jarvis, otherwise the next blog entry would be coming at you from the bottom of the sea! (Only small problems *ehem*). But Super Jarvis attacked it with the trusty spanner and low and behold we are here in a working boat. Lots of activity on arrival, washing, cleaning, bits of shopping and organising. Busy, busy. You can see below the current state of our poor boat! However we do get to see the lovely Mim tomorrow to collect our documents and say our last and final farewell to our people here in the UK *sniff*, and have a day off in Southampton before we start the second leg of our UK sail down to Falmouth. (Jarvis tells me it is going to be brilliant weather).

All up I think its all going well. We miss everyone so much already but are really enjoying ourselves and looking forward to getting to somewhere warmer!

More updates to come soon.

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out!

On the Countdown.

We leave in two weeks. No, actually we leave in LESS than two weeks, and that is terrifying, amazing, crazy and completely surreal all at once.

We arrived back from our AWESOME holiday in Perth very early Sunday morning and, even before the wheels grazed the tarmac, we were getting flash backs (and forwards) of things we have forgotten to do....
" The gas man? We called him right? That part is on the way?"
"Did you order those Jerry cans?"
"Do you think we have enough anchor chain?
" Zip lock bags!!! We need LOTS of Zip lock bags!!"

Ahhh... it would seem like a very odd day now if it wasn't broken up by several moments of sheer panic :) But we managed to switch off somewhat on holiday and between catching stray 'boat' thoughts, we had the most amazing fun in Perth. Seeing the Jarvis clan again and getting to be part of all the crazy adventures they get up to was so much fun. Everyday was so jam packed but i wouldn't have changed a thing. Catching up with the Amazing Tiff was definitely one of my highlights, going wine tasting with Todd and Shannon in Swan Valley and the 'Australia day' Perth trek with Ben and Aimee, were two of the best days by far. Such a great feeling to see those whom add such value to your life and who are really missed.


But now we are back and the clock's a-tickin'. We landed at Heathrow at 6am after a 22 hour flight and after racing home i managed to squeeze in seeing the Harwich girls for a quick lunch and what i thought was a final farewell. Yet, after letting on to what was my current biggest worry (still not having even started to make all the cushions for the aft cabins and being in a position where i don't even know how to thread a sowing machine), the girls ever so kindly offered their help to get the job done. And what an amazing job they did. A massive thanks has to go to Melly in particular. She put in a 12 hour stint where, quite honestly, she did most of the work all by her self so that we are now the proud owners of these delightful aft cabin cushions!! Gooooooooooooooooooooooo Melly!!!

Please find the proof below... i give you Exhibit A, B and C:

One Aft cabin cushion pre-covered

 

One AMAZING cushion cover. Proud?? Me thinks so!

The zip works and EVERYTHING :)

My parents had also continued to be amazing and act as our mail centre whilst we were away. (I think they must be on a first name basis with all the couriers in the Essex area) We found all of our purchases scattered across the house; 8 Jerry cans (6 clear for water and 2 blue for diesel), 2 anchors, 10 metres of heat ducting and numerous other items filling every nook and cranny and turning the house into an pro athlete obstacle course.

Now on arrival at the boat there was some news...

THE GOOD

• The alternator DID work. A certain someone (e-hem) had actually done the wiring a tad off - hence the lack of charging! Which in turn means the engine is 100% finished. WAHOOOO!!
• Diesel heating is working like a charm.... ummmmm toasty!!

THE BAD

•  The two front batteries are dead as a dodo, so no bow thruster or windlass for us.
• Looks like we need to get the sails serviced as well. One of the most important items on the yacht and we are only just remembering it. Eek.
• The bill from the engineer came through.... ouch!

AND THE UGLY

• Still no luck on the gas cooker. Apparently it is not the thermostat. Jarvis since tried to check all the pipes for a suggested blockage, which was also a no go but resulted in a small pool of gas building up in the curvature of the pipe and which let out one heck of a fireball igniting (and thankfully going straight out again) when he tested it ****PLEASE NOTE, EYEBROWS ARE STILL IN TACT***. Currently we are no further with the cooker.... i think its time to call Mr Gas Man.

Looks like although we are on T minus 10 days we still have an awful lot of of work to do... best get cracking!!

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out