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Quite a lot of boat work, but also time for some wandering about. Refilled diesel, ran out of gas and had to buy two cylinders at the usual extortionate UK price, bought a 20l water container after discovering the flexi-tank on Avy-J only holds 30 litres, showers and laundry.

Went to the weirdest shop/exhibition ever and got our pictures taken on the Iron Throne, spent a lot of time looking over the wall at the fishing harbour watching the alarming swell in the entrance and saying well, we’re not going out in that.

Not a lot of social distancing going on in Ardglass, and apparently NI is having a wee Covid-19 spike. was still hoping to go down the Irish coast, so phoned Howth and Dunleary. Not only do they not want us, they apparently do not even want British yachts in their inshore waters in case we infect their lifeboat crews!

Nearly went to Holyhead on the 6th, but decided to wait and go straight to the Scillies (with a possible pull-in at Milford Haven) when the Northerlies set in on Friday.

We slipped Glenarm at 07.05, only five minutes after the plan, and motorsailed South with the tide giving us a cuple of knots and more at times. I made tea and toast for me and Darren while Catherine snoozed on in the forepeak. We passed Hunters Rock at 08.30 making 7kts over the ground, and were soon sailing across the mouth of Belfast Lough. It would have been nice to go into Bangor and see our friends Eilish and Ric, but we had a tide to carry and places to be.

As expected, we lost the tide as we came out of the bottom of Donaghadee Sound at 10.45, but it was neaps and we stayed close inshore to the Ards peninsula and made better time than expected. Very lumpy going across the mouth of Strangford Lough, then it was the familiar sight of the water tower and so into this wonderfully sheltered little marina, mooring up just before seven o’clock.

The forecast is showing strong Southerlies, so we are likely to be here for a few days.

We dropped the mooring at Gigha just after twelve midday and meandered to the Mull with a mix of sailing, motoring and motor-sailing. There was still substantial weather helm in the gusts (max 18kts) even with one reef in.

We dodged a tanker as we scraped across the top of the Mull of Kintyre TSS. Darren saw a vertically leaping shark (allegedly) and a pilot whale. Catherine and I missed these, but saw a pod of porpoises.

We were alongside Glenarm at 20.45, no-one around but we borrowed a gate fob off another boat so we could visit the facilities. Chicken curry and an early night as we had decided on an early start in the morning.

We parked up the car and walked down to the boatyard. At the shop we met Chris and Ruth, who offered us a lift in the back of the van. We gratefully accepted, but said we had to go and see Tim and Jenny first. They gave us a wonderful present for the trip: a bottle of Nights Watch, Oban Distillery’s latest signature edition, and the world’s smallest jigsaw. Then it was into the back of Chris and Ruth;s van for a lift to the boatyard.

Rowing out to Avy-J in Balvicar Bay for  the last time, we were pleased that we could leave the dinghy on the mooring – Bill had promised to retrieve it and stash it at Hitler’s Bunker. (Seil water rats will know where this is).

We dropped the mooring at 13.45 and motored over to Craobh to meet up with Darren, our friend, boatbuilder and crew for the next four weeks. At Craobh I changed the engine oil, Darren fitted the new batteries and we filled the water tank.Finally at 17.35 we slipped Craobh and the advewnture began.

Cutting inside the McCormack Isles to get a bit of tide we were disappointed to  find that in fact we had tide against us – a funny bit of water, that. Wind was pretty much on the nose all the way to Ardminish Bay,  rising from 2kts to about 15 at times.This was to be the first of a lot of motoring over the next couple of weeks!

We picked up a mooring in Ardminish Bay, Gigha, a bit after midnight and celebrated the first passage with a wee dram of Nights Watch.

Check out the new stack pack in the header above!

July 2020 and it’s three years since we bought Avy-J – three years of work, expense and disappointment as we have postponed our departure date twice then faced coronavirus, a poorly cat and health issues. Not to mention Brexit.

But now we have a boat that is ready to go, a new home for the cat and a willing and able crew member to share the hard work of taking the boat to Portugal. The boat is fully equipped for the trip and we are pretty much ready to go. There is a last chance feel about it; if we get the boat there before the end of the year it will be an EU boat, deemed VAT registered, which is something, and I intend to look into Portuguese residence as a way out of the Brexit nightmare.

Normally we would route down the Irish coast, to Dublin, Kilmore Quay and so to the Scillies, but Ireland is still closed to ‘foreign’ yachts, so the plan at the moment is Ardglass then across to Holyhead.

Just need a sweet run of Northerlies to see us down the Irish Sea, but at the moment Windy is showing a huge low pressure system for the end of next week that could postpone our departure for a few days.

Wish us luck and watch this space.

One of the pre-departure jobs was to finally fit the Lofrans Royal manual windlass we got at a bargain price last year. Many thanks once again to Darren Taylor of Mainsail Marine for his help with this. The job involved cutting the anchor locker lid and using the aft section to effectively extend the deck and mount the windlass. The tricky bit was leaving the forward (opening) part big enough to be able to stow the 9Kg Knox anchor inside the locker on passage.

Ten days later we set off on what was intended to be a more extensive sea trial. We got as far as Tobermory, but the weather turned grim and we retreated back to Balvicar via a night in Lochaline. Not a lot of sailing, but the engine ran perfectly. One incident where it did not go into gear, but otherwise it performed flawlessly.

Our first trip was up to Oban for a couple of days on the pontoons there sorting things out. Darren spent a night on board and helped us with various things, plus a bit of socialising. Most fun was trying out our new cruising chute, least fun was when the engine wouldn’t go into gear just off the entrance to the marina. The jury is out on whether or not this is due to worn clutch cones or we just need to adjust idle setting and morse cable more carefully.

Finally, two years after we bought her, Avy-J goes back in the water. The engine started, no water came in, and we left her on the mooring looking good.

After nearly two years we are almost ready to launch Avy-J, our Morgan Giles 30.

So, what have we been doing down the boatyard these past two years? Here’s most of what we have been doing to turn an tired old classic into a potential ocean greyhound ready for a long trip:

BOW TO STERN ON DECK

• New custom made double bow roller and chainplate – thanks to mark and Mackenzie Welding
• New anchor locker bulkhead in 18mm/36,, mariner play, fully epoxied in place – thanks to Darren, Mainsail Marine
• Anchor locker painted in Danboline, strong point for bitter end
• New anchor locker lid
• New 40m 8mm chain spliced to 40m 14mm octoplait
• New 9Kg Knox anchor
• 15Kg CQR chocked on foredeck
• New midships stanchions (inexplicably missing when we got the boat – new ones fit to toerail)
• New deck glands for mast cables, VHF deck plug renewed
• Liferaft supports treated and woodsealed
• 4-man Ocean Safety liferaft, in service date
• New 4-sheave deck organisers both sides
• Hatch garage top renewed in 12mm Robbins Elite ply
• Walk-on 50W black flat solar panel installed on hatch garage
• Morse control; tension fixed, unit painted
• Engine control panel repaired
• Tiller varnished
• Cockpit cubbyholes painted in white Danboline
• Cockpit cushions
• New steering compass on port side
• Lazarette partitioned to make it useable
• Navik wind vane rebuilt, refurbished, fitted and set up
• New custom made stern chainplate – thanks to John and Norman
• New inflateable danbuoy
• ‘New’ (to us) Yamaha 2 horse 2-stroke outboard
• Emergency boarding ladder on rail
• New flagstaff

HULL

• Rudder professionally repaired – many thanks to Darren of Mainsail Marine
• 2 coats Micron 350 antifoul
• Prop antifouled with Velox
• Prop bolts tightened and locktited
• New sealant all round the underside of the toerail

ENGINE

• New raw water filter added
• New stainless exhaust elbow
• All filters replaced
• Fuel tank repaired and re-plumbed
• All fuel piping replaced – thanks to Iain
• Impellor/belts/filters/anodes all replaced
• Stern gland re-packed and greaser cleaned and refilled
• New seacock on exhaust
• Morse control serviced, new cover for morse contols in quarterberth
• New engine stop cable fitted

ELECTRICS/INSTRUMENTS

• Partial re-wire with new marine tinned cables run internally
• New VHF with built in GPS
• New NASA wind unit
• New Matsutec AIS transponder/GPS flush-mounted in cockpit
• Active aerial splitter for masthead aerial
• CTEK intelligent battery charger in re-organised battery locker
• Battery holddowns
• New engine start battery with new 1-2-both switch
• Shorepower – consumer unit + 2 double sockets
• Voltmeter
• Nav lights rewired and replaced with LED bulbs

MAST/RIGGING

• New NASA wind
• Metz manta VHF whip aerial with new RG8X cable
• New NASA LED tricolour
• New steaming light
• New wiring for lights – 3-core Oceanflex marine tinned cable
• Cable run in new external conduit
• All running rigging cleaned/serviced
• New forestay
• New reefing spectacles on mainsail
• Blocks etc for slab reefing system

GAS

• New gas locker with space for 2 Camping Gaz 907 – thanks to Adam and Darren
• New piping – thanks to John
• Bubble leak tester
• NASA gas alarm
• Neptune 2000 cooker refurbished

BILGES

• New electric bilge pump fitted with auto/manual control
• New discharge seacock for electric pump
• Whale Gusher manual pump – new diaphragm

SALOON/QUARTERBERTHS

• Quarterberths, lockers, gally area repainted in Heirloom White
• New engine cover and slides
• New steps
• Floor repainted, new carpet
• Lockers below port bunk painted in Danboline
• Hinges replaced with wood slot-ins on port side lockers
• Instrument cupboard refurbished
• New custom made curtains
• New cushions
• Headlining painted and refastened with more screws and screw covers

GALLEY

• Neptune 2000 cooker refurbished and re-mounetd more securely
• New gas pipework to cooker
• New woodwork round sink
• Whale gallery tap refurbished
• New sink seacock

HEADS AREA

• New Jabsco twist and lock heads
• New inlet and outlet seacocks
• New heads compartment floor
• Hanging Locker repaired (large section of bulkhead replaced) and relined
• Large shelved locker refurbished, wires hidden, repainted, door catch fixed
• Main door to saloon rehinged, latch to keep it open fitted
• Latch repaired on locker behind heads
• Spotlight bulb replaced with LED

FOREPEAK

• Bulkhead partially replaced on stbd side – thanks to Darren, Mainsail Marine
• Bunk head areas lined
• Bunk foot area lined
• Cove lockers refurbished/repainted
• V-berth infill repaired
• Spotlight bulbs replaced with LEDs
• Bow nav lights rewired
• Custom made bedding/cushions

OTHER EQUIPMENT

• Comprehensive toolkit and spares
• EPIRB
• Emergency VHF aerial
• Boltcroppers