The emergency rudder

When we had our sea safety check Ben picked up that we had no means of steering if we lost our main rudder.  Action complete!  Here is our spinnaker pole converted to an emergency rudder.  Hope we never have to use it in anger!

Nearly ready to go



"Lacerta", our Starlight35

Sailing around the UK has been on our bucket list for some time, certainly since David took early retirement in 2013.  We moved house to Torquay in 2014 and now have a house with little garden and easy to maintain so the plan is now coming together.  The autumn and winter of 2014/15 have been spent getting the boat ready for the trip and we are now (almost) good to go. Hopefully we have replaced/serviced/repaired all the major items that could go wrong but who knows!

So, Good Friday, April 3rd is our proposed departure date from Torquay Marina (weather permitting).  In some ways it will be a bit of a wrench as, since moving to Torquay last July, we have got to know Mike Smith and his Marina team quite well, but we'll be back!

As a second pair of eyes check Ben Purser, from the RNLI Sea Safety team paid us a visit on Tuesday.  A few things to think about but fortunately nothing too major!