VIDEO OFFWIND SAILING

Simo in 2011 after the aborted trip back to the UK because of an Engine fault , this leg was from Sines to Lagos on the west coast of Portugal , with the light north wind we bounded along at 5/6 knots .

BACK HOME FOR A WHILE

Well after the fiasco of the recent trip to Olhao with all the rain and stuff , we now have the coldest March on record in the UK , Lovely,

Anyway I found out at long last, my results in the recent Ranking races for model radio yacht racing , and secured one of my best places on the Sunday ,10th ,after a bit of tinkering by Brad
 ( European champion ) not so good on the Saturday but still a respectable 16th, so am now ranked at 15th in the UK ,

Castle Semple 2012

Ok so we move on , I have been having a bit of a saga with a company called ADVERC  it is a battery monitor basicly but it smart charges your batteries , and so on , well last year back in April I started to get a few problems with the monitor , sometimes when you touched the select function the screen would go blank , so I phoned the company and they said to send the unit back and they would sort it , well I had to wait till I was back on the boat in September ,,,,

The new unit

 I sent the unit back to them from Portugal and also sent an email telling them to expect it , after three weeks I had not had a reply so decided to call them using Skype , I had to call back the following day but they assured me that Brian had sent me a reply , (Funny I never got it ) I spoke to Brian and he said he was going down to the works that afternoon and was sure they would be able to get the unit posted out latest on Monday ,,,,,, Great i thought I will get the unit before I fly home ,,,, the unit did not arrive and I flew home , at the end of NOVEMBER, me thinking I will collect it from the boat yard when I go out in March no probs , I flew out on the 2nd March and Sergio at the yard said he had not had that package , but there were others waiting for me ,, next day I phoned Adverc , Brian not in call back tomorrow , so I did Brian still not in , but the girl had followed the paper trail as she called it , and funnily enough there was an email which seemed a bit odd .saying the unit could not be repaired it was full of corrosion and would I like to buy a new one at discounted price , £ 150.00 with the vat etc I NEVER GOT THIS EMAIL supposedly sent in November .

I then told the lady I would be back in the UK 17th March and would call to sort it out , I called and spoke to Brian he said the unit was not reparable because of corrosion !!!!!!! that cannot be my unit !!! he said they cant be mixed up , and a few other things , do I want a new one YES i said and paid for it there and then , I asked for my original unit to be returned to me ( IT IS MY PROPERTY )  oh he said we destroyed it back in January the workshop was full of junk we just had to get rid of ,,,, !!!! but they never followed up with their Email asking if I wanted to go ahead , what was I supposed to do leave all the wires dangling , I think this is very bad form and almost a con they destroyed my evidence of my unit,,, and had me over a barrel to purchase new , I am sure by law they should return my old unit , I think somebody is pulling wool over the eye,s re emails and somebody is covering up .

I don't like there style!!!!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK ??? 

OK so we must move on Glenn is finalizing his travel plans and aims to be in Horta on the 1st July , and because we never got launched in Portugal last time the launch will take place on the 5th June , the boat has been covered over with garden net from head to foot and has been sledged around the other side of a big boat so the southern sun can,t get to her Sergio as ever has been very helpful, David is coming down early 8th June so we could be heading out as early as the 12th June ,, another thing I forgot to mention was I asked them ( the yard ) to make me a new servo pendulum for the Hasler just in case we have a breakage ,,, well he made two of them so I have a spare for a hasler sp2 if anybody wants one , let me know , At the moment I am trying to put a short video together of the boat yard , I will post it when i have done it , but it is a learning curve and I am not great on the techo stuff , It would seem that David is our man for all that so I am expecting full coverage 24/7 on Sky news of our trip all the way I am pretty sure he has the APP for it , we were even looking at a kite cam , but could not find a harness big enough for me to fit in . Hey that's it for now I may post a you tube video on the site just to keep your taste buds going ( mine too ) 

keep warm BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

THE RAIN IN PORTUGAL !!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone , It has been a while since I posted an update , so after a thrilling weekend in Portishead i flew out of Bristol on the Monday morning , the pilot warned of strong wind and rain and said it may get a bit bumpy ,,  well we landed OK but it was like a monsoon , and to cut a short story even shorter today Sunday almost a week later is the first day it has not rained , and we all went off to a very expensive 5 star hotel to watch England win by the skin of there teeth against Italy , It is now almost ten o'clock so i doubt if I shall finish this tonight , The plan was to launch Simo this weekend and take her round to the Guadiana river where i have a little mooring , I had a fair bit of work to do , Prime the bottom ready for anti fouling , coat up the mast with Deksolj and re step plus a whole host of other little jobs , I had been looking at the grib files all week and there was to be no let up in the weather rain and all , I managed to get the mast rubbed down , but could not get any ACID OXYLADO , to get rid of the grey area's , I finally got it coated on Saturday morning having already aborted all plans to launch this month , and told David not to worry about coming down this time ,

I got on and did the best I could and two hours after doing the mast the heavens opened , but i think it had tacked of enough , so the mast goes back in on Monday , i have checked everything and put a new radar reflector up to replace the old one from the sixties ,

I manged to get the primer on and next day with help from a nice french man we rushed around and got a coat of anti fouling on , I got the name on in a howling gale of wind so it may just look a little crooked .

The mast don't look to bad considering ,

So all in all the jobs have come together OK , I am still happy not to have gone ahead with the launch because it is blowing force 7/8 outside , with pretty big rollers and the entrance to the river just ain't very deep with a foot or so clearance at low water , and of course I didn't want to put David off before we got started .

When the boat is out of the water everything seems to be in a mess, and when it's raining and your trying to do stuff under a tarp it's even worse , by the way the ten boxes of food and stuff arrived OK from the UK I was a bit concerned about where it was all going to go but after hoicking it all up on deck in a bucket and the stowing down below I can tell you i slept well that night , and was so surprised that it all went in easy as pie , i reckon there is enough food for a year in those lockers , and we still need fresh when we finally go ... we look that's it for now I will just do a spell check and then publish so you will get it soon I have also done the spot update and will try and put that in the next post in a couple of days ,

all the best from rainy Portugal

Mick