Nearly Ready

Sula at her home mooring in Llangwm

Pippa and Dee have spent the past six months getting Sula ready for her sail to the Med.
This paragraph is technical stuff for sailing geeks.
We discovered that the mast was badly corroded and needed complete replacement. Having sorted that out, we fitted self tailing winches all round, new main sheet blocks and Boom Vang, and Slab reefing to replace the old roller reefing. Other mods are the fitting of. A bimini, Solar panel, Cabin heater (Its cold in the Med in winter), New cooker, Power monitor, Laptop navigation, Nav text, and Ham radio.There will of course always be other jobs to do, but we are satisfied that we are nearly ready to set off on our adventure.

The outline plan

While setting out our plans you should bear in mind that especially where boats are concerned, plans will and do change.

We plan to sail from Neyland Marina on Saturday 5th July 2008. (The day after Dee’s retirement). We won’t go far until we are sure we haven’t forgotten anything, probably just to Skomer and Ramsey islands. Then we will head off in the direction of Cornwall (probably Falmouth) and meet up with Helen & Jane. We will miss Deryck & Mac because they will be climbing in the Dolomites.

A visit to the Scilly Isles is a distinct possibility if the wind is in the right direction, then it’s off to North Brittany, perhaps L’Aber Vrac’h, before working our way down the coast to the Golfe du Morbihan.

Some time in mid August, when we will get a favourable five day weather forecast we will cross the Bay of Biscay to the Spanish Rias. Then during September work our way down the coast of Portugal and enter the Med in early October.

Next it will be a visit to the Baleriacs and Sicily, where we might just possibly meet up with Dee’s sister Celia.

Before the Mediterranean winter sets in we hope to be in Turkey, probably Marmaris, but that’s a long way of yet and as I say, “things will and do change”.