Tuesday 31 May 2016

Bank Holiday Weekend Cleaning

The longer weekend was particularly useful, as we pulled Genesis out the water and had her mucky bottom (to be fair it wasn't too bad), jetted off.

We then set about scrubbing her topsides, cutting and polishing her hull and anti-fouling her bottom!

Cutting

We used G6 Cutting Compound from Force 4, together with a polishing sponge for our Silverline polisher. It was a hard slog for John as the polisher is not as light to lift as one would hope. The cutting compound worked really well, taking out the scuffs from our fenders.


Polishing

For polishing we used the 3M polish from Force 4. It goes on a treat and polishes off easily. We ended up doing 2 coats of polish.

Ant-Fouling

The Hempel Tiger-Extra anti-fouling we used for the last 2 seasons worked really well, so we ended up using it again for this season. It goes on quickly and easily and seems to have good lasting power.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Gorgeous Weekend

The weather this year has not been brilliant for sailing. A little too much of the Beastly Easterlies and far too much rain! As such, we were quite pleasantly surprised this last weekend. The weather was glorious and we were able to sail to Oxwich Bay and spend the night anchored out.

We enjoyed a fabulous BBQ on board and to top off a good overnight stay, we woke up to blue skies, sunshine and sea as flat as a millpond. In the morning, I decided to put out a fishing line and much to my delight, I caught a 17lb Thornback ray. Pulling it up was like pulling up a dustbin lid - very hard going. In fact, at first, I thought I had caught 'Mother-Earth' n the form of a great big rock and I was fully expecting to have to cut the line. The Ray was caught on a mix of Bluey and Squid, if anyone wants to give it a go. The Ray was so big that we ended up having it for dinner on Sunday night and Monday night!
John holding MY Ray

Half a Ray Wing
I did pop out the hand reel with some feathers on, in the hope that the mackerel were biting but the water is obviously still too cold. maybe next time!

All in all, a lovely weekend.


Thursday 17 March 2016

Old Lifeboat Station in Swansea Bay

The old lifeboat station in Swansea bay makes for a fabulous photo and a good spot to tuck in next to when the weather is somewhat unsettled and you feel the need to be out on a boat.