The last leg of out South coast route today - Dartmouth to Plymouth.

Forty five miles of pretty easy sailing in fresh F4-5 westerlies. Sea a bit choppy especially once we turned NW to head into the Tamar estuary at Plymouth.

Mooring seems to have taked ages, with us having to move berths and then give the boat a good clean after 3 days of salt and muck.

Nice hot showers and a quick meal helped us warm up ready to start the final preparations tomorrow for leaving on Sunday.

After yesterday's trip we decided it'd be a good idea to take the day off travelling today and relax a bit in Dartmouth. Unfortunately the 1001 little jobs  outstanding such as food victualing and small repairs meant we didn't actually do much relaxing.

Morris dancers in the town square were welcome entertainment and quintescentially British. 

  

HMS Cornwall was also in town looking pretty impressive in the middle of the river.

Long and difficult day today - from Weymouth to Dartmouth. Very rough and into wind (F6) all day so had to motorsail most of the way at 6 knots crashing into waves. Sailing would have added an extra 6 hours onto the trip.

Arrived at 9pm in last bits of daylight and ended up rafting up alongside another boat on a floating pontoon.

Bit of a survival day today so not very pleasant.

We're moored up in Weymouth at the old harbour at the moment.

Had good day's sail yesterday and managed to get a few miles under our belts durung a lull in the weather. Today it's blown up again so we're going to take the day off, do some jobs, some washing and go for a run.

Jax is a bit snuffy with a cold so the days rest will do us good.

Weather forecast looks better tomorrow anyway.

Sailed out past the needles yesterday. Its strange, they were really huge and very impressive - a bit like the Twelve Apostles in Australia.

Its my birthday today so had a few cards by ship mail. Another good reason to stay in port.

We're having bit of a bad time with the weather at the moment - we're trying to get along the south coast to Plymouth before next week but are being beaten back (literally) by huge gales and rough seas. In Yarmouth (IoW) tonight having failed to make it through out on the north channel by the needles in F8 (36kn winds).

Spent a pleasant evening last night in Cowes at the Island Sailing Club where we had supper and a drink with Andrew Castle from our sailmakers Ratsey and Lapthorne. Andrew was in a 33ft yacht in the '79 fastnet storm that took so many lives, but through good helming and luck his boat survived. A very interesting man, who still sails competetively today despite having 2 false legs!

We're hoping for a bit of a lull in the weather tomorrow for a big push to Weymouth - but the weathermen have been promissing a change for the past week! Fingers crossed.

The last few days have been a cruel lesson in weather. The southern UK coast has been subjected to a series of classic depressions sweeping through bringing gale force winds, continuous drizzle and lashing torrential rain.

Luckily we've been able to sit back on dry land at home and take the time to sort out things for the next couple of months away from home.

Sunday today and we're waiting for the train down to Southampton to start our next adventure - with a bit of apprehension.

Last friday we spent a pleasant evening with Dave, Rob and Tony at a Morrocan restaurant in Brighton as a bit of a farewell dinner. Good food and a fair bit of drink was had by all.

Spent a couple more days in Spain checking the house building progress and catching up with Mark & Jane.

It was raining when we arrived but by Tuesday had warmed up to a lovely 33 degrees. We thought we may have some time to relax a bit but ended up running around to Notary offices, lighting shops (where we finally bought all the light fittings), builders merchants, visiting the building site and all kinds of other places.

Mark and Jane were well and very welcoming as usual. We're very lucky to have them as neighbours as they have been very good to us.

The house is progressing well, although the list of additional costs over and above the original budget is very scary!

Finally made some progress today on the Bow Sprit (required for mounting the furling drum for the downwind twistle sail).

Spent the day with Denis at the boat fixing the custom made supporting arm and bow sprit to the boat - looks very good and should do the job nicely.

We were planning to sail to France this weekend but have thought the better of it given the huge winds (F6-7) and generally bad weather hitting the UK at the moment. Spendignthe time at home sorting out a few things before we set off again.

Sailing to Cowes on Monday to pick up the Twistle sail, Trysail and Storm Jib, and then off to Plymouth later in the week to give All Spars time to fit the trysail track and other final preparations.

Only 2 weeks to go now before we set off. Lets hope for some better conditions.

We're still preparing for the Portugal trip. The boat is nearly ready but we're still waiting to sort out our downwind sail. This week Adrian has spent on the boat and chasing people to do work. Jax has been rushing round catching up with friends.

Last weekend we did a 3 day first aid af sea course. It was really interesting and like all these things teaches you a number of strategies and shows you how much you dont know! Still, we're better informed now and have some idea about medical kits we need and emergency procedures.

We've yet to decide on out 4th crew member, but at least now have had some time to think about it.

Sailed the boat from Brighton to Southampton today. Conditions were meant to be force 3 or 4 which would have made good sailing but turned out to be force 2 to 3 instead, which meant we had to motor sail most of the way.

We planned to stay at Chichester overnight but after making good time decided to push on to the Hamble with its hot showers and facilities. Finally arrived at 1930 after 60 miles - were both quite tired now.

We are going to keep the boat in Swanwick for a couple of weeks to get some jobs done on it and so we can stay on her during our ship's first aid course this weekend.

This week we have finished preparing the boat, taken it for a few test sails around Southampton and over to the Isle of Wight and finally brought the boat back to Brighton.

Saturday 22nd April
Few mnore visitors this morning and then off for a quick game of badminton. Left the boat and headed home to get ready for quick trip to Spain to see house progress.

Friday 21st April
Few jobs in and around Brighton. Met Mel on boat.

Thursday 20th April

Nothing (much to do) quite nice to relax and potter a bit on the boat. Steve and Karin came to see the boat in the afternoon, followed by Dave, Helen, Rob, Phil and Yvette later in the evening.

Wednesday 19th April

Set sail for Littlehampton out of Chichester estuary and around Selsey Bill. Managed tides correctly and had steady sail. Bit of a mess up by Adrian in planning since we thought we'd stay overnight at Littlehampton to break the jopurney, but realised on the way that the entrance was tidal and although we would be able to get into the harbour, we wouldn't have been able to leave for Brighton until mid afternoon the next day. Since we still had a few hours daylight we changed plans and pushed on to Brighton marina - which we reached at 8pm. Home base.

Tuesday 18th April

Set off to Brighton. Planned to get to Chichester and stay there overnight. Passage was uneventful and everything went fine. Had to get tender (dingy) out to get to the shore for run ans shower as moored up on pontoon in river.

Monday 17th April

Test sail to the Isle of Wight and then met Sandra and Adrian's Mum for a few hours. They came down to see the boat and catch up after the holiday. Good to see them. Mum seemend pretty worried about loosing touch whilst we were sailing. Went for nice meal at Ketch Riggger (Jax's favourite place to eat on the Hamble)

Sunday 16th April

At home, drove to Brighton to leave the car. Caught train to Southampton. Trip from hell due to engineering works along south coast line. Had to catch 2 busses in Portsmouth - full of very unsavory people and swearing, uncouth and obnoxious lads throwing things around. .

Finally arrived at the marina and the boat - wow, what a different world!

Friday 14th April

Adrian returned to boat for 11am meeting with engineer about a bracket for a special downwind sail we’re having installed. Hopefully we’ll make some progress on this now.

Spent the rest of the day doing a few more safety checks and small jobs around the boat.

Jax is in London seeing Nicky, so Adrian is staying on the boat and then driving back to get Jax tomorrow to go for a sail.

Thursday 13th April

Few more jobs this morning. Jax left mid-morning to get back to Brighton for hair appointment whilst Adrian went out into the harbour with the compass adjuster to test, calibrate and maximise the accuracy of the main navigation compass.

Sign writing appeared today and the letting for the ship’s name was transferred to the bow and stern. The yacht is called ‘Vagari’ – which means to wander in latin.

In the evening Jax went to Mel’s for a girl’s night whilst Adrian spent the evening in Brighton having a Thai meal and a few drinks with Dave and B’ton friends.

Mon 9th – Wednesday 11th April

This week has been pretty busy. We’ve both been down in Southampton at Hamble marina taking delivery of and preparing the boat.

The handover hasn’t been as smooth as it could have, due to some pretty major staff and organisational changes with the boatyard – which was sold to a larger company in January and subsequently has laid off all its boatbuilding staff!

Despite numerous calls from New Zealand, the boat wasn’t properly finished when we went to Southampton on Monday – nothing too major, just lots of little things like no anchor and chain, no jack stays, bits of rigging not finished etc.

  

Anyway, we have stayed on the boat in the marina and have slowly worked through our jobs whilst constantly been around to remind, assist and ensure the boatyard do theirs.

Typical jobs have included:

Collect and fit liferaft cradle, hydrostatic release and liferaft.
Fit mounting bracket for outboard motor
Fit Jonbouy emergency recovery module
Fit horseshoe lifebuoy
Fit safety line eyes to the cockpit
Prepare and sort out a secondary anchor with 10m chain and 100m of line.
Test and install a parachute anchor to help the boat survive extremely rough sea conditions.
Fit fire extinguishers in all cabins, galley and saloon
Fit EPIRB (emergency beacon) brackets inside and out
Fit an additional winch handle pocket
Mount handheld GPS bracket, wireless navigation controller and handheld radio
Fit fire alarm and fire blanket Fit barometer and clock
Arrange and fix vessel name and signwriting
Swing the compass with a professional compass adjuster.

There’s also been a lot of things we’ve had to buy to equip the boat:

Pillows, linen & towels
Plates, mugs, glasses, dishes, pans, bowls etc
Cutlery & utensils
Pressure cooker
Small electric toaster, kettle and handheld vacuum
Food, spices, cans, drink etc.
A comprehensive toolkit and various useful electrical and mechanical spares and components.
Lifejackets x 6
Wet weather gear x 6
Flares and safety equipment
Numerous ropes, lines and spare rigging.
Various fenders and mooring equipment
Etc…

Luckily we’re right next to a huge marine chandlery for the million and one odds and ends and have taken a couple of trips into Southampton to visit John Lewis and other big stores.

The boat is now pretty much ready to set sail, having absorbed a whole house full of equipment and shop full of accessories. It’s amazing how everything is squirreled away into its own special and logical place where it is safely stowed and accessible for all sea conditions and circumstances. The number of little jobs has amazed me, with each item exhaustively located in the best location for ease of use, conditions and durability.

Fortunately we have onboard heating which has made the cold April nights (and days) comfortable.

This is an overview of the 3000 mile route we drove around New Zealand, from top to bottom and then anti-clockwise around the South Island.

(Thanks to Google Earth and Garmin GPS for data) 

Tuesday 4th April

We arrived home today, after nearly 2 months away. It's bright but cold - bit of a shock. The flight was long but because it was overnight we managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep. Tony managed to get an upgrade to club class (with fancy reclining bed seat) for Jax only as the flight was totally full with returning rugby supporters.

Jax's seat was taken by a chap from Brighton who Adrian found out was meant to be travelling first class but was downgraded due to lack of seats...strangely enough he wasn't that talkative once he'd found out Jacqui had been upgraded! (The staff kept asking where Mrs Evans was for her vegetarian meals - which Adrian had to eat (yuk)!) 

House is all fine, so its back to concentrating on the boat and figuring out what we're going to do next.

Sat 1st - Mon 3rd April

Arrived in Hong Kong after a very early 3am morning and long 12hr flight. Wow, what a change to sleepy New Zealand! Makes you feel dizzy with the scale, noise, pace and smells of the place.

Met Tony for our first evening on the town. Lots of sights to see, including bars with amazing cityscape views, streets packed full of neon and hoards of partying locals and rugby fans. We eventually collapsed back at the hotel at 2.30am, which was 6.30am our time - making it a long 27hr day!

   

On Sunday we went to the final day of the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament. Traditionally lots of English fans dress up in fancy dress - so not wanting to be outdone we improvised and wore our hotel bathrobes, shower caps, rubber ducks, bathroom slippers, sunglasses and party balloons - we got a few funny looks walking through Hong Kong streets and were even asked to pose for pictures with people. It was a fantastic day, with short exciting games, plenty of Pims and jubilant crowd support. 

   

The day culminated with one of the tightest and best finals ever between Fiji and England. Fiji had stuffed NZ out of sight in the semi final after NZ had seen off Australia (with a bit of fisticuffs and handbags) in the Quarter Final. On England's side of the draw they had narrowly beaten Samoa (with a bit of help from the ref for a disallowed try) in the QF and then had a slightly better game against South Africa in the SF.

England started on top with a couple of quick tries, but were quickly hauled back by the might of Fiji but managed to win it with a final try in the dying seconds in the last play of the game.  Every time England took the field someone on the opposition got sin binned and more than one try against them was disallowed...if they'd paid off the ref they'd obviously given him enough cash! 

 

The evening revelry continued in the bars and clubs until lack of sleep took its toll on Adrian.

Monday was spent on a whistle-stop tour of the city, including taking the star ferry across HK harbour, a tram ride to The Peak which is the city's highest point to see the slightly hazy view, double decker tram rides, walking though crowded typical 'chinese' street markets and plenty of window shopping.

The street markets were interesting, with live fish, crabs and turtles flapping around in fish stores and all kinds of indistinguishable meat products on display. It certainly tested Jacqui's vegetarianism!

Our flight was leaving at 11pm, so we spent a short evening in the hotel having one last drink in front of the fabulous HK panorama before heading off to the airport for the long trip home.