Exciting times ahead

Soon, this will be the ships log of our new vessel. Not quite because we don't actually own her yet!

The details are all in the pages on the sidebar to the right of the main posts.

"Brigantia"

We purchased "Brigantia", an Islander 23, back in 2011

"Brigantia" carried us as far afield as Lowestoft to the North and on our most epic voyage all the way to Chichester on the South Coast. We also began what we now expect to be a lifetime of exploring the nooks and crannies of the Thames Estuary

The three years we sailed "Brigantia" convinced us that coastal sailing was indeed the thing for us after so many years on the inland waterways.

She was a fine little yacht which served us well during our time with her but at 23' she was just too small and we fell in love with and bought "Erbas", a fine example of a Sabre 27 on whim.

"Erbas"

We have never regretted that "rash" decision even though, as it has turned out, we will only have sailed Erbas for two seasons. She, in her turn, has convinced us to take a major leap into the dark and change our whole lifestyle radically.

That lifestyle change began at the beginning of this year when I left my job with BP. It wasn't a very good job, it didn't pay very well and I'd become terminally bored with it but it did provide a steady reliable income. I left to set up on my own as a Marine Electrical Engineer. Despite the problems of commuting backwards and forwards between Kettering and so on, the business has started well and the future looks good.

The next step in the lifestyle change is well in hand and it involves downsizing from the family home to a small terraced house in the same area which will give us a winter base if needed and security for the future. In the process, we'll wipe out the mortgage and release a decent chunk of equity and that in turn paves the way for the purchase of an even larger yacht.

Erbas is a fine vessel with bags of character and excellent accommodation as a holiday cruising yacht but as a semi-liveaboard (and just how much time we'll spend on board and how much back at the house remains to be seen but we're almost certain to be aboard a lot more than we're not) she's once again too small for our needs.

When this post was first written, we were in the process of purchasing a Westerly Vulcan 34. Unfortunately, delays and issues with the housing transactions meant we had to pull out of that purchase. This post has been edited to reflect those subsequent events.

That final step, you'll have surely guessed, is for Jane too to give up her full time job at Morrisons just outide of Kettering and move on board. Depending on my income levels and her boredom level, she may well look for some part time and/or temporary work nearby once she's down there

We've been discussing our plans a lot, of course, and 2016 is likely to be focussed on getting Pagan how we want her and in learning our way around our new yacht. There's bound to be all sorts of things we want to change, modify, update or just plain tweak to our liking provided there's enough pennies in the piggy bank.

The major focus for Jane is that she is very keen to become at least a "competent crew" (although whether we bother with the formal qualifications is another matter - it costs money to do the courses and money is going to be a strictly rationed commodity!). That is to say that she wants to be able to, and to feel confident to, tackle the basics of steering the boat, keeping a watch, sail handling, coming alongside / picking up a buoy / anchoring and critically what to do in an emergency.

I feel that whilst my theoretical knowledge is pretty up there, my practical skills are lagging behind. I'm happy under motor but I'm really not sure how well or how badly I'm actually handling the boat under sail. We get there OK but I just don't have a benchmark to measure how we're doing against. I can't help wondering if we could be getting there quicker! And then there's manoeuvring under sail which is something I've largely avoided and would like to brush up my skills at doing.

So we're not currently planning any major adventures to far flung places next year, it'll be a case of as much pottering around the Thames Estuary as we can fit in around working and refitting Pagan to suit our needs and long term plans.

By the start of the season in 2017, we hope that we'll be in a good enough financial position for Jane to give up the full time job and move down on board for the season. We're hoping then we can start getting some miles under the keels and develop our skills and confidence to the point where we're ready for the big adventure.

And that big adventure will be to sail around the British Isles in 2018 or 2019.

It will mean taking six months off work and that means we'll need a fairly hefty wedge in the bank to cover the expenses of the cruise and our living expenses over the following winter as, of course, while we're away I won't be earning any money and it will take a while to build things back up again.

We want to embark on that adventure before too many years have passed and before age and health potentially start to limit our options - neither of us is 100% fit now in our mid-50s and we both have physical health problems which, whilst relatively minor now, will inevitably get worse as we get older.

Our tentative plan is to set off from Fambridge in mid-April, weather permitting, and bash up the East Coast to the Scottish Border as quickly as possible. The idea being that we won't hang about in waters that are within easy range of subsequent cruises of four to six weeks duration (see below). Then we'll work our way up the East Coast of Scotland aiming for the Orkneys by sometime in May.

From there, we'll hop across the wide open waters of the ocean to Fair Isle to visit my cousin Ruth and her family for a few days and thence onwards to Shetland to visit my her brother Mark and his family. If the weather gods don't interfere, we'll spend a week or two in Shetland before making our way back to Orkney for a further week or so.

There are quite a few historic sites I really want to visit on Orkney. The islands, now so much on the periphery of British life, were once right at the heart of pre-Roman Celtic culture (a subject very much dear to my heart).

We'll then round the top of Scotland to the Western Isles where we'll need to make a decision depending on how long the journey has taken us. Ideally, we'll spend a month or so around Western Scotland before heading down the West Coast, round Lands End and thence along the South Coast and back to the Thames Estuary.

The South Coast leg will once again be knocked off as quickly as possible as our future plans will see us return to those waters on subsequent shorter cruises.

However, if circumstances have led to our arriving later than planned in the Western Isles, we'll keep in mind the option of heading back across through the Caledonian Canal, a waterway we'd love to revisit in any case, and a quick slog down the East Coast to get home. Whether we'd be able to complete the circuit another year we simply can't predict but if we don't it doesn't really matter as long as we enjoy our summer off. There's no prizes for sailing the whole way round and we'd rather enjoy the half of the trip than flog ourselves to get all the way round in one go

After that major expedition, we hope our lives will settle into a pattern of many years of taking a month to six weeks off each summer to cruise further afield than is possible in the two week holidays that are the dictat of a normal working life.

We'd love to visit the Channel Islands and the Scillies, Ireland is very much on the radar (Jane is especially keen on that idea) and we haven't given up on Europe either despite our less than satisfactory Cruise to Furrin Parts earlier this year.

As the title says, exciting times ahead!