Blogging OnBlue

How did we get here?

Wed, 25 May 2022 14:49:31 GMT

Hands up, I (Deb) admit that I’m not a fantastic sailor (I should just add ‘yet’ onto that sentence but, I feel I’m not worthy at this point in time). I was born and grew up in Birmingham and, until the age of 18, had rarely seen the sea, let alone been ‘on’ it. But I do like it. I like it a lot. So much, in fact, that when we were apart I gained the Competent Crew qualification as well as learned to sail a laser dinghy at a local sailing school. In truth, I capsized a lot and got annoyed with the stupid wind!

Nick, has spent most of his life around boats. He’s a skilled and experienced Skipper having owned boats and taught dinghy sailing in his youth. When we met (1988) he was a big windsurfing enthusiast. So much so, that our honeymoon (1989) was spent windsurfing in Turkey (Bodrum, to be exact) where I earned my RYA level 2 Windsurfing certificate. Actually, I think they just gave it to me to be polite. I also gained a certificate for being the ‘Most Rescued’. Not my fault, dear reader...it was always an offshore wind so ‘getting out there’ was no problem...it was the getting back that was the challenge. Anyhow, my certificate sits proudly amongst all other certificates including the one I got for learning the Green Cross Code back in the Middle Ages.

We’d owned boats when we were married. The first was a Strider Club 24ft catarmaran that gave us great days out and all without a single electronic device onboard. Our second was a Heavenly Twins MkIV, a 26ft cruising cat that gave us even more wonderful days out and many overnight stays in and around The Solent on the South Coast, UK. I enjoyed the sailing but I think I just didn’t pay a lot of attention to what was involved. In my defence, I was mostly looking after our two young daughters while we were afloat and I was almost certainly making the tea and sandwiches in our galley which seemed very novel after the Strider which was very basic.

Fast forward to 2017 and we got together (for the second time around). Life was Exciting and comfy but we were unsettled. Work dominated our lives. Days and weeks were long and there never seemed like there was enough time to do much else.

In our previous life, we had talked about leaving the rat race and moving onto the water. It wasn’t long before we were having conversations along the same lines, again. In 2018 we spent a month sailing from Portsmouth to Dartmouth and back on our Heavenly Twins cat (with Roxy dog) and that was a real turning point for us. We enjoyed it so much. We wanted the liveaboard lifestyle. After looking at the logistics, namely the money situation, it wasn’t pretty. Neither of us had the money to invest in a boat that would be more ‘liveaboardable’ than the one we had. We’d need to sell everything to buy something more suited to us and we’d need to give up our jobs in order to commit to a new lifestyle.

So, in the space of two years, that’s what we did.

2019 – Nick took early retirement and we bought our boat (originally Witchfinder General and renamed OnBlue).

2020 - I retired early, sold my house and pretty much everything in it (quite traumatic) and we moved aboard. And all this, amid a global pandemic!

Our goal is to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean. Our oldest daughter lives in Cyprus and we’d love to get there. It is, however, a huge challenge. The furthest Nick has sailed to is Cherbourg and also Plymouth along the South Coast, UK. Enter a Brexit deal that has a whopping detrimental effect on our plans (only 90 days travel in every 180 allowed in the EU) and a continuing global pandemic that sees many countries still closed.

To date (2021), our plans have been put (slightly) on hold until the EU decides what’s happening with borders and control of the pandemic. We’re not deterred. We have decided to go sailing this summer but to come back to UK marina life for the winter (that’s not difficult, you get used to the ‘luxury’ of marina life pretty quickly).

So there you have it. Nick: Captain Competent. Deb: keen but needs to listen more. Different experiences, different capabilities but we share the dream and the passion. And to live aboard and travel and maintain a boat (and all the logistics these things entail) is all about teamwork and that’s what we can achieve (except on the days when we bicker and moan at each other but that’s completely normal when you live in a small space with your ex husband, right?!). Ultimately, we each bring something to this experience. I, for one, am looking forward to what we can achieve. Especially if I listen more.

Heading West from Portsmouth

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:07:57 GMT

After being waved off from Portsmouth Harbour, and before heading West, we headed to Bembridge Harbour on the Isle of Wight. We wanted to beach OnBlue so we could have a look at her bottom.

Being in a marina is (mostly) super comfy but it’s not always great for the boat...being stationary allows all sorts of garden growth to take a grip on the hulls and we certainly felt the effects of that as we motored over to Bembridge, somewhat sluggishly.

Once the tide had ebbed and our hulls were exposed, we found the growth on them wasn’t bad at all but we were covered with millions and millions of tiny little sea creatures, resembling micro shrimps. We’re animal lovers but these b*ggers had to go!

As we wiped the hulls the creatures fell into the water in their thousands. They stuck to our wetsuits and wriggled on our skin. Pleasant it was not.

We worked for a few hours as the tide rose around us. Once we were afloat we headed out, back into the Solent and motored all the way to Hurst Castle before raising the sails in a rather pleasant South Westerly wind, force 3-5.

We were filled with trepidation...we didn’t have a set plan. Well, the plan was to have a plan and let that plan change as when wind, weather etc dictated. That’s sailing, I’ve learned. We just wanted to head West then take it from there.

We got all the way to Swanage that first day and anchored in the bay. The holding was a little soft and it took several attempts, lots of shouting and a minor argument before we were set up for the night.

The next morning we shared our experiences of the night before. I’d slept my usual 5 – 6 hours of (very) broken sleep. Nick had had very little sleep at all. This I have learned: The Skipper, although confident in his anchor, will always worry about dragging anchor and play and replay the digging in process. Our anchor, a Rocna 25kg, was new to us and we hadn’t used it much at this point. Our first attempt at deploying it was quite eventful. ‘It feels like it’s really locked into something’, I shouted. I wasn’t wrong, we pulled it up and brought with it a huge important looking cable! We tried to drop it down but it was so tight across the anchor there was not a chance we could drop it. Out came the little grapnel anchor: Nick attached it to whatever the cable was, took the weight of it with the grapnel and that enabled us to drop the Rocna. All very unexpected and stressful. We looked around, no one had seen what had happened so we started the engines and got the hell out of there. We half expected all the lights of the Isle of Wight to go out but, thankfully, they didn’t ��.

Anyhow, back to our journey West. We left Swanage at 06:00 and sailed all the way to Dartmouth, a long and wonderful passage along the South Coast. Cruising past the Jurassic Coastline of Dorset and Devon is stunning. The landscape is diverse and very beautiful and is, of course, is geographically of huge global importance because of its rocks, fossils and landforms.

We sail past in silence other than the gentle sound of the wake from the stern as we cut through the water. We glanced at the coastline, observing the colourful rock formations, the slopes of the land, caves, coves and sometime animals grazing atop the slopes.

Crossing Lyme Bay, between Portland and Dartmouth, we were joined by several pods of white beaked dolphins! It had happened for us the year before, but it was still so very exciting as they swam and played off our bows. They really do seem to show off as they turn and look up at you and then jump up out of the water as we (ok, me) waved and clapped and whistled. So joyful. I love that these beautiful creatures are out here, finding enough food to survive and be happy and healthy (so they seem).

After a long day’s sailing we arrived in Dartmouth at 19:00, tired and starving. I generally eat very little when we’re on passage. Captain, not so much...he’ll go down into the galley and cook beans on toast quite happily. I usually prepare some sandwiches and snacks but we were completely out of all that by the time we berthed in Dartmouth.

Although we arrived at approx. 19:00, it took a couple of hours to finally find a berth, tie up and get ourselves sorted. The Harbourmaster placed us in Town Quay. It’s a super location for stepping off the boat and into the lovely town of Dartmouth which we really love. So, at 21:00 we’re finally tied up and hooked up and sorted out. We step off the boat, in search of food and what did we find? Nothing! Nowhere serving food so we headed to the local Co-op. Beans on toast again, Captain?

Portsmouth to Dartmouth is approx 120 nautical miles.

The Story of Us

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 14:51:15 GMT

It's a long story (aren't they always?!) but I'll keep it short and sweet.

We met in 1988 and it was truly love at first sight.

Nick proposed some 6 weeks later and we were married the following year.

By 2008, we, seemingly, had it all: a 19 year marriage, two beautiful daughters, loving families, good health, good jobs, a lovely house, nice cars, a cat, hanging baskets...the whole shebang. We even had a boat that we’d sailed as a family (Heavenly Twins MKII).

Then it all went wrong. We divorced and didn't have anything to do with each other until 2017 when we finally met up due to family circumstances.

It was like going back 29 years! Your lobster's your lobster, right?!

And here we are, second time around and going strong :)

…And They’re Off!

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 13:33:04 GMT

It’s the two year anniversary of Nick giving up work, us buying OnBlue and her being splashed for the first time in 6 years. It's also the one year anniversary of me giving up work, selling the house and of us both moving on-board our floating home.

To say the past 2 years have been busy, emotional (and expensive!) is an understatement, indeed.

The past couple of months have seen us gearing up to leave life in a marina. The boat jobs list has been exhaustive but we got to the point where pretty much everything was fixed, had been serviced, updated, removed, replaced, installed, maintained or upgraded. This work is never actually complete: as someone once said, ‘Everything on the boat is broken, you just don’t know it yet.’ So true.

We also had to provision so that we had plenty of what we need: food, toiletries, cleaning products and all the other paraphernalia that we need for daily life. Several trips to supermarkets soon sorted that out and before we knew it, every bit of storage space onboard was filled with food, spares and everything we thought would be useful.

Adding to the weight of the boat is a big issue for us. We try not to overburden OnBlue: she is already over ten tons without anything onboard. We have tried to bring only what we need in terms of clothes and personal items. Even the tools onboard have been pared back so that we have basic toolkits for each of the systems on-board: plumbing, electronics, electrics, engines etc.

The cupboards, drawers, under-seat and under-floor storage areas are all being used to house the things we need. A good friend of mine from #sailingyachtnoworries , Mel, once said to me that everything on-board should have at least 2 uses and that is something I think about before anything new comes on-board. Living a more simple life is so easy once you realise how little you actually use or need.

We shook off our final tie to the land by selling our cars literally days before we sailed out of Portsmouth. Good job all the shopping had been done! So, now it’s just us and OnBlue.

In early July, we filled our water and fuel tanks (more weight), untied our lines and left the marina. As we motored towards the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour, we could see our good friends Jo and Rob frantically waving goodbye to us from the top of the Round Tower! Such a wonderful surprise and a lovely send off for us. We waved back and blew kisses, not knowing if or when we’d return, and headed out into the Solent.

So far, it's not all G&Ts at sundown

Thu, 20 May 2021 14:47:15 GMT

We’ve lived onboard for 10 months and in that time have worked and worked tirelessly to bring this boat up to spec. Now, when I say ‘we’, you must understand that it is really Nick who does all the hard work. He is Captain of this vessel and I am Chief Stewardess (Chief Stew). I am good at finding tools that were literally ‘just there a minute ago’ and passing said tools to Nick. I am responsible for all things domestic. Not that easy without running hot water or enough space in which to swing a cat.

That being said, it’s wonderful living on the water and we have everything we need. It’s comfy and cosy and, now that winter has gone, the dehumidifier has been put away and I’m no longer complaining about condensation. This was quite a problem for us in the winter: we heat the boat, boil the kettle and cook onboard every day and this, plus our body heat, would create a lot of condensation inside the boat. We’d often have to wipe down the ceiling (called the headlining which is made of vinyl) and, in the mornings, we’d need to wipe down the aluminium window frames. The dehumidifier was a hard working life saver, to be sure.

We have all the mod cons needed to make life onboard easier. Our galley (kitchen) includes an oven, a 3 burner gas cooker top, a fridge, a freezer, 2 stainless steel sinks and plenty of storage for food. We also have a shower and 2 toilets (heads) onboard...one in each hull which is handy! We have a TV, laptop and other devices to keep us ‘connected’. Our cabins are cosy, 2 of them have the equivalent of a double sized bunk in them. We have house batteries and solar panels that give us power (when we’re in the marina, we hook up to mains electricity). We have a diesel heating system and running water. We can carry 350 litres of water in our tank...in old money, that’s about 77 gallons or 616 pints. We fill the tank up via our hose from the standing water tap on the pontoon (we’re in a marina). No running hot water, though, unless the engines have been run (they heat the water). We shower using the marina facilities (very nice) and boil the kettle when we need hot water onboard for washing up etc.

Laundry is the most inconvenient of all tasks. Marinas offer a laundry room, which I’ve made good use of, and I also find a local launderette to dry our clothes (those big industrial dryers are amazing!). When you haven’t got a washing machine to take for granted, it’s incredible how you adapt to wearing the same outfit a couple of times and, guess what? It’s ok! Nothing happens if you wear something or use your towel several times. Who knew?!

However, it isn’t all about the domestics. OnBlue is also a sailing boat and that involves ropes (lines/sheets), sails, winches, shackles, cleats, decks, portholes, hulls, props, engines, electronics, electrics, plumbing and the like. Everything has to be maintained and kept in good working order so it works when we need it and we won’t be let down when we’re underway.

We (remember the royal ‘we’?) have maintained, upgraded and repaired A LOT! It has been a full time job for Nick since we bought her in July 2019. He knows so much and has learned so much about all the systems on this boat. I don’t think there’s an inch of her that he isn’t familiar with. I hope to share more information on the boat projects we’ve completed as these blogs develop.

It’s the middle of May. The rain is pouring down, we’ve had thunder and giant hailstorms already today. I dream of a glimpse of the sun. A G&T on deck would be lovely. That’s not going to happen, though. The Captain is dodging the wind and rain and building a table for the cockpit, and the Chief Stew needs to fill the water tank.