Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Giles]

D) High-5 @Madame Buttonfly and open one of said Norwegians beers….

[goosehd]

There’s the G I know and love…

[Giles]

Last weekend of April (weather permitting), we will be taking Pilgrim to The Channel Islands.  They lie about 90 miles South of here, and we intend to overnight on both passages (yes, we are going with someone who knows what he is doing @Ian72 ).  Fuel is cheap in the Channel Islands, so seems sensible to go fill-her-up.

Today we had a wake for a very good friend and we got chatting to Mike Thomsom (Alex Thomsons dad), and he invited us to moor in "his bay", on Ecréhous..

https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Les_Ecréhous

We should be able to catch up with Alex, who now lives on Jersey, whilst we are there.

The adventure starts…..

[sabergirl]

Sounds like a very worthy maiden voyage [emoji3059]

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[Nik]

You will have a great time on Ecréhous. I went there a few years ago for a stag and it is a special place. Excellent first voyage.

[browniemcghee]

Wow.  Excellent news all around.  Please post photos of the voyage.

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[ROman]

Sounds like a great trip, voyage.

[Giles]

@Nkwkfld:

You will have a great time on Ecréhous. I went there a few years ago for a stag and it is a special place. Excellent first voyage.

What an inspired choice for a Stag…..

[Nik]

Had a nice morning eating oysters off the beach

[Giles]

I'm taking a Bass rod and a lobster pot

[louisbosco]

@Giles
@Ian72 is on the forum?? or is this a different Ian I'm thinking about?

[Giles]

Same Ian, if you are thinking of New Years Eve Ian…...

[Matt]

Fishing mate Ian?

[Giles]

Yep….

[Clint_D]

Congrats on the certification @Giles! Have you looked into adding any sort of fuel additives for the 5.9 Cummins as a cetane booster?

[Giles]

No I have not (well I just have :-).  Is there any way I can measure the cetane number of my diesel?

[Aetas]

As far as I know, there is no cetane quick test.
Methods like the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT) looking like this:

Trust the numbers of your local filling station .

[Giles]

That's not quick (or cheap).

I'm not sure the floating filling stations around here, have that sort of info.  And marine diesel is of very variable quality anyway.  I'm filling up in Jersey in a few weeks, I'll see what they say….

[louisbosco]

@Giles:

Same Ian, if you are thinking of New Years Eve Ian…...

yes. brilliant!!

[Giles]

In keeping with my ethos of keeping the pedal to the metal when at all possible, we have decided that we may as well go all-in.  We are loving Pilgrim, but have identified a few shortcomings.

Our boat will become a large part of our life, it, therefore, needs to be capable of accommodating at least 2 other couples.  Pilgrim can't.  I love cooking and whilst we have a full galley on Pilgrim, it is in the saloon and everything and everybody gets in the way.

So @Madame Buttonfly and I sat down and worked out what we really wanted from a boat.

1. 3 cabins
2. Minimum 2 heads
3. Separate galley
4. Stacks of outside space

Paula spotted an ad for Sasga in our local brokers.  We looked at a 42 and liked what we saw, but it was not large enough, we priced up a 54 and surprisingly we could afford it (sans flybridge).

We cancelled the deposit on another boat, placed a deposit on a Sasga 54 and went a looked around the factory this week. And what a joy that was.

The factory is based in Menorca, so an easy flight, and we love the fact that it is made by true craftsmen in the EU (the internal cabinetry alone takes 4,000 man-hours on a 54.

The next hull to get laid will be ours, and it will be ready in a little over a year.  When we will sail it back from Menorca, via Gibraltar - the trip includes crossing the Bay of Biscay, so will be a true adventure.

A completed 54:

Various stages of constructionn:

So we have a year with Pilgrim to get competent…..