Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Giles]

Yeah, it was seriously sketchy in The Needles Channel

[goosehd]

I’m glad you guys are ok and there’s always the positive of testing your comfort levels.  You can do it all over again in Sakura when you bring her home

[dinobarnesberlin]

A three hour tour.. a three hour tour

Steady as she goes skipper :))

[louisbosco]

damn. the swell looks intense. safe travels 

[Giles]

This is before it got rough, and Jeez, did it get rough…...

[jordanscollected]

Looks like Pilgrim had no issues navigating those waters.

[Giles]

She didn't…....

[Nik]

How did the two of you feel about it? Fun? Scary?

[ROman]

It looks like an interesting experience. In a good way.

[louisbosco]

she's definitely a sturdy boat.

[Giles]

@Nik:

How did the two of you feel about it? Fun? Scary?

We made two major errors…

1. We did not check the Met Office forecast and relied on windy.com....Bad move, windy.com gave us a very rosy picture of the days weather
2. We did not notice the wave icons on the chart way down the channel, because we assumed the worst conditions would be at the narrowest part.  WRONG... We got through the narrows with hardly an issue, then we got to The Bridge (it's a buoy called Bridge, so the whole area is known as the bridge)...

[Giles]

In a chat with @goosehd , I told him that today we will go home via the North Channel (an alternative route home.)…

It’s called the north channel and is where a lot of the transatlantic races end, because, guess what, going past The Bridge is too dangerous

[Giles]

Great start to the day…..

[Nik]

Wow sounds like a real test and a good lesson taken away from it. Today’s picture looks a lot more calm and enjoyable.

[ROman]

The start of this trip reminds me of the story Mark and Mary told us about they're boat adventure in Greece??

[dinobarnesberlin]

What is that device mounted on the rail?

[Giles]

It is called a Jon Buoy. Because @Madame Buttonfly and I will be doing a lot of sailing on our own, we are investing in plenty of safety aids, if I was to fall overboard and compromised in my ability to help myself, she would have great difficulty getting me back onboard without something like the Jon Buoy.  Also once you pull yourself onto it, you are to some extent kept out of the water, so the survival period in a cold sea is much longer….

https://www.thewetworks.co.uk/products/jon-buoy-overboard-recovery

[dinobarnesberlin]

Very interesting piece of safety equipment for sure.
Makes a lot of sense for her as well–if it means you would be able to buy her time to get you back to safety.
Smart

[Giles]

We also have AIS beacons in our lifejackets which will go off when we hit the water, when it activates it sends an alert to the VHF radio on board and also throws up an icon on the chart plotter.  With SAKURA we will also have a panning and zooming infra red camera which will lock onto the person, so we can easily see the person in the water even in almost pitch black….

[dinobarnesberlin]

Great stuff !! I could geek out all day on just safety equipment alone!
Technology just keeps getting better and better–-and smaller which is good as well.
I would be doing the same thing---especially when it will be just the two of you for probably most of your trips.
I mean lets face it Giles ---you hit the Lotto with your retirement dream