It’s been a long time is I’ve written anything with any substance and now I actually have a few stories its probably a good time.
The Engine Part 1
As I wrote a bit earlier I bought a new engine in February. After a few days of Smarty and Rich putting it in things were looking good for finally getting the DB sailing again. All we needed was to get it aligned (I wanted the suppliers to align it as this can be a bit fiddly and is worth getting right). Unfortunately my engine bay left it about 5mm out with no adjustment left… This meant taking it all out again and re-cutting the engine bed. All I can say is it was a horrible horrible job, it took me all weekend and me and the boat were covered in fibreglass. I burnt out a jigsaw and skill saw, as well as broke about a dozen blades. As well as this I had my lovely new engine in my galley for a week!
Nevermind, all’s well that ends well and before long the engine was back where it belongs, lined up and tested by the suppliers and now finally (apparently) ready to go sailing!
We did find time between fixing engine to decorate Mick and Deb's boat during their retirement party
The Engine Part II
For easter Smarty and I had planned a sailing trip to Guernsey in the Channel Islands (about 140 miles from
Leaving the dock at our prescribed time (necessary to get the tidal streams right) we were off. About 50m from the marina while we were putting up the sails Linda yell’s out that the engine’s struggling. I role my eye’s thinking to myself silly girl it’s brand new! She’s dead right, 5 seconds later it cuts out and we’re getting blown straight towards the sea wall. We quickly dropped the anchor and managed to avoid any similarities with the Titanic on our re-launch maiden voyage.
After about an hour trying to fix the problem we just couldn’t get the engine going reliably, and after sailing clear of the sea wall decided it was best to get towed / sail back into the marina by Mick and Deb. Upon arriving back at my berth Smarty, Rich and I were able to have a good look at what the problem was. The engine was piping hot and had no water. A valve on the side of the engine was open when we bought it and basically all the water had evaporated. You can imagine by now I’m really well p*!sed off with this bloody engine and am thinking my recent short marina tour may have just turned it into an expensive paper weight! I was also really unimpressed that the supplier (who had prior spent 8 hours doing engine checks for the warrantee) hadn’t picked it up.
Anyways, as before all’s well that ends well and a week later after a pressure test and lots of engine hours in the marina we found she was good as gold. I finally got that monkey off my back ;-)
With the sailing part of our ‘Sailing trip’ now out of the question and a load of commitments we’d made for an Easter weekend in Guernsey, the crew drove to Weymouth to catch the 4am ferry. Once in St Peter’s Port we met up with those who’d opted to fly.
The highlight of the trip would have to be visiting Guernsey’s little island neighbour,
Back in Guernsey we caught up with Cat Fish Keith, a good sailing friend I met in the
Captain Jon
After 2 years of calling myself Captain I figured I should follow in William and Paul’s footstep’s and get my RYA Yachtmasters. They both said I’d learn a lot and although the idea of one day working in boats is very appealing, I wanted to become a better seaman.
Being tight and not having much time I decided to teach myself the theory with borrowed notes from Mick (4 big folders of several hundred pages!). However I found it hard to teach myself as whenever I’d sit down to do some study I’d end up deviating to boat jobs… I also had to get my VHF radio licence (yes in the
The Yachtmaster course consisted of a 5 day’s prep and a 2 day exam in the Solent, and Mick and Deb very kindly offered to sail me down to
I got a bit of a wake up call for what I was in for when I arrived on the boat. The other guys were really onto it having spent the last 6 weeks together training on the boat. Also at the dock my lack of knowledge of weather, collision regs and lights / sounds was very obvious. Suddenly doing the theory course seemed a good idea…
The week was fun but really intensive. Everyday we’d set sail at 8am and usually tie up again between 1 – 3am. Basically we all took turns at being the skipper and would be given tasks along the way to complete (Man overboard, sailing onto buoy’s / marina’s, blind navigation, tidal calc etc). Reliably every task would have to be done without the engine or GPS!
I got off to a very bad start to the exam. I cocked up the tides and basically put the boat broadside onto 4 others! Convinced my exam was over before it began I more or less decided I may as well just enjoy myself and basically sailed just like I normally would (not necessarily the RYA way). Was funny as over the prep week my instructor said several times ‘I have no problem with the way you did that but its not really the RYA way to go about it’. Like many of us I’ve never had any formal sailing training and just tend to work out a way that works.
Anyways, long story short late on Sunday afternoon the examiner completely surprised me with a PASS. Although maybe not completely deserved you wouldn’t have thought so by the amount I drank and size of my smile ;-)
To be honest I think I completely winged the theory with a little knowledge about most aspects. Practically I’m probably ok at sailing but they’re really more interested in how you deal with situations etc. Like the examiner said when we’d finished referring to my unfortunate crash ….. ‘Yep you f*!ked up - Sure it wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last, just like the rest of us’
DB's Offshore Race Debut.... The Royal Escape
Since sailing to the UK Smarty and I have been interested in a yacht race across the
Following an evening race briefing at the Sussex Yacht Club with the crew (Rich, Smarty and Linda) we got to work lightening the boat and stowing all the essentials. It was a fantastic site the next morning to see the 70 odd boats flooding out of the marina for the 8am start. Everyone was in good spirits, hooting and excited as the weather was gorgeous and we didn’t have to spend it working.
We actually had ourselves very well placed for the start, only instead of sticking to our guns we cocked it up by being a bit conservative and ended up near the back. Over the next 8hrs we slowly reeled back up the fleet, eventually overtaking about 10 boats. Then we hit the doldrums, 15miles from the finish (All that needs to be said about those last remaining miles is that we didn’t break any rules!). Finishing in good time we tied up at the dock about 9pm and were soon enjoying cold Stella’s to a beautiful sunset.
That night we went out and explored Fe’ Camp to find it was a very quaint and friendly little French town. Enjoying more drinks and watching the remaining boats come in we retired back to the DB in the early hours.
Saturday was always going to be a big day with free beers, wine and cheese for breakfast at 10 in the yacht club. The day moved on to prize giving, and one can imagine loads of laughs partying and telling stories of the race.
We had a fantastic and spontaneous sail home with all of us wearing the biggest smiles. It was a nice reminder of just how the simple things truly make us happiest - The sea, sun, a boat, beer and good friends ;-)
Just to set the scene… Smarty, a very key element to a lot of the fun I’ve had over the past 5 odd years, is leaving the
So bring on a weekend in
Although far from finished (is a boat ever?) the Double Bruyn is day by day becoming dryer and tidier, but more importantly stronger and more reliable. The big jobs we sorted this winter were replacing the engine and mainsail, strengthening the rudder and fixing the standing rigging. I also spontaneously bought a fridge at the London boatshow. How ironic, after 2 years of warm beer on board i buy a fridge when beer would freeze if i left it outside?!
Anyways, lots to look forward to now. At easter we're planning a trip to Guernsey, have a race to France called the 'Royal Escape' lined up for June and am also hoping to bring the boat to London and tie up to Tower Bridge. Life is gooood! 
Much like the skiing the après ski was far from relaxing. With such a big crew it would never be easy to stop those few quiets from snow balling, and given the time of year and fantastic days few tried. We stayed in a hostel type environment, with all meals provided and some kind of event on every night. For New years a famous French DJ was playing and attracted a huge crowd, with loads of pyrotechnics etc the night and vibe was awesome.
On the way back Linda and I went to Geneva. The Swiss capital is a beautiful city, although due to the bus delays we didn't get to spend as much time there as we'd hoped. From there it was a quick flight to Holland, and a day later flew back to the UK. Straight out of Gatwick and in a taxi i was off to the Freedom Health & Safety conference – funny how relaxing it felt to be back at work ;-) 
This time it was Paula’s birthday and not to break a year of tradition we planned to spend it overseas. Since Paula’s always been a keen punter for everybody else’s birthday trips we decided we’d pull together and shout her a surprise trip. Eastern European countries are so fun to travel as they’re still relatively cheap, have loads of unbelievable architecture and diversity in the cultures. For these reasons Poland seemed the logical choice. We only had one small technicality in our otherwise flawless surprise party…. Poor Paula didn’t have a passport as she was re-applying for her UK visa. Oh no! Nevermind the rest of us went and had a ball.
I’m not going to describe the details of the place, but it certainly keeps in perspective the things in life that actually matter. It shows just how lucky our generation in the developed world is to have never experienced war. I can honestly say all of us were struggling to hold back the tears with what we saw that day, it was so very humbling...
All in all the trip was a total success and I would highly recommend Poland. And when we finally got back London we all joined Paula out for birthday din’s to tell tales.
