Our Journey Begins!

We are gradually making our way along the south coast of the UK to Plymouth where we will be joining the ARC Portugal early next month. We set out from Ocean Village Marina in Southampton on 20 May as planned and had a short hop across to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight to wait for the tidal gate at Hurst Castle to open the next morning. 
 

Val dodging traffic in the Solent

Portland on the horizon

 The next day (21^st) we sailed to Portland Marina in readiness to pass Portland Bill on the next favourable tide. 

Rounding the 'Bill'

At 7.30am on 22^nd we set off for what would be the smoothest passage we have ever had around the ‘Bill’ and had a cracking sail across Lyme Bay under full canvass over to Brixham; one of our favourite places on the south coast. 





 

Entering the River Dart

We decided to spend a couple of days there before moving onto Dartmouth; a very picturesque location at the mouth of the River Dart and another of our favourites.













 We decided to stay in Dartmouth for a few extra days . There are far worse places than this to pass the time!

Mooring at Darthaven Marina

Kingswear seen from Dartmouth

A Clean Bottom Again!

Ready for the lift!

 We had Snow Goose lifted today for a final scrub off and anode check in readiness for our trip south. As usual the prop and propshaft anodes had to be replaced but the others were fine. The Coppercoat was still in excellent condition on the hull after almost 5 years and the light coat of weed was quickly disposed of by the guys in Shamrock Key Marina.

Not in too bad condition!

All done and going back in!

She is now back on her berth in Ocean Village ready for the final bits and pieces to be stowed (assuming we can find any more space!!).

Moored up again

We will be spending the remainder of our time here saying goodbye to friends and family but more importantly we are going to my son's wedding next week! A  piece of excellent timing and forward planning.

Boys Toys!

This is the new Nav Station layout on Snow Goose. We have altered it significantly from the original specification.

For the technically minded, From right to left we have the 12 volt and 240 volt switch panels taking up the lions share of the space. The chartplotter above also displays and controls the autopilot, radar and AIS transponder. To the right of the swich panels is the secondary Garmin GPS with 240 Volt source selctor switch below. This panel is completed with a Raytheon Multi display (wind, speed, depth etc) and the generator control panel at the extreme right. A dedicated Navtex receiver is mounted underneath the plinth.

The side panel is dominated by the VHF and SSB radios, both with DSC. A pactor modem, connected to the SSB radio for email/internet access, is located in the louvred cupbaord on the right. Above the radios is the water tank gauge, nightlight, battery bank condition monitor, inverter/charger control panel and a reading light.

Unfortunately there was no room for the watermaker or heating control panels here so they have been mounted elsewhere. There is a secondary chartplotter in the cockpit, together with the primary autopilot control head and a Raymarine Multi display. The usual trio of Raymarine instruments (wind, speed and depth) together with windlass and bowthruster controls are mounted on the steering pedestal in the cockpit for easy access.

Final Preparations!

Snow Goose is our Island Packet 380. She was built in 2001 and we bought her from her first owner in 2012. We have refitted her extensively over the last 5 years in order to prepare her for our retirement cruise, which we are finally about to embark on. We have spent the last few weeks stowing all the equipment, spares and provisions we will need on our voyage and making sure that she is in perfect shape and ready to go.

We will be casting off for Plymouth in just over 3 weeks. We will then be joining the ARC Portugal with a couple of friends on board. The plan is then to move into the Mediterranean to do some warm weather cruising as the start of our retirement sailing adventure.