In August we managed to get a week on board - my wife, daughter and I. Our son was on a remote Welsh island counting, weighing and ringing fledging Manx Shearwaters. We went back to the Solent but this time pottered a bit more. The weather was mostly dry but very windy. We went to Yarmouth first:

There was a heck of a tide ebbing as we came alongside and a F4+ westerly wind which made the manoeuvre difficult. Having had 2 engines for 10 years I am finding the one now very limiting and she has serious prop walk as well. (I may succumb to the whine of a bow thruster this winter!)The photo shows us alongside at Hayle's Yard. It is a lovely spot and we love Yarmouth so we had a great couple of days. We then moved on to Newtown Creek. Blowing up again this time edging to F6 as you can see from the boats straining at the leash.

Thankfully we were able to take up one of the visitor buoys so didn't have to worry about cable lengths in the spring ebb. Newtown used to be a bustling port and the major town on the island but it was ransacked by the French and never recovered. The silting up associated with so many south coast inlets has finally determined its future as a nature reserve and popular resting place for Solent boaters. The next day we went along the coast to Cowes for a lunchtime sojourn before moving back westwards to Lymington. A Thursday evening arrival allowed us to enjoy a lovelly evening in The Haven before a front came through. I had made an appointment with Greenham Regis, the marine electronics engineers to investigate the numerous problems we were having with the instruments: the main VHF aerial cable has water damage so that from Lymington Solent Coastguard describe the strength of signal as "weak but readable" whereas using the emergency aerial it was "loud and clear", the anemometer display gets stuck on 92deg and 144deg even though the wind vane rotates freely at the top of the main mast, the depth readout had been intermittent at best and then gave up completely and the log showed us doing 15kts even though we were pottering along at 7kts. I am pleased to say that the Garmin 551S GPS that I bought 2nd hand on ebay and installed is working beautifully and with the Blue Chart chip is a really clever piece of kit. On the Sunday we had to catch the tide at Hurst Point and then make our way with the tide but against a strong F5 to F6 westerly. That meant a good, but short, reach from the Lymington starter latform up to Hurst so we set all sails but knowing that it was the day of the Cowes Torquay Cowes and Cowes Poole Cowes powerboat races and that they were using the North Channel past Hurst and that it would be a dead beat across Poole Bay we dropped the sails at Hurst (sorry, purists but we had to get to the mouth of the River Frome by 1600 to get enough water to go up river and as it was we went aground briefly in the mouth).

As we were coming through the North Channel adjacent to Hurst Spit the latter race was well advanced and the boats were using the North Channel to exit Christchurch Bay and get into the Solent for the final run back to Cowes. These two came past us on either side...

We anchored for lunch in South Deep, Poole Harbour and then made our way home. We had enjoyed our first proper week on board and learned a lot about our new boat. The two "bad bits" were the leaking forecabin and the problem of not having anywhere to sit securely when sailing when on the aft deck. Our reach to Hurst Castle had put Artemis well into a heal and it highlighted that neither helm nor crew had adequate seating or indeed anything to brace against. Heading into the lumpy sea of Poole Bay follwoing days of strong westerlies meant movements could be quite violent and so again the lack of anything secure to sit on / brace oneself against was a severe limitation to enjoying the outside helm. This is a bit of a conundrum because one of the things I liked about the older NC33's vs the modern boats is the fully open aft deck. What we learned is that is great on a mooring / at anchor but a problem when at sea. We are going to have to see what we can do to solve the latter without losing the former. We love our new galley, saloon and pilothouse, we love the space we have in the various cabins, we love her sea kindliness. One final note. We have at last decided on a new name.... our NC33 is now registered officially as "ARTEMIS OF WAREHAM".... it's a long story but we're happy with it. Call Sign 2FZM6 MMSI 235095538 I promise not to wait 4 months for the next update.

In August we managed to get a week on board - my wife, daughter and I

So, apart from working on the boat, have we actually used her much? Well to be honest not as much as we would like for various reasons mostly associated with children. At the end of July I sailed her with a friend from Poole to Lymington so that we could watch the J Class yachts race. The family drove to Lymington for the weekend and we had a lovely weekend.

They were stunning. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the air was heavy with low cloud and the water hugely churned up by the spectator boats.

Anyway, we had a good day, lunch just off Newtown Creek, then the J Class and then a run ashore in Lymington. David (crew Dartmouth to Weymouth) and his wife came along as well. My wife drove home on the Sunday and I sailed the boat home with the children as crew. What wind there was, on the nose, so we motored without even tha sails up I am afraid.

I need to be a bit more diligent with this blogging thing, sorry. Well it's the end of the first week in September and unless we are very lucky there will be few opportunities this year to go out on the boat, but we will see. We have made some progress though, for example the galley and saloon are all but finished now. David stripped out the old galley completely and installed a new one. The only things

missing now are the drawer fronts.

This is a work in progress shot of the new seat in the pilothouse. It is finished now and works well so I must upload some new photos.

These photos show the much brighter interior after painting the tired plywood. It really was like the black hole of Calcutta before. Loads more jobs to do and loads more done so I will take more photos next time I am at the boat.