Ad Lib 1

 

Stargazer's cruise preparations normally follow a structured stepwise process. When Stargazer and her skipper feel ready, we set sail.

The spring equinox arrives. A wash of green leaves clambers across bare brown branches. The clocks click forward into British Summer Time. Days lengthen, nights shorten, the air warms and the weather settles. An auspicious moment is sensed.

But this year the countdown clock is ticking. On April the seventh the lock, in Dockyard Basin No.1, closes until (at least) May. The final neap tide (required to exit the river via either the Copperas Channel or the Swin Spitway), before that shutdown, is on Friday the twenty seventh of March.

This year we must Ad Lib, if we are to make good our summer escape. Those remaining parts, yet to be delivered, must be diverted to ports that we later expect to pass through. Provisions come aboard; sails are bent on and systems are tested.  The early morning ritual, of scrutinising shifting forecasts in search of a suitable weather window, resumes. With a rush, the new cruising season is upon us.

Winter Work 10

 

Tick, tock, tick, tock goes the countdown (to cruise departure) clock. A slot appears in the crane lift schedule, for Wednesday 18th of March. The last available before the April 7th lock closure. We book it.

Stargazer's skipper's passport is returned, by the French Consulate, complete with his 2026 visa. Stargazer's propeller is ready to refit, delivery of a new engine start panel is due on Tuesday 17th. The whereabouts of our new deck filler valve are less precisely known. Whilst the misbehaving masthead anemometer can only be safely investigated once back afloat. Tick, tock, tick, tock. . . . .

Winter Work 9

 

Stargazer's skipper makes his annual London pilgrimage. To submit documention in support of his six month French Visa de Long Sejour application.

Stargazer is joined in the yard by yachting royalty. In the form of Sir Alec Rose's Lively Lady. ( See this post for his & her story)

Her long keel's towering draft requires deployment of the, rarely resorted to, 'Big Cradle.' Despite her svelte beam and diminutive (thirty six foot) length. 

 Work is crossed off Stargazer's spring fit out list: Engine service, Saildrive oil change, replace anodes, polish hull, two coats of antifoul. But unexpected jobs are added: Replace the engine starter panel, which fails whilst testing the motor post service; Replace the diesel tank deck filler valve, which has developed a slow weep over the winter; Repair or replace the anemometer cups, of the masthead wind instrument (only five years old), which have unaccountably seized since the autumn. Parts are sought. Meanwhile the countdown, to April's lock closure, ticks inexorably by.