Category: Sailing

  • It’s a dog’s life

    It’s a dog’s life

  • Blue Opal is coming back to me

    Blue Opal is coming back to me

    With my passport not in my possession, getting Blue Opal back to Ireland is going to be difficult. A bit of searching online, and some quotes, and I’ve ended up contracting Halcyon to move her from Pwllheli to Dun Laoghaire for me. It’ll be nice to have my boat back; she should be here on…

  • Cutless bearing – all closed up

    Cutless bearing – all closed up

    Work was completed late last year, and Blue Opal has been sitting in Pwllheli on the hard waiting for the sailing season. With the chaos of Brexit and a citizenship application, I’m having to look into delivery skippers/crews to get her back to Dun Laoghaire. She’ll have a fresh coat of anti-foul on, and should…

  • Cutless bearing – new tube glassed in

    Cutless bearing – new tube glassed in

    It’s been a long time since I last saw “Blue Opal”, though I’ve been able to keep up with what’s happening to her via regular calls to the yard where she’s being worked on. Today, I got a photographic status update. That’s the new stern tube glassed in, filler work has started, and they’re doing…

  • Cutless bearing – open hull surgery

    Cutless bearing – open hull surgery

    After a bit of a wait, the work on Blue Opal’s stern gear has started. The rudder was dropped a little while ago, and other topside work was done while things were being sorted out for the actual investigation and dismantling. Close investigation of the open hull surgery photo reveals distinct pinking of the metal;…

  • Sailing to Pwllheli – Navtex log

    Sailing to Pwllheli – Navtex log

    Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the Navtex logger on when we were alongside the pontoon, so the log starts somewhere out past the Burford Buoy. More reason to write the code for the ESP8266 and build my data logger. Day Day/time (IST) Latitude Longitude SoG (knots) Heading (True) 2018-07-06 2144 53° 14.811′ N 005° 57.360′…