NOW WE CAN REALLY GET STARTED!
Greetings from warm and sticky Costa Rica, as I and the crew of Pelican of London await the return of our Ocean College students from their adventures ashore. As I write, sitting in the open air bar of the marina which has been looking after us for the past few weeks, it is strange thinking…
Steel, scale, water and, finally, paint.
Having neglected the blog for some (many) months, and just published a post which I started writing in June, hurriedly completing it today, I thought it is high time to update you on my progress thus far with Serchthrift. My last leave was productive but, with lots of small jobs achieved, the progress was not…
Can-do in the Time of Covid
As I promised in my recent posts on my progress with Serchthrift, I thought I would give you some updates on what I got up to over the last several months when I haven’t been building Serchthrift. Most of you will know that I’ve been working on board the Pelican of London, a sail training…
Adventures in Steelwork continued…
(or Chris Discovers Plasma) The last post dealt with the mast steps, bulkhead tabs and aft peak framework. The order of work was very much dictated by the presence just ahead of me in the shed of the beautifully varnished hull of Rumbuster, a one-off, 36ft Sparkman and Stephens design, which I have known for…
Adventures in Steelwork
Once again, dear Reader, here appears before you a much overdue update on my progress (and yes, although you wouldn’t know on outward inspection from the shed floor, definite progress) with fitting out Serchthrift for a life on the chilly oceans of the world. I returned from sea (and I will post separately about my…
LOCKDOWN!
Having spent a busy and slightly stressful 2 months at sea in the Pelican of London, successfully navigating the seas and Covid restrictions from Madeira to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica (wherein lies an entire post in itself), I returned to Argyll in the midst of Lockdown 3 in the middle of January, so…
Success and progress
I passed! Yes, it was three weeks or so ago now, but I’ve been busy, so there you go. I am the proud holder of a Chief Mate (unlimited) certificate of competence, but unfortunately my application to add on the Master (3000gt) ticket has been held up by a quibble about whether or not my…
The art of avoiding distraction…..
So, another month has passed since my last post. Seems to be becoming a habit… The reason for this is probably known to my regular reader, and that of course is that I have been continuing my studies towards my Chief Mates unlimited ticket, and, ultimately, my Master unlimited (Master Mariner). It is a long,…
Some progress at last
It has been a month since my last offering, and I am happily able to report some actual progress with the project to fit out Serchthrift! Over the last few weeks, as well as frantically scribbling past exam papers to keep my mind ticking over on the professional side (written exams have now been rescheduled…
July 2020 Update
Nobody could have imagined at the start of the year what was going to unfurl as the winter turned to spring and the days started to lengthen. After two months trudging wearily into college day after day, we were told fairly unceremoniously one Tuesday morning that the college would be closing that day, and we…
