Silkie silkie silkie . . .

[Nick]

Do your duty and deal with Mr. MW . . . this connection is just too slow, Bob and Mandy must be downloading videos this evening . . .

Fairwinds listening on this channel . . . out

[Silkie]

Fairwinds this is Silkie. Standing by to do my duty. Your message was loud but broken. Say again.

Over

[Silkie]

OK. Figured it out and they're history. That was 4 spam sign-ups since I cleared them out just after 1800. I'm not too sure about Lisa_B24 either but decided to give the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that a B24 might be a vessel of some description.

[Nick]

threads that cross in the night . . .

[Silkie]

That is a slow connection you've got tonight.

[Silkie]

I finally got around to buying a couple of ferrite rings for Silkie and now appear to have an echo sounder which works at all engine revs! Have you found a solution to your problem yet?

[ash]

I finally got around to buying a couple of ferrite rings for Silkie and now appear to have an echo sounder which works at all engine revs! Have you found a solution to your problem yet?

Hi Silkie - Good to see you posting - you've been very quiet.

Hi Nick - How about an update on the current position of your various niggles - sterngland, echo sounder, alternator, water in bilges, gps. We should have been better organised and sent Charlie out to you with a parcel.

Ash

[Silkie]

Hi Silkie - Good to see you posting - you've been very quiet.

On a steep learning curve with the new job. Slightly depressed also with Silkie out of the water.

[Nick]

Sterngland - stopped worrying about it
Water in bilges - much reduced after tightening all jubilee clips on the cockpit drains
Alternator - fine
GPS - knackered but always autolocates so far so it doesn't really matter
Echo sounder - just the same

New niggles . . .
Navik is a bit crap on a beam reach with large seas and light winds
Running the tricolour all night means running the engine for at least an hour
Had quite a lot of water in the separator, so the diesel we got in Porto Santo was a bit crap - also a bit of brown sludge at the water/disel interface,so hope it's not the dreaded bug

So not too bad overall . . .

Charlie came out with some pretty good stuff - some decent books, the new Megabeam (which was put to good use coming into Santa Cruz) and a bottle of cask strength Macallans (sadly now finished)

[Timbo]

OK. Figured it out and they're history. That was 4 spam sign-ups since I cleared them out just after 1800. I'm not too sure about Lisa_B24 either but decided to give the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that a B24 might be a vessel of some description.

Lisa_B24 keeps turning up in Seil chat too, never replies to the register email, so probably a cave-dweller or purveyor of meat-based canned produce.

[Silkie]

Have you tried googling for lisa_b24?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid ... lisa%5fb24

She's everywhere but never seems to post. Bye Lisa.

[ash]

On a steep learning curve with the new job.

New job - anything exciting?

Slightly depressed also with Silkie out of the water.

Understandable - withdrawal symtoms - Mistral is partly decommissioned. Our last sail of the season - last weekend in October - was good - gentle wind and sunshine. Taken home the sails, lifejackets, and other bits and pieces and plumbed in the dehumidifier. Still to take home the cushions, derig the mainsail, cover, sprayhood and halyards and winterise the engine. My work will quieten down in the second half of December so will do it all then. Mistral will remain afloat throughout the winter - you're welcome to have a wee sit in the cockpit if that helps!

Ash

PS - I heard via the Canaries that your trip from Balvicar to Dunstaffnage wasn't too pleasant.

[Silkie]

Having reached the dizzy heights of Ikea Edinburgh's number one kitchen designer (no, really) I've now been promoted to the Range Specialist position, basically a glorified stock controller. A 40% increase on not very much is still not very much but Silkie should be safe for another season anyway. I'm more than qualified to meet this new challenge but discovering how to apply my skills using Ikea's heritage (albeit sophisticated) software is not going to be easy. Perfect timing though - I'll have it running as sweet as a nut before the 2007 season!

Silkie's last 19 miles of 2006 weren't unpleasant although they were largely windless, entirely motor-sailed, cold and very wet. Now that I come to write it down it does sound fairly unpleasant right enough. The forecast was cyclonic becoming NW F6-8 which looked as if it might arrive sometime in the afternoon. In the event it didn't blow until the following day, just in time to stop me getting the mast down and prevent the yard from lifting her out.

That Tim Bowles is a bit of a jinx on the wind. I've had him aboard three times now and there hasn't been more than 15 minutes of decent breeze in total.

Still, if he has the same effect when he takes me up in his microlight I'll be quite happy.

[Timbo]

That Tim Bowles is a bit of a jinx on the wind. I've had him aboard three times now and there hasn't been more than 15 minutes of decent breeze in total.

Still, if he has the same effect when he takes me up in his microlight I'll be quite happy.

Sadly not. Since I got the wing re-mantled and fitted to the trike, the winds have not dropped below about 20kt, and usually considerably more. Get that boat back in the water. The only way I am going to get to fly is if you offer to sail me from Dunstaffnage to Connel. That should calm the winds down a bit.