Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Sunday 15 May 2016

Varnishing....

Well Arwen's mast has finally been varnished. Three coats of blakes satin varnish. The mast was sanded down, washed down and odd dings filled. Then the varnish was applied last weekend on a sunny day.

The mast now looks a darkish browny grey colour! The dings show through. The mast has a well worn look. I like it......others won't but hey, it's sealed and serviceable. The mast band area is worn and the lip on which the collar sat is worn away so I fitted some temporary blocks for now on which the mast and sits. The band turns and I will put some silicon between it and the wood to fill the gaps and stop the turn. Again a temporary measure until I can talk to an aquaintance who builds masts for a living. He works in alloys but he will have ideas on what to do and how to solve the issue.

In the meantime, it is busy at school. Our busiest time, exam season is upon us, extra revision classes morning, noon and night. As a temporary distraction I plan a possible summer voyage. I'd like to sail from Falmouth to fowey, from Fowey to the yealm; from there to Dartmouth and then around to Torquay. A week of sailing. I'm just trying to work out how to get the trailer back from Falmouth to Torquay or Totnes.

And this is my 999 th post. The blog has been going since 2009. I feel maybe my 1000th post should be special in some way. Or maybe it should just be as normal. The blog is my diary. I write it for myself as a memoirs of my voyages with Arwen and my travels with family. So maybe the next post is just business as normal.

If you have been a follower of the blog, thank you for your kindness, advice, comments and support. It has been deeply appreciated.

Steve 

3 comments:

Alastair said...

I did a similar trip (Falmouth to Exmouth) a few years ago. It is easy to leave the boat anchored on the drying sands at Exmouth, walk the 200 yards to the station and get the train to Falmouth to pick up the car and trailer.

I presume, with the exams, that we won't be seeing you on the Exe this weekend.

robert.ditterich said...

We will need to see pictorial evidence of the mast....but I look forward to celebrating electronically with you on your up-coming milestone Steve- a wonderful effort of sharing in a most generous and selfless way. Who would have thought back then, that the writing could continue for so long? The blog as a body of work takes on a new meaning when there is depth to it. I hope you keep a weather eye (in your stats page) on posts that are dredged up and are still being looked at, I'm sure there must be plenty.
Well done indeed!
Rob

steve said...

Robert, how you doing? Funny I was just thinking about you last night after just skyping my brother who lives in NZ. Trust me on the mast, a horrible colour but I will try and post pictures later and thanks for your kind comments. Wish I had your gift for writing but it's a work in progress. I'll get there in the end. In the meantime I am loving the blog and picture of your latest boat. Really elegant craft. Thank you for all that and the encouragement. Cheers.

Alastair. How are you? Sorry I couldn't make the April meet despite it being so close and no sadly I won't be able to make this weekend either due to work commitments. GCSE geography is a week on Tuesday and it is all hands to the deck, morning, noon, night and probably a Saturday or Sunday morning slot as well...just working out the details. It's immediately followed on Wednesday or Thursday by the first a level paper too.

had never thought about exmouth though. That makes sense. Or of course, Torquay I guess. I could catch train there and head for Falmouth. Great idea, one which I will investigate immediately. Thanks for the tip. Enjoy the Exe. Hope you get lovely weather and breeze like we had this weekend. Term time weekends are tricky but when I retire in a few years I look forward to DCARallying then and lots of it I hope. Take care.
Steve