Getting ready to leave and the departure

Getting the boat into the water at Carrick meant re-attaching the (first)Forestay.
And then I left Carrickfergus singlehanded - but just across Belfast Lough to Bangor, Shirley raced me by car (I won) and Saturday night was spent relaxing...

The Sendoff Party, 
The Beer flows
And it starts to get silly
Remember the photo at the beginning of this post showing three men struggling to get a clevis pin in? well the next morning I disassembled it and put it back together again with one hand - in the old days every bosun had a handy billy - a 4:1 pulley purchase and blocks, here I use my handy-billy to pull the foresail down really easily. Felt rather pleased with myself!
And then it is time to go, rather hectic and many things left unsaid... to Shirley for her love and patience, her hardwork and her understanding and for everything. It wouldn't have happened without you. My eternal thanks and love to my best friend. (Anyway the weather is so crap I get a get a chance to say goodbye later...)


Start of the sailing adventures of the yacht Shadowmere, 2017 Belfast towards Nova Scotia via the Cape Verde Islands and Barbados

Shadowmere, a 1979 Hallberg Rassy 41 foot ketch was given a refit that included a new fridge and galley refurbishment, solar cells and a bimini as well as fitting a mizzen staysail and a twin pole arrangements for crossing the Atlantic. A windvane, a new windlass and echosounder and new mains wiring (and a 110 Volt autotransformer for the states) were added as well. A 90l/min diving compressor and a couple of sets of diving gear were added to give us something to do when in foreign and exotic places.

Over the previous few years she got a new engine and mainsail and was already a well found vessel. Navtex and Hamradio equipment augment the existing old furuno weatherfax as well as PC interfaces. The Garmin chartplotter has cartridges for everything needed and paper charts are on board as well, I will list this in a later post.

The adventure as it currently stands is;

Leave Belfast Marina, spend a month out of the water in Carrickfergus, launch and head south; the usual advice is to head South until the butter melts and then turn right.

Leg 1: With John Henshaw, From Bangor Sunday,June 4th, 2017, Ardglass, Howth (Dublin), Wicklow and the Isles of Scilly. Hence to France down to Bordeaux (probably the marina Royan at the mouth of the river bordeaux straddles or a bit further south to Archachon.  John departs June 24th

Leg 2 With Shirley, the rest of the Southern Biscay French coast and then into North Spain, picking up Eileen Kelly on July 1st 2017 in Bilbao. Cruise NorthWest Spain, Portugal and South Spain, leaving the boat at the end of August for 6 weeks to return home.

Leg 3 With Shirley towards the end of October, a weeks cruising from wherever we left the boat, maybe a visit to Seville, Cadiz etc.

Leg 4 with Ken Walsh and Eileen, a short ocean crossing from Spain to the Canaries. From end of October to beginning of November.

Leg 5 with Ken and Eileen and then singlehanded, cruising around the Canaries and working on the boat, researching the next legs of the journey and working ham radio, maybe some diving and also  talking to people undertaking the ARC.

Leg 6 From December 23rd, The McCrum and Doyle Familes have Christmas in the Canaries. Then Matt McCrum (son) and Alan Doyle and I talk the boat on December 28th from the Canaries to the Cape Verde Islands.

Leg 7 Doros Michael and Peter Kirby-Smith join Matt, Alan and I in the Cape Verde Islands on January 4th, a few days diving there and we depart for Barbados, about January 9th or later. 13 to 15/16 days should see us across. We spend a few days in Barbados before Leg 8. Matt returns home from Barbados.

Leg 8 Doros, Peter, Alan and I  sail to the Caribbean proper (Barbados sticks out into the atlantic a bit and is not part of the Caribbean chain.) Exact islands to be determined by research into their diving potential, heading up the chain of islands (Windward Islands, Leeward Islands and into the Virgin Islands - all small islands and in the main only daysails apart) Possibly spending more time in the virgin islands. Alan leaves at some stage and Eamon McManus flies in.

Leg 9 Doros, Peter and I take the boat from the Virgin islands to Puerto Rico (US) and hence to Cuba, arriving Cuba early March.

Leg 10 Cuba, up to the end of April, maybe extending to mid May as needed a variety of people come and go in Cuba! the McCrum family and partners and the McMillans Christine and Clifford for sure. Details as yet not definite.

Leg 11 Cuba to Florida Have to be well North of Florida by the end of the May as the Hurricane season starts June 1st (until the end of November)

Leg 12 Late May/June/ July From Florida up the intra Coastal Water (ICW) -  a sheltered set of canals and rivers that run for 1100 miles up to Cheasapeake bay. I hope to have brother in Law Paddy( Gordan), John Henshaw and Pearse O'Gorman for these legs or some of the later parts.

Leg 13 July/August Cheasapeake Bay, including sightseaing on the US mainland. Leading on through the Delaware waterway to New york.

Leg 14 August/September Long Island, Martha's Vineyard and maybe a bit of New England

Leg 15 October back into Cheasapeake and the upper end of the ICW, heading slowly South to arrive in Florida by the end of November - the end of the Hurricane season. May take a more Northwesterly route to include the Bahamas and down the islands NW of Cuba such as the Turks and Caicos islands.

Leg 16 December - Back to the Caribbean for a family Christmas (maybe British Virgin Islands?) and a 5 month diving excursion, might include Mexico and parts of the "Caribbean" that are harder to reach - The ABC islands, the Caymans, Jamicia, parts of Central America (unlikely but possible)

Leg 17 Back up the ICW to New England, cruising there and Nova Scotia, possibly Newfoundland and into the Lawrence Seaway. Might get the boat lifted out for the winter at the end of the summer.

Leg 18 continue leg 17, maybe the great lakes for the summer(2020) or head home. Routes home can be Northern to take in Greenland and Iceland. Less further North (travel down to a waypoint 40N 40W I think) and then turn for Ireland. Further South takes in Bermuda and the Azores.

Of course battle plans rarely survive the first contact with the enemy, we shall see...