Summary

Early in 2008 I bought a little, old wooden Folkboat called Valmik. I was going to spend a few months on repairs and begin sailing her around Europe, with Australia being the final destination. As my knowledge of boats improved, so did the thoroughness of the restoration. I decided to become very involved in every aspect of construction, doing almost all of the work myself: making my own sails, doing the fit out and all woodwork, splicing my own rig and wiring in the 12 volt electric circuit. Self-reliance, I suppose, is the goal. Follow the link to my photo albums for a detailed documentation of the work and some videos.

For a long time now, I have been striving to achieve my goals and begin an adventure. I had planned to complete a circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland in the summer of 2015 with my wife. Unfortunately, this will not be possible and I went back to work. Valmik is ready to sail, however, and I am finally in a position to start enjoying her for what she was designed for. Of course there is a never ending list of modifications and enhancements with a small section for repairs. I will be sailing as much as possible and documenting my adventures on this blog.

My plan is to build up to a epic solo sailing Adventure.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Valmik's First Mate!

I have some good news to announce, my lovely fiancée has handed in her resignation and will be joining me for quite a lot of Valmik's Adventure this year. We have been planning this for some time and now it is official. We are both really excited and also quite scared because we know that some of the trickiest sailing in the world is around the United Kingdom!

And to prove this, here is a summary of something really scary that I read last night:

Pentland firth can be very dangerous for all craft. It should only be navigated with medium strength wind, no swell, good visibility and a neap tide. In this area the tidal stream can reach 12 knots, with 18 knots being the highest recorded. Some of the tidal races that can occur in this area are extremely dangerous for small craft. Very careful planning is required!!!

Just looking through my Almanac proves that the UK has a number of these tidal races around headlands and such like. These can really punish a boat if it's caught out in them and should be avoided, especially in wind over tide conditions. And I have been told that some of these nasty conditions create massive standing breaking waves. Basically these are waves that are stationary on the Earth's surface, they have a strong tide flowing past them and a strong wind causing them to break. The sea bed also has an effect similar to rapids in some locations.

So on a lighter note, and because of the dangers listed above, Kate and I are off to look for safety equipment at the London Boat Show tomorrow.  I will be giving Kate a lesson on how to barter/haggle and not be swindled (hopefully).


We are after amazing deals on the following:

  • Liferaft
  • Lifejackets
  • Epirb (emergency position indicating radio beacon) and Plb (personal locator beacon)
  • Flares
  • Lines/Rope
There is lots more that I would like to have on board, but unfortunately I am restricted by a tight budget. I would love to be able to afford things like forward facing sonar and an AIS receiver, but they are not on my list.  


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