It’s the start of the queens jubilee celebrations and our opportunity to take the extra couple of days on top of our two week holiday to get Mariadz out of Plymouth across Biscay and into the south of Spain ready for a final shot at getting her to Brindisi. A lot of people who cross […]
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When we arrived at Mayflower Marina, we had already had a number of things delivered to the office including a new Engel portable fridge freezer, as recommended by our daughter Amie. To be fair, especially since we weren’t even there, we took up far too much of the space for parcels in the marina office. […]
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Having met our first Biscay crossing crew member, Richard, on a previous trip, it was now time to meet our second, Gerald, a part time vet in Ireland. Gerald had flown in earlier before staying with one of his many daughters, in Bristol. He had then travelled down to Portland where his cousin, also a […]
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A note to any readers out there. I am trying to catch up on all of the refit and some of the sailing we have done. There will be quite a few blogs going up over the next few weeks including: Stainless anchor and chainSafety gearTeak cockpit seatingRig and sails, refurb of twin headsailSSBToe railFridgeFridge […]
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We have had a watershed moment on Mariadz. For the last twelve years, we have played on the East Coast. Generally going back to the same places and our favourite haunts with the occasional diversion to find a new favourite. We know most of the anchorages on the east Coast, have been across the channel […]
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It has been two weeks at Burnham-on-Crouch rather than the four we had planned originally but it is time to depart and to start to head South so that we can be ready for Biscay in a month’s time. One month, wow, it is getting real now. Maria has been hard at work on crew […]
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This year we will delivering Mariadz to southern Italy and the journey has now well and truly started. Having been in Suffolk Yacht Harbour for most of the last eighteen months, the majority of the boat jobs are now done. There are a few things left to do, most notably the toe rail which we […]
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One thing my father and I have in common is making sure there are lists for the things we need to do. It is easy to make the job of managing these lists a full time job but it is also important to make sure you don’t forget those jobs that need to be done. […]
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Although, in the years of our ownership, Mariadz is reasonably well travelled and often used, we have not been excessive (ab)users of the sails even if they are used whenever possible. A number of people had told us that the sails had life in them yet but we had decided that before we go we […]
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Regular readers will have known that we have had a number of attempts at fixing our 3,000 hour yanmar including a new heat exchanger, all new cooling pipes, etc etc. We were still unhappy with it and had disconnected the heavy duty domestic alternator which may have been part of the problem. Also, with our […]
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Mariadz 