Tana-Vika, a cream coloured neighbour of Kudu, is currently locked in an odd sort of race, galloping a desperate last furlong that gets no shorter. We’re neck and neck, and giving it all we’ve got, but going, thankfully, absolutely nowhere.

The weather forecast last night warned of strong winds, but by midnight is was merely a fresh winter bluster. Last night I’d started reading Treasure Island, one of those classic greats that my somewhat lacklustre education deprived me of as a child. I was glued to it’s pages, or rather, the ‘next’ button on my Kindle, but by midnight, just as young Hawkins was recruiting crew in Bristol, my eyes demanded a rest.

I couldn’t sleep. The fresh breeze was knocking Kudu about a little, but no worse than I’d experienced before, and it was probably down to eating far too much Le Roulé. After a while I abandoned my determined slumber and flicked on the radio. Radio 4, of course, just in time for Sailing By, and then the shipping forecast. The presenter painted a poor picture, with gales everywhere but Trafalgar, and many threats of “violent storm eleven”. I looked at the barometer on Kudu: 1013mb. Still nothing exceptional to report. Back to my sleep efforts.

During the next hour the wind gradually increased until Kudu, and the pontoons she clings on to, were dancing around like a child desperate for a wee. The motion on board had become choppy and uncomfortable, and sleep was looking increasingly unlikely. As the night continued, the wind progressively became more powerful, climbing the Beaufort scale in fits of gusts, during which we were pinned to an awkward heel as each mooring warp took it’s turn in tugging Kudu back to her proper place.

I was desperately in need of some sleep by this point, but managed only to lay semi-consciously still for a while before having to tense the odd muscle to stay put in my bunk. Some hours went by, then at four or five in the morning and almighty squall came thundering through the dock. The howl was intense, the roar, the heeling, then the violent tugging at the warps. It was such a blast that I put a hand on the forward window, vaguely expecting it to blow in. I’m convinced it was not a stingy number beyond  60 knots, and when the squall had passed, it only had the decency to take but a few knots with it. I gave up with any effort to sleep, and thankful of the stove’s gimbals, made a brew.

By 0900 the barometer was down to 998mb, but the worst of it seemed over. Shortly afterwards it began to climb again.

All around the country this deep low was attacking an otherwise mundane January morning. Maybe the first day back at work had raised mother natures anti-capitalist side.

At 0500, while I was further South, pressing my hand against Kudu’s perspex window, the weather front had reached the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland. As the mean wind speed climbed to a staggering 80mph, the gusts ventured to ninety. At the very top of the chart, beyond 90mph, the wind instrument on the bridge let go.

The South of England didn’t escape the hiemal bluster either, in fact the South suffered a more tragic assault. A man in Kent was killed by a wind felled tree that crushed his car, and another was airlifted after an accident on board a troubled chemical tanker in the channel, but he didn’t make it to hospital.

So, amongst all the disruption, to the liveaboards that got no sleep, to the home owners that lost some roof tiles or a couple of fence panels, and to the commuters that got delayed, don’t fret, it wasn’t that bad for us. When the weather is like this, there is true bravery in the UK. From helicopter search and rescue crew, to the lifeboats, ambulance service, and mountain rescue, to name but a few, they’re all out there, and without them, well, things could be worse for a lot more of us.

To the man in the car, and the sailor. R.I.P.

RNLI

Mountain Rescue

Last year, the folks at Mr Vee (the self steering folks) ran a competition to win a Mr Vee Y&B windvane, designed especially for small boats.

I entered, and due to the support I got off everybody, I ended up winning. Well, not long after, my custom Mr vee arrived in the post, and then all my plans went pear shaped and I started a business, thus pausing my sailing career for a while. As such, the windvane remains shamefully unfitted to my boat, but I can assure you it is of excellent build quality, and one day, I will get around to putting it where it belongs and heading out to sea again.

However, you might be able to beat me too it as they’re running another competition from Jan 1st. Worth entering. I really thought I’d have no chance, and look what happened.

MrVane.com Competition

Last year a good friend of mine, a chap I’ve known for more than half my life, decided to ride across the country on a bike as old as I am. More friends of ours filmed it, and then produced a short documentary to a standard that I can only dream of creating.

This is well worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ki8aJnXIE

Well done Frank!

www.frankspear.co.uk

It’s just gone 0730 and I’ve been up for a couple of hours. I didn’t sleep very well, you see. I couldn’t find the heating when I arrived yesterday afternoon, and I left my sleeping bag behind, so I’ve spent the night under a hand towel. Oh well, one must expect certain hardships in life occasionally.

I never thought I’d be here again.

You see, this life of freedom that I adopted was a bit imaginary. I suppose, if I’d started on an even keel, then it would have been possible, but I didn’t. I went for a jolly big sail up the East coast, and was very inexperienced when I did it. As such, it took much longer, and cost much more than I imagined it would, and when I finished my trip in September 2009, I was quite deeply in the red. I’ve managed to hobble along for over a year, but no matter what I did there seemed to be an undercurrent of financial entropy.

I was living, for a prolonged period, on no more than £50 per week, usually just one meal per day, and lengthy gaps between any sort of work quickly diminished any savings I managed to cobble together while I had work. Add to that a project boat, and, well, it’s hard.

When push comes to shove, as my old man says, you can’t exist without money, and I certainly couldn’t go sailing without any. I was prepared in every way to set off on another adventure this year, but the cold hard facts of the matter were that I’d have to get a full time job for a while first. I knew this, but I kept delaying the inevitable, hoping that I’d find an alternative way to fund whatever trip I was about to embark upon.

Then something strange happened. I got a phone call from an old work colleague. He, along with two other guys, were busy planning  a very interesting start-up. Investment was all but secured, and they needed somebody to build the technology for them. Well, it’s worth a trip South to find out more, I thought.

I would have never moved back to London for a mere job, but this is more than that. We have an idea, an investor, and some of the most talented minds in the industry, and I’m here at the beginning helping to turn it all in to a working product. It’s not quite the adventure I had in mind, but it’s certainly going to be an adventure nonetheless.

As for Kudu, she’s still going in the water this year, but not until mid summer, and she’ll only get a few weekend trips. The adventures of Kudu are most certainly not over, just paused for a while.

Now, it may seem apt to thank everybody for your support over the years, but I’m not going to do that just yet. Of course, I do thank you, but wrapping up this post with such statements suggests it’s terminal, and this post most certainly isn’t the end of the matter.

As a well known hero of the eighties said…

I’ll be back.

It’s a bit of a windy one this evening!

Despite the fact that Kudu is in the lee of a 40ft container, under a shed, and on the ground, we’re getting buffeted about by the gusts. Still, my makeshift shed proved itself during some hefty gales in the Autumn, so I’m not too worried about tonight.

I do wish I was on the water though. I miss the lapping and the rolling, and the looming sense of something exciting about to happen as you check the warps and stow anything that will blow away. It’s not pleasant and it tends to get annoying after a while, but I do miss it. Oh, to be on a pontoon.

Yikes! The wind is getting quite bad. I’m off to put extra nails in things.

It seems this year is set to be a rather busy one for the coastline of Great Britain, with a growing list of would be circumnavigators making plans and preparing boats for an unforgettable couple of months at sea. I’ve already mentioned Oliver Rofix’s planned departure on the 2nd May, and then there’s Adrian Scott, who is planning to sail around the British Isles & Ireland to fulfil his fathers dream by proxy, but now there’s a third to add to the list; Paul Hardaker.

Paul is raising money for the Chrohn’s and Coltis Charity, and will be doing the voyage in Zuma, his Jeanneau Fantasia 27. He is, I think, going to be filming it for youtube, and is also keeping a blog – zuma-paul.blogspot.com.

Judging by the accent on the videos he’s posted, I’m guessing he’s of Scouse stock, so I should think his will be one of the more entertaining ventures this season!

As for me and Kudu? Who knows,  but not making any plans means all options (including the really big ones) are open. It all depends on where the wind takes me, so watch this space.

It has been a long time coming, but Dylan Winter has finally made his excellent Keep Turning Left series available on DVD.

Not just one DVD, but a set of four covering 36 episodes in full DVD quality. If you are unfamiliar with the ‘KTL’ series, I heartily suggest you take a look at the clips on Youtube, here and here.

Dylan is a true sailor, and applies his professional talent of video production to an excellent series of films exploring every nook and cranny around the coast of Britain. He hasn’t made it all the way around yet, but he’s certainly covered a substantial part of the South and East coast of England.

If you’re new to sailing, or even just curious about it, then this will certainly whet your appetite. Now it’s available on DVD it is, without doubt, the most inspiring bit of sailing film you’ll ever pop in to your DVD player.

The DVD set is “hand crafted” (i.e. the discs are duplicated by hand) but are available on an order now, pay later basis; if they don’t play, you don’t pay.

I’ve been enjoying these videos since he first started them, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy them too. Forget the polished rubbish that’s out there, this is a real sailor, on a real budget, really enjoying what the British coastline has to offer, and it just goes to show that you don’t need a fortune to take part in your own adventures.

Buying the DVD set will also support him, and help him continue to make these films. In these days of mass sponsorship, where content is simply a vehicle to support advertising, this sort of cottage industry documentary has got to be worth keeping alive. There’s no Land Rover adverts, no £50,000 yachts, and no plugging of ‘essential’ training courses, it’s just good old fashioned sailing by a bloke who is a joy to listen to.

www.keepturningleft.co.uk

In case you haven’t been following, the self steering wind vane manufacturers Mr Vee, decided to run a competition during January. The task was to produce a video to promote their new carbon fibre wind vane, and it would be open to voting from the 25th January to the 30th.

Despite getting off to a good lead thanks to all the votes from readers of this blog and the very great people on the YBW forums, one of the other competitors quickly regained the gap and finally overtook me on Sunday evening. The race began proper, and without me prompting anything at all, a few people took it upon themselves to really get behind the effort and did all they could to encourage others to vote. As a result, it was cat and mouse all the way to the finish.

In the end, the other chap managed to close with a 13 vote lead, but it was apparent that their were duplicate votes on both sides, so the winner came down to a judges decision based on which video would best help promote the product.

Late Monday afternoon, the winner was announced, and to my great surprise it was me! I cannot really describe how utterly over the moon I am about winning. Having some reliable self steering on the boat is going to really change what Kudu is capable of, and I cannot wait to try it.

Of course, I owe this fortune to mrvane.com, everybody who voted, and especially to those who went to the extra effort of rallying the troops for a final push. I certainly didn’t expect to have that much support and I was truly humbled by it.

Thank you all

This website has many more readers during the week (sorry employers), and it’s nearly the weekend and time is running out.

I’ve entered a competition to win a self steering wind vane, which if I’m to do what I intend to with the boat, I really need. The voting is open to the public, and it closes on Sunday. Despite a comfortable start to the voting, it’s now getting very close, so I really need your help.

A massive thank you to everybody that has voted already, but please consider spreading the word a bit if you can. If you haven’t voted, I’d be so very honoured if you could spare five minutes to support the adventures of Kudu.

You need to register with MrVane.com (don’t worry, they will not spam you. The people behind it are real sailors too).

****How to vote****

1. Visit http://www.mrvane.com/?q=user/register and fill in your details. If you don’t have a boat, but are interested in sailing, then just mention that.
2. You will get an email with your new password in it.
3. Log in to the site with the username/password in the email. You can use the link on the email, of click here
4. Go to the voting page (here), and if you think my vid is the best, vote for it at the bottom.

Everybody who votes goes in to a draw to win some nifty LED lighting too.

Voting finishes on Sunday, and I really need your help with this. I can’t do it on my own no matter how much effort I put in, so if you’ve enjoyed my videos or the posts on this site, please help me continue to make even more adventurous films and blog content.

Back to getting covered in sawdust for me then! Have a good weekend, and thank you sincerely for any votes.

Nathan

Please read this post. It could make all the difference to the future travels of Kudu.

Mr Vee, the very forward thinking wind vane manufacturers, have released a new product. It’s called the Y&B, which stands for yellow and black, and although there’s no official explanation as to why, I presume it’s down to the fact that it’s made of carbon fibre and fibre glass. It weighs 10.5kg, making it by far the lightest self steering system on the market.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, Mr Vee decided to promote their new product with a competition to win one of these new wind vanes. The task was to produce a video on the theme of yellow and black, which was no more than one and a half minutes long. The videos would then be opened to public voting, and the winner gets a self steering system.

Your support. Please please please please.

The voting opened today, and it closes on the 30th Jan. Your vote could help me win this system, and with a wind vane on the back of Kudu, I can really go places, and continue to write about, and film it.

If you have a spare 5 minutes, please register with Mr Vee here and once you’re signed up, vote for a video (hopefully mine, but that’s your choice) at the bottom of this page.

Mr Vane is not the kind of company that will spam you, so don’t worry about junk emails. They also make some amazing products, and as you can see from the website, they have a very personal approach to the business of sailing.

As a bonus, everybody who votes will be entered in to a draw to win some LED lighting.

Please vote. There’s absolutely no chance I can afford to buy a self steering system this year, so winning this would make a huge difference to me.

Thank you,

Nathan