Sailing Ægle

The first half of 2023 … in fact almost (but not quite) three quarters …

Well this year (2023) started with a decision that it was time to make a change … so (somewhat to the surprise of our colleagues) Rob and I handed in our notices at work at the beginning of January, booked our spot on the ARC+ (Atlantic crossing) in November, commenced our notice period, and the count down was on to our next adventure … 

First up we needed to get Ægle ready so a (in the end not so) mini re-fit was in order … new batteries (LiFePo) and associated electrical systems, some new electronics (satellite comms, security systems), solar panels (flexible and removable), a new (all electric) cooker (no gas … woohoo … which also free’d up a large locker for storage … hurrah!), refreshed paint work (pilot house and anti foul), the rig was checked by Spencer Rigging (as it has been every year), new sails considered and rejected (no space!), the boom was fixed (small crack at the end which the riggers thought it prudent to address), new lifejackets and safety kit purchased … and LOTS of other bits and bobs of maintenance, spares purchasing and upgrades *

The CFO (Rob) maintained a cash flow forecast and regularly worried over whether we were spending too much, the CEO (Rach) ran around suggesting the purchase of more bits and bobs (almost all of which has subsequently proved it’s worth despite the CFO’s challenge!)

Work on the boat took somewhat longer than originally planned (it turns out she’s a more complex boat than many so getting everything working was more difficult than expected at the outset! We re-launched in May and at the beginning of June we were off with Mills to Lymington for the Berthon Blue Water Open Day … we had agreed to be an ‘open boat’ so spent the day hosting a series of people popping on board to have a look round … as a quid pro quo we also managed to do our safety check for the ARC+ meeting Roger (who leads on safety for the ARC team) and taking advantage of his vast knowledge and experience

Sadly we needed to lift back out and back in again to fix a couple of additional things, we were also waiting on our boom fix to be finished … but as things were starting to get completed we were also managing to test whether the new and changed kit was working … slowly (at times it felt very slowly!) it was all starting to come together … and then the generator stopped working! Argh! And so we were to be found (just before Cowes week) running around sourcing a new generator and arranging installation … not what we had planned … the CFO was a little vexed!

We had a fabulous leaving party (or two) from work at the end of June, then a leaving party (or two or three) in Cowes at the beginning of August … plus a few leaving dinners … and then we couldn’t leave as we needed to get everything finished … so more leaving drinks .. and some more … I think people were starting to wonder if we would ever go! 

In the background we sorted the house in Cowes for holiday letting and moved out and onto Ægle just in time for the first rental to happen … hurrah! We had also lined up (most of) our crew for the Atlantic crossing in November … Mills was (of course) joining us having negotiated 6 weeks off when she changed jobs earlier in the year, as was Dave, Simon and possibly Libby ** … perfect!

And finally, we were ready to go … !

* I’ll try and do a full list of what we changed at some point …

** Crew details are on the crew page!