Off We Go - Friday

Savannah Sky's new additions (Arch, solar, wind and so much more...)

Royston Cave, England

Royston Cave with Templar carvings...

So much food to load onboard Savannah Sky.  It's a big ocean out there...

The Ocean Globe Race docks where Maria is pointiing at Evrika, the boat previously owned by Pink Floyd

Walking the docks at Southampton, where the Ocean Globe Race was getting ready to start

Southampton Boat Show

Maria and her cappuccino

S/Y Savannah Sky – September 27, 2023 – Log #11

Savannah Sky Position: 50 degrees 47’ N, 001 degrees 06’ W

Gosport, England

 

Off We Go - Friday

 

We’ve been in England for three months, onboard Savannah Sky at the dock.

 

What have we been doing, spending so much time here?

 

Work, work and even more work - Getting Savannah Sky ready for sailing on the ocean.

 

Here is a partial list of things we did to Savannah Sky while we were here in England:

·      Stainless steel arch custom built and installed

·      Solar system installed

·      Wind generator installed

·      Water maker system installed

·      New mainsail

·      New alternator & voltage regulator

·      Repaired generator

·      Repaired the refrigeration system

·      New batteries

·      Safety gear installed

·      Cleaned every possible locker, cabin, storage area and crevice we could get to

·      Rerigged the sail configuration

·      Luckily Amazon delivers to the marina too, with so many goodies we needed

·      Spent lots of money doing all this too. After all, it’s a boat…ha ha

 

They even have a Costco supermarket here, so we stocked up on groceries for our upcoming journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Service people working on boats in England were, as they say, spot on.  We have never found this high a level of expertise in the marine field as we found here.  People show up as promised and they know boats and how to fix them.

 

We also had an OCC Port Officer here in Gosport.  A Port Officer is a person awarded the title by the Ocean Cruising Club, that we belong to.  Chris Smith was our guy.  He was fantastic and indispensable at finding qualified people and businesses to help us work on Savannah Sky during our prolonged stay.

 

We did get to travel around England a bit too:  London, Weymouth, Royston Cave, Southampton Boat Show, Portsmouth and its famous Dockyard, Gosport Dockyard and of course lots of pubs.

 

Warm beer, meat pies and Fish & Chips filled our stomachs inside the ever-popular pubs.

 

We pretty much adjusted to the language barrier, if we listened close enough.   Luckily, locals always could tell we were Americans so they tried to speak more slowly.  Sometimes that helped but not always for Captain Steve.  Maria was much better at translating what was said for Steve.

 

We have been waiting for a suitable weather window to sail directly south to the Canary Islands.

 

It is getting late in the season and cool fall weather greets us every morning at the dock in Gosport.  Days are getting shorter and our heater works wonders to take the chill off.

 

We gotta go where it’s warm!

 

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we head out on the ocean once again…