What A Season That Was!

It's 26th October and the 2020 boating season is about done and what a season it's NOT been.We actually can't wait until 2020 is also done for it has, for us and most of the population, been an annus horribilis.

The sum total of cruising hours has been 13.5 and covered a mere 74 nautical miles made up of 6 trips. Pretty appalling by our standards. With no end of this CoVid charade it looks like we will be restricted in our movements well into 2021 as well, hope not.

After careful thought we decided that the best place for our boat was close to home and having been denied access to her for 6 weeks+ this year we have moved her back to where our boating adventures began, Allington Marina. Delighted to say we were welcomed back by our old friends like the prodigal children. 😄 We had a good 5 years at Chatham, got tidal boating out of our system, made new friends and did new things. We of course will still cruise in the Medway estuary and visit friends but now based upriver.

Highlights of 2020, welcoming Louis our first great-grand son, oh what fun he has brought to the family. Downside, not counting lock-downs & restrictions, the sad loss of our dear friend Peter Larkin, owner of Allington Marina, who fought long and hard against the big C. Rest In Peace Peter.

Let's all hope 2021 brings better times for all.

FOOTNOTE: 4th November 2020 - into another 4 week total lock down. Will it never end?

The Slow Recovery

So 10 weeks into lockdown and the government is slowly releasing our enforced stay within our homes.

One of the first things to be eased was that we can now travel further and more often but more important than that, we can access our boats! MDL Chatham Marina have now allowed berth holders access to vessels to check and maintain them and within a few days of that we were allowed out onto the river and sea. Oh joy! 😁

We have been to Chatham a couple of times and delighted to say all is well with the boat and she is in remarkably good condition following our enforced absence. A shakedown run has also been carried out and all is well.

As for meeting up with our families that has yet to been released but we have seen ours, from a 2 metre distance, and it was good to see them and chat. Still not able to give them all that enormous hug that we want to but that will be soon I'm sure. 

At the time of writing this it looks like the opening of shops is on the horizon, hopefully 14th June. Still a long way to go to normality, if anything even returns to normality as we know it. 

p.s One thing I have changed over the past weeks is ALL social media accounts I had have been closed. No more fake news, conspiracy theories, complaining or just plain crap. Only way to contact me now is good old phone, text or email.

Peace reigns.   

Five Weeks In!

So here we are, no further forward than we were on the last post, still in lockdown, people still dying of this awful virus and still confined to the house apart from adventuring out for shopping. The country, in fact the world, has stopped!

Can't think of anymore jobs that need doing around the house but can think of a whole pile of work that will need to be done on the boat, when we are finally paroled to attend the marina. In the meantime the skeleton staff on duty there are checking on the boats and making sure all is well for our return, we hope!

I have invested in a new weather station though and replaced the old one on the shed roof at the bottom of the garden. The new one is state of the art, made in Germany and connects continuously to the web via Weathercloud server. Check it out either via the log book or direct at http://https://app.weathercloud.net/d0847460052#profile

So, to all our readers out there, stay in, stay safe and above all else stay sober. 😂😂

Day 14 of Lockdown

Although this is day 14 of official lockdown we have in fact been in this state for 3 weeks now.

To date the list of jobs completed in the house and garden is extensive, I even found a 2 stroke generator in the back of the shed which was a non-runner and I had forgotten about. Took it out into the garden, completely stripped it down, cleaned everything including carburetor jets, rebuilt and got it running on the second pull of the starter, brilliant!

Meanwhile Annette has cleaned so much of the house over & over we are now more sterile than the new temporary hospital at the Excel in London!

Regular walks are a norm now but we also searched around the house, found all the parts of our old wii games machine and found that it still worked, except that we hadn't got any hand controllers! Must have given them to the grandchildren years ago. Not to be defeated two replacements were ordered from Amazon and duly arrived a few days later. Now I can play a round of golf, go for a run in the park and pay a visit to the bowling alley in comfort and safety. 😅

The marina is closed and no-one is allowed to visit which means we haven't visited and checked the boat for a few weeks. I did ring the marina and got them to visit the boat and do a stern gland check for me which was good and Rod, our berthing neighbour, who lives unofficially on his boat also keeps an eye on her and has offered to wash it down for us.

And so this situation continues, we aren't out of the woods yet, not even sure if we are near the peak of the virus outbreak but we are coping well but boy do we need to see our family and friends and get life back to normal.

Will it ever be normal as we know it, who knows?

The Nightmare Continues

So, the clock have gone forward and we are now in British Summer Time, not that that has made any difference to the state of affairs the national, no the world, finds itself. 

With the virus gaining strength and the death toll rising looks like we will be in lockdown for some time yet. The marina is effectively closed and we are not allowed out except for food shopping or medications. A skeleton staff are still on duty and keeping an eye on the boats in marina but no one is mentioning the people that actually live on their boats within the marina. The official line is that the marina is not licenced as residential but there are a handful who use their boat as their home, we hope they are safe.

One of these people is our berthing neighbour who has told us he will keep an eye on Kevayling during our enforced isolation away. Hope anyone who is still in situ there is safe.

In the meantime the boat is ready to take to the open water, the garden at home has never loved lovelier, the house is spotless (as always) and we are finding things to do to pass the time.

Anyone reading this during the national lockdown, stay safe and mores the point STAY IN DOORS!   

Best Laid Plans and all that.

Well what a start to the season, everything is ready, the boat prepared, a new on-line log book, the weather seems at last to be turning into something acceptable and along come a nasty little virus to put a damper on everything. And in this case I really mean EVERYTHING!

ConVid19, born in China and about to screw the world, more to the point our boating plans! As you all know by now this virus is in the process of changing everything we take for granted, what we do, how we associate, how we travel and more to the point how we live our daily lives with family and friends.

It would appear that the government, with our best interest at heart I'm sure, are going quarantine the over 70's for quite a long period. Not sure how that is going to turn out but at the moment it gives me 3 months to continue to enjoy life to the full, it's my 70th birthday on 22 June, one I had planned to enjoy full on but now looks like its me and the wife huddled around a cup cake (if they haven't all disappeared due to panic buying) with a glass of Prosecco watching endless news on the items on the BBC about the state of the world. 😞

In the meantime the plan is get down to the boat, get her out and enjoy the sea air, sunshine (hopefully) and the pure joy of being on the water. The best way to be quarantined in my book.

To all our family, friends and boating buddies, stay safe, keep calm and no more chinese takeaways, that'll teach them!! 😄😷

New Log Book Address

The Kevayling online log book has a new redirect address, this is
http://mvkevayling.uk

So, the log book can now be accessed via
www.kevayling.uk (redirected)
www.kevayling.co.uk (redirected)
www.electricfilofax.co.uk (redirected)

The choice is yours. 😀

March 2020

Without doubt one of the windiest, wettest winters on record!

Kevayling currently sits with eight mooring ropes holding her fast to the pontoon thanks to my mooring neighbours, who live aboard their boats, and have been keeping a close eye on things in Chatham. Hopefully we will get out on the first shakedown cruise in the next few weeks, so looking forward to getting back on the water.

A few things planned service wise this spring, I have a tin of off white yacht paint which I need to slightly colour match with the saloon roof and then airbrush out a few small marks & chips. The airbrush was a Christmas present. Also going to look at the wheelhouse woodwork and give that a revamp as we did with the saloon woodwork last summer.

One thing about this winter is a low electricity bill as it's really not been the cold enough to use the engine bay heaters. Every (rain)cloud has a silver lining! 😄