New Boat in the Family

The start of the 2019 boating season welcomes Cymantha & Stewart, our daughter and son-in-law, to the world of inshore boating.

Having spent the winter months completely overhauling their newly acquired Sealine 19 Weekender they have now secured moorings at Queenborough Harbour, down river from our home marina in Chatham. They have done an excellent job on the boat and she handles beautifully with a completely refurbished interior.

Fun days ahead as they 'learn the ropes' of inshore cruising.

Improvement to Log Book

Came across a lovely little app a week on so ago called 'Blue Boat Log'. I had tried it over a year ago but it didn't fit our need or provide any additional features to the main Kevayling log book.

Now the author has been busy and produced an upgraded version of the app which is really good.

In essence it provides a track of your trip with date, distance and time data as well as an ability to add a story of your trip with photos. Embedding this into the Kevayling log it now means we can record all trips on the water in our boat or crewing someone else's.

Blue Boat Log - worth a look.

Early Start to 2019

With the spring like weather that we have suddenly had in February we decided to get to and prepare Kevayling for the 2019 season. So here we are on 16th February and already we have serviced both engines, washed her down and fitted our two new berth mattresses in the aft cabin, things that we normally undertake in March.

Just a few tidying things to do inside and we are ready to cruise!

So looking forward to cruising with with friends and family this year, with Cymantha & Stewart, our daughter and son-in-law, having their first boat moored in Queenborough Harbour, an hours run down river, plus Rochester Cruising Club.

New Cruise Log

I am forever looking at ways to improve our on-line log book and make it a more interesting read and as such I have taken a step forward in the way it's presented.

Using the same format as this blog page I have developed a similar page to display all the entries in Kevayling's log. Using this format we can now index the log book, reproduce the log in an easier way to read and add photos & videos to the log entries.

Currently I am working my way through the entries and adding them to the new cruise log book, there are a lot so it will take a few days to complete. Comments on each trip are open (keep them clean please :-) and the 'View Trip' links are active.

With the plan closure of my Facebook page by the end of the year this will be the new way to stay in touch.

www.kevayling.co.uk

https://kevayling.blogspot.com/

Windy Weekend

Planned social BBQ at Rochester Cruising Club this weekend and decided to take the boat around so that we could stay the night. Quite windy on Saturday when we left Chatham but moored up with no problem. Being that the wind was against the tide it made for a gently rocking boat all afternoon.

BBQ was a great success with the family joining us in the evening, plenty to eat, and drink, with good company.

During the night the wind dropped but increased about 06:00 am. By the time we had got up it was blowing quite strong once again, actually stronger than the previous day. With this in mind we decided to depart Rochester early and left at 08:34 am. With a receding tide and a stern wind we actually made the trip back to Chatham in only 23 minutes, fastest recorded yet.

Turning against the tide to enter the lock at Chatham made for a wet approach, especially for Annette out on the bow ready to moor! Entered briskly on a tight approach and settled on the port side pontoon with ease.

Moored on our home berth in Chatham bow-on as not possible to reverse in the wind.

Great Fun!

Wine Resupply

Summer batch of white & red wine completed ready for Christmas. Will have to get the spare wine racks out of the garage to store this lot, not sure where as there isn't anywhere cool at the moment.

Away Days

Just had a fantastic two days with our three younger grandchildren at the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway and a return trip to Chatham Historical Dockyard. I put together a short video of our two days packed into 4 minutes as a keepsake, so here's a copy.

Antifoul Removal

As 'Kevayling' has reached the magic 50 year mark it's about time all the old anti-foul on the bottom is removed and the hull inspected for the next 50 years.

First thing is to source how and where.

Let work commence.

Selfies

A new selfie stick so here's a few to get started.

Admirals Cruise 2018

Admirals Cruise out into the Thames Estuary.

May Bank Holiday

Just completed a great weekend on the boat, boarded on Friday and headed for our cruising club at Rochester where we moored up for 48 hours. During that time we visited the Sweeps Festival, enjoyed the delights of the food and drink in the club house and generally chilled on the water. Had a boat load of visitors on Saturday afternoon, our granddaughters boyfriend's family plus a few visiting boat owners who admired our boat.

Our granddaughter joined us on Sunday morning for Sunday dinner in the club and remained with us on the boat when we headed back to Chatham in the afternoon. Finished the day with drinks & nibbles on our mooring neighbours 60' motor cruiser.

Returned home a bit tired but happy on Monday.

Shakedown Cruise

Finally got the  boat out yesterday for it's 2018 shakedown cruise after the winter lay up. Not the best of days weather wise with a very dull, overcast day but there was no wind so we had a flat sea to test out the boat systems and engines.

Good to be back on the water after what feels like a very long winter break.

Ready and Waiting

With a brief lull in the cold weather we managed to spend a very pleasant afternoon yesterday scrubbing off the weathers grim on the boat. Also had the pleasure of having a tour around 'Odd Daisy', our new mooring neighbour, my Andy, the owner. One of the biggest vessels currently in the marina she is being refitted for her voyage to the Med latter in the year.

'Kevayling' is now clean and looks as she should, a much cared for, shinny boat.

Ready and waiting for her first trip out this year.

Late Winter Chill

So we thought winter had passed after the beast from the east had dumped a couple of feet of snow to us in the first few days of March. How wrong were we, today the mini beast from the east caused the temperature to drop some 12 degrees over night and now we have snow and bitter winds once again!

Just when we were planning to get the boat out for its first run of the season I have to go back to the marina and put the engine heaters back on.

Let's hope this is it for the year.

Let Spring Begin

Now that the Beast from the East has passed and storm Emma has blown herself out we can get on with Spring Time. Let the cruising season begin!

Beast From The East

The weather men promised that the weather system moving in from the east would bring cold winds and snow and boy were they correct. Between 7" to 8" of snow has fallen over the last few days and now the wind has increased bringing the day time temperature down to -4c.

Managed to dig the car out and get to Chatham Marina and check out the boat, took the opportunity of increasing the engine heater on time to 18 hours a day. Nice comparison photo below of the marina in Summer & Winter!

Maidstone 28/02/2018

Summer

Winter