Josie Maria: The Handover of Josie Maria and departing Old England

The last week after handover was quite busy for us so we were unable to update the blog. Here is a rundown of the events as they happened:

Tuesday 6th August - Wednesday 7th August.

We completed the two day handover of our yacht. This involved the Oyster company taking us through every aspect of our new yacht and all its technical points. What a huge amount of information to absorb!! We really needed several more days. How much of this will we retain and how much will we have to figure out ? They gave us 5 very large ring binders full of detailed information to read.... Fortunately I videoed the key points of the handover so hopefully I will be able to go through these videos as a memory jogger. Liz, Katy and Sally-Anne unfortunately had to put up with us ignoring them most of the time as we were transfixed with technical jargon and operating procedures of such a complex yacht.

On the Tuesday we spent time learning all the plumbing on the yacht by lifting every floorboard and inspecting dozens upon dozens of pipes, seacocks, valves and pumps. We need to be able to understand exactly how everything is connected so that we are able to carry out preventative maintenance from the store of spares we are carrying on board, and what spares me may need for Oyster to send over in case they are needed. The main thing for us is to learn as much as possible so that we can carry out urgent maintenance when we are all alone at sea. I must admit that its a daunting task.. We are starting to realize with sharper clarity that we will be on our own on a vast ocean. Oyster assures us that they are only a phone call or email away, and as much as this is true, we still have to deal with any eventuality.

Wednesday was more about learning other systems such as the watermaker and the various instruments, as well as testing the sails and winches. We used a bow thruster for the very first time and flattened its battery which made coming into the marina very exciting. The Oyster crew were very much in control and brought us in safely. At least I now know that the bow thruster has its own battery and it runs out rather quickly. What can I say…It’s controlled through a joystick and as an avid gamer, I like my joysticks…

Thursday 8^th August

Handover is complete, but will be doing the technology handover on Friday. We officially pick up the boat today and have started moving all our boxes from our storage facility as well as the storage facility at Oyster onto the boat. OMG ! How much stuff did we bring ! Maybe too many toys ?

The general consensus is that there is no way we are going to get everything in on this boat. We will have to select what to keep, what to send back and what to throw out !

We went on our first provisioning trip to Tesco and in memory of my mum Maria, I decided that for dinner tonight I will make my first pasta dish on the boat; “Tagliatelle con involtini”. Yum.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with Gavin Painter our resident IT Guru from IT@Sea, a very helpful chap who will take us through all our systems. The important systems for me are our satellite internet systems ; VSAT and BGAIN, as they are vital to keep in touch with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment staff, friends and family. I am looking forward on how to use the sound system so I can start playing some song from my library. Gavin has made a number of very useful recommendations when we were deciding what to install on the yacht. He is the man as far as configuring your Oyster.

Friday 9^th August

Gavin arrived, but we were running late as we were all exhausted. Last night was a rather long night as we worked hard in packing things on the boat. We decided not to sleep on the boat after the dinner but to go back to the hotel. Trying to cook on the boat for the first time was challenging as we have to learn the systems and deliver a hot meal all at the same time. Regardless of our lack of sleep, it was tremendous fun as we started making Josie Maria our home for the next year or so. Liz, Katy, Sally-Anne, David, Vicki and I drank plenty of wine. I feel like I have achieved little today( I tend to gas bag to just about anyone who walks past admiring our yacht), but the rest of the gang worked very efficiently in sorting things on the boat.

We were expecting our registration papers to arrive today but unfortunately they have not arrived. Without those papers we cannot leave on Monday as planned. This might get interesting.

Saturday 10^th August

David and I started early ; my job was to try to figure out how we could use the Lazarette (large storage area at the back of the boat) and fit in the Seabobs, while David focused on figuring out a better way of storing the spinnaker – in the end we ended up storing it in the lazarette. After the 3-4^th attempt we have managed to store quite a bit in the laz and I think with the clever storing of things by Vicki, Liz and Katy, whom I have been told are Tetris masters, I think we might just get just about everything on the boat after all. At least its looking hopeful.

Sunday 11^th August

We will be joined by our instructor Mike Dymond, and Rory Gillard from Vortec Marine. They are very experienced sailors ; Rory has loads of experience on Oysters and will be invaluable in helping Vicki and I understand the beast of a yacht we have purchased, and Mike will help train both Vicki and I, as he is a trainer of trainers. We feel rather humble to be in his care. At least our friends and family will feel a little bit less concerned knowing that we are undertaking additional training particularly in relation to our new yacht. Mike and Rory will be with us all the way to Cannes, France. Our first port of call will be the Channel Island of Guernsey. When we arrive there, we are hoping to hire a 40 foot vessel in Guernsey so we can do some close quarter tacking and jibing, man over board etc, so we can brush up on our skills. We have also accepted on board Stephen Lambert of Undercover Boss fame, on board to the Channel Islands as he has purchased an Oyster and wants to get some hands on experience.

We decided to leave on Tuesday after learning that the registration papers for the boat will arrive sometime on Monday.

Monday 12^th August

We managed today to fit just about everything on the boat. Woot. Vicki, Katy and Liz are true Tetris masters of packing. I did have to handle a number of heckling remarks on the number of toys I’m bringing on this trip, but I’m not concerned. I will enjoy my toys, especially the quadcopter from which I hope to grab some rather nice aerial shots. I hope that the Seabobs will get a good use as they are so heavy and take so much space in the Laz. I have high hopes that family and friends will have fun and make the whole storing and sailing with loads of toys worthwhile.

Tuesday 13^th August

Alas, most good plans never survive first contact. We had a number of niggling issues with the new yacht, which we expected as this kind of thing happens, and are glad we found the more complex ones before we left. The Oyster team are amazing. They jumped on the issues straight away and our project manager, Stephen Parkinson was on top of getting things sorted out with the their commissioning team managed by Adrian. Vicki and I were duly impressed, and very grateful. I was also very grateful to the Oyster employee who took the time to recharge the Seabobs as the batteries needed to be kept recharged for them to not to develop problems. Its nice when someone goes out of their way to look after a client.

Unfortunately this has meant that we have had to postpone our departure till tomorrow. We decide that we would have our farewell dinner tonight and it was really nice to have Katy and Liz here in Ipswich to see us off in the morning.

Wednesday 14^th August

Again we experienced further delays. We had to wait until the tender was returned from getting an overnight repair, so we have moved our departure till this afternoon. Its really not an issue, but we are getting itchy feet as we want to set sail ! As long as we are leaving knowing that all the key equipment is working, who really cares, right ?

I would advise any new Oyster owner to allow at least a week to work through the usual niggles. We did not allow enough time. Oyster are great and will pull all stops, but if you have more time, it's a lot less stressful for everyone, including the poor suffering Oyster team keen to see us off on our adventure of a lifetime.

We finally left Ipswich. UK at 5:15pm. It was quite uneventful in the end. We jumped on and sailed off…waving goodbye to Old England.

We are finally off to realise Vicki's life long dream.

Thursday 15^th August

The first reality of our cruising lifestyle hit home last night. Passage making is all about shift work ! I new this before we left, but it really hit home. We ran a roster across three teams of two people : 3 hours on watch, and 6 hours off to sleep, except its hard to grab sleep when your yacht is sailing along and all the action is happening upstairs in the cockpit. I felt like a zombie this morning. Will need to snatch some more sleep.

This is our first night out at sea, crossing the English Channel. We were worried that there would be a lot of other large container ships, but the Channel is well organised. There are ‘lanes’ where container boats and other large vessels go up one side and others large ships go the other side. There is a special lane for little yachts like ours, away from those monsters of the seas. David, Mike and Rory made it look so easy.

Friday 16^th August

We arrived in Guernsey early this morning. I don't know the exact time as I went to bed after finishing my 1am shift, but David and Vicki stayed up and lowered the anchor with Rory. I recovered a little from my zombie state, rising up and taking a look at a spectacular sight. I must admit that I have felt not a twinge of sea-sickness during the last two days. The ocean was very calm. We said good-bye to Stephen, and decided that now was a good time to grab a quick bite to eat. Seafood sounds like a good idea. We had some rather nice seafood especially the local crab, which Vicki is allergic to. Tomorrow we will do some sailing of a rental and get our rusty skills back in shape. Its now time to fire up the internet, scan for a free marine wifi hotspot and post on Josie Maria’s blog.