Friday 20 May 2011

Roll on next weekend

Hi everyone,
Well its been a while since my last post.  Did not want to bore you with stuff of no interest as not much on the boating front has been going on. Chris and I have actually been very busy in the evenings the last few weeks so not had much time to blog.

This year is my first time as a qualified sailing instructor for our local sailing club, Chester Sailing and Canoeing Club ,   I've been out Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings teaching both adults and children the vagaries of sailing for the first time.  Chris is also getting involved as child welfare officer and we both find it hughly rewarding.  Last night one of my adult students sailed single handed on his own for the first time after only 3 lessons.  Seeing as this was my first student you can imaging my elation to see him handling the boat without any problems with a beaming smile on his face. 

When it come to the children it is really hard.  You have to have eyes in the back of your head and patience of jobe keeping 28 of the little darlings safe and occupied.  None the less they all have great fun and come back for more.  It really is great fun teaching them and the reward of seeing them sail is outstanding.

Chris and I are now turning our attention to Crick.  We simply cannot wait to get there and are really looking forward to meeting up with people there.  We really enjoy wondering around the boats and stands, it really fires us up with enthusiasm each time we go.  In the mean time we are still showing viewers around the house and are getting a steady stream of interest still so that is promising.  The girls, Amy and Jo, are a bit put out at the moment as they have to get up for a 10am viewing tomorrow.  Saturday is lay in day for them so they are not best happy about that but hay ho we reckon the inconvenience is going to be worth it :-)

So that's all for now, if you are at Crick hope to bump into you at some point, and if you are on the cut we hope the weather is staying good for you wherever you are, I can imagine after a hard winter being iced in and then blown about in the winds, summer is a god send.  I can appreciate people want summer to hurry up and arrive soon!  I know Chris and I do.

Sunday 8 May 2011

nb AmyJo Livery part 2

Thank you for your comments on the livery Chris and I are most grateful.  Having done the external livery I've had a go at the roof and interior lay out

Keeping with the blue , black and Grey scheme I came up with the above design for the roof, hopefully it won't be to bright in the sunshine and put a strain on the eyes.  I'm also hoping it won't get too hot in the summer.  The blue strip we want to put a pattern of some sort there and we may change the hatch to a smoked glass one to allow light into the back cabin. 

I've almost got the interior layout sorted now but still need to do some more work on it. I just read they now have new installation requirements and no longer recommend the wood burner by the front doors but recommend it further along inside so I have to make a change to allow for that.  We also have to run the idea past Ken and Julia at Fernwood and we're sure they may give advice so this is by no means the final draft.  Anyway here is my effort so far.

We've still to finalise the back cabin design but we do know we would like a cupboard for folding bikes ala Derwent 6, a small sink and tea making abilities for those long cruises.  We're hoping to pick up some ideas at Crick and I'll update this again later.

On the house front we now have a family very interested in our house and they are desperately trying to sell theirs so they can put an offer in on ours.  They must be very keen as they came for a second viewing with a builder friend and spent 2 hours discussing modifications they want to make.  I just hope they don't put an offer in less the builders costs as I'm not going to fund their alterations.  Unfortunately their house is not what we are looking for as the bedrooms are way to small so a swap is also out of the question.

More good news too, the Bungalow we had our eye on earlier had an offer in the other week and we thought we had lost out but that fell through. Turns out the elderly gent who put the offer in was talked out of it by his family.  There is work needed and I guess they did not think he could cope.  We have told the agent we wanted to re-submit our offer on it.  I'm hopeful here too as the lady owner has also found somewhere she wants to buy.  My only fear now is it looks like we might have a chain forming and we all know the problems you can have with those.

So fingers and toes crossed we may have some news with a bit of luck, here's hoping!