Cushions and Dinghy Racing

 

 

Do you remember back in March I had some "warp waiting" on my loom?  With inspiration taken from the sea and shoreline I chose a variety of different coloured yarns and in a free style of simple stripes, I created a warp ready to weave some fabric.    

  

 

 

I decided to keep the weft of the design very simple choosing two yarns;  4ply cream and Aran oatmeal fleck. This made the stripes of the warp sing out, giving a wonderfully soft tone to the finished hand woven piece. 

 

I liked the effect very much and so have made two scatter cushions with the material produced. They look quite

 at home in my knit room with it's relaxed nautical theme in shades of blues and whites.   

 

For those of you who like to read of my sailing adventures will know that Skipper and I have fun racing our old mirror dinghy on the river Medina in the summer months. The race series is light hearted, but that's not to say that it is not competitive! We are currently in second place, the chances are pretty slim for us to gain first position, but we will  certainly try very hard- today the weather conditions are predicted to be very light breezes so I shall be sending Skipper out single handed for a change to make the most of  the conditions with a light boat. It's all about tactics... you know...

 

Below is a link to the MMA  

 

 

http://www.medinamariners.org/#/dinghy-racing/4570018027

 

 

Knitting On Board and Working Outdoors

 

 Well it's good to be home and get started on lots of ideas and projects in wool. I sit on our little yacht moored up on the river Medina on the Isle of Wight waiting for the tide. It is wonderful to watch the wading birds, the river and the sky ever changing. The light throws different patterns and shadows and the breeze moves constantly always creating interesting and inspiring scenery.

I grab a ball of wool from my stash on board and it is just perfect to reflect the land and seascape before me. A ball of Rowan Felted Tweed; the flecks of blue and white blending with the soft muddy browns and greys. I Cast on...
I decide to knit the yarn into a hat (pattern from memory) and enjoy the easy knitting of the afternoon on board.

 

At home in the garden I am inspired by the colourful summer flowers and spend many hours working under the light shade of my gazebo.  I have my spinning wheel outside to make some yarn and I use my drum carder to prepare some more fleece to spin.

BUT I didn't realise just how hot it was getting in the garden and the following day when I came to take the drum carder out into the garden again to get some more fibres ready I noticed that the drive belt had broken!! It is rubber and must have got too hot in the sun, expanded and then shrunk and snapped overnight.

 

Took a week to get a replacement, now I'm more careful of the conditions outdoors!

Nevertheless I do enjoy being outside working with my wools.

Whilst searching for Dolphins...

 

 When we sail around the Ionian Islands we are always thrilled and excited to see wild dolphins, they give you such a "feel good factor" and the experience makes you come into the harbour at the end of a good day's sail with an even a bigger grin on your face!
Well this year sailing on Mintaka we didn't actually see any dolphins-Although, I like to think that in the strong windy days when Skipper and I were busy with "all hands on deck" that there were dolphins riding our bow wave in the froth and thrill of the wind and waves! ...

Here are some photos of what we did see, the first is of shoals of fish, We feed  them with bread and ship's biscuits from the bathing platform on the boat, when you swim with them they never touch you, but you can get up really close, Skipper loves to snorkel and take an underwater camera with him.

 

Here is a blue octopus, amazing colour and a beautiful creature, but I'm glad I was on the pontoon taking this shot and not actually swimming with it.

 

 A red starfish about the size of your hand.

 

And this cricket, with a body about the size of your thumb and legs extending to make him as big as your hand, Skipper had quite a shock when it decided to climb up his shorts!!

 

Safely removed pretty promptly he took a photo! In vivid green, black and yellow what an interesting fellow.

Sailing The Ionian Islands, Part Two- About The Voyage

 

Whenever we are on board we always keep a log book. Every hour we write up a brief summary of important information for good sailing; Time, Log (distance), Course, Wind,(direction and speed) EP (estimated position) and Comments. I also keep a journal of our adventures which I enjoy writing up early each morning before breakfast, so as I can include observations and details of our stay at each port of call before we set out for another day's sailing. 

 

Our voyage on Mintaka took two weeks to complete and we sailed 280 nautical miles. 

We started and finished in Sivota, the photo above is of the taverna where our yacht is moored up. We visited-

Sivota,  Spartahori,  Paleros, Kalomos, Kioni,  Frikes, Fiskardo, Ay Euphemia, Nidri, Little Vathi Vassiliki, 

 

 

Spartahori is one of our favourite stopovers, we moor up "bows to" with lazy lines, so as we can swim off  the bathing platform on the stern as soon as we arrive, it's wonderful!   

 

 At Frikes there is an ancient windmill and this year Skipper climbed up the steep hill to it and took a photo of the flotilla below.

 

In Fiskardo we were joined on a small pontoon by this massive motor cruiser, I thought it would never fit but the crew on board were amazing and bought her in really well, this size of vessel usually anchors out in the entrance to the bay.

 

 

 

Little Mintaka is in the middle in this photo- and we thought 36ft was huge, but next to these two it made us feel quite normal again!

 

The first week sailing was very light breezes and there was plenty of time to anchor up in small bays and coves, to lunch and swim while waiting for the afternoon winds to blow up. It was also a good time to learn the ropes on board and work out the safest and easiest way for just the two of us to sail her. I could manage light winds up to F4 as crew but when it got stronger it was best for me be on the helm and Skipper to do the hard work! 

 

We were "storm bound" in Nidri for two days, storms here tend to be hot sunshine and lots of wind. We went out for a couple of hours for a sail, sheltering around the headlands, reefed in well it was great fun! before returning to the same pontoon for the night.

 

Our penultimate day on the water was a day to remember, we were bound for Vassiliki. In the morning there was a steady breeze F4 and we had a super sail "down the tail of Meganisi" island- all sails up. By the afternoon the wind had blown up and we were reefed and had turned on the engine to make headway. We had spray over the bows, big waves rolling on our port side, it was heavy going. Usually when you enter a bay the headlands provide shelter but when we got into Vassiliki bay it was like a cauldron of wind and sea. As we got to the breakwater of the harbour it was too dangerous to try and moor up in the harbour and we had to lay anchor outside in a F8 Gale, a tricky task. 

 

After several attempts our anchor held firm and we bobbed in the turquoise waters along with three other yachts from our flotilla waiting for the winds to lessen -"what else can you do but have a brew", a well earned cup of tea with biscuits in a Gale

 

 Four hours later! as the sun went behind the mountain we were able to moor up in the harbour. Over 35 nautical miles and 10 hours at sea, we were truly salty sailors that day! straight to a taverna for a glass of wine or two to balance my sea legs.

 

Sailing The Ionian Islands, Part One- About The Boat

 

Just back from Casting Off on another sailing adventure.

We have been sailing around the beautiful Greek Isles again. Our boat this year was called Mintaka. She is a Beneteau 361 and as you can see in the photos she is a lovely yacht; 36ft length with a wide beam (twice the size of our little yacht at home!).With a saloon area, 3 cabins, galley, navigation table and seating, showers and heads there was plenty of room for just the two of us.

 Her name Mintaka  means belt in Arabic hence she is one of the 3 stars in Orion Belt Constellation.

 

Saloon seating and table

 

Galley with double sink and large fridge

 

Mintaka is wheel steering, it was a real treat to have this instead of a tiller

 

And there were plenty of ropes to pull!

 

We raised our own little MMA burgee to proudly fly as we started our voyage 

 

and here we are sails filled creaming along making 8knots on a hot sunny day on the deep blue Mediterranean sea.

 

We love sailing flotilla holidays. We were a small group of  yachts accompanied by a "Lead crew boat" on board the Lead boat is a Skipper who plans the route, collects information on weather and books us into the harbours each day, an Engineer to maintain all the yachts and a Hostie who keeps us informed on good places to visit, facilities available, where to buy bread etc. 

We have a morning briefing every day together and then we are free to do what we want on our own yachts, sail, anchor up somewhere for lunch and a swim. We navigate our own way to the next harbour and when we arrive the Lead crew is always there ready to take our mooring lines and welcome us to each new exciting place.

Next blog will be about the voyage...

Mini Wheel and Mini Loom

I was delighted to find this miniature spinning wheel in a charity shop, it is so sweet. All the little parts move, although you can't actually spin with it, the attention to detail is amazing.

 I have shown it here with a 50 pence coin on the seat so as you can see the scale of the model. I think it is lovely.

 

 I also purchased recently this mini weaving loom, again because it looks so sweet but this is really a child's toy and the lovely thing is- it does actually work as a loom!
 It is made of wood and came all warped ready to use, it has little shuttles with some wool of blue, yellow and red to weave with. However I have decided to use some of my weaving wool stash to make something with, maybe I shall just do some samples and a little wall hanging to start with.

 

I shall get creating and show you soon

Down On The River

A lovely sunny weekend was spent "Down on the River" just messing about on the boats.

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” 
 - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows.

We motored our little yacht down the river for about a nautical mile and then turned up river so as we could sail under jib on the Light Northerly breeze back passed our mooring  to "Windy Corner." It was such a leisurely sail. We sipped our morning coffee as we glided along,  gently sailing in with the High Tide. A pair of  Little Egrets flew over us.





















Sometimes the jib sail was on port, sometimes on starboard as the river meanders up to Newport.





































As the tide slackened, so the wind died for a while so we motored to our mooring to enjoy our picnic lunch and a bit of sun bathing.
 When the wind blew in again this time from the South and West we raised the sails on our little Mirror dinghy tied up alongside and had a happy sail around Windy corner.
Just simply; A lovely way to spend the day.