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ut be inspired at the way folks are responding and helping out where they can wherever you are whoever you are stay safe look after yourselves and your neighbours and we ll see everyone on the other side of this mbt millbrook posted by mbt at 13 19 9 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday 14 february 2020 beach combing in the 21st century as with so many folks we ve become increasingly concerned about the amount of plastic we have in our lives and look for ways to reduce it but recently we moved to a different side of the discussion and got involved with our local beach cleaning group we arrived a few minutes or so before the advertised time and spent a few moments trying to work out how we could possibly make any impression of what we could see the majority by far seemed to be these awful nurdles in various colours tiny and with no easy way to collect them it looked as though many hours would be spent for a minute reward luckily the organiser arrived armed with the tools required bucket dustpan and brush and a kitchen sieve the process is simple but very effective sea water into the bucket sweep the plastic sand and any other small items entangled in the stuff into the dustpan then empty it into the bucket plastic etc floats on the surface whilst sand sinks allowing you to scoop the detritus out and dump it into a bag unfortunately because the plastic is all very different it can t easily be recycled so gets incinerated not ideal but at least it s off the beach and away from birds etc who are often confused into thinking it is fish eggs we set to and before long the beach was a mass of people with a group of 70 pickers interspersed with dozens more enjoying the beach walking dogs and themselves along tregantle beach since then we ve got involved in further beach cleans and also in the local woods where volunteers help out with various management tasks and tree planting i d file this under hard physical work as the it involves moving logs from where they ve been cut to an area of track where they can be shifted by vehicle and stored as the woods are on a serious slope it is possible to roll the smaller about a metre logs down pathways which sounds easier than it is as logs are frequently heavier at one end sending them off course and requiring retrieval or restarting still easier than trying to carry them down hill the longer logs 4 metres are dragged down using a portable winch and a clever semi flexible cone a rope passes through a hole in the cone nose and is then attached to said log the shape of the cone enables the log to ride over stumps and through undergrowth to a remarkable degree i m not sure what these things are called but they work far far better than the canoe nose that was once used but proved too brittle and thin for the task aboard hannah life quietly continues the winter storms come and go although we re well protected in our little spot the local coastguard watch part of the nci provide updates on the weather coming over rame head the trees i wrote about at the top of the page offer excellent protection and of course we re much lower so rame s 70knots of wind is down to 40knots when it whips across our masthead we re due the next storm dennis this weekend and can look forward to 48 hours or more of shrieking noise wearing yes but certainly no where near as uncomfortable as being hove to in the seas such winds would generate a lovely part of the world millbrook posted by mbt at 12 03 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday 3 november 2019 iceland finally faeroes a quick look at the long term forecast was enough to persuade us that we either left with what we had or waited indefinitely for who knows what so we slipped our lines from eidi and on 28 th june headed out for iceland progress was slow and lumpy so much so that the early hours i felt i d had enough a feeling that hits me from time to time usually during long passages so this was a tad early by the following day we were drifting and we tightened the mizzen rigging using our chain hoist to get the tension in flat seas and sunshine by the next day the forecasted winds had kicked in and we pushed north of our rhumb line to try and stay above the low and take advantage of better winds as it went through we ploughed on under double reefed main and stays l making reasonable if lumpy progress as the high 30 s wind was too far forward for any comfort and eventually we hove to to allow the wind and seas to calm down rather than bashing away the ais gave us warning of approaching fishing boats with two projected to come close despite several calls on different channels to each of the vessels we had no response leading us to conclude the 80m ships steaming to their fishing grounds at 10k have crews who opt to bank sleep rather keep watch which is a bit unfortunate on the rest of us but the next ship we called responded and updated the weather for us kindly calling back later to suggest we might want to try and head north rather than remain hove to and drift south as that way we would miss the 5 metre seas the front was generating a kind gesture and we duly set off hand steering in order to put more miles between us and the seas it was whilst we were hove to we bent the first of three bolts on stan the self steerer we managed to get the paddle assembly aboard despite the seas and its weight where we stowed it below until we could spare the time to repair it the next day by then both winds and seas had dropped and with a new bolt in place we were able to get everything back together not for long as over the next 2 days we bent a bolt a day something was obviously wrong but we couldn t for the moment see what it was unlike the genny which chose a brief increase in wind speed to rip just below a panel close to the peak reinforcement a bummer as we really needed a lightweight sail in the bulk of the winds we were getting by now it was late monday and my mind kept switching between jacking it in and continuing bee was philosophical on the surface but deeply gutted that we might not make it but with her quiet support and strength i eventually came round and we persevered well persevered is a stretch really as the lack of wind and some kind of circular current seem to keep us trapped in one area for almost a day in the end we had little option but to motor for several hours to try and clear its influence as it happened it was a good decision we d downloaded pw before we left and although 4 days old it still bore some resemblance to what we were getting based on that we opted to keep sailing south of west in the hope that the winds would become sw which they finally did on wed 31 st around 8am that day bee could clearly see the icelandic peaks some 50nm away and gradually we closed the coast naturally the current was against us and our request to arrive for clearance at a small fishing village whilst not declined was not greeted with enthusiasm and we continued on to neskaupstadur arriving around 11pm in daylight we tied up in the fishing harbour customs were waiting and within the hour we were cleared in we liked the town and iceland too what little we had seen of it people are friendly but not in your face a fisherman engineer answered my questions patiently said he might be able to help sort out the steerer and came down later that evening to look at it he thought the bearings were too loose the bolt in question needed to be a size up and we needed to check the alignment not only that but he gave us the use of his washing machine the next day we took the self steerer off changed some of the bearings and tightened up the bolts that hold them it was while putting it back together i realised i had stupidly put one of the tufnel blocks on back to front and that was causing the misalignment idiot anyway we sorted everything out checked it whilst in harbour and it all seemed smooth the proof would be in the sea trial when we moved on before we did that we thought we might move down to the town dock which is more convenient for the town as the katabatic winds were hitting 40k and dragging us and the jetty we were on about once that calmed we headed down made a hash of coming alongside and shearing another of stan s bolts in the process and then a truck pulled up and someone came running over to us surely not to move us on no just letting us know we had front row seats for a music concert that night the music in question turned out to be viking metal and luckily for us this was the fourth gig they d played that day the audience was very small and 20 minutes later they were packing up and heading home never have been a fan of heavy metal and the brief hearing we had a viking metal has not changed our minds so we think we had a lucky escape phil and linda called the following day just as we were clearing off the dock wanting to know where we were and we made arrangements to meet up in a few days in husavik where they currently were the winds would be better and stronger further north of us so we motored up the coast to an open bay to anchor this is an incredible country for back drops and despite the slight roll we had through the night the anchorage at horstroend was very impressive an hour or so of motoring the following morning had us into the wind belt and we were on our way the absolute joy was the fact that the attention we had given stan had paid off and we were able to relax and not fret about hand steering as with most headlands the currents can be difficult in a wind over tide situation so we d planned on staying at least 5 miles off and thus we found ourselves back in the arctic circle albeit briefly it was here that we watched the sunset at 1 30am only to rise again 76 minutes later with little change in the daylight in between rounding the headland heading south passing islands alive with puffins and into husavik which claims to be the whale watching centre of iceland as it may well be certainly there is no shortage of boats for punters to climb aboard to see the whales as we found out when we approached the harbour with cruises returning or heading out at speed but we found a berth and phil let us know he d found a local with a sailrite who could repair the sail roderick is swiss but has opted to live and work in iceland and he made short work of the repair that very evening after he d finished his stint on one of the sailing whale boats we were back in business husavik has a remarkable backdrop snow covered mountains seem to surround us hannah and windora left husavik within an hour of each other it is a good place to stop electric and water included in the 2000isk about 13 a night fee supermarkets running trails and as ever the most amazing backdrop of snow covered mountains dropping to the sea flatley but we were heading across the bay to an island called flatley with perhaps a dozen summer houses church and a community hall but who knows how many thousands of puffins and terns at each of the landing points on the island a bin with sticks about a metre long for visitors to carry as they wander around the island they re really needed if you venture into tern territory as the birds will attack anyone they see as an intruder by diving at the highest point your head unless you re carrying a stick pointing vertically above the head to give them something else to aim for our object was to see puffins and we didn t have to go far windora had anchored in the pool with a line ashore and we tied to them astern the shore was perhaps 10 metres away and there were hundreds of puffins stretched along the shore watching us watching them a stroll through the houses and onto the cliffs revealed birds everywhere and we spent ages snapping pics as they sat or launched themselves into space away from us a nearby island grimsay has a huge puffin colony too but the birds don t react to humans in the same way simply ignoring them for the most part we assume that with grimsay being uninhabited the puffins don t see humans as predators whereas here they re closer to human habitation and their need to have puffins as part of their diet we moved out of the harbour and onto a convenient quay and both boats left for harbours further west after a day or so windora with its powerful engine and 4 blade prop easily leaving us behind as we plugged on in lightish winds to make our way over a headland before the nw winds came in it was a pity really as the combination of a potential head wind and trying to remain in company meant we missed out on some neat places as it was we anchored for the night in a bay that on the chart seemed to have scant potential but was very good and apart from a few local skiffs we had to ourselves the following day we beat down to isafjorour where we thought windora might be the entrance was interesting with the local airfield alongside it and the channel open to the wind but once through we had a large enclosed bay before us and a sharp right hand turn took us down toward the town the only boats in view were local and it turned out that all the cruising boats including windora had congregated on the docks needless to say we opted to anchor where we could lie in comfort and light the wood stove without possibly annoying the neighbours by the following day almost everyone had left for greenland a destination we had in mind but were now unsure of the ice in scoresby showed little evidence of moving and the option would be to head further south and it then became a do we go just so we can say we went type of discussion but there was also for me the thought do i really want to cross the denmark strait twice to simply gain those bragging rights undecided to the very end but we checked out or tried to whereas the other boats us oz nz had been able to check out via the police station we needed to complete a form online and email it and still not sure why anyway by the time we left we had little of the favourable tide left a head wind and a feeling that this wasn t a good idea not a good start after several hours of tacking we managed to clear the headland found the wind had veered more to the nw and picked up which put heading directly w to gl firmly off the itinerary we called the coastguard to let them know our change of plan they didn t think we would need to check back in as we hadn t left territorial waters and only intended to stay another two weeks in iceland we headed down the west coast with a destination in mind and a decent breeze as night fell winds were gusty but ok but with a headland to round we were torn between staying as close as we dare and standing off to avoid the dangerous squalls that can be generated by the downdrafts in the end we chose a middle path and suffered for it as the winds picked up dramatically leaving us scrambling to reduce sail once past all calmed down and became enjoyable by now we were about 10 miles north of reykjavik but our ...