Sailing Mowzer

Newlyn Harbour

We had a blast in Newlyn, which became our temporary home for 4 weeks. We made the very most of the lifting of COVID restrictions by catching up with family and friends who we’ve not seen over the past 18 months. We also cracked on with the last of the essential boat jobs which included installation of our solar panels, final provisioning and selling our car.

One unwelcome curve ball lobbed our way at the last minute, was Zoe’s diagnosis with skin cancer (a likely consequence of years sailing in the tropics, whilst being slack with the sunscreen). Thankfully, she was able to fast track her surgery, and the scar now blends in perfectly with her eye bags! Cue massive spend on hats, sunglasses and 10 litres of SPF50 sunscreen!

In between hospital visits, Zoe knocked together a new genoa, under the tutorage of sailmaker extraordinaire, and old friend Woody at Solo Sails in his Newlyn loft.

On 14th August, with full tanks, bulging bilges, stitches removed, new sail hoisted and with the wind finally blowing in the right direction; we said our ‘see you laters’ and untied the lines. Three years in the planning / saving / learning / grafting, we were elated to finally be off ( and just a little bit terrified!). Who knows what the future has in store, but we are beyond excited to be exploring the world together. We are hugely grateful to everyone who has helped us get to the start line – for the childcare, the advice, the encouragement and moral support.

Shakedown to Cornwall

By early July, the critical boat jobs were complete, we had flogged or recycled all of our furniture, let out our house, said goodbye to school and work friends and moved aboard Mowzer full-time. Our shakedown cruise took in the Isle of Wight, Weymouth, Dartmouth, Salcombe and the Helford River. After a lumpy passage around the Lizard, we made it into Newlyn Harbour, our home for the next month. Both Mowzer and her crew performed magnificently.

Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions about our trip or life on a boat.

Finding Mowzer

It is not easy finding a boat that is both suitable for living aboard and for crossing oceans; especially when you know very little about them. At first there seemed to be a bewildering choice and then once we’d refined our requirements there were very few, and of those even fewer that were in our budget.

A boat yard in Greece whilst looking at a Moody 425

We refined our list down to a few requirements; 40-45ft, under £100k, less than 25 years old, sea kindly, ideally with a protected rudder, slab reefing, sloop rigged, with large tanks for fuel and water, a decent living space, no aging teak decks and located somewhere we could easily get it back to the UK

Our search took us all over the UK and across Europe. We looked for Ovnis (too expensive), Oysters (too much rotting teak), Moodys (great pedigree but had our hearts broken when we were gazumped on a 44). We stumbled across our Island Packet when viewing a couple of disappointing aluminium boats in the South of France. She was in good condition having spent much of her life on the hard. She was solid, strong and most importantly, just about within budget. There were plenty of compromises, but she also ticked many of our boxes. We had her driven back to the UK at the end of 2019, just as COVID arrived. In the intervening period, between lock downs, we have replaced her engine, installed new standing rigging, installed solar panels, replaced much of the electrics, plumbing, running rigging and sanitation. We have serviced the sails, worked on the canvas, and repaired gelcoat issues on the deck. We have installed a Hydrovane self-steering vane, a new life raft, and an Iridium Go. We have serviced the heads, the winches, and the windlass. We have lost a lot of tools over the side, have spent many fruitless weekends battling seized bolts, have sometimes wept in frustration, and have spent way more $ than anticipated. Our boat job list remains dauntingly long, but we are making progress and are on target to depart in July 2021. We can’t wait to get out there…