The Launch

15 July, 08.00 sees the start of the launch. Unfortunately, everyone involved seemed to have different times in their minds for the gun and so chaos reigned.

But by 09.30 Phoenix was in the Tamar and floating - no-one was more relieved than Mike! 

After asking for Gods blessing on her and all who sail in her and baptising her with a can of Mike's favourite McEwans, Phoenix, Mike and Pete left the safe haven of Calstock and headed down the river towards Plymouth.

Here follows another 'unfortunately', 15 July brought with it a force 8 and so instead of playing around the Sound or even out to sea they had to hide in Sutton Harbour for the night. The weather calmed on the 16th and they sailed around Drakes Island before returning to Calstock where work on preparations continued.
 
Couldn't resist sharing the next video - Mike after a hard days work.
 

Phoenix - size matters

Phoenix is built from 11mm plate steel - wobetide any pirate who gets in her way! She'll run the buggers down! She was built in 1975 by Yachtbouw Nord, Netherlands as a blue water cruiser capable of taking on the oceans of the world. She weighs 17.5 tons - its no yacht it's a ship - or thats what the boatyard chaps at Calstock tell me - who have never pulled out anything half as big. It's a Suncoast 42 with an overall length of nearly 50'. Powered by a London bus engine built by BMC. She has two masts and four sails - she's no slouch. We had over 10 knots out of her off Dartmouth on her maiden voyage.

Gor, she's a bigun

Out of the water she came. The first attempt was aborted as the tractor just couldn't manage. More pulleys and winches were required and eventually she was chocked up on dry land under the direction of Warren (recently deceased) at Calstock Boatyard.

10knots

We collected her from Poole harbour in March 2009. The owner had gone abroad so no instructions had been left on how to make her work. We didn't even know how to fuel her. But the intrepid crew fought through force 1 winds to sail her across Lyme Bay on her way to Calstock.

The Adventure Begins

One bright March morning in 2009 Mike bought Phoenix and brought her from Poole to Plymouth. His intention was to modernise her and sail her round the world. In February 2010 he hit a snag. He met and fell for Alison who had never sailed and hated the sea! The plan changed and on 11 August 2010 Phoenix will set sail for the Med where Mike will teach Alison to sail.

This blog is the first either of them has written - hopefully it will improve as the story progresses.