D.I.Y.

It has been a bit quiet in the office recently. The majority of the team have been out in Rio for the Extreme Sailing Series, while from the Artemis Academy section, only Emma (media assistant) and I have been here. Despite this, there has still been a ton of things to get done, organised by Phil through a handy tool called 'wunderlist'.

The Academy owns a couple of vans, and all have been due their yearly service and M.O.T, alongside a bit of deep cleaning. So I had a few trips to Ryde and Newport sorting them out, while getting mucky giving the floors a good wash- pretty dirty after a year of sails and junk being chucked into them!

Ryde- good for a pub lunch, or fish and chips!

There was more driving to be done to collect the Mini trailer, now in good working order, while also taking numerous trips to the dump. This was because while everybody was away I took the opportunity to get the crew house back to an acceptable living standard. Quite frequently we have up to 10 people living there, with visiting sailors too- so as you can imagine, if the cleaning is left to slip the whole place turns into a pigsty. It took a solid evening and most of saturday to give the place a good clean, and another morning to get out all of the junk left behind over the years. On the plus side I had quite a good morning in Ryde, managing to find a brand new lofa sofa (red, pretty modern eh?), and then going for a pub lunch while the van was having it's M.O.T. done!

 

Lifting Jack's boat out the water

Back in the office I've been building up a good guide of price lists and retailers, looking into getting a new set of rudders made for Jack's Figaro (No. 77) and a carbon pole repaired. I'm getting to know the Island quite well, you can get most things done all within a short drive from the office.



Over the weekend I was out doing my care rounds. Doing the rounds is really just like setting up a Figaro for a kite hoist- the motto of 'less speed, more haste' is very relevant. Some calls are only 15 minutes long, while others can be over an hour. This is fine, but when you have just 10 minutes to get between properties (even if the other is on the other side of town!), you have to be very good at managing your time and thinking ahead. Within that 10 minutes travel time there is a lot to do- find the house, write down your mileage, refresh your memory on what the person needs help with, and remember how to get in. Just like on the boat, get one thing wrong and the whole thing can come crashing down. It's quite an adrenaline rush, non-stop all the time.

I've been enjoying it though, as it is a varied job- some people are easier to deal with than others, and is particularly rewarding when you gain the trust of the more anxious clients, knowing that you have learnt their routine.

I was happy to get a bit of time to myself on Sunday, going for a 3 1/2 hour bike ride. I went to take a look at the Needles, on the way going past Freshwater bay, a small cove on the south coast of the Island. There are some steep chalk cliffs which I think always looks quite romantic, and perhaps provided some inspiration to Lord Tennyson, who was made a Baron of Freshwater by Queen Victoria in 1884. You might know him for the poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. I also found out that
Virginia Wolf then wrote a play called 'Freshwater', in which Tennyson was shown as playing a host to his friends.



Not having any time to stop and write some poetry myself, I continued my bike ride, only to fall off into a hedge along a main road. I'd been using my new SPDs for the first time, which make a massive difference, making cycling much more effective. To go quicker though I will have to stop falling off!





                         Freshwater bay