Page 17 - SOA 108

Lost the Plot

The adventures of The Plotters in their Southerly 115 – Lost the Plot

Abbreviated article from the blog by Steve and Sharon Allen.
The Inspiration came from a sailing holiday my wife, Sharon, and I spent in
the Caribbean, Windward Islands. We spent 3 weeks sailing with friends
who had a 42Ft liveaboard
yacht and who had kindly
invited us to spend some time
with them. We spent this time
sailing, swimming with turtles
and drinking Rum.
We were hooked.
The Gently meandering River Seille. You can
But that was 7 years ago in just see LTP snuggled into the bank on the
th
2013. It is surprising how life right hand side of the photograph.19 June
2019.
can sometimes get in the way
of your dreams. We were still
sailing dinghies, Sharon being a RYA dinghy sailing instructor with our local
sailing club. 7 years is a long time, and whilst our sailing adventure was
sometimes relegated to the back burner, it was never extinguished.
We started our search for the right boat for our long planned adventure
across the Channel through the French canals popping out in the
Mediterranean and travelling via Italy to Greece. It was March 2018 when
we became the proud owners of a Southerly 115 Mk1. And as all boat
owners know, the hard work to prepare her for our extended trip started in
earnest.
These included installation of an electric windlass, a Bimini that Sharon
made, Solar Panels that I fitted into the top of the Bimini, a holding tank
with associated macerator pump, replacement of masthead lights,
upgrading internal 12v lighting to LED, etc, etc. For any fellow boat owners I
would suspect you understand the concept of a never-ending job list.
In addition to all these works we were undertaking ourselves; the purchase
survey had revealed osmosis. This we decided to have done professionally.
I am quite happy to have go at most things, but never having owned a yacht

Page 17