Summer has come at last, after long weeks of low temperatures we have now been allowed to share some of the weather that the rest of the UK has had for weeks, and so I went sailing.
I have now discovered a good way of justifying the expense, and that is to collect shellfish as I go. There is a good market for the shellfish that can be collected along the shoreline. I don’t know the Dutch word, but ‘winkles’ – like snails but they live on the rocks – can be sold to a fish agent for 1,20 sterling (about two euros) a kilo. If you find a good spot where no one else has been for a while it is possible to collect bucketfuls in a short time. So I came home with almost 75 kilos, in sacks, that had taken about six hours to pick over two days. That is not a bad rate of pay for messing about in boats! Whisper can be sailed into the tightest corners where no one else dares to go and sailed home, without the Iron Horse needing to burn fuel.
New Zealand Cup for Whisper again! 
Whisper settled and looked secure enough
Ellen says that if I come back with almost ninety sterling each time I go out for a few days I may go again, so that’s good as well.
Here are a few other fotos of Whisper at her mooring where she dries out at low water, and a view looking back from near Arisaig with the Ardnamurchan peninsular in the distance. In the last photo – if you can spot it – there is a get away from it all holiday cabin. It has the view in the other photo.
I am really starting to get a better feel for the area, The Looking for Tom Cruise might be a big success in summer 2005 (D.V.!).
One thing you may be interested in, I have solved the problem in the Coaster of the small self draining holes on the side decks. I first removed the small copper inserts which I always felt were too small. Drilled the holes out bigger so that it is now 22 millimetre. Then I made other copper pipe inserts from an old bit of water pipe and fitted/sealed them in the holes in the same way as the original.
Finally I made two ‘cowls’. These are small, almost spoon shaped covers which I have fastened outside the hull over the holes, with three screws each. They are fitted so that they are open on one edge. This is facing to the stern and slightly down. Because they are only open at the stern the water flowing along the side of the boat goes over them and a vacuum is caused which sucks the water out from the inside of the cowl. So effectively that any water on the sidedeck is simply sucked away. You really hear a sucking sound like someone enjoying their soup!
The cowl also seems to stop the water from coming in through the hole onto the sidedeck when you are sailing showing your thigh – as we all seem to have that intrepid habit of going out when the wind is too strong (and I’m naming no names here)! The photo shows the idea, there are no patents on it.
If someone knew a plastics moulding company it might be a good thing to get them made in polypropylene or some UV stable plastic. Then they could be beautiful, and riveted in place. They would also have the advantage then that they would be flexible enough to withstand any hard landings etcetera. Mine are a bit more solid.
Hope 2003 has proved fun,
Sterkte en Veel Vaarplezier,
Tom Colville
Whisper of Sunart