Articles by Jill Dickin Schinas
Decathlon Oilskins / Guy Cotten Oilskins
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 16th of February 2010 in Gear Tests • No Comments
Rox modelling the Guy Cotten oilskin smock
Oilies have come a long way since I was a kid. Way back then, we wore either heavy-duty canvas smocks or stiff, plastic-coated cotton ones. I guess the plastic-coated cloth must have been the hip new thing. Next to come along were thin nylon jackets more suited to trekking in a light drizzle than to fending off buckets of seawater, but the quality of these garments rapidly improved – the nylon cloth became thicker and more waterproof, and the design became more ergonomic – until, by the 1980s, sailors could weather the storm in comfort in a tough, cosy oilskin jacket with matching chest-high trousers.
Since then the colours have become trendier, the cloth has become even more high tech, and prices have rocketed.
A set of ocean-grade oilskins can now cost as much as £900.
But are these top brand oilies really any better than the cut price ones, or are we yotties being fed a load of hype and taken for a ride? Your impecunious correspondents set out to discover the truth of this matter. (more…)
Some Canary Islands Anchorages
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 16th of February 2010 in Logbook • No CommentsGiven in good faith, but not to be taken as gospel.
These brief notes cover a mere handful of anchorages, commencing in the north-eastern corner of the archipelago. (more…)
The Search for a Suitable Sailing Tender
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 2nd of February 2010 in Gear Tests • 1 Comment
One of the all time favourite pursuits of a sea-going child is messing about in a boat. But not the big boat. No, if your seafaring youngster is under the age of twelve then handling the mothership will probably hold little allure for him; he (or she) simply won’t have the strength to manage the genoa or the patience to helm for more than half an hour on the same heading. Big boat sailing is actually quite boring for little children, which is why they need to find other amusements while you are on passage. But messing around in a kiddy-sized vessel is another matter. For the smallest sprats a rowing dinghy is all that is needed, but a sea-thing of six years or over is missing out in a big way if he doesn’t have his very own sailing ship. (more…)
Racing Passage to Cape Verde
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 19th of January 2010 in Logbook • 5 CommentsThere were three ships went sailing out, went sailing out, went sailing out,
There were three ships went sailing out on Christmas day in the evening.
On passage again, at last!
It was almost four months ago that our aged sails fell apart and our engine parted company with the gear box. We still haven’t solved the first of these problems; the salvaged pieces of the roller furler were straightened and reassembled, and the old rotten sails were cobbled back together, but our efforts to invest in a brand new set of wings went awry. More on that subject another day. After we finally got the boat back into a state where she could put to sea the Ship’s Engineer then spent two full months re-designing and rebuilding the transmission system. And then, after a few other bits and bobs had been fixed, we were almost ready to leave the Canaries. (more…)
Cruising in the Canary Islands
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 22nd of December 2009 in Logbook • 1 CommentGiven in good faith, but not to be taken as gospel.
Herewith, some general notes for the benefit of other visitors.
The information is arranged in the traditional form, beginning with a few paragraphs concerning such matters as history and flora. If you deem these things to be irrelevant to your needs as a yachtsman, just scroll down the page. Eventually you will find the nitty-gritty: an appraisal of the local winds, and a few words regarding local customs… (as in Customs and Excise). (more…)
Xmas Lynx
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 12th of December 2009 in Scrapbook • No CommentsTo celebrate the Christmas season and greet our friends and readers Roxanne has made a watercolour painting of an Iberian lynx padding through the snow. (more…)
Can We Save Our Sealife – or is it too late?
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 12th of December 2009 in Scrapbook • 2 Comments
Life on the Ocean Wave, by Jill Dickin Schinas (Oil, 55 x 46 cm)
Well, it’s that time of the year again – and we’re still little nearer than we were last Christmas to our Southern Ocean goal.
As you can no doubt imagine, we spend a lot of time dreaming of the journey ahead. The admiral’s latest painting brings this dream to life; it shows Mollymawk flying along amongst a flock of assorted seabirds, through a sea filled with fish and other animals. No, it isn’t really quite like this, out there on the ocean – we seldom find ourselves at the centre of a throng of birds; and certainly, one could never expect to see mollymawks and tropic birds on the same sea…! This picture is a intended as a synthesis of the life on the ocean wave.
When we think of the passage south through the tropics and into the Southern Ocean, we think of the dolphins which will come to visit us and the whales which we will glimpse; we think of the shearwaters and the tropic birds; of the turtles; of the fish; of the mollymawks, or albatross… But then a little pang strikes our hearts: will the “mollies” still be there when we finally make it down to their end of the world? (more…)
Sea Dogs
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 1st of December 2009 in Scrapbook • No CommentsTwenty years ago one hardly ever came across a yacht which had livestock aboard, but now seadogs and ship’s cats are a common sight. Sailing chickens are still a rarity, as are toads and snakes, and we have yet to come across a parrot – although we did once meet a chap who had just lost his parrot overboard… (more…)
Coppercoat Antifouling On Test
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 10th of November 2009 in Gear Tests • 10 CommentsWell, almost a year has passed since we slipped the boat and slapped on a coat of copper antifouling. So, it’s time we let you know how things are doing down there, under the water.
To recap: Before we built Mollymawk we used to own a GRP yacht, and a year or so before we sold her she was painted with Copperbot, the original copper-impregnated epoxy antifouling. This type of antifouling is said to be less damaging to the environment than any of the metal-leaching kinds, but it was a very new thing at that time and we knew that we were taking a gamble.
Happily, the gamble paid off; that copper paint was fantastic. The boat once spent three months in a French marina renown for its fouling, and while the other yachts all acquired lush gardens and pet eco-systems on their undersides, our boat stayed absolutely and perfectly clean! (more…)
LED Anchor Lights
by Jill Dickin Schinas • Published on the 3rd of November 2009 in Gear Tests • 2 Comments
Some years ago we found ourselves drifting along under full sail on a night with no moon. We were not going far, and we had hoped to be at anchor before nightfall, but since there was no wind – and since we don’t believe in using the engine except in time of need – a two hour sprint had been transformed into an eight-hour marathon.
So there we were lazing along at scarcely half a knot, with our island destination on the bow, when suddenly from out of the darkness there appeared the dark and indistinct shape of a yacht at anchor. We had been gazing in this same direction for five hours, and yet we didn’t notice the yacht until it was about four boat-lengths away. Had we been travelling just a tad faster – at two knots, say – then we would have T-boned it.
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