Prep

One advantage of six months in the same place is time to think, my case this largely involves thinking about safety, or to steal an seventies idiom " stayin alive"

So in no particular order I have installed a 'stealth'  switch in the AIS system, what this does is to interrupt the AIS transponder so it continues to receive but no longer transmits. So to all intents and purposes your vessel disappears off everyone's screen who is AIS enabled . Only to be used in case of pirate attack. Long way down the road but it's an easy modification. Probably a complete waste of time but the components only cost about a fiver so hey ho you never know.

Next on the list was a liferaft, this was a case of run around the house to get back to where you were. We looked into various options in England however costs for shipping to Northern Ireland were looking rather steep, we got one quote for £200 +VAT, needless to say we went back to CH Marine just down the canal from us

We finished up buying a just certified commercial raft which Paul down had just got in , he let us see it before a service ( inflated ) and again we compared it to a "yachty" raft, in this case a Plastimo which Paul was also servicing. Apart from the obvious difference in materials the other major difference was in the freeboard, in comparison the Plastimo was very shallow ( read WET).

Our new raft had also got an easy enter rigid entry slide ( not visible in this shot, it's on the other side) if you have ever had to get into a liferaft wearing usual foulies and wellys etc. you will understand the significance of this. More importantly it was made of heavy duty materials and just serviced. Paul and Joe also gave us some in date flares and other bits and bobs, and so the deal was done. We originally wanted the raft to be up to SOLAS B specification but we soon realised that if all the SOLAS stuff was packed in the raft it would need servicing every year as it would to all intents and purposes be a commercial liferaft, so we went for the ISO 9650 part 1 option which means a service interval of three years and we intend to carry all the SOLAS stuff in a grab bag. We now need to mount the liferaft in its canister on deck and fit some form of cradle and an HRU. ( Hydrostatic release unit, this deploys the raft automatically in the event the boat sinks ) unfortunately this means my least favourite job ever, drilling holes in the boat, best have a few dry runs to get the placement just right and put off the dreadfull day!

An EPIRB ( emergency position indicating radio beacon ) was next on the list, we also obtained this from CH Marine. A Mcmurdo G5 GPS  model.

Of course we needed to update our OFCOM licence and also inform MRCA, but it can all be done online these days, assuming you can get past the as usual, rubbish web presence of the government. It took me six attempts and a password reset to amend our existing licence.

This little thing ( when activated ) will send a distress message via satellite to the rescue co-ordination centre in Falmouth saying that we are in trouble, the beacon has a unique hexadecimal number that will identify it as our beacon, hence family will also be informed and hopefully we will be rescued, the beacon guiding our rescuers to our exact location anywhere in the world, for 48 hours anyway!

   Thinking about all this worst case scenario stuff can all be a bit depressing, of course in reality we hope that we never need any of this equipment.

However, as my very good friend Lenny is very fond of saying " it's better to have and not need, than need and not have". Quite right Len.....

 Apologies for the amount of MLAs ( multi letter acronyms ) 

Climbing Slieve Gullion

We have been having a very lazy time recently, flew home for Christmas and had a great time visiting friends and family. The ongoing list of maintainance jobs has been getting bigger and we spend a few hours snatched between bad weather to make a start on little jobs. So far we have touched up the deck paint and replaced the toe rail guard wires with one encased in plastic tube to isolate it from the steel.

Today however as the day dawned bright and fair, a telephone call from Jean Baptiste ( JB ) held an invitation we couldn't refuse, a walk, well more a climb really, up Slieve Gullion. A local peak we had been dying to get up for a couple of months. The recent snow also added a frisson of appeal so we filled a flask and booted up to accompany the "Soterias"

The plan was to climb to the south summit cairn from the upper car park past the forest park.

We started the walk from the lower car park as the road to the upper car park was closed due to the inclement weather ( read ICE ) so it was a couple of miles to walk through the pine forest to begin. We calculated we just had enough time to complete the ascent before dark with this added distance.

As we left the pine forest we could see the sea on the coast a dozen miles away. The visibility was perfect.

As we gained the top car park where the path leaves to climb to the summit JB and Besum caught us up having had to stash the car ( car park closed at 5 o'clock )

We began the rather steep and slippery climb up the heather covered hillside leaving the road behind.

The snow began to build up along with ice.

In places the path was surprisingly steep.

 As we approached the summit plateau, there were some lovely ice formations formed by the wind.

The view from the summit was spectacular however it became apparent that there was some weather approaching.

 Vicky, Soterias owner and Lynne, Dark Tarns owner at the summit trig point.

Lynne on the summit with ice formations and Mourne mountains in background.

Below the summit trig point is a cave where we retired to shelter and have a well earned " brew"

JB and Besum had carried up some wood and were determined to build a fire! It was very cold in the cave but also quite sheltered from the deteriorating weather.

The entrance tunnel would appear to be aligned with sunset.

As the time crept towards 4 pm it was decided that we should descend in order to get back to the road at least before dark, just then a snowstorm began and visibility got very much worse. We identified the descent path and everyone helped the girls down the slippery path, or held on to the girls to stop slipping, take your pick!

After an hour or so we had dropped down to the level of the road again and we stopped to admire the last rays of the sun as it set. Perfect timing!

So the crews of Soteria and Dark Tarn trudged back to the car in encroaching darkness and so ended a really nice day.