Race 3 - 2021 Spring Series

16 May 2021 Upnor, Kent, UK

A quiet, sporty and wet race this week. It was going well right from the start, we had plenty of beer as we boarded Astral with both Andy and I bringing beer, in addition to a big crate of Stella already on board. We slipped the berth for the 9am lock and were joined with Elite Sailing’s Spirit and Lightning. Lock out took a little while and wit... Read more

Race 2 - 2021 Spring Series

09 May 2021 Upnor, Kent, UK

With the first race of the shortened 2021 Keelboat Spring Series abandoned due to lack of wind, this was the first real race. A 10am start with five boats, fewer than usual with many still on the hard due to COVID mixing things up. There were five boats racing, two in class 3 ‘white sails’ and three in IRC, class 1. With so few boats a start fro... Read more

Dent Reckoning

23 May 2020 Marylebone, London, UK

The dents are gone! I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner… There have been two dents on the car that have been driving (hah!) me crazy for months now, one was on the rear quarter which has obviously been caused by somebody opening their door, not very big but it stood out when I was washing the car or whatever. The other was much more severe ... Read more

Cocked Hat

22 May 2020 Upnor, Kent, UK

Wednesday’s Day Skipper lesson was great. The Zoom format continues to work very well and I’m enjoying being able to be in my own space and not have to worry about other people. We covered some interesting topics, how to calculate bearing, position fixing, and compass variation and deviation, which was a new concept to me. We also covered tides ... Read more

Lower Upnor Through the Years

28 Sep 2019

I came across some old photographs of Lower Upnor the other day and wanted to share them online. I’m not too sure when the older pictures were taken or by whom, but perhaps somebody will be able to help. They show an fantastic glimse into how upnor has changed over the last 70 or so years. This first picture (above) is the most recent, taken in... Read more

Medway Regatta 2019

01 Jul 2019

The Medway Regatta is a big weekend of racing for all classes of keelboat. There are races for Sonatas, Squibs, Dragons, Cruisers and even Thames Barges! The past few years I’ve focused my time underwater rather than on the water but not too many years back I used to spend time sailing dinghies on the Medway in the cadet class. This year I had t... Read more

February 2017 - The Missing Blogs

05 Dec 2017

February started with friends, having dinner out and settling into our new home after a busy Christmas and beginning to the year. We spent time absorbing Upnor, taking walks along the beach and past the castle, enjoying the pub and surrounding area. We watched as the boats slowly begin to re-populate the river, the process is now an unexciting a... Read more

Our First Home

06 Nov 2016

Quite frankly I’m confused as to why this was not on the list - it has been one of the most exciting, stressful, rewarding and challenging things that I/we have ever done. As I write, we’re just over two weeks in and it’s only now beginning to feel real. Victoria and I had lived in a relatively small flat together for just over four years - alm... Read more