Season 1

This image is not MB, but a brand new Sun Odyssey 410 we photographed last July on her way to the UK. The schedule from Beneteau indicated that Missy Bear (MB) was due to leave the factory at Challans on Mon 21 June, arriving at Canet-en-Roussillon on Wed 23 June. At this stage, the boat is transported by lorry, all wrapped up what looks like cling-film. The mast has obviously not been put in place, but is also wrapped and transported as well. We are the proud parents from th

Thanks heavens we have a convertible! Roof back up. Vacuum bags are a genius invention. We had set ourselves a challenging problem: to transport the entire needs of a two-bedroom floating apartment, into a convertible sports car. Yes: bedding, duvets and pillows for four berths; kitchen-ware for the galley; his and hers clothes for 6-months; various boat tools and kit, including our snorkelling gear for underwater snags; first-aid kits; computers, iPads, Kindles, and all the

Negatif pour le Covid. And breathe... Another hurdle successfully negotiated. Alix and I had already done an Innova antigen test last night, and we each got a negative result. But there's always a chance of a false positive when the formal test was done this morning at 10:00. So we were slightly apprehensive en route to Liddington to visit ' Racoo Screening '. The set up is basically two guys in a shipping container in a field. The set up didn't look too much like ' laborator

MCA Exciting news today; Chris has emailed us some vital statistics, including our hull identification number (HIN) - a long number. Missy Bear will be Beneteau's hull 095, i.e. we thinks she's only the 95th Oceanis 40.1 they have built? Anyway, the HIN allows us to register her at the MCA through the 'Register of UK Vessels Part III' (form MSF 4701), otherwise known as the Small Ships Register (SSR). We will get her SSR number as result at a princely cost of £35.00. We spen

Our contact cards.

It's hard to keep up with the situation. We were convinced that the recent announcement, by the French, to effectively ban Brits from travelling to France from May 31, would be in place for several weeks. To my immense surprise, we were wrong. Last Monday, the word was out that the restrictions would be relaxed on June 9th. And indeed, France has officially announced the new rules. From June 9th, the UK will be on France's ' amber list ' which will mean some restrictions are

M. Macron As of Monday May 31, all the planning we have done has been thrown up in the air by M. Macron. Up until that point, Brits were able to have a ' compelling reason ' to travel to France, which included the need to complete contractual obligations. The handover - to us of Missy Bear by Sunbird in Canet-en-Rousillon - would have constituted such a ' compelling reason ' and Sunbird/Beneteau were happy to provide us with the necessary letters to get through border control

This an email I have just written to all potential crew. " Dear all, I apologise for the generic nature of this email, but, if you are receiving it, you will have expressed an interest to me or Alix to be part of Missy Bear's voyage from France to Turkey this year. I wanted to give you all an update on our plans, albeit the numerous issues (post Brexit Long-Term Visitor Visas; VAT export requirements; Covid-19 travel restrictions etc.) continue to require a fluid outlook.

Chris has confirmed now by email that the Factory date is Week 25 (for factory completion). This is the week June 21st to June 25th. Sunbird normally allow three weeks for delivery and commissioning, so the worst case would be the Friday 16th July for Handover date. They normally like to try and handover on a Thursday, so allowing a working Friday to sort any teething issues. The date might be earlier, but assuming it is not, this would mean sailing Missy Bear across the bord

The hull of a 40.1 being fitted out Chris called us a few days ago to announce yet another delay (2 weeks), due this time to a computer hack at Beneteau (which also hit Renault and other companies). Of course, he was not informed; clearly Beneteau's phone system must have gone down as well! He was also not informed that our " determination date " had been and gone and that Beneteau had already cut the timbers for the joinery. We had explored with Chris that we might defer the

Looks like launch date has been pushed back to early July 2021! That means we will be heading around the south of France in the peak and very busy summer season and the leisurely cruise eastwards will be much more time bound. We were chatting to Chris a couple of weeks ago about boat details and enquired about the delivery date from Beneteau, but when he looked on the system he realised the April date had been pushed back to " Week 23 ". We said that we were not happy with th

Schengen countries. One of the practical implications of Brexit is possible changes to travel within the EU: On January 1, 2021, UK citizens will probably continue to have visa-free travel within the EU countries, but only for 90 days within any 180 days (backward looking, rolling calculation: https://ec.europa.eu/assets/home/visa-calculator/calculator.htm?lang=en ). Interestingly, EU countries that are outside Schengen, e.g. Croatia, Cyprus, do not count towards this total

I had already spoken to North Sails on the south coast, but Chris also posed the question to his local rep Jim, in Scotland. This is what he replied: " Hi Chris, The G-Zero will be the easier sail to use but the G-1 will enable them to sail lower angles downwind, the G-Zero generally works well down to 140 true wind angle but the G-1 can go down to 160 TWA. The G-Zero would furl bottom up with the cable in the luff of the sail and operate in a similar way to a large genoa. T

Alix and I had a Grand Tour this week. We managed to get to Harlington to see my parents for the first time since lockdown, which was lovely. The weather was a bit suspect, so we ate the picnic that we had brought indoors. As Mum and Dad are still shielding a bit, and staying over is still too risky, Alix and I headed to the Yokshire Dales and had a pleasant overnight stay in the Royal Oak, Ripon. Next morning we had a beautiful drive across the north Pennines towards Cumbria

We have decided to go electric for our outboard. The petrol four-stroke outboards can be quite heavy, so we may have needed a davit to get it in an out of the dinghy. Plus, to get a dinghy on the plane a 4-5hp engine would probably not manage it. Then there's the dodgy starting; the oil, the smell of petrol; the trips to the petrol station to top up the spare can etc. The electric outboards are lighter; come apart for ease of use/transport; are quieter; have fewer working pa

Chief Electrical Engineer Titley bought this book on our little detour to Lymington en route from Aubeterre. It's an excellent book from Fernhurst, my own publisher: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skippers-Practical-Handbook-Richard-Crooks/dp/0470059710/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 We have been reading it together and have tried to come up with our expected daily electric budget in Ah. We will have a 60Ah engine battery and an upgrade to 4 no. 100Ah AGM batteries, giving us

We have been having a bit of fun with the logo; a play on Ursa Major and the north star. Lots of symbology to be had, so you can interpret it any way you like. Alix chose the colour scheme. The G0 is a north sails NY90 fabric with a ' Full Horizon ' cut. This should not be too light as to rip, but not too heavy so as not to fly. If the wind is a bit strong, we would probably not be flying the G0 in any case. My first sketch of the logo. Final design to send to sailmakers. .

Cheers! No going back now! We have just signed the contract and schedules and received signed copies from Sunbird! So it is official: we are buying Missy Bear! We had a celebratory Fizzy Friday yesterday at the Golden Cross last night (bottle of Lauren Perrier). Here is a new video of the 40.1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3j1LOsbT2U

We emailed Richard at Greek Sails to say that, sadly, we had decided to go with Sunbird, partly because they give us the option of an ex-VAT location at Gocek. A day later he leaves me a voice message to call him. Alix and I pick up my mobile phone and call Richard, slightly apprehensive that he will be upset that he has wasted his time helping us spec the boat. How wrong we were! Richard said he totally understood our reasons for going with Sunbird, especially with the un

Tony in Bonne with a beer after he and Rachelle helped us with the specification. Tony and Rachelle came to stay chez nous in Aubeterre. Lovely week, including a wine tour to Blaye (Monconseil Gazin) and a couple of canoe trips down the Dronne. Ofcourse, there was a bit of discussion about the boat. Some of the discussion was about unknowns, such as how long we would be able to spend in EU waters per year post-Brexit. But some discussions were downright practical: should we