Did We Just Step into the Bahamas?! (MJ Sailing – Ep 158)

With crystal clear waters and white sand beaches, one might think we’re in the Bahamas….instead of much further north in England.

After arriving to the island of St. Agnes, Matt and go on a circumnavigation, and at times are hard pressed to tell if we’re in the Bahamas or in England. It’s the perfect mix of clear turquoise waters, white sand beaches, and cute stone cottages next to looming rock formations.

We also enjoy a BBQ on the beach with our friend Walter, who happened to make the trip over from Plymouth at the same time as us. Getting back to our tenders in at dusk was fun…especially when they pulled out their extra bright headlamp to light our surroundings.

Before it was time to leave St. Agnus, the two of us stopped into the Turk’s Head for a pint of Cornish beer. Not only does it have beautiful views of the harbour as you sit in their outdoor garden, but it also happens to be the southern most pub in England. A pretty cool thing to check off the list of places we’ve visited in our lives.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Our BEST SAIL YET! We Can’t Slow Her Down!! (MJ Sailing – Ep 157)

We wanted to work our way west along the coast of England, but when some good north winds came along, we chose to ride them 90 miles to the Isles of Scilly. There's a notorious spot called The Lizard, where if you time the tides wrong, you're looking at very built up and uncomfortable seas.

We left from Cawsand Bay around 2 pm, with the hopes of averaging 4.5 knots of speed, to put us at the Lizard around 1:30 am. Our only problem? Elements was having the sail of her life and DID NOT want to slow down! Shooting out of Plymouth Sound at 8 knots, we kept reefing and minimizing headsail, but there was no way we could get her down to that 4.5 knots we were aiming for.

We did end up getting to The Lizard about two hours early, but because we stayed 5 miles offshore, and had the wind and current coming from the same direction, it was a non issue. We were able to continue on and make it to the Isle of St. Agnus in the early morning.

So many great places to explore here, and we're so happy to have you along for the ride!

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

As Long As The MOST IMPORTANT Crew Member Is Happy…. (MJ Sailing – Ep 156)

It’s always all about HER. The most important crew member on board, and the one that always needs the most attention. And it’s our job to keep that little furball happy.

We do a lot of exploring from where we are anchored in the River Lynher in Cornwall, just outside of Plymouth. Georgie gets to go ashore in Wacker Quay, and then later us humans take the dinghy up to St. Germans to see their viaduct.

When the weather lets up from the strong winds we’d been having, we go a few miles down to Barn Poole in the Plymouth Sound, and take a trip ashore to see the famous Edgecumbe Estate. A Tudor style home built in the 16th century, which suffered massive damage during a blitz in WWII.

There’s so much beauty and history in this area, one could spend weeks cruising all the nooks and crannies of the greater Plymouth area.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We ESCAPED LOCKDOWN!! – Ready to Start Cruising Again (MJ Sailing – Ep 155)

First we thought we’d be leaving the marina at the beginning of April, but after COVID, that idea was pushed to mid-May. Well, while day sails were allowed, it wasn’t until July 4th that cruising became permitted again and we were let out of lockdown to begin our season.

As we’re released from our marina, we wanted to keep close and see all the sights of the Plymouth area that had been off limits to us as cruisers for the past few months. Heading up the Tamar River, we branched off into the Lynher River where we found a nice secure spot just before Dandy Hole to drop our anchor.

And although there is a lot to see by boat and by dinghy, before we could get too far away from Plymouth, we had our friend Alasdair (@bongo_sails) drive us into Dartmoor National Park for a hike around the reservoir. It was the perfect summer day in England, and walking through some of these trails, we could have sworn we were in a story book.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

CATAMARAN LIFE: Is This What Our Future Looks Like? (MJ Sailing – Ep 154)

It’s time to get a real feel for sailing on a performance catamaran in the size range we’re looking at – between 42-45 ft. This week we find ourselves on something just slightly larger, a Dazcat 1495 named Hissy Fit.

For our day on the water, we try to find out how we feel with the size of the living space, how the boat handles vs the monohulls we’ve been cruising on up to this point, and what we think of the motion of the boat under sail.

Suffice to say, we’re pretty smitten, and once again, very much looking forward to our catamaran build so that in a few years we’ll be out cruising the waters just like this.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Simon and Darren of Dazcat Multihull Center for taking the time to bring us out for the day and answer the large number of questions we had about catamaran design and building. Your thoughtfulness and hospitality never ceases to amaze us!

https://www.multihullcentre.com/dazca…

Enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We Can’t Sell Our Boat! – OR Sail it Out of England!! (MJ Sailing – Real Time Update)

The good news is, our boat has been released from lock-down, and we are now able to cruise full time on the coast of England. The bad news is, for all the plans and back-up plans we’ve been making for the year, we can’t seem to achieve any of them.

What we had WANTED to happen for ourselves in 2020 is that we’d spend the spring and early summer enjoying England, and then move ourselves down to Spain or Portugal where we would list her for sale, and hopefully and American or Canadian buyer would scoop her up, and we’d be on our merry way back to the US to begin our catamaran build.

But as it stands, as of today, Americans and Canadians can not get into the UK to see the boat, without having to go through a 2 week quarantine period first. Our next thought was, “Ok, we’ll sail her down to Spain/Portugal, where they’ll be able to view the boat there”. But…currently, residents of the US are not allowed into the EU. Which means that potential buyers can not get in there, and neither can we.

The last option is to sail Elements to the US to sell her, but now we’re entering hurricane season, that can’t be done until Nov/Dec. Long after our UK visa has run out. So many unexpected issues, but we’re trying to make the best of it all! And considering the beautiful cruising grounds we have at our fingertips at the moment, that isn’t too hard.

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Maybe Next Week We Can Go SAILING? (MJ Sailing – Ep 153)

Full time cruising still isn’t allowed yet in the UK, but that won’t stop us from enjoying the water.

Hearing there was a race on the Plymouth Sound, we jumped on our bikes and cycled out to see the action. We didn’t have enough notice to get on a boat this week…but maybe next time?

Ending our day early due to weather and a pants mis-hap, we save the rest of our adventuring for another day.

When we do get out though, it is to the stunning River Yealm and the town of Noss Mayo. Hiking from the picturesque center of this posh town, we walk the waterfront to see the place we thought we’d be for half of May. Walking up the bluff to the river entrance we also spot a popular anchorage used just inside the harbour, and one outside that is permitted for anchoring now, but usually exposed to a swell.

So many things to explore in the area, and hopefully soon enough we’ll be traveling to visit them by boat!

Enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Maybe Next Week We Can Go SAILING? (MJ Sailing – Ep 153)

Full time cruising still isn’t allowed yet in the UK, but that won’t stop us from enjoying the water.

Hearing there was a race on the Plymouth Sound, we jumped on our bikes and cycled out to see the action. We didn’t have enough notice to get on a boat this week…but maybe next time?

Ending our day early due to weather and a pants mis-hap, we save the rest of our adventuring for another day.

When we do get out though, it is to the stunning River Yealm and the town of Noss Mayo. Hiking from the picturesque center of this posh town, we walk the waterfront to see the place we thought we’d be for half of May. Walking up the bluff to the river entrance we also spot a popular anchorage used just inside the harbour, and one outside that is permitted for anchoring now, but usually exposed to a swell.

So many things to explore in the area, and hopefully soon enough we’ll be traveling to visit them by boat!

Enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Test Sailing a Performance CATAMARAN – What Do We Think? (MJ Sailing – Ep 152)

We get the chance to go out sailing on a Dazcat 995, and find ourselves racing a Dazcat 1195 as soon as we’re out on Plymouth Sound!

After one of our viewers had seen us take a tour of the Multihull Center, with his boat featured in the background!, he jumped on the chance to invite us aboard since the boat had recently been launched. Julian is partial owner of Easy Tiger, and with England having some brilliant weather at the moment, he invited us out for a day sail.

Knowing that we’re interested in building our own performance catamaran, he thought it would be a great idea for us to take a test sail on one, to see what we liked about them, or areas that may need improvement. Out on the water we were blown away at how well it performed, and it has made us even more excited to begin construction on our own.

And as if a day out on the water wasn’t exciting enough on its own, we even had the chance to race another Dazcat out to the breakwater in the Plymouth Sound, as it happened to pull out just behind us as we entered open waters.

Enjoy!

Much love from England!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

The BOAT TOUR You’ve Been WAITING FOR!! – Rebuilt 1983 Trisalu 37 Aluminum Cutter (MJ Sailing Ep151)

This is the tour you have been waiting to see for over TWO YEARS now!! If you have questions on anything we did not cover in the video, please leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to get back to you on it. Elements of Life is a 1983 Trisalu 37 aluminum cutter, that was build in Quebec. We purchased her in the fall of 2014, after she’d been sitting abandoned in a boat yard in Florida for over 10 years. After sailing from the Azores, where we had been sitting when we bought her, we were able to see her for the first time in person in 2015, and moved her from storage to a work yard to begin a complete refit. Over the course of 2.5 years, we stripped this boat down to bare frames, and built her back out again, with the vision of her being the perfect cruising boat. Everything in this boat, including the overhead, ceiling, floors, and all of the furniture, was built by the two of us with the help of cnc now china for surface finishing services. Fun bonus, we lived on the boat during the entire refit process. She is currently set up as the perfect cruising boat for a couple, with a good sized galley, two main seating areas, a quarter berth (which we use for storage) and a murphy style bed for the v-berth which folds down into the forward salon as a queen size bed. So far we have sailed her through the Caribbean, across the Atlantic Ocean, spent a wonderful 9 months with her in the Azores, and spent 2019 bringing her to the Arctic (via Norway) and down the coast of Scotland and England, where she is currently sitting. Because we’re looking to do another boat build, Elements of Life is now FOR SALE!!. If you have any interest in her, please follow this link to our website for her official listing. https://www.mjsailing.com/home-2/eleme… For any other questions, please contact us at: admin@mjsailing.com