[Jeroen]

This afternoon I finished the repair on the welds of the battery tray.

First thing was to see how strong this bonding glue stuff really is. I pushed with all my might on the tray, it actually bend quite a bit, but the two glued welds held fine! Quite impressive. Now how long they will hold on a car that is driven over bumpy B roads is an entirely different matter, but for now its good.



So I gave it a bit of paint. Three thin layers, with my usual black, straight onto metal/rust pain!. Of course, had the heater warm up the boot first and the can of paint came into the kitchen with me last night to warm up.



Tomorrow I will re-install the battery, job well done.

Many parts of the Spider, behind trim and so, look pretty messy and dirty. I will not clean it. This car had an anti-rust treatment 25 years ago and there is still plenty of it around. The downside is, it accumulates/attracts dust as well. But it is an almost 100% guarantee that underneath there won’t be any rust!. With the battery back in place, none of this is visible, so it does not bother me at all.

Stopped by at Johan, my friendly local car paint shop owner. He had not got around doing my Jaguar. He had some problems with earlier spray jobs and had to redo some. No problem for me, I don’t use the Jaguar that much, and even less so in the winter. We will be on holiday till mid January and he promised to have it ready for me then.

The Jaguar does need new tires, an expensive job! So does the Spider. I will remove the wheels under the Spider once I am back home from our holiday. Johan is going to sandblast and re-spray the rims. Then I will have new tires fitted. Also, Matthieu, my new car polish expert friend will come round of 24th and 25th of February to polish the Spider. So at the start of the season on 1st of March both cars will be perfect and ready to roll.

Still a few other jobs to be done too. I really ought to replace some more fuel lines on the W123 and the Spider. Also, whilst the stutter on the W123 is a lot better it is still not gone completely. Maybe I will open up the carburator and check the needle. I have got a brand new spare one and all the gaskets.

So, plenty to keep me busy in the weeks to come.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

So last night I noticed that the piece of metal holding the battery in its place was also pretty rusty.





So a quick go at it with my various pneumatic tools and within 10 minutes down to bare metal ready to be sprayed.



Safety first.



I use this hammerite paint. Goes straight into bare metal or even rust and gives a really nice finish for these sort of parts.





All back in its proper place!



No posts in this thread for a while as we are heading off to visit my mother in law in Barbados for a couple of weeks

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Whilst I was on Holiday in Barbados, visiting my mother in law, Johan called. He had finished the body work and the respray. The only thing he had not managed to get hold of yet, was the striping. But he had a few samples on the way. The problem is the striping is USA Jaguar Dealer specific, so we have to find something as similar to it as possible.

The body work and the paint looks really good



Here you can see the striping, very fine, very delicate. Lets see what Johan comes up with



The other thing was, Johan had experienced a problem with the Jaguar. Problem with the battery. It would not charge anymore, so he stuck one of his batteries into it.

I checked my old battery, had it on the charger for the last 36 hours. But this battery is definitely toast. Will not charge, in fact it throws my charger into an error message. What is remarkable; the charge indicator is still very green!!





So I ordered a new battery. First time ever I ordered one on line. Which meant re-familiarising myself with how to size a battery. Of course, it’s electrical rating is relevant, but also physical size, the poles dimension and the pole lay out.

In the end I choose a Varta. Euro 175, which is not cheap, but hopefully this battery will last at least 5-8 years. It is a bit over dimensioned. In fact this kind of battery is used on cars with start/stop engines. Mine does not have it. But mine does have whopping big 4.0L V8 that is heavy to start. And this Jaguar X308 are notoriously finicky when it comes to good, solid power supply and Voltage.

The online battery shop provides really good services. If you order it before 12.00 o’clock noon, they will deliver it the same day anywhere in the Netherlands. Six days a week. You get live tracking of your parcel and they start advising you on the ETA about 6 hours in advance. Ten minutes before ETA you get a final notification on your mobile. Very good service, free of charge. Not bad for a package that weighs in at 24 kg!! Mine arrived at 19:54 hours.



Unboxing of the battery, well packed!



My customary check old versus new part:



Here is an interesting bit you do not see very often. Even fewer people tend to know what this little tube is for:



It is the vent line for the battery. Push it into a little hole on the battery!



Of course, before re-attaching the battery leads, everything gets a bit of a check and cleaning. Of course, I have a tool to clean battery terminals and clamps!







All back in its place:



Of course, I used some white vaseline liberally on the various electrical terminals.



All my usual bits of kit back in the boot. You can see the connector for the trickle charger poking out. Not a very elegant solution, but it works.



Whilst at it, I decided to tackle two other little jobs. Last time I drove the Jaguar it was very cold. I put on the seat heater, but it was not working.

First thing to check the fuse. Believe me, on a car like this, you never go just looking for a blown fuse. There are hundreds of fuses, distributed over 7 fuse boxes all over the car. Some are under the hood, some are under the dashboard, some are under the rear seat heel boards (left and right) and some are in the boot!

Luckily the owner manual has a good overview:



Under the right heel board it is, working with the right rear door open in my garage requires some protection of paint against scraping. I have had enough body work done on my cars lately!





Fuse turned out to be fine. So next step is to check the power relay. Again, relays are even worse to find that the fuses. Most are mounted in or near the fuse boxes, but quite a few are mounted on more or less random places all over the car.

Again, the manual takes the guessing out of the equation: Would you believe it, mounted underneath the actual chair.



With the chair in its most advanced forward and up position I managed to just feel the relay with my fingertips. It seemed a bit wonky and I could push it in a bit. I hope that was the problem. I won’t know until I drive the car later this week.

The second little job was to do with the seat switch pack. It is a bit loose and falls out on the (driver) seat.



I discussed the one plug, so I could have a good look at it. It is held in place with two notches on the bottom and two at the top, near the connector. These two at the top have snapped.



I have an idea on how to fix it. I will fabricate a little bracket that goes across with my mini-mill. It will have to wait though. I will need to remove the one on the front right seat as well, to get the correct measurements.

Another little job has presented itself. One of my light tubes or the starter looks blown. I have a spare one, but I need to move the Jaguar out of the garage as it is right underneath it.



I have also ordered four new tyres, Michelin Pilot Sports 4. The two rear one are really worn, the right front one has a bit of nick, so I decided to replace them all.

I have made an appointment for the Thursday. With the Jaguar out of the garage I can fix the light as well.

I have also decided to visit Retro Mobile in Paris. https://www.retromobile.com

I have only been to this classic car show once, many years ago. As it so happens I will in Ghent, Belgium for a day, doing a photography workshop. From Ghent it is only 300 km to Paris. It did mean I had to order an emission sticker for the Jaguar. Endless emission zones all over Paris. Looking forward to it.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I have finished my preparations for my visit to RetroMobile, Paris in a few week.
I have ordered the emission sticker. I just go an email that my application is on its way. Using the email I can already enter Paris, but the sticker is better.

I have also found a nice simple hotel about an hours drive north of the Paris expo. My workshop in Belgium will finish between 17-18 hours, a three hour drive to my hotel, still time for a nice dinner. Plenty of time on Sunday morning to have a relaxed breakfast and drive to the venue to be at the gates at opening time 10.00 am. I have got my e-ticket.

Tomorrow the Jaguar will get its four new tyres? Obviously, I will be taking the Jaguar to Paris. The Jaguar XJR was made to drive across Europe!

Just took the wheels of the Spider. Johan will come and pick them up in the next few days. I still need to order some new tyres. Haven’t decided yet. These days tyres, other than size, are classified along a few simple “buying criteria:
- fuel efficiency
- performance in the wet
- noise

I could not care less about noise in the Spider. I drive it top down always and it is always a huge racket. I am not to concerned about fuel efficiency either. I only do 3-400 km per year these days. But performance on wet roads is crucial for these little sports car. Rear wheel drive, fixed rear axle. When you drive in the wet, thinking about a bend in the road will have the rear break out!

So it looks like it is going to be a Michelin, Vredestein, or Goodyear. As soon as I know when the rims will be re-sprayed I will order the new tyres.

This is how the Spider looks:





Four wheels without a car!




With the wheels removed I also checked the thickness of the brake discs. I have a special little tool. The discs, or rotors, wear down and leave a little ridge, so you need a special little caliber like this to make an accurate reading of the thickness of the disc.





All four are just under 10mm, which is fine. I am thinking of replacing the callipers though. I’m still not a hundred percent happy on how the Spider brakes, still pulls to the left. Last year we had it up on the ramp at Goof’s and checked all the suspension components. They were all good.

Haven’t decided yet. I will talk to Goof, see if he can do me a bit of a special deal.

I also took the centre out of the rims. These are very nice and specific for these rims, showing the Alfa Romeo logo:







I need to check if I can get new ones at a reasonable price.

Wheels and battery waiting to be picked up by Johan.



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

The Jaguar got its new Michelin Sports 4 today. Put the old left front tyre on the spare wheel. That was still the best one of the old four tyres.



Took it for a short drive onto the motordrive. Just to check the tyre balancing and tracking. So far so good, up to 150 km/h all is well.

This Saturday we are visiting friends some 150 km from us, so that will be a good test run. Sunday, depending on the weather, I might drive over to Dusseldorf for the annual Boat show. That will give me the opportunity to go pedal to the medal on the Autobahn.

A quick car wash, because I like my cars clean when I take them for a spin!



I have tried both seat heater. The passenger seat is working fine, but not so the driver one. So a little more trouble shooting to be done.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Last night I decided to have a go and see what is wrong with my seat heater. As always, firstly find an electrical diagram. I have an extensive library of all the manuals and technical bulletins for my Jaguar.



I had already checked the fuses. As you can see on this diagram, the heater shares a common ground with the seat adjustment electrics, and they do work.
So it would need some further probing. As the chairs had been taken out of the car to have the leather re-upholstered, my thinking was still, either the heaters themselves had been damaged or some connection was not made correctly.

I got my various mirrors and lights out to have a close look underneath the seat. The diagram shows quite a few connectors under the seat, so I moved it again in the most forward and up position and dived underneath. Would you believe it, I found a connector undone. I do not know whether I did not connect it when re-installing the seat, or maybe it became loose. Long story short; with the connector properly plugged in, the seat heater worked again! Problem solved!

Next I had a go at fixing the seat switch gear pack that keeps dropping out of the seat. Very annoying. Just because a few bits have broken off. I checked, it would mean replacing the complete gear pack at a whopping Euro 740<--. So I made some new brackets to hold it in place.

A bit of measuring and a simple design and a bit of milling:









I needed two of these. So I made one large one and than cut it into two with the mini-mill. Worked a treat!



Glued them on with my very special super Gel.





Re-installed it and it looks fine. Now lets see if it lasts!



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Drove almost 800 km in the Jaguar this weekend. Flawless performance, wafting along the motorway at some serious speeds.

Yesterday we went to see some friends in Zierikzee. Today I went to see the Boat show in Dusseldorf. It is probably the largest indoor boat show in Europe, maybe even the world? Anything to do with sailing / yachting is on display. From multimillion mega yachts, down to so simple surf board, dinghy, diving equipment etc. My secret wish is to own a nice motor yacht someday! So I enjoy roaming around these shows!

I set off this morning at 07.45, still dark, virtually no traffic on the roads. Within an hour I am barreling across the Dutch/German border and I can put the hammer down! I had the Jaguar up to 200 km/h for over 10 minutes before there was a need to slow down to a very sedate 165 km/h.

I love these sort of drives, early morning, the sun comes up as I drive along, some good music on my iPod, and a quick half way stop for a decent cup of coffee at a German Petrol station / Road Cafeteria.

As one would expect the organisation of these huge events, is well thought through by the Germans.

The entrance ticket to the show, also gets you free public transportation all over Dusseldorf. But obviously I drove the Jaguar.

Here is how the German have perfected mega event parking. Because literally tens of thousand people show up for these shows. They have massive parking lots and you get directed into a lane. The first car drives right to the end and pulls up on the left, next car right behind it, when the lane is full they do the same on left. Works extremely efficient, no queuing, people messing around parking. You just pull up behind the guy in front of you, shut down and walk! When you come back to pick up your car, you get in, pull out and drive between these endless lanes of parked cars! Very effective, very German!



I will not bother showing images of boats and yachts on a car forum, but I thought I would show this. The latest Cummins, Up to 3000 HP. think of the size of yacht to go with this. And bear in mind, many yachts will actually have two of these!









I spend about five hours at the boat show. It was still fairly early and I remembered that these days, Dusseldorf has a very interesting Classic Car

Remise: https://remise.de/duesseldorf/short-facts/englisch

It has been open for almost 14-15 years, but I have never been. But I had heard some good stories. So I decided to visit it before starting my home journey.

The Classic Remise is an old historic building that used to house locomotives. It has been completely renovated. Nowadays it houses various classic car garages, dealers, shops, restaurants etc.

Free entrance from early morning till very late at night 22-2300pm..The building is fantastic, I really enjoyed looking at the architecture of it. And the cars are quite interesting too, obviously.





Some very interesting cars, classics and young timers. You would be hard pressed to find these all together on any other location.



A pair of very nice Mercedes’s. Respectively MioEuro 1.4 and 1.1!



An absolutely loverly and near mint condition Alfa Romeo Spider Giulia



So much to see!





Interesting to see a proper Dutch Car here too; A Donkervoort!



Another car you don’t see to often:



The Remise has various commercial enterprises restoring, fixing and selling cars. But you can also park your classic car here. All these cars in these racks are here for storage, not for sale





Most of the garages and service/restoration places were closed (This was on a Sunday). So I took some images through the windows.





Also, there is lots of other (classic) kit on display. No images, but there is also a huge motor bike collection here and an original Vespa dealer!



Well worth the visit.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Wow, you have so much energy!

Way back then, when I used to visit the London Boat Show, the price was exhaustion and a severe headache. Every time!

An aside... One friend who used to accompany me was one of my first-timer crew members. I went on to become a landlubber. She went on to live aboard various vessels (currently a small tug). I heard she has just completed crewing on an 80-foot ketch, UK to Falklands! A far cry from our 1980s week or two of SW-English coastal pottering!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Way back then, when I used to visit the London Boat Show, the price was exhaustion and a severe headache. Every time!
I heard she has just completed crewing on an 80-foot ketch, UK to Falklands! A far cry from our 1980s week or two of SW-English coastal pottering!

Yes, these events are massive and you end up walking many, many miles.

My brother in law lives in Texas and last year he bought a second hand Beneteau 50. He sailed it single hand to Barbados and we met him there a few weeks ago. Took it for a bit of sailing of course. Very nice boat. All electric winches, auto-pilot, you can set the sails and everything from the cockpit.

He wanted me to come along sailing it back to the USA. Alas, I had to return home for work.

I have done a lot of sailing, but my next boat, if I ever get round to it, will be a motorboat.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I have done a lot of sailing, but my next boat, if I ever get round to it, will be a motorboat.

My friend has not only become an accomplished sailor, but even a sailor of old, traditional craft. She also turned her hand to art, and, apart from a book or two of her own, has illustrated several books for the RYA, and is a regular illustrator for one of the British yachting magazines. No motor yachts for her, I guess!

And, if I go to sea again, I'd guess it would be under sail. With a good engine as well, of course!

[Jeroen]

Bit of a bummer; last night I discovered that the driver seat in the Jaguar was beginning to look scruffy! As you might recall, I had both front seats repaired and re-painted by Joost last year.

This is on a part of the seat where he also replaced the leather. Now I know these sort of re-paint/repairs don’t last forever, but the car has driven less than 2000 km since. So I contacted Joost, he was very apologetic and is coming around tomorrow afternoon to fix it! That is good service!



Next onto the Spider brakes. I want to solve the slight tendency to pull to the right when braking. Last year Goof and I checked out the suspension, but that is fine. So yesterday evening I picked up new callipers from Goof. Actually, they are refurbished ones, so I need to get the old ones back to him. But they do look new!

New callipers cost about 4-5 times as much as refurbished. These are refurbished by the AT factory, that does a special program for classic cars.



Replacing them, I thought would not be a big job:



Getting them off the car is not a big thing.

Here is how you go about it. First make sure to extract the brake fluid from the brake fluid reservoir. Very important, in order to get the brake pads out, you need to press the brake pistons into the callipers. That means brake fluid will be pushed back into the brake fluid reservoir. If you don’t empty it out it will overflow. Brake fluid is very corrosive, you do not want it dripping all around the engine bay.

I use old used canisters to collect the extracted brake fluid. Make sure to mark them “USED”, so you don’t mix them up with NEW!

Next, punch out the retainer pins and take out the cross spring, then push the pads inward. I just use a big plier. I have a special tools for it too, but the pliers work faster.

Disconnect the brake line. Straight forward, just a bit awkward to get a standard size wrench 11 in there. I use the standard size wrench to break it free and then my stubby wrench to undo completely!

Use a 19mm socket and a big lever to undo the two bolts holding the callipers in place. I use my pneumatic wrench to completely remove them very quickly.



Lastly, make sure the now disconnected brake line does not keep spilling brake fluid. I use a piece of heat shrink that fits over it, then double down it onto itself and a tie wrap. No pressure, so it does not have to hold much, just so it stops dripping



Old and new as usual comparing them, to make sure it fits



As always, before doing a job I checked the workshop manual. I had measured the discs/rotors earlier on and I thought they were fine. Good thing I checked the manual. Whereas the rear rotors are allowed to wear down to 7mm, the fronts one are not allowed to be below 10mm. Mine are about 9.5mm.

So this morning a quick call to Goof and of course he stocks these too. So another trip to get some more parts tonight.

I also discovered some cooling liquid underneath the Spider. At the front. Very difficult to see where it is coming from. I am hoping it is just a hose and not the pump seal. Removing the pump is a PITA job on a Spider.

But with the Spider on axle stands I do not want to start the engine. So that is a job that will have to wait till I have the (repainted) rims back with their new tyres on.

Owning a classic car is so much fun. Work never stops!!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Work on the Spider brakes continuous. Earlier today I picked up the new brake discs. And this evening I went straight at it, once I have all the parts, I like to get the job done.

Studied the manual a few more times.

Here we go, this is how it looks when I started:



First job is to pry of the little hub cover, take out the cotter pin and undo the nut:





Simple enough, BUT be aware when you ever attempt this yourself. On many car these nuts will be normal thread on the right hand side and opposite thread on the left hand side of the car. The reason is very simple, as the cars moves forward the movement of the wheel/bearing should not loosen the nut. You would not be the first person to forget, or simply not know, and keep tightening and tightening the nut! Which means you will ultimately damage the bearing, as these nuts have a very specific torque requirement, more about that later.

On the right side the whole assembly, (hub, bearings and disc) came out real easy. Into my vice for some serious whacking to get the hub and disc separated.



Twenty minutes of spraying with penetrating fluid, whacking it with hammer and various other implements and the two things come apart.



The old disc is discarded, the hub gets a thorough cleaning with my pneumatic tools / steel brush and it al fits together very easily again. The new discs are usually protected by some anti corrosion layer. That needs to come off, brake cleaner does the job.





Putting it back on is pretty straight forward, just slide it all back on, make sure there is enough, fresh grease everywhere as well.

These bearings need to be loaded up, by means of of three stage torquing sequence:



First a hefty torquing, loosen the nut, tighten it to a lower torque then turn 90 degrees and see if the cotter pin fits. If not, retighten to such a position that it does.



The left hand side gave some more problems. Could not get it off, I had to use a pulley, but then it came easily



But there is a problem, the bearing locking plate is missing its little positioning lip and the rear seal was damaged too:
So looks like another trip to Goof tomorrow for more parts





Also, I could not get the hub separated from the disc, no matter what. So I sprayed even more penetrating fluid on both sides and let it soak for 20 minutes. Here you see it around the hub soon the inside of the disc. Came apart easily enough.

When dealing with rusty parts, that have been assembled for a while you need to exercise a good balance between patience (wait for the penetration fluid to work) and violence (whacking it!).



More to come tomorrow. I hope I can get the parts, so I can finish at least the work on the discs and then later re-fit the callipers.

Joost is coming around to fix the seat of the Jaguar, so lets see how much time I have for my own little jobs.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Earlier this afternoon Joost came round to fix the Jaguar driving seat.

He texted me last night that he would like to have the air temperature of the garage at least eat 10oC. So early this morning I put my air heater on and aimed it at the Jaguar with the driver’s door open. By 14.00pm the air temperature was just around 11oC and the interior of the Jaguar felt nice and warm to the touch.

First thing Joost did was to sand down the leather and give it a very thorough cleaning.





Next some treatments with various chemicals and painting with his airbrush.



It took 4 or 5 layers of very thinly sprayed paint and a spray of clear coat. But the results are impressive!



He advised me not to use the Jaguar for a couple of days. No problem, next Jaguar trip is Saturday in a week when I will be travelling to Antwerp and Paris.

I also managed to pick up the last two parts for the Spider from Goof.

On the right you can see the large holding plate. On the old plate that inside little lip had broken. That is necessary to fix it on the axle to prevent it from turning. Also a new Seal ring (left)



Putting everything back together and installing it onto the Spider went very smoothly and quickly.

First, I cleaned the whole hub and other parts of grease and put new grease into the hub and bearings.. Next I put the rear inner bearing in and mounted the brand new seal ring. Alfa Romeo has a special tool to pop this seal back into the hub. I do not have that tool, but I have a large piece of aluminium and a big hammer. Gently tapping required though!!



The hub and disc fitted together very easily, More easily then the earlier one, which took some force and heavy whacking. This one just slid into each other. Put the two retaining screws in, couple of whacks with a hammer, retighten the screws and Bob’s your uncle!



Re-attached to the car and the nut properly tightened and secured according to the procedure I explained in the previous post



Next, I installed the new callipers. Before doing so I needed to check whether the pistons had the correct orientation. You can see here the recessed area of the piston.



To check its orientation a Spider Club mate of mine had these special square gages made. Alfa Romeo has these too, but they cost a fortune, and these cost next to nothing and do the same job in an identical fashion.



Some were ok, some needed a bit of adjusting



Before installing the callipers, make sure the disc brake is really really really clean. This is your last chance with good access to both sides. Once the calliper is in place, it is impossible to reach the inner side.



The nuts holding the callipers were brushed clean. Love my little pneumatic tools, so easy for this kind of stuff.



Added a bit of copper paste.





To make sure I do not smear grease or anything else onto the disks, I put on new clean gloves before I install the calliper. Very straightforward. Just hold it in position, first insight and tighten to brake line, then insert the two bolt. Tighten everything and use a torque wrench for the correct tightening of these two bolts. (80Nm)



New pads too. I might as well replace everything. These pads are slightly different from the pads I have been using before. All my previous pads had a sort of paper/carbon backing at the back. These do not have such a backing, just steel.



I put a little bit of copper paste on the two sides and the back of the pad. This prevents any brake squealing. Careful not to get it on the pad itself!



Pop the pads into the callipers. Goes in easily, as you could see on the earlier images, the pistons are all the way in. Plenty of room. Next the lock pins and cross spring.



Voila, all done on both sides!



Tomorrow or later this week, I will refill the brake fluid and de-air the system. I will also need to do some serious cleaning in my garage. Lots of grease everywhere!

Jeroen

[Nempuguru]

This is one thread which I regularly follow on T-BHP, never want to miss a single post . Very encouraging, informative posts all along. Hats off to you Sir!

If you could pen down your Barbados logs, especially the Yacht sailing experience with photos, it would be a great read for sure.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Nempuguru

This is one thread which I regularly follow on T-BHP, never want to miss a single post . Very encouraging, informative posts all along. Hats off to you Sir!

If you could pen down your Barbados logs, especially the Yacht sailing experience with photos, it would be a great read for sure.

Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated!

I am not sure if I will ever write a whole blog on our Barbados trips. As you might have picked up from some of my other posts, my wife grew up in Barbados. It is where we met first time (in a bar called the Say When) and it is where we got married.

She left Barbados when she was 18-19 to go to university in Scotland. Once we were married we have returned every year. So I have been coming there since 1982. These last few years my wife tends to go across 3-4 times a year. Her mother is in poor health and between her brother and sister, we ensure there is a family member with her regularly.

My wife and I started living together in 82 in Brighton the UK. A colleague of her, Caroline, by coincidence, bought the house right across the street from us. A few years later she met and eventually married Philip. Even though we moved to the Netherlands Caroline and Philip have remained our dearest friends. We visit each other a lot. For years, if not decades we had been discussing planning a visit to Barbados for the four of us. It never happened, until a few years ago! The spend a fortnight with us on Barbados. Philip is a very keen fisherman and he taught me fly-fishing. So of course I took him fishing with some of our Bajan Friends.

Wayne is a very good Bajan friends of us. His wife Kathy and my wife grew up together and went to school and college together. Every time we visit Wayne takes me on fishing expeditions or we go and pick up a yacht on some of the other islands or fly out to the other island and pick up a boat.

So going wildly of topic here, if the mods allow me, here is a little video I made for Philip about our little fishing trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_qCMGlo1nc

The yacht is a Betram 57. By now she is 15 years old. She is being replace as we speak. Wayne showed us the new yacht a a few weeks ago. A Hatteras 50. Slightly smaller, but completely kitted out for one thing only: Fishing. She makes her own ice at 500kg/day to keep the fish fresh. Has two gyroscopic stabiliser and two massive 1700 HP each Caterpillar diesels! I had hoped to accompany Wayne on what is likely to be one of the last trips of Lady B Good. He was taking her to one of the other islands to get some maintenance done, before putting her up for sale. Unfortunately, poor weather meant he had to postpone the trip and I was already on my way home.

Whenever we spend some time in Barbados we usually get to do a trip on a beautiful old island schooner. Ecstasy. She is owned by the Goddard family and is used to entertain friends and business associates.

Chris, the skipper, was my best man at our wedding in 83. He grew up with my wife, for many years the families lived opposite each other. By chance when my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved to Brighton, Chris was studying in Brighton. We became very good friends.

So here another little video of Philip also enjoying a bit of classic sailing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beZT6tZuLZs

Jeroen