Fog?

Travel arrangements sorted... need to nip and get the grub this evening...it'll be too early tommorrow... looking for a 09:30 ish departure from Ramsgate... and with a 3 hour drive to get there its an early start.... Only real concern however is Fog in the forecast.... At least its 'fog banks' for the south coast, and only 'fog patches' for Thames Estuary..... I guess it'll be 'suck it and see' in the morning....

Ramsgate bound

OK... Will has kindly offered to help for the final leg back from Ramsgate to Ipswich on Saturday, so thats looking good.... SWMBO is OK with, or at least has accepted the inevitability of, driving us down to Ramsgate, and then we need to decide whether she shoudl drive back home, and then on to Ipswich later in the day, or straight to Ipswich, and spend the day shopping..... going home would add about 90miles to the her trip, but she could end up having to hang around in Ipswich for 10 or more hours.... an interesting challenge with the kids in tow, and an even more interesting challenge for my credit card! I've tracked down and bought the batteries.... top tip - go to a battery specilaist away from the coast.... two marine batteries identified and purchased (in stock) for virtually the same price as I was quoted for one at a coastally located chandlery..... I'll be keeping a very close eye on them for the Ramsgate leg to see what is happening in terms of charging.... I might even invest in a battery monitor..... I'm still not 100% convinced its the batteries.... but they needed replacing anyway.. so its not a bad thing.... when I get the engine started again, i'll be rechecking voltages at the alternator, drops across the cables and the splitter and see what is actually reaching the batteries.... maybe an Adverc controller would be a more sensible investment than a monitor....

Harwich bound…

OK… so that was the plan… We did however only make Ramsgate… To find out more read on… After an early start on Saturday morning, the crew had been collected, many milesb driven by respective SWMBOs, and we all found ourselves at the waterside, on the Hamble….. Things looked promising. The boat had been launched as promised, and despite having all her seacocks wide open was still afloat…. So far so good….! So, about 10:00in the morning…. A fully victualled boat, with the crew on board…. 4 hectic hours of activity, and we found ourselves ready to set off. We had bent on the sails, stowed god knows how much extra kit, got the GPS up and running, installed the freshly charged battery (taken home the previous weekend), and got the engine started which was one of my great concerns, as she had stood for 2 years prior to me buying her……in fact, she started pretty much on the first turn, albeit with the help of the cold start button, and the decompression lever…. A conspicuously good beginning! So, we slipped, and off we went…. The Hamble amazes me…. Its just hard to believe how many boats there are in such a relatively small piece of water…. Passed them we motored… As we reached Southampton Water, we raised the sails, and shut down the engine….. peace, and joy… after nearly a year of planning and research, I was at last sailing in my own boat… heaven…. If you harbour the same kind of dreams as I have done, then do it… the feeling of satisfaction is unbelievable…. Unfortunately, the wind was quite light, about 8kts, and a Southeasterly… so it was a beat up towards our first planned stopover, Gosport…. Which she seemed to enjoy enormously…. A delight to helm to windward… with the sails balanced up, she was light and responsive on the helm…. Our only real trimming issue was that the leech of the main seemed very open, and we were unable to trim this out with any combination of controls…. My initial reaction to head straight for the kicker revealed that the rod kicker (adjusted by winding up clockwise or unwinding anticlockwise) was fully cranked on… I was a little disappointed with the set of what is after all a nearly brand new set of Hood sails…. Later after much head-scratching we discovered that the kicker was actually completely wound out, to the extent that the threads had started to bind, and she appeared locked right down…. A little brute force, and on she started to wind… easy as anything after the first turn!…. the leech closed right up… and there she was… a lovely main, set like a blade… a real upwind beast! So, after 4 hours of pleasure and passing through the middle (with respect for their racing status) of a HUGE sunsail racing fleet… we dropped the sails, started the engine, and slipped into Haslar for a pleasant evening. The crew decided that the light ship was the venue for the evening, so we decamped to the lightship bar…. A very nice meal, and a couple of good pints later, and the worlds seemed good….. one of the evenings highlights being when a rather drunken member of another crew (from a SunSail fleet) spilt his beer down his oilies, and set his lifejacket off to a very loud cheer! The tide called, and an early rise of 05:00, saw us setting of for what would prove to be the longest passage of the trip, towards Eastbourn. The wind, having built slightly, still teased us, by threatening a great days sailing, but stubbornly, turning due East, meaning a thrash to windward….. we tacked across the desired course for a few hours, making good progress, and having a super sail, but eventually calculated that the required speed towards the destination would require a little better VMG, and with the threat of a turning tide, on came the engine, and we motored for 8 hours…. With hindsight this was a decision we should have perhaps made an hour or so earlier, as we ended up having to plug through the tide around Beachy Head, making a sad 2 kts over the ground. As we had motored for so long, we had used a good deal of fuel…. And the gauge was reading pretty low….not knowing how much fuel this meant we had left, with a new boat, a major concern for me as the skipper was the threat of running out of fuel approaching a lee shore entrance which is tight enough anyway, at very close to Low Water on a big spring…. So a nervous minute for two… I had briefed the crew about the need to be ready to hoist the sails again in a rush…. But, my fears proved unfounded, ands we slipped into Sovereign on the transit, and were admitted straight into the lock….. for those of you permanently berthed there…. What a nice group of guys you have running the office and locks… a very friendly welcome…. with a passage of 65nm logged, It transpired that all of Eastbourne was still shut for the winter, so we decided to eat on board, and planning another early departure, retired to bed, tired at about 21:30!. A 06:30 alarm call, and we were soon up, breakfasted, and ready to go on towards our next destination, Ramsgate…. We slipped at about 07:20, and caught the 07:30 lock….. into the lock, and as instructed, switched off the engine…. As the second gates opened, we tried to start the engine, and nothing!…. a brief panic revealed that the battery selector switch has been moved to between two positions, and switching to Engine only, we soon fired up, and away we went…. I thought nothing more of it…. Maybe I should have, as it was a warning sign of problems ahead….. A forecasted SW 3 to 4 materialised as a variable 0 to 1, with the sea at times glassy, and visibility of about 2 miles….. so we motored again! And we carried on motoring….. the wind despite threatening to appear several times, never quite made it, and we ended up motoring the whole way…. As we approached Dover the visibility started to deteriorate. Fortunately, I had set a course to clear Dover port by over 2M, so despite the visibility reducing to between half and three quarters of a mile, we did have time to spot the ferries, and take avoiding action in time. Twice the boats appeared out of the fog, in both cases silently, with no fog horn that we heard…. In one case we just saw the wash….. The tension was clear in my crew’s faces when I order everyone on deck to listen and watch, and lifejackets on. Such things are designed to test a skipper! This would have been OK, until I explain, that just as we approached Dover, despite the engine running, and having been running for 15 of the last 30 hours, we started to lose electrical equipment….. first the laptop with navigation shut down…. Then the GPS!….. I immediately disconnected and powered down any non necessary electrical equipment, especially the autohelm, and thank god, the GPS restarted and stayed up! I was by this time, plotting our position, course and log very carefully, as I am sure you can imagine!, especially, as we were within a mile of entering the insore passage through Goodwin sands, the NW passage…. Infamous as a wrecker of ships through the last 300 years! I ordered that the engine be left running at all costs, and we continued on, and sighed with great relief as the entrance transit/channel for Ramsgate appeared…. We followed ito in, and took up a berth at Ramsgate Marina….. Holding my breath, I shut the engine down, and then pressed the starter button….. CLICK….. Press CLICK… The switched was moved to the various batteries… in parallel. In isolation… all three dead as dodos…… My decision to leave the engine running was obviously vindicated!….. by why did 12 hours of motoring seme to have not placed any charge at all into any of the batteries? It was by this time, 17:30, and local business had closed for the day…. We did however, get a generous piece of help from a liveaboard boat owner in lending us a battery for the night, which provided us some valuable internal lighting…. Thanks Mark… much appreciated…. We retired to a local hostelry for a bite to eat, and to think through the potential causes… we had some breathing space, as tides suggested a departure of about 10:00 was ideal…..consensus was that the alternator must be knackered… perhaps we had inadvertently blown the diodes when we had not got the switch in the right place at Eastbourne?… but don’t they make before they break for just that reason?…. any way, the alternator seemed like the most likely culprit, so off it came at 08:30 the following morning….we took it to a local electrical business to get it tested… pretty confident that it would be the problem….. they had other jobs to do first, so didn’t get back to us until nearly midday to surprisingly tell us that the Alternator was outputting a healthy 14 plus volts…. Ah. So, we refitted the alternator, and after much testing, decided that it must be the batteries... that three would fail at once seemed highly unlikely, but they had stood for two years….. untouched… but with an wind generator connected…. However, it is possible that they had either died through neglect…. The only other component we could see was the Power Control Unit, a ‘Sure Power’ component which might have been to blame…. It however, seemed to be only dropping 0.4 volts across it, and had continuity in the right places… so was unlikely to be the culprit…. I decided that I needed to replace a three batteries, which upon proper removal where all dated 99 or earlier… so due replacement anyway…. By this time it was 14:00…. I then had a difficult decision to make…. We could cross the Thames estuary under engine….. but we had a possibility of loss of ewlectrical power…. Traditional navigation didn’t concern me…. I am confident in my ability there, but the thought of entering Harwich with no navigation lights didn’t fill me with enthusiasm… plus there were no guarantees that if we stalled the engine for any reason that we would be able to re-start it… so with a Westerly blowing, pushing on towards the Thames sandbanks, and a falling tide, I made the only sensible decision, albeit with a heavy heart, to leave her in Ramsgate for the week, and complete the journey next weekend….. So, after much grovelling to our various SWMBOs, we arranged to be picked up, and taken home….. It was hard work carrying the batteries up to the marina car-park… naturally it was low water, so big climbs up the gangplanks with heavy batteries… I took them, as I want to get them tested to confirm my suspicions, even though they are still 100% being replaced… otherwise I’ll just worry about them….. Final comment…. Lessons learned…. 1] If you don’t have a voltmeter on your battery bank… fit one! 2] When you have fuelling opportunity take it…. That extra 2 gallons could make a big difference! 3] Carry a handheld GPS as a back up… 4] Carry a handheld VHF as a backup 5] Make sure that you test your batteries before a long journey…. And replace them as a matter of course at 4 years old…. They fail quickly, and often without warning 6] Be prepared to make tough decisions… The positive for me, is that we had a good trip, with just the end being different from what was planned….. Secondly, I think that I made good decisions through out the trip… safety was maintained, and we had a safe outcome…. It would have been very easy for a series of poor decisions to have turned this into a very dangerous situation...... and most important of all…. I discovered the pleasure of owning your own boat!

Weekend forecast

Looks OK for the weekend...... bit grey and overcast maybe, but wind at about 12Kts max, but more likely to be 8Kts.... only other downsides are the risk of a bit of rain on Sunday morning and the that the wind might have a bit too much easterly in it throughout the day on Sunday, so it could be a long slog to windward.... I guess we are going to discover how well she points, how well she tacks, or whether the engine runs well without overheating for long periods!

let their be light....

Victory is the sweetest thing.... Connected my laptop up to the battery, via the recently purchased DC adapter, a wired and soldered cigarette lighter socket, and bingo.. on pops the light, and the laptop starts booting..... excellent.... we are in business..... Thats computer based navigation sorted for the trip, so at least we'll know where we are.... assuming I can get the GPS talking to the laptop.... Only remaining question is what will the power consumption of the laptop be like.... Magna Carter has two solar panels and an Aerogen 4 fitted, so should hopefully be generating enough juice to power ordinary daily requirements plus the laptop without depleting the batteries..... I do have 3 batteries on board, so relatively well provided for anyway.... Only time I suspect that I'll really need to be careful is when I use the electric windlass....... I will just start the engine before I use the windlass until i've got my head around power consumption... At some point I need to fit an ammeter to see what we are using, and a voltmeter to see what the battery status is.... Ho hum... more money....

Washboard guesswork!

OK, So I've been to the DIY store, bought a sheet of ply, cut out the washboard, cut the hole and mounted the compass..... fits lovely..... The big question, is will it fit the companion way?..... extremely unlikely I'd say... the measurements are getting very vague with time.... so theres a hell of a lot of guesswork there..... I should imagine however, that we'll find a way to jury rig it somehow or other....... Realised that having the battery for the engine at home on charge allows me to get the laptop power system set up, so thats one other task for this evening..... Its looking dangerously like I might even be ready for the weekend!

Early lunch

Spent a bit of time today, taking an early lunch, to sit down with the almanac, charts and various marina websites to sketch out some crude pilotage notes for our target stopovers, and a couple of possible refuge/alternates..... feel better for getting that done...... This evenings challenge can now be to get the compass mounted in its temporary washboard.... If I get time, I might stick a few key waypoints onto the computer..... Did I mention that before? I've bought a laptop, and Maptechs software/charts to use as an alternative to a dedicated chartplotter..... I've also bought a DC power supply adaptor for it, that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket.... I've bought a cigarette lighter socket as well, that i'll need to wire up to the batteries when I get onboard..... didn't do it earlier as I wasn't sure of the polarity, and didn't have a meter with me..... I did solder a long tail onto it... so should be pretty easy to conect up.... I also identified the relevent wires out of the GPS connector... they are now stripped down, and presented ready... and have made up a cable for the laptop with a 9 pin D type connector, and the relevant cables stripped, soldered etc etc.... simple connection of the two when I get on board, and hopefully.... voila!..... we'll see...... I'll use an electrical connector block, and loads of insulating tape as a temporary joiner, and then do something more permanent when the boat is in Ipswich..... Also, picking up on Stugeron Steve (Mr Average)'s suggestion last night... I've stuck a wireless card and the software in my laptop bag, so that I can log on in the vaious marinas if they have WiFi, and do an update... ta Steve!

packaging

Worked from home today so that I could be in when the charts were re-delivered..... They turned up at 11:45.... two sets of Admiralty Small Craft folio packs... so 26 charts in total.. but pretty well packaged up.... but WOW....they turned up in a box big enough to sleep in!..... suspect the courier is charging by weight and not volume ;) Went through my stash of sailing mags earlier... pulled out several useful pilotage articles for Ramsgate, Newhaven and Brighton.... will save time.... Still need to do my pilotage this evening.... but... I'm meeting a load of guys from the ybw scuttlebut forum this evening for a drink and a bite to eat...best put it off to another night..... I MUST do them on Thursday evening... One other thing I forgot to mention.... Magna Carter previously had a steering compass fitted by the helm that was removeable... the previous owner wanted to keep it.... which I accepted as part of the price negotiation... I have therefore had to buy a new compass (Plastimo Contest 101 bulkhead)... (another £90)... but I don't have the ability to fit it yet with the boat down in Hamble... so I measured up the bottom washboard, and am intending to make up a blank washboard, and temporarily mount the compass in it... clever little me!... only two problems.... firstly, I haven't made the washboard yet..... thats Thursday evening too.... secondly, I left the measuremenst for the washboard on Magna Carter last weekend.... fortunately I think I can remember them, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.... 93mm high, 630mm at narrowest, 650mm at widest... whats the odds on it fitting?

The family

Meant to mention that the kids, Lets call 'em C, my daughter, aged 9, and M, my son, aged 6 are both pretty excited about Magna Carter.... C decided this evening that the summer camping trip we had previously planned to the national championships of the Optimist class dinghy should be cancelled in favour of a week on Magna Carter..... didn't want to say too much out loud, but...... top kid! SWMBO, C and M are all sailing newbies.... SWMBO has done a week charter wth me and loved it, and both kids have done a little dinghy sailing, but the whole 'yacht' thing is a new adventure for them truthfully... I'm obviously keen that they enjoy sailing as much as I do, so my plan is to start the first season off pretty gently... nothing too distant, and nothing too extreme in terms of conditions... lots of pretty stop offs and hopefully good memories.... I've just turned down an opportunity to cruise Magna Carter across to the continent in company with several other boats from the Scuttlebut forum late in May, as, while I am sure that I would enjoy it, I don't want to push the family too hard at that early stage.. Oh, and what about me? Well, I've sailed since I was old enough to walk... mainly in dinghies, but about 20 years ago, I was introduced to yachts, and in a 5 year period from then, logged quite a few thousand miles..... then work, marriage, and laterly kids curtailed the sailing to the odd weekend here and there on charters, usually around the Solent, and a little corporate hospitality stuff through work... so I am one of a large number of people who have logged quite a lot of mileage, and have a fair degree of experience across many different types of boats, locations and weather conditions, but have never had to worry about the detail of boat ownership..... I for example, a few weeks back had to finally (and you might say about time really) undertake an SRC course and exam to legal for VHF radio usage So....i'm sure that later in the year, we'll be looking for a few pretty anchorages, and maybe meeting up with a few people, perhaps a BBQ on a beach somewhere?... who knows....

Why do today....

What you can leave until tommorrow..... OK, so you've guessed by now that I haven't done the pilotage notes yet...... Never mind, it'll have to be tommorrow task... and i'll need to get the travel arrangements to the Hamble and from Ipswich sorted as well.... Couldn't get hold of the previous owner... his phone has been engaged all evening... he's obviously an internet addict as well!

delivery pain

The charts I ordered yesterday were delivered today.... bloody efficient service (well done Aladdins Cave)... only I wasn't in, so they are trying again tommorrow..... delivery is a pain in the ar*e for me, being out at work all day..... Must do the pilotage tonight....... Also, while sitting on teh train this evening, thought that I better check with the previous owner as to what he has done with impellors etc... I see that there are several spare impellors, filters etc on teh boat, but I should check whether he has replaced/removed them before I start the engine!

ouch

Did I mention the £602 I had to send in the post to the Marina for the first 3 months berthing fees?

Oh.. and by the way...

This boat lark is costing a fortune.... I dread to think how much extra i've already spent on her...... flares, compasses, torch, black diamond and ball, more lifejackets, charts... etc etc etc etc etc etc..... Another £100 today on various charts... And must mention Tony and Rod... the brave fellas who are helping me bring Magna Carter round to Ipswich... I'm not sure they appreciate what they've let themselves in for yet... And trying to arrange how to get the three of us to start and finish with kit, and without spending a fortune on train fares is taxing.... ho hum... looks like i'd better start being nicer to the missus... (SWMBO - see ybw.com forums if you don't get that... and get an education!)

Let me get you up to date...

So, after a long few months of looking for a boat, and seeing some horrors, we have finally settled upon Magna Carter, a rather pretty 1976 Dick Carter designed IOR 3/4 tonner.... We completed on the purchase last week. Currently she's based in the Hamble, and as we live in the Midlands, its a bit of a haul. However, I went down on Saturday and did a few jobs, primaril antifouled her, and fitted new anodes... Current plan is to bring her round to her new home berth in Ipswich the coming weekend.... I'm nervous as hell.... its all new to me.... while i've sailed loads, i've never owned the boat before!... chatting to others, its not a feeling unique to myself ;) I've done some initial passage planning... worked out key tide gates at the various headlands (planning on doing Hamble towards Gosport towards Eastbourne towards Ramsgate towards Ipswich), and some possible departure times for fairest tides... its a big spring at the weekend, so getting it wrong won't be good..... I still need to do some research on the various marinas and some refuge ports as well... nothing too heavy, just some basic pilotage notes, and perhaps decide on a few waypoints, and that'll do...... I don't even really know what average boat speed to work with.... ho hum.... lots of things to worry about..... More to follow as the passage plan develops.......