jobs, jobs and more jobs...

This coming weekend is a ‘doing’ weekend. We are soon off for a week’s cruising, and there are a few things that we would like to have done before we set off. Firstly, I’ll be going down alone to try and get on with the forepeak berths. This is the major task. There are a few slightly less critical jobs that I would also like to get done. These include replacing the stern light with the new one that I have. The old one is just fine other than the glass is cracked.. and its so old, that its not worth trying to source a new glass for it…. I also need to fit the voltmeter that I bought, and putting a bit of sealant around the dorade vent that sits in the foredeck, and seems to very slightly leak. During the weekend, C finally decided that owning an Oppy was not her cup of tea, and so we have put it up for sale. Within 24 hours I have had 3 enquiries, and the first potential buyer is visiting tomorrow evening with in his own words “a pocket full of cash”. The money raised from this is funding two major purchases, firstly a compressor based cooling unit for the cool box. We had toyed with getting one of the standalone coolboxes that plug into a cigarette type power supply, but having seen that they consume and average 4amps, compared with 0.74A for a fitted unit, we decided that it was worth paying the extra. Plus we get a load more capacity. It’ll be nice to have genuinely cold drinks an board rather than cool on Friday evening, getting to room temperature by Saturday evening, and mildly warm by Sunday afternoon! Secondly, we need a set of dodgers. The cockpit set up on Maggie is without coamings, typical of a 70’s IOR boat, and while this is perfectly OK space wise, it can feel a little ‘open’ and a set of dodgers will help enormously. I am hoping to measure up on Friday night, and get them made and delivered in time for our week off…. Time will tell…. I might even see if I can slip down Thursday afternoon on the way back from work and get a head start! On the subject of the cockpit, the seating area is a little limited on space as the winches have clearly been placed with racing in mind, and intrude a little when you are trying to cruise. I have stared long and hard at the location of them, decided a viable alternative exists, and will be moving them soon (but not in time for our week off!)… this will free up considerably more seating area, and make the cockpit far more inhabitable. So back to the forepeak. I’ve made the upright section, and temporarily fitted it in place. A couple of weekends back, I made a template for the first storage divider, which also forms a structural part of the berths This I will cut out this week, and then take a number of appropriately sized square pieces of wood in order to facilitate making the other dividers on board. Hopefully this will be done by Saturday evening. And with the resins and filleting compounds that I have on board, hopefully fitted. I then just need to make a cardboard template for the berth tops, which I will then cut out at home to facilitate easy transport, and finally fit them on board. I am hoping that with a bit of luck I can get back home Saturday evening to cut out the berth tops, and then go back down Sunday evening to finish them. Final stage will be varnishing, This may well (I suspect almost certainly!) mean that I have to go down a couple of nights next week in order to finish, and SWMBO is OK with this… good of her, as its school holidays, and she’ll have the kids much of the time, so she’ll be tired! I’ll probably go and live on her for 2 or 3 days, and although disappearing to work during the day, at least I’ll be able to work on her in the evenings. What we won’t have time for is to make the foam cushions, and get them covered, but we’ve decided that the pilot berth cushions will fit temporarily, at least enough to get the kids into the forepeak, and give us a bit of personal space for the evenings without having to sit in the dark! Other jobs that need doing…. I checked the oil on Sunday, and while its still OK, it’s a bit on the low side, and I need to top it up… it uses single grade 30 oil, so I need to source some, and fill it…. I’m told that most decent motor factors still stock single grade oils…. I am warned that use of multi grade will almost certainly cause the gearbox to slip…. Dire indeed! Finally, on the subject of our weeks cruise, we have decided to not be too adventurous for our first week aboard, and therefore we are planning to get down to Ramsgate, spend a day there to keep the kids happy (it’s a longish passage for the kids from Ipswich to Ramsgate – probably 12 hours), and then do a quick passage across to either Boulogne or Dunkerque…. depending on the wind… we might then come back via Dover…. Or perhaps depart via Dover…. All weather influenced of course…. The tides are actually quite friendly.. which is handy as the week off wasn’t booked with tides in mind…. The optimum departure time for a Ramsgate- Boulogne trip on the Monday is 0747….. great!…. We may also be cruising in company… I previously mentioned my next door neighbour with his shiny new Jeanneau…. He has the same week off, and he’s never done a cross channel, but keen to, so we have discussed a crossing in company….suits me… he might not want to stay with us however when we have arrived, having grown up kids that have left home, he might not fully want to fit in with our idea of a good night out finishing by 21h30!… plus we will probably want a port based day or two to keep the kids happy, whereas he might want to get on, and explore other ports… we’ll see….

Rain!

After the forecast showed good weekend weather until Thursday evening, when they decided that it would be a little gloomy, we were somewhat dissapointed. We set off down to the boat Friday evening, and upon arriving the gloom was immediately lifted, as we stepped into our 'other world'.... I am sure that many other boat owners will be able to sympathise with that feeling. We were further bolstered by a comment made by a marina neighbour..... "hey... we can't complain after 5 or 6 weekends in a row that have been great".... he was absolutely right... and besides, it wasn't cold, just a little grey.... We were intending to go down to Walton Backwaters over the weekend for the OGA event.... a BBQ was planned, but clearly it wasn't really BBQ weather... however, we decided to go anyway.... The tides suggested that an early start wasn't neccesary, with high water at 14h07, so an early start would have merely meant entering Walton Backwaters at very low water.... this was good, as we needed fuel anyway.. We therefore slept well Friday evening, not arising until 08h00 (thanks kids!).... we awoke to another rather grey day, but at least mild, and dry.... after a very nice fried breakfast we nipped over to the opposite marina (haven), which has a decent chandlers.... it was a perfect opportunity to try out our new outboard... ahh... what a treat not having to row..... besides, we had another excuse for travelling over there.... we live in a pretty landlocked location, at least an hour from any navigable sea area, and yet our next door neighbour is also a keen yachty....(weird huh?)... he has just bought a brand new Jeanneau SO 32, and we wanted to have a peek... Anyway... the chandlers delivered the required bits... a replacement bulb for an internal light, a french courtesy flag, a copy of the Shell Channel pilot, and most importantly, a new anchor light (well sort of.... more on that later)..... After a brief visit to the fuel berth, where we ingested a bank busting £10.25 of diesel, we set off up the river around 11h30.... we locked through and were away... We both commented that our boat handling under power, both arriving at, and leaving pontoons is now so much better.... to the extent that SWMBO doesn't even get nervous now!..... when we went for fuel, there was a boat already on the end of the pontoon, with a gap in front of them of about 1 and 1/2 boat lengths.... previously, this would have started butterflys... and sideways glances from SWMBO, but no... we just slipped in, and tied up.... Anyway, I digress.... there wasn't a lot of wind (actually none!), so we motored up the river.... as per usual, it filled in around Shotley, and up came the sails, off went the engine, and peace reappeared.... we sailed for a pleasant hour, right into Walton Backwaters... again, a sign of our increasing confidence.... and after dropping sails, found a suitable spot, and dropped the hook.... no dramas, just settled back on the anchor, a little astern under engine to set it firmly, and then peace again.... We'd only been there 10 mins when a tender pops alongside.... its Paul (pvr from the ybw forum).... he stops to chat for a few minutes... yet again, the forum creates nice encounters on the water.... Eventually, we are happy that she is holding, and I blow up the tender... no easy task on the foredeck, and then lower the engine into the tender and onto the transom... again, not easy! We lock up, and set off for a quick visit to the beach.... we motored all the way around to Titchmarsh to see what is gong on with the old gaffers.... but no signs of any activity.... sadly, it looks like we have missed everything..... so we motor back to the beach at Stone point.... its pretty chilly there, so we only stay for half an hour... just long enough for the kids to get sand in every feasible place....... We set off from the beach after watching a lovely old boat set its anchor just off the shore..... as we motor past her, I read the name across the transom.... 'Francis Fletcher'..... wow, another forum rendevous within the space of a few hours.... lovely boat guys... and she looked an absolute treat dressed up... By now its late afternoon, so we cook a tea, using the ingredients originally inended for the BBQ...very nice... and then play games with the kids for a couple of hours..... its their bedtime, and they retire without too much protesting, being pretty tired...SWMBO opens a good bottle of wine, and we sit and read for a while..... its totally silent, and this is incredibly relaxing..... The anchor light I have bought is actually a small all round white... just a low wattage one, and I was intending to mount it on a spare bracket next to the GPS antenna, which is on a pole mounted on the pushpit.... however, I realise that I don't have anything suitable to mount it, nor enough electrical cable..... so with a piece of inspired jury rigging I created the following.... In the stern cockpit locker is a small light with a switch.... I also still had on board an old multimeter... one of the old analgue ones, that no longer worked... just hadn't got around to throwing it away.... it has the curly type of leads, and on inspection, they are of quite a large core size (which I guess makes sense to keep resistance low)... I remove the cover off the light, pull out the bulb which is held between two metal 'prongs' with small holes in them... these are exactly the size of a bayonet connector... so cutting the probes off the other end of the wires, I wire them to the light, and then run a short piece of cord round the light from the mounting holes to make a 'handle'.... this then allows me to hang the light from the backstay, connect it to the locker light, which is switched, and with curly leads, the tension is maintained, avoiding wires flappin about in the breeze.... the locker lid already has a cutout for a cable for the autopilot, so all in all a really neat solution... so good that I'm going to leave it as a permanent solution.... We retire to bed at around 23h00, and I am only up twice in the night to check the anchor.... (I just dont sleep well under anchor.... although it was better this time than the last... so maybe I'll get used to it)... she however, didn't move an inch... holding beautifully firm.... I think it helped that the anchorage was nowhere near as busy, so I was able to let out a lot more chain..... 25m in just 5 metres of water..... The second time I arose was because of an annoying frapping.... thinking it was the spinnaker halyard, which I use to hoist the anchor ball, I gave it a good tug to tension it a bit more, and ping... the plastic clp at the bottom of the ball fell apart, and the anchor ball went swinging off, just above the spreaders, attached to the masthead spinny halyard.... bugger... it was about 02h30, so I thought sod it, and left it until the morning..... We arose about 07h30, and upon inspection, I found that the halyard had passed through the spreaders, and the anchor ball had jammed itself onto the backstay at about 8 feet from the top..... flippin 'eck... how on earth was I going to get it down.... Not only did I not fancy a trip in the bosuns chair, but the anchor ball was pretty much put of reach.... after 10 mins or so of thought, I solved it nicely..... I used the topping lift initially.... to snag the ball, and pull it of the backstay... I then 'spun' the topping lift around the spinny halyard with a series of rodeo style arm gestures, and by pulling down on the topping lift, was able to retrieve the anchor ball and halyard back to the deck..... this however was only part one, as the halyard, albeit now at deck level, was still through the spreaders..... I therefore rigged a long piece off cord to the pole halyard which enters the mast just above the spreaders... I joined the cord to this halyard at its middle, and coiled one half, and rigged a slip with the other half.... I was then able to hoist the coil to just above the spreaders, wait for a suitable gust to blow it part through the spreaders, and a sharp tug on the other end and it uncoiled, and dropped down the other side of the spreaders.... voila... I now had a cord, running from the deck over the spreader, and back down the other side.... it was now simplicity to hoist the halyard over the spreader, and back to its rightful place..... I was chuffed with myself..... Anyway... we then had another great fried breakfast (boy have we eaten well this weekend!).... and after a bit of timewasting (great!).. we left the Backwaters at about 11h30.... soon as we rounded the corner, we unfurled the genny.... we decided to see how she would reach under just genny, as it was now blowing around 17kts, and we didn't want to muck about too much with the main, as I had without thinking buried the reefing lines beneath the temporarily lashed on outboard... (I'll try to make a cockpit mount this week).... fortunately, she went nicely, and the short reach across to Harwich was conducted at a fast pace... making 7 knots over the ground.... she really sails nicely on all points of sail with the big 150% genny completely unfurled.... we then freed off, and sailed the who way back to the Orwell bridge dead downwind under genny alone.... the kids helmed most of the way back, with my gently guidance.... C in particular seems to have a very natural feel for the boat, letting her do most of the work..... C also takes great delight in learning the rules of the road, and is now comfortable with the correct response to most simple situations... although at 9 years old, I still monitor her carefully..... I am able to trust her for a few seconds... for example long enough to nip down below for a biscuit or whatever... which helps me no end, and takes the pressure off SWMBO... I would imagine that by next year, she'll be confident enough to helm for extended periods..... In fact, she is probably more able to decide upon the correct course of action than SWMBO at the moment! As we had turned past Shotley it had started raining, and it steadily increased all the way back.... I am keen to sail under the Orwell bridge... its become a bit of a 'need'... so thats what we do.... as we pass under the bridge, I furl the genny and start the engine... SWMBO declares that we hadn't quite cleared the bridge, so I'll have to try again soon!.... we however are soaked by now, and fortunately the lock is on free flow, and we pass straight through, and are soon on our pontoon.... again, a safe and happy arrival..... SWMBO has been packing up as we have gone back up the river, so not too much to do... the usual round of gas, seacocks, shore power, ensign, and various other tasks like sail covers, and anti-frap string, and we are ready to depart by 15h00..... as we are admp and a bit chilly, we all decide that a nice hot shower in the marina facilities would be good, so we partake, and are still departing by 15h30..... All in all a very successful weekend, that all have enjoyed again.... tiny bit spoilt at the end by the rain, but major success in a holding anchor all night, and the kids really getting to grips with the helm........at least everyone is happy..... M slept the whole way home.... knackered!

Miles logged - 25.25nm
Miles this season - 331nm

cruising plans

What to do with our forthcoming week off? I'm rapidly learning not to plan ahead, as whatever I decide seems to never come to fruition.... but, in true form, ignoring my own advice, I thought I'd put a bit of thinking time into what to do during our 9 days afloat... My initial thoughts are to get down to the boat Friday night, and then Sataurday down to Ramsgate, Sunday in Ramsgate, Monday over to Dunkerque, Tuesday in Dunkerque, Wednesday along to Oostende, Thursday in Oostende, Friday back to Ramsgate, Saturday/Sunday back to Ipswich, perhaps via Bradwell or Burnham.... Alternative is to Head north to Lowestoft, and perhaps visit Southwold, the Deben, Ore/Alde..... Guess it all depends upon wind direction... and the tides that I haven't looked at yet..... At least next weekend is nice and straightforward, weather permitting, we are planning to go to Stone point, and anchor again, as its the Swallows and Amazons weekend with the Old Gaffers Association, and it'll be fun.....

happy families

The plan for this weekend was to head for the Deben, and to grab a visitors buoy, or anchor up somewhere…. Unfortunately, the engine that I am getting for the tender failed to materialise as it hadn’t been serviced in time, so we decided that rather than have to row against the tide in the Deben (which can regularly be 4 knots+) we would defer that trip to another weekend. Instead, we decided to have a bit of a ‘doing’ weekend, getting some more of the jobs done, that, like most boat owners, are put off where at all possible!, and then just day sail on Sunday….. as it happens, this turned out to be a great weekend…. We got down to the boat Friday evening, on a beautiful, warm evening… in fact, possibly a bit too warm…. Upon opening up the boat, we were greeted by a blast of hot air…. Its was going to be a warm one….. we still have nice brown plastic covers on all the seating//beds, of 1970’s vintage…. Its designed specially to be as uncomfortable as possible for sleeping on, with an inbuilt capacity to stick to hot human skin…. So hot nights are a little unwanted… until we recover them all, which we are planning to do, and indeed already have the material for… A decent nights sleep was however reasonably forthcoming, and we awoke to what can only be described as a glorious morning…. 07h30, and its already 24 degrees…. Lots of early morning activity in the marina…. As a started, we wandered into Ipswich town to get a few bits… what a lovely town centre, very well appointed…as we walk past various estate agents, SWMBO muttering about the cost of property in the Ipswich area…. Might have to promote that thinking a little bit!… Eventually, equipped with various bits and pieces courtesy of various nick-nack and bargain shops, such as mops, buckets, and 10 metres of speaker cable, we returned to the boat via the chandlers at Haven Marina, where I purchased several items, including a bosun’s chair, waterproof cockpit speaker, small pulley blocks, a couple of split pins, and a load of 2mm rope (or is it string at 2mm?). I had been a little concerned for a few weeks now, that I couldn’t hear the VHF very well while helming, and had decided to fit a cockpit speaker, so this was my first task….. I soon had locker bottoms out, various bit and pieces of the boat removed etc, and had routed the cable in a nice tidy manner between the VHF and a suitable location at the rear of the boat…. I had the sense Thursday night to find an old pair of headphones at home, and cut off the 2.5mm audio plug, so now had all the necessary bits to finish the job….. My next task was to cut the hole for the speaker…. I made a template out of an old piece of cardboard, and started drilling and cutting…. This task has dramatically increased my confidence in Magna Carter (whom we are now referring to affectionately as Maggie), as the panel through which I cut was over an inch thick….. Eventually, after losing at least 1 pint of body fluid through sweat, I had the speaker mounted… my little squirrel stock of bits was starting to prove useful, as I already had the appropriate electrical spade connectors on board…. And after 10mins more work, was connected to the VHF… joy…. loud and clear VHF coverage in the cockpit…. Next, up the mast…. Maggie has a set of stainless rings sewn into the bottom of the main for the purpose of fitting lazyjacks, and a couple of supporting pad eyes riveted to the mast just below the spreaders…. I therefore was unceremoniously hoisted up the mast to tie the ends up, and after a bit of fiddling to get the settings right, I now proudly sport a set of lazy jacks…. I came back down, so fetch the bits that I had forgotten on the first hoist, and after a second visit to the spreaders, had also fitted two small halyards to the already in place eyelets, for the purpose of burgees, and courtesy flags to both spreaders. I have temporarily tied these to the shrouds at the lower ends, but will need to buy some of those plastic clamp-on cleats, or I can see that I am going to spend half my sailing life retying them up…. But now, I am flying the YBW forum burgee proudly from the starboard spreaders! I then tackled the biggest job, and placed the bits of the forepeak bunks that I have made at home in place… look great… good fit, and started to make cardboard templates up for the storage dividers….. it was getting too hot, and by now it was approaching 16h00… so we stopped for a while…. In fact, this proved to be the end of proceedings…. We started to chill out, had a beer, and relaxed…A lovely little Stella came in along side us, gleaming with her woodwork beautifully varnished… and we enjoyed a warm and pleasant evening in the late sun….. Sunday dawned, and after a relaxed and leisurely start, involving a large fried breakfast, and plenty of coffee, we set off for a day sail….. motored out of the wet dock through the lock, and down the Orwell…. Not a lot of wind, so kept the donkey running until we reached Shotley where a bit of a sea breeze had kicked in, and we set the sails, and turned off the engine… What followed was one of the nicest sails I have had in a long time….. with a South Westerly running at about 12kts, and the tide with us, we beated for a while to clear Languard point, and then freed off to reach North up towards the Deben entrance….Reaching in just 12kts the boat was quite upright, and not at all stressed, so I stuck the autopilot on, and we relaxed…. And relaxed a bit more…. 25 degrees… heavenly…. Sometime around 13h00 we reluctantly tacked around, and started to reach back…. by 14h00, we were back at the mouth of the Orwell, and as the run back up the river was dead downwind and the wind had built slightly to about 14 to 15kts, I decided to try sailing her with just the Genny…. She loved it….5 kts over the water, and we sailed all the way back to the Orwell bridge…. She was going very well under just the genny…. Sadly, we dropped the sail at the Orwell bridge and motored the last ½ mile to the lock…. It was very busy, so we had to go on the holding pontoon for a while, but about ½ hour later, we were locked through, and tied up alongiside… we had another excellent arrival at our pontoon… our confidence continues to build…. Ideally we should have stopped for fuel, as we are running a bit low, but the heat defeated us, and we decided to leave it until next Saturday morning…. We packed up, and headed off home…. Just 10mins into the journey, my parents call…. Do we want to call in for tea….. Yes please!… so by 19h00, we are sat in their back garden enjoying a full roast dinner…. Marvellous end to a marvellous weekend….

Miles logged - 22
Total this year - 305

electrickery

Those of you that have been following my charging challenges will be aware that I replaced the diode, which was obviously faulty... I was still however, concerned that I wasn't seeing enough charging voltage at the batteries.... this had stumped me, as everything had tested out OK... yet still only seeing high 13's at the batteries.... commensurate with a fully charged battery.... This afternoon, I had another eureka moment.... one of my thoughts was that as the sensing is off the engine start battery, which never gets worked very hard, so never really needs much of a charge. As a consequence, I was thinking about putting in a new sensing wire to the services battery... but was a little concerned about over charging the engine battery as a consequence.... however, I was just looking at the wiring diagram again, and realised that I can remove the isolator key for the engine battery without removing the battery load from the alternator, and then switch the circuit across to the services battery.... voila... all 3 batteries will still get charged via the splitter, but the sensing will now come from the services battery... no re-wiring, no mucking about, and no risk.... and when the services battery is looking healthier, then I can just switch back to engine battery sensing, and no chance of an overcharge... Got to be worth a try......

Heading North

Thought we'd head North this coming weekend, and try out the Deben..... The following weekend is the Old Gaffers Association Swallows and Amazons weekend at Walton Backwaters, so we didn't want to do the Twizzle two weekends in a row, so its northbound... The tides are actually quite friendly, with sensible departure times OK at both ends... might mean a little bit of tide bashing, but its only 6nm from Harwich, so hardly a problem.... We are hoping to grab a visitors mooring in the Deben, perhaps at Ramsholt.... but if none are free, then we'll drop the hook somewhere.... as a fin keeler drawing 1.65m, we cant take the ground, so somewhat restricted on what times we can get all the way into TideMill..... besides, we quite like the tranquility of a mooring or an anchorage...... The forecast for the coming weekend is looking pretty darned good at this long range.... very hot, but maybe not too much wind.... perhaps 30deg, and 4 to 5 mph..... still its a long way to the weekend yet... My other news, is it looks like I've found an outboard at a price we can afford.... I was nervous of buying a cheap outboard, as I don't want the hassle of an engine that is reluctant to start, runs intermittently, overheats etc... all normally the territory of a cheap/old engine..... but a friend of my father has one for sale... a 12yr old Evinrude 4hp.... and my father knows him well enough to be comfortable that he isn't going to try and rip me off, and as a consequence it looks like a good deal.. not a guarantee, but a better bet than a complete stranger... its just being fully serviced by a professional outboard maintainer as part of the deal, and then I'll fetch it on Thursday.... so less rowing on the agenda... which can only be good!... and also opens up a few more anchorages to us, that currently are just too much of a row against the tide (such as the Deben on springs!)... Really looking forward to this weekend... after 2 enforced weeks off, we all have withdrawal synptoms.... kids are so keen to go sailing that it warms my heart!

Berth building

I've got the wood.... another £160... who ever said boat ownership can be cheap! I've built the first part of the berths... the bit that forms the stand in area in the forepeak.... I am quite pleased with the results even if I do say so myself.... I now need to take the bits down to the boat so that I can fit them, and confirm that they are OK size wise.... This is pretty much the only part of the berths that is held together with screws... all stainless of course! When its fitted, then I'll have to make up cardboard templates for the dividers and the berth tops.... and then cut the parts out at home... its just too impractical to take whole sheets of ply down to the boat without damaging them, and then cut them on the pontoon.... I'll make the templates, cut them at home, and then epoxy them in at the boat..... reckon another 4 to 6 weeks by the time I've been down, made the templates, brought them home, and then taken the finished articles back..... Been spending a bit of time this week thinking about the priorities for other spend on the boat..... few things that I'd quite like..... could do with a kedge anchor, a handheld GPS, perhaps abit more rope.... need to add winchers to teh winches as a self tailing fix.... longer term replace a couple of the winches with self tailers... I also want to fit 6 clutches and associated deck hardware to run things like the reefing lines and main halyard back to the cockpit.... Ah well..... its only money.....

weekend off...

Enforced weekend off from sailing..... need to do some housework and diy before the house falls down!.... also got to miss next weekend, as its the school summer fayre, and i'm on BBQ duty!... thats what happens when SWMBO is on the school PTFA... Still, it'll be a chance for me to get the timber that I need to start the berths in the forepeak, and get on with making the first part in the garage.....