quiet night

Another hot weekend loomed! The usual Friday evening traffic madness was avoided, as C wanted to go to her Friday night sea cadets, so we didn't get away until 20h30.... Arrival was too late for a Friday night departure, so we wiated until Saturday morning... We had (yet again) a guest onboard... this time, my neice, R, who is a keen Oppy sailor, and quite excited about the trip... the usual Stone point run was planned out (NB to self - stop going to Stone point, i know its nice, but perhaps some other destinations would be good!) So about 09h00 Saturday we slipped and left... the sun was shining, and there was about 4 or 5 kts of wind... so we motored.... pretty much the whole way.... we did try to sail, but there was so little wind that we couldn't stem the tide.... We arrived in the Backwaters by 11h00, and looked initially in vain for a spot to anchor.. it was really busy.... we were just beginning to wonder if we might have to slip round to Hamford Water, when someone kindly pulled up their pick and left... so a slot appeared, and we dropped in.... it took 2 attempts to anchor.... the first time it didn't bite... I think I dropped the chain too fast... but second time was fine... After a short wait to check that we were holding OK, we set of for the beach (entailed the normal palavour of inflating the tender on the foredeck, and wobbling into the inflated tender with the outboard!) Fun and games was had by all.... hot on the beach.... We were a bit too far out into the channel for my liking, so when another boat inside us also left, then SWMBO and I dived into the tender and moved Maggie 60 feet closer to the beach... the boat was moved without drama... but it wasn't without incident... The outboard needs a good pull to get it going, so its my job, while SWMBO holds the tender off the shore.... usually no problem... only this time, she hopped to get onboard, stood on a sharp stone, and didn't quite make it into the tender.... teetered on the edge for a second or so, and gracefully rolled backwards off the side into 18" of water!.... I was laughing my head off.... fortunately she also saw the funny side of it, and was rather pleased with herself for keeping the auto inflating lifejacket dry....! By 17h30, everyone was tiring so we retired back to the boat for food, cold drinks and an evening of card games..... The new batteries are doing their stuff, and the fridge is significantly colder than it used to be... We held just fine through the turn of the tide, and the kids went to bed (albeit begrudgingly) at 21h30... at which point SWMBO and i sat in the cockpit with a bottle of wine and chilled out... One surreal moment.... it was still very hot at 22h00, and a large group on the beach were enjoying themselves... one of their group had an accordian, and was belting out all the old favourites... but it did get kind of wierd, sitting there in the cockpit at gone 10 O'clock at night in just shorts, listening to 'Jingle Bells' being played rousingly on the beach, with full vocal accompaniement... Kids awoke us bright and early as usual, and with a bit of a breeze having kicked in, we decided to sail rather than return to the beach.... so we set off down towards Cork Sands Yacht Beacon.... it was very hazy, and at just 2nm offshore, the land had vanished... but nevertheless.... with 13kts of wind, and broad reaching, it was a cracking sail..... sadly, it had to end, so we tacked round, and headed back to Harwich, and then sailed most of the way downwind back to Ipswich.... by Woolverstone, the wind which had been building steadilt up to 18kts, vanished, so after a few minutes of drifting, we dropped the sails and motored.... just as well, as 5 minutes later, the wind returned at 20kts, 180 degrees different, so it would have been a stiff beat! There was a bit of traffic for the lock, so we tried our spring line again onto the holding pontoon... SWMBO was much happier, and when the lock gates opened up, we again used the spring... A bit of confidence could be seen in her... So when we arrived at the berth, it was rathere smartly slipped over the outermost cleat, and we arrived neat and tidy on the pontoon... problem solved... it works OK now she understands the mechanics of it all... So, another hot weekend... with good wind.... long may this super summer weather continue!

Miles logged 25nm
Miles this season 378nm
Miles since this blog started 1,159nm

bump

This is an account of possibly the best days sailing i've had in the last 2 years... ending with a slight bump! We arose at a more gentile time of 08h00, to enjoy a full english fried breakfast.... By 09h00, we had slipped, and locked out... It was very hot... not less than 26 degrees at 9 in the morning, and the wind was blowing at 12kts.... It was on the nose up the river, but regardless, we decided to sail... for the first time SWMBO took control, and insisted that she was going to set the sails with no help, which she did with ease.. she was very pleased with herself... not a huge task, or indeed a challenge in this wind, but for someone whom I sometimes forget, had only ever done one weeks charter before April 2005, a result. She was quite rightly, delighted with herself... We then tacked up the river.... crossing paths with the same boat the whole way up, which enevitably turned into a good natured duel!...The kids took charge of the winches, and were winding like gooduns for most of the way... boy did they enjoy themselves... The wind eased off a couple of knots, and as we reached Levington, the tide turned, and so we started to struggle to make headway... so we decided to grab a buoy at Levington for a long lazy lunch... Given that the wind and tide were in the same direction, and it was generally light, we (read as 'me') thought that it would be fun to sail onto the mooring.... which we did... slightly overshot on rounding up to the mrak, but the wind and tide pushed us back down, and with a little careful tiller work, we grabbed the buoy easily, and stopped.... SWMBO continued her good run, by then dropping the sails... It was midday, it was hot (over 30 degrees), and SWMBO popped a new CD on the player, 'feel good songs'.... life quite frankly couldn't have got better.... kids sat and played happily... we sat in the sun and read good books, and ate a perfect lunch, along with a couple of ice cold beers.... I was happy to the point of bursting... by 13h00, we slipped off the mooring, naturally under sail!... and the wind filled as we turned, and we ran goosewinged most of the way back to Ipswich, never going below 6kts SOG.... We locked in, and made our way over towards our berth... One of our challenges has been that our finger is about 6 feet too short for the boat, and is starboard side too.. as Maggie kicks hard to port in reverse, its not always easy to get onto.... we were going to try a spring onto the pontoon, to see if that helped... all was well, we came nicely alongside, the spring dropped perfectly over the cleat, SWMBO declared "OK", so I put her in ahead to motor onto the spring and draw her alongside, when SWMBO shouted "S**T... the springs fallen off the cleat".... which resulted in me motoring into the pontoon..... a small chip in the gelcoat on the bow.... not happy! Still.... only a quick repair needed.... All the way home, SWMBO is feeling sorry for herself... blaming herself for the mistake.... really not neccessary... firstly, these things happen, and secondly, my fault for not telling her to worry about the spring and nothing else... it only slipped off because she was dashing off to deal with the stern line.... unnecceassarily, but she didn't know that.... lets say, blame shared eh?

Miles logged 10nm
Miles this season 353nm
Miles since this blog started 1,134nm

hot again

I arose early as usual (can't ever get over my weekday work morning alarm calls), to see a fantastic day... it was already warm, and the wind had moderated to 13kts... So after a healthy large fried breakfast, we relaxed a bit awaiting enough water to leave safely, did a bit of fishing... didn't catch anything... and then set off at 11h30. We had a superb sail out of the Backwaters, turned to starboard, and set off a way out to sea, and then tacked back over after about an hour, and headed back towards Harwich. The wind had built slightly to about 17kts, and I stuck a turn or two on the genny... we reached at 9kts SOG back to Harwich in blazing hot sunshine.... bliss.... SWMBO is getting more and more warm to the idea of perhaps 'selling up and sailing'! As we dropped under Felixstowe, as usual, the wind vanished, and by the time we reached Pin Mill, we had to give up, and motor sail the rest of the way.... Soon through the lock, and heading towards the berth, I saw that the wind was blowing us off, so I quickly made up a short line with a loop either end, and instructed SWMBO on how to set it as a spring... we came alongside, she slipped the loop over the end cleat, and I motored against it.... excellent... it worked very well on our short pontoon, and we made our best arrival yet at our home berth, which remains 6 feet too short for the boat! Fed everyone, and mum and dad departed for home.... quiet ensued... kids will be getting an early night... we have two more days to go yet, and the forecast is superb!

Miles logged 10nm
Miles this season 343nm
Miles since this blog started 1,124nm

anchor recovery

After a slightly early dart from work, we made it down to the boat at a sensible time, and set to in getting her ready for our weekend visitgors, my parents, whoi haven't sailed for many years.... my father was as excited about getting afloat again as a small kid. They arrived at 20h00, and he proceeded to tell all the stories about me being afloat at 3mths old... clearly he was enjoying himself, and we hadn't even left the marina! The tides were unfriendly times, so we decided to kick out the following morning.... By 08h30, we had breakfasted, and were ready to depart.... couple of drop outs from the planned meet up at Stone Point due to weather making a beat from Burnham look unattractive, and a case of baby teething problems! However, we locked out, and set off down the Orwell... it was sxomewhat windier than forecast, and with my mother described as a nervous sailor at the best of times, I decided that we should motor after seeing the anenometer reading 24kts in one gust.... Clive called to say that he had departed from SYH, and by Pin Mill we had bumped into him, and while he sailed, and we motored, we carried on down the river towards Harwich.... By midday, we had made our way into the Twizzle, and soon dropped the hook.... all was well, we were holding nicely... With a heavily laden tender, we set too the beach, with everything bar the BBQ food, and enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon in the sun... despite it being really quite windy, we were out of the wind on the beach, and it was very hot... About 16h30, SWMBO and I set off back to the boat to fetch the BBQ food. When we got back to the boat, it was obvious that the large metal boat of around 60' next to us was going to be a problem. While we were laying to the wind, he wasn't, and we were going to clash. I strung a bucket on a warp off the stern to try and get her to settle a bit more to the tide, but she wasn't having it, and before I knew what had happened, we were pretty much touching.... I was now worried about our anchor chain going under his keel, and so with the other boat owner, we decided to take my anchor line, and make it off on his boat until the tide turned, and we could easily retrieve it, and we motored off up the river and grabbed a buoy. Before too long we were back on the beach complete with BBQ food, and we had a grand meal courtesy of Clive's rather splendid BBQ. The tide was now in full retreat, and rather than have to wade through acres of mud, we decided to head back to the boats.... Clive decided given the solid F6 blowing to pick up his anchor, and come and grab a buoy near us... About 1 hr before LW, I motored over to the metal boat in my tender to agree with him how we were best recovering my anchor..... I made it alongside him, and then managed to get my painter around my prop... God only knows what he thought about the 'eyjeet' he was dealing with!... it did untangle easily enough though........ As it happens, things were easy with the anchor too.... it was laying out from his boat and anchor at 45 degrees, and so he slipped the chain over his windlass, and it dragged out easily.... We soon deposited it in the bottom of my tender... I once again, proffered my apologies, and set back to the boat and the anchor was soon fully reunited with the anchor locker. We spent a lazy evening tied to the buoy, and slept very well, albeit a little sunburned!

Miles logged 9nm
Miles this season 333nm
Miles since this blog started 1,114nm

plans for the weekend

Got my parents along this weekend..... Its the Old Gaffers Association Swallows and Amazons weekend, and a number of use are all going to anchor at Stone Point, have a BBQ ashore, a small fire, toast some marsh mallows, and generally chill out.... We've also got Monday and Tuesday off work, so will be heading down towards Bradwell Sunday, maybe Brightlingsea Monday and back to Ipswich Tusday afternoon.... Forecast is superb... 10mph and 29 degrees! My Eberspacher heater turned up in the post this morning, as did the battery boxes... so thats another couple of jobs to add to the list.... Hopefully I can get the heater fitted reasonably quickly, so that we can extend our season a bit.. Also, toying with the idea of buying some fishing gear, so that we can have a go at catching our supper occasionally... eBay, here we come!

old liferaft

Having bought the new liferaft, I took the old one off the boat this afternoon.... Its a 4 man Avon, built in 1973, and last serviced in Jan 1995 With a rusty gas cylinder and a decidedly tatty bag held together with bits of string of various types, I decided it was worthless, and so fired it iff in the back garden.... It inflated beautifully! Observations though....1] It took at least a full minute to inflate fully.. suprised me how long it took...2] The rubber was decidedly unhealthy looking in places, especially on the floor.... although it has thus taken 2 hours of vigorous children playtime!3] The batteries were significantly past their sell by date... although they did make the light work... for about 6 or 7 minutes!4] The design is aged.... no boarding ladder, no self righting lines, limited kit inside... and no knife to cut the painter....5] Don't expect a penthouse suite.... 'cosy' would be the correct term for four people!But nontheless... impressive stuff inflating perfectly at 33yrs old, and 11 years after its last service.. well done Avon! It now sits still inflated in my back garden... reports coming this way soon on how long it stays inflated..... Besides that, I got the new liferaft fitted. It went in perfectly just below the kicker... I also filled the old holes in the deck, and finally, and most importantly, I managed to get both the new batteries installed successfully.... the fridge immediately kicked into life!.....

jobs to be done

Not sailing this weekend, but will be going down to Maggie on Saturday to get a few jobs done... The new batteries arrived today, so they will be fitted... although the battery boxes didn't turn up, i'll cope for a few days without them..... I need to fit the liferaft mounts to the coachroof, so that'll get done.. I need to remove the globs of silcone sealant from the holes where the winches etc were removed from the coachroof, and fill them more permanently with epoxy.... And if I have time, i'll try to sand down the wood trim round the companionway and get it revarnished.... All in prep for the following weekend.... we have the Monday and Tuesday off, and my parents are along for the long weekend... we are meeting up with a few friends in the Walton Backwaters for a beach BBQ Saturday night, and then thinking of heading down towards Bradwell and Brightlingsea....

Batteries again

Despite having replaced all three batteries last year, at the weekend the service battery was playing up.... To start with, I wasn't sure that it was the service battery, and wondered about other causes, but when I connected back to shore power, all was OK again.... I then sat down and thought about it for a while.... Its an 85Ah battery, and is now running an awful lot of additional stuff that it wasn't originaly specced for.... including typically a fridge and radar... so that in combination with things like an anchore light overnight have seen it off.... I reckon an average weekends consumption is probably something like 60Ah, which is too much for an 85Ah battery on a regular basis..... It didn't help that I accidently flattened it completely in the middle of last season... So I've decided to upgrade the battery bank.... Out with the 85Ah, and in with 2 x 100Ah deep cycle carbon plate batteries... both Elecsol.... I'll parallel them and then will have much more capacity, plus still have the failover battery for when needed... and the engine battery completely seperately... At the moment, due to lack of long cables, the fridge is directly connected to the service battery bank. I need to fix that, so that I can run the fridge off the spare battery if neccessary... another winter job!... it is possiblt to switch the spare over to the fridge in an emergency, by removing the leads from the regular service batteries and then switching to position 'both', but can't think of a reason why that would be an emergency right now!

piccies from the weekend

It was rapidly approaching dusk when we set off down the Orwell

And here are our visitors, cheating in their race...

mud plugging and beer festivals!

What a weekend! Sailing with a couple of guys from work, both experienced sailors.... Traffic was an absolute nightmare getting down to the boat, and one of the crew, Tony, got held up to the extent that we decided to redirect his to Titchmarsh, where we would pick him up from the waiting pontoon... Rod, the other crew member and I were at the boat, with food shopping completed by 20h30, and so slipped fairly sharpish to get off to Titchmarsh..... as we were late, the tide was in flood, so we were slow up the river.....it was therefore dusk by the time we reached Pye End, and so picking out the channel markers up to the cardinal marking the split of the Twizzle and Hamford water against the backdrop of sodium lights on the shore was very difficult.... we went very slowly!.... we missed one port marker completely, and after touching the bottom twice realisd the error of our ways, and with a bit of judicious engine power made our way back into the channel... Rounding into the Twizzle was equally challenging.... remarkably, of all the buoys, the few that show the sharp dog leg neccesary to get into the river are unlit.... so as we crept past the sandbanks showing in the moonlight, and the breaking water 20 feet either side of the boat, we breathed a sigh of relief when we got in, without touching down again! We had arranged to meet up with another forumite, Pete (GC1) who was anchoring for the first time, and were somewhat suprised when we rounded the corner to see Pete with his boat lit up like a Christmas tree... literally.... fairly lights all over the boat! We paused to say hello, and then carried on up the river to fetch Tony.... Carried on, is perhaps a generous term. Rather we dug our way further up the river. For those that know the Twizzle, it is narrow, the path between the moored boats is indistinct in places, and it isn't lit..... so we felt our way in, watching the echo sounder.... as the boat ground to a halt, we put on the power, ploughed a furrow, and generally got going again.... only had to back out once.... Eventually we got to the bit of water by the holding pontoons.... we lined up for a perfect arrival.... slipped towards the pontoon.... and ground to halt 6 feet short of the pontoon..... so, more power and we gradually moved closer, and made it alongside.... immortal words from the crew.... shall we tie up, or are we getting straight back off again? .... huh?..... the boat wasn't going anywhere.... clever pontoons.... no need for warps.... boat was sitting very comfortably alongside... in the mud.... least it was a rising tide.... So we stopped there.... had a beer... met yet another forumite (hi Tim)... an decided to stay there, and depart early back to the anchorage to see Pete, and have breakfast when anchored.. 07h00, we arose, slipped and went and dropped the hook at Stone Point.... no problems this time, 3m under the keel all the way, and Soooooo much easier in daylight! The Twizzle has great holding, so I was somewhat suprised that the anchor took quite a while to bite.... we had to motor back a good distance before it set... Regardless, we were in.... had a huge fried breakfast, and then Pete came over to say hello, tied up alongside us for 15mins.... By 09h00, we slipped quietly out of the Twizzle, and set off towards Burnham.... Its fair to say, you don't get many days sailing like the one that followed in a year... We reached over towards Walton headland in about 10kts of wind.... lovely, and really hot that early in the morning.... As we rounded Walton, we freed off to a run, and the wind freshened to 13kts... so we decided to pop the kite.... we took a while to rig it, since I had rearranged all the winches, clutches etc since the last time it was out of the bag, but eventually we had it sorted... and up she went... a perfect hoist.... it went up, filled, set and was spot on.... Only downside was that I had given Rod the wrong bag, and we had flown the number 2, so we were slightly down on sail area... never mind though.... we could have peeled it, but it was hot, and we were flying along at 8kts over the ground having just had a large breakfast.... wind was so stable, we were able to make the sheet off and largely just leave it to get on with it.... With that boat speed we made the Wallet spitway in no time.... dropped the kite easily, reached through the spitway, and into the channel down towards the Crouch.... still a decent breeze, and we flew down past Buxley, Outer Crouch, and before we knew it, into the Crouch itself.... by 15h30, we had to drop sails, motored over towards Full Circle on his mooring, and said hello.... The plan was to grab a spare mooring next to Jim, but we had yet again been having battery trouble.... my main service battery has never fully recovered from me accidentally flattening it completely in the winter, so we decided to head into Burnham Yacht Harbour instead to grab shore power.... Ordinarily we wouldn't need too much battery power, but the fridge was suffering in the heat, and we didn't want the food to go off, so we really needed shore power.... We watched the footy at BYH... ho hum.... grabbed showers (much needed after a whole day at 30deg+ !)... and headed off into Burnham to meet Jim at the White Hart.... Enjoyed a couple of pints of Crouch with Jim, and then he declared that we were off to the Beer Festival.... ooh 'eck! So we sampled a few more beers at the Beer Festival... my favourite, Maldon Sea Legs... very appropriate, and a good pint.... By 21h30, we were all peckish... despite having had two hog roast sandwiches at the beer festival, so we finally agreed on a Thai, and ended up in there until late.... A grand evening.... thanks Jim! Set alarms for 06h30, and slept like the dead! We slipped BYH at just after seven, and headed off up the Crouch.... dropped some bits off at Full Circle on the way past, and set out towards open sea... Fantastic.... very very hot for early, and a wind direction that allowed us to hold full sail tight on the wind without tacking all the way out to Number 6 buoy, where we freed off for the Spitway again.... soon through there, and set a course for Medusa, again, tight on the wind, but no need to tack.... on went the autopilot.... heaven! Sampled the very best of Sandwiches... made with loving car from the very best of ingredients... washed down with a litre each of fresh apple juice, and then a superb trifle!.... we didn't go without! As the wind was a bit lighter, and on the nose our speed over the ground was a bit reduced from the previous day at about 4kts, so we had a 3hr leg back up the Wallet... so we took it in terns to kip.... About half way down, we were joined by two homing pigeons who clearly looked in need of a rest... they stayed with us for 45mins... and were clearly well used to human company, as they didn't have any fear of us, and came and sat next to us for a rest.... I wonder if getting a 3nm lift from a boat is considered cheating? We rounded Walton soon enough, although we did have to plug the tide a little for the last 30mins... nothing too bad though... and freed off.... the wind built slightly, and we had a brilliant reach into Hrawich.... good boat speed, and showed a couple of other boats a clean pair of heels... excellent... As we passed Felixstowe docks we suffered an enormous wind shadow and had to motor for a few minutes, but past Felixstowe we were able to sail again... sailed all the way back up the river to the bridge, dropped the sails and went through on free flow... this was all working out perfectly... Enjoyed watching an old gaffer sail though the lock... and soon alongside and tied up... Back in the car by 17h00, and home by 18h45... what a weekend!

Miles logged 61nm
Miles this season 324nm
Miles since this blog started 1,105nm

(note... i've decided that the log is significantly under reading.... I need to calibrate it... all these distances are taken from the log rather than the GPS, so once its calibrated, i'll adjust them.... I think its out by nearly 30%!)