Bleedin....

So we got down to the boat on Saturday night and it, as forecast, was blowing its nuts off..... I stuck the instruments on, and even within the relative shelter of the marina, was measuring 25kts plus..... ho hum.... A disturbed Friday night sleep, by the creaking of the fenders against the pontoon (the wind was blowing us on), and by a wire halyard frapping against the mast all night (since resolved) meant a fairly early rise on Saturday morning to see the wind had not abated at all, if anything it had risen..... a very straightforward decision to not go out was made... not hard... So we wandered off into Ipswich town centre for a look around.... a really nice town... very pretty.... A final relaxed stop at Starbucks for a pleasant mid morning coffee see us back at the boat by about 12h00...... I had a number of jobs to do, that I giot on with... mainly fiddly little jobs.... I had vowed to trace the cable back to its plug for the Decca aerial stuck on a bracket in the stern cockpit locker... removing bits of trim, I eventually traced it back to a cut off cable just laying loose in the cable run.... ahem... so the whole aerial plus cable was removed and skipped..... I think the less 'extra' stuff in the wiring runs, the more likely to get uneccessary failures.... The second job was due to the new batteries. Despite buying exactly the same size batteries, the large one, the engine start battery, didn't quite fit in the battery box.... I had previously removed the battery box, and lashed the battery in place in order to get going, but this needed sorting, so I spent an hour cutting and sawing away at the wooden battery box to modify it for the new battery. Eventually it fitted, and I now have all the batteries safely housed in battery boxes, extremely well fixed down.... The third job was altogther more challenging. When we bought the boat she had a forepeak setup more appropriate to a racer from the seventies.... a complete set of lovely holly and teak sole boards, but then a metal 'rail' rather like a pulpit, allowing the sails to be stored, but that was about it. Above this was a fold down pipecot berth, rather like a metal framed hammock. This was fixed with special brackets glassed into the side of the boat. We are planning to remove this entire setup, and replace it with a more 'normal twin berth arrangement using teak veneered ply, and making up some new cushions....so...firstly I unscrewed and unbolted the metal 'pulpit', so that I had a clear floor, and then I started cutting off the pipecot fixings.... one came off very easily... clearly the glasswork hadn't been good, and it hadn't keyed itself to the hull... the second proved all together more challenging... it most definitely had attached properly!... I needed to be very careful, as I didn't want to damage the hull in anyway, so gently chipping and cutting eventually got this removed.... this second fitting took 2 hours to remove.... there are 2 more to go.... I gave up at this stage... lets leave it to another weekend....! Saturday evening found us sitting down to a pleasant on board prepared emal, and a great fun game of cards with the kids.... reading Libby Purvis' article in this months Yachting Monthly about sailing bringing the family together for quality time... I couldn't agree more.. Sunday eventally dawned.. a bright sunny day with a lovely 8ish knots of wind.... perfect.... We locked out of the marina at about 09h30, and made our way up the river..... just after SYH we raised the sails and off with the engine... bliss.... for the first time we are able to sail up the river.... what a truly beautiful piece of water..... We continued to sail out past Shotley, where we are hailed by a stranger in another boat.... He's yelling....."Its 'Sailorman' from the forum"...... excellent... our first forum rendevous on the water!.... nice to meet you Roger.. even it was only while circling each other in the middle of the Orwell!..... eventually we continue out past Languard point, and following the recommended yacht track, we sailed out to sea, reaching the Cork Sand Yacht beacon by about 13h00.... and then turned back to head for home... C had a little bout of seasickness.... it was I guess a little rolly out there in lightish winds, and she unwisely on my part spent about 1/2 an hour below.... still she seemed to perk up after being sick... I just hope she doesn't have too delicate a stomach... she has often been carsick... so only time will tell..... it is only her second sail, so she hasn't had time to find her sealegs yet....everyone else was unaffected... Eventually we are making our way up the river... its pretty much a dead run, so challenging keeping the sails filled.... I rigged a preventer on the main, and that helped..... As we passed RHYC, the channel is pretty narrow, and ther is a lot of traffic... we are right up against the starboard side of the channel and really need to gybe.... there is unfortunately a boat on our left slightly to stern, so I stick the motor on and just push ahead a little so that we can safely gybe in front of him... I set up for the gybe, and given that its a bit rolly from wash I pull in the mainsheet as we gybe.... unfortunately I get the timing wrong and as I lean in for the final handfull of mainsheet we hit a wash, and gybe....the boom just barely clips me on the crown of my head as we gybe.... bugger that hurt... SWMBO is distressed to turn around and find me with blood pouring down my face.... I hadn't realised that it had cut me that much, thinking it was just a nick.... but it was dripping off my chin! I immediately start thinking oh bloody hell....concusion and all those nasty things, so order a rounding up into the wind, and dropped sails..... It was chaos dodging all the craft making their way back up the river!... I did quickly realise that all was well though as I flaked the main, and worked hard to avoid blood dripping onto the sail... I reasoned sensibly that I couldn't actually be hurt that bad if I was still trying to keep the sails clean!... Sure enough it stopped bleeding in about 3 or 4 minutes, and besides a bit of blood on the decks to wash off, the panic was over! I can concur with the statement that head cuts bleed profusely!....... Getting into the marina starts as a treat... the lock gates are on free flow, so no mucking about..... we set the warps and fenders to port side and creep at a snails pace in towards our challenging berth.... the wind is blowing us off, so its going to be difficult..... We creep on, and immediately the stern blows off.... we are tied on at the bow, and A heavy burst of reverse and full lock drags the stern in close enough for me to leap to the pontoon.... and eventually we are tied up safely.... not the prettiest of arrivals... in fact absolute rubbish.... we need practice! So after a short relax, Magna Carter is put back to bed, and we depart for home... tired and happy....... but bugger its going to hurt in the shower later when I wash the rest of the dried blood out of my hair! Todays lessons...... 1] Be more patient... the gybe was largely as a consequence of me pushing on too hard to get by another boat... 10 mins of patience would have avoided it completely.. and we would have been in wide open water... 2] Teach SWMBO how to drop the sails... her big moment of fear was that if I had been seriously hurt then she would have been struggling to remember how to drop the sails herself.... 3] Don't let C spend too much time below at sea... at least not until we've worked our her sensitivity to seasickness....