4 seasons in one day...

...well a weekend anyway!It was late Friday by the time we got to the boat after a flight, and Dave picking up Jim, Susy and I from the airport....But we were soon aboard the boat in Kip Marina, and cast off.There were some signs in the marina of it being a bit breezy, so we headed out carefully to find it raining, cold and blowing a good solid F6, straight on the nose. Undaunted, we set sails, and bashed off up into the wind. The boat, a Moody 31, clearly enjoyed the heavy weather, and with a single reef in the main, and a good few turns on the Genoa, we crashed through the seas, making between 5 and 6.5kts despite the bouncy ride. Much to Paul's delight we soon overtook Ecume de Mer, and 2.5hrs later we arrived at the windswept pontoons off Cumbrae at the national watersports centre, with the lights of Largs shining over the other side of the water. We'd had a cracking good sail up, albeit a rather wet and cold one....Naturally, this could only mean that it was time to have a beer or two, so after a round of introductions to the assembled craft, we headed off to the watersports centre bar, where the barman looked rather stunned to see a bedraggled, sodden group of sailors march through his door!We proceeded to enjoy Scottish hospitality at its best, with the barman staying on until the wee small hours, and Pete pulling off the remarkable coup of organising a take away curry, getting it delivered after closing time, getting the barman to find plates and cutlery (and then getting him to wash them up afterwards!!!!) all on an island of 2.5nm length, and in a bar with just one other house for company......Saturday saw us arrive to a good stiff breeze again... perhaps if anything slightly stronger, but fortunately the rain had moved on.... This caused a good deal of debate.... the Navtex was reporting various winds between F8 and F10, and so the original plan of a run down to Tarbert, about 24nm away looked less than appealing, not because the boat wasn't capable of handling it, but more to avoid being stuck and struggling to get back for flights home..... so we did the sensible thing and procrastinated...... this resulted in us all walking along the (only) road to the small town of Millport... it was 2.5nm (ahem Pete..... make that 4nm).... but it was actually a very pleasant walk.... we of course found the main pub in the town and had a beer or two, and then several hours later caught the bus back....This was the catalyst for getting on and doing something, and within the hour, we'd all slipped and headed off back in the direction we'd come from the previous evening, with unsurprsingly, the wind having gone through 180 degrees, so it became a beat..... With the wind having swung, and now having nowhere as much of a fetch, the sea state had flattened considerably, so the Moody was a little quicker.... we hit 7.4kts hard on the wind.... not bad for a 31'er..... she was really trucking along, and with the wind having moderated to mid 20's of knots, a full main and couple of turns on the genoa, she was a delight to helm....Our destination was Rothesay on the Isle of Bute... which we reached quickly.... and in first place (result!)..... a small marina in a small town... but with a load of character....En masse we descended upon the local chippy, where a large portion of Fish and chips was obtained, along with a 20 minute one man cabaret from the guy in the chippy.....By now it was getting on a bit, so we gradually drifted towards Sahona, a very lovely Claymore, and this was nominated as party boat..... much booze was consumed, along with a good selection of decent cheese.... before we new it, the guitars were out, it was late, and the party was in full flight....



Well... what can I say?Exhausted, we slipped back into our berths at about 3 am..... and slept a whisky assisted sleep of the dead...I awoke at about 08h30, a little worse for the wear, to find the wind having vanished completely, and the sun shining, with clear blue skies.... we were a little early to heac straight back to Kip, so a decision was reached to head up the Kyles of Bute, and then come back the same way.... this was a motor, as the wind was no existant, but it is a truly stunning trip.... steep hills and mountains all around, with Porpoises, and fabulous little hidden houses slowly appearing and disappearing.... it was a shame to have to turn around, but eventually it was neccessary..... and we motored back to Kip where we tied up, a little tired, but having had a grand weekend....The return flight was uneventful, and I was back home by 23h00.Thanks to the Scottish group who organised it.... it was a great weekend.

Miles logged 44nm
Miles this season 77nm
Miles since this blog started 3,014nm

no sailing and planning for Scotland

Nothing doing....M had a birthday party he really wanted to go to (his best friend), and the forecast was rubbish....So it was chopping trees down instead!Off next weekend to Scotland again.... this time meeting up with a group of friends to sail on the Clyde.... looking forward to it enormously!

fridge update

I've spoken to the UK service agents for my fridge, and they're going to test out the control box for me, and confirm if it is this that is the problem, if it isn't then the next potential culprit will be the compressor......The control box is £109 plus VAT plus delivery..... ouch!

getting a few jobs done....

We decided to stay in the marina today, and get a few jobs done.....Firstly, we've noticed that if the Eberspacher is run with the tender in the davits, it traps the exhaust fumes and leaves a sooty black mark on the side of the transom... so out with the Oxalic acid to clean that off..... it largely came off, but perhaps needs to be slightly warmer to complete the job.... in future we'll drop the tender if we want to run the heating....Secondly, the fridge popped a fuse last night.... I had a spare, but not of a high enough amperage.... I tried it, but no joy.... so a visit to the chandlery... nope... that fuse size isn't available in that rating.... it must have been at some point though!So I bought the bits to bypass the fuse, and put a spade style fuse in line of the correct rating.... and pop... that one went too.... so there is obviously a problem somewhere in the system.... I removed the controller... looking on the web its a very old model... so not sure what the situation will be for spares.... hope its not a new complete fridge unit needed, as i'm skint at the moment!

all hail!

Its end of term holidays, so i've taken a few days off work with a view to getting away sailing for a few days.... so Tuesday evening saw me home from work, a bit tired after trying to cram 5 days work into 2 days, so it was agreed that we'd head down to the boat on Wednesday morning.... which we duly did.... arriving at Morgana by 14h00 by the time we'd procrastinated and generally wasted time.... its still early in the year, and it wasn't overly warm, so we decided to just spend the rest of the day fettling....We arose Thursday morning to clear blue skies and about 10 degrees, so sailing was definitely on the agenda.... we'd thought we'd start by heading towards our staple location... Stone Point in the Walton Backwaters... Low water was 09:15, so we hung around on our berth, and eventually slipped out at 10h00, and set off towards Harwich.... what a wonderful day.... although only 10 degrees, the clear skies and warming sun made it feel much warmer, and the 10kts of South Westerly helped a great deal... we quickly set the sails, and turned the engine off.... bliss..... after a long winter of no sailing, it was great to be back on the water... and to get such a great day to start really made all the difference.... we tacked off out to sea... we could have easily entered the Backwaters by now, but the sail was so pleasant, that we just sailed for a while.... Morgana's recent antifoul, and therefore clean and smooth hull was quite apparent, with her slipping along quite merrily at times reaching 6kts.... very nice indeed!Eventually we set course for Pye End, and made our way into the Twizzle.... while normally we'd anchor off Stone Point, it seemed rather churlish to not make use of the plethora of empty bouys, so we grabbed the nearest....Then the davits paid for themselves.... in 3 minutes, the tender was in the water (i'd inflated it, and put it in the davits earlier that day back in the marina), and after we'd garbbed a quick lunch, we motored ashore and went for a long walk..... what a terrific place the Backwaters are... we walked around the edge of the nature reserve and along one of the embankments that surround the numerous small pools of trapped seawater.... it was teeming with wildlife.... we saw too many Oystercatchers to count, and a wide variety of other wading birds, several shrews scurrying off into the long grass, and enormous quantities of wild duck.... man's footprint was only too evident as well... besides a significant number of empty shotgun cartridges (are you allowed to hunt Duck in a nature reserve?), the fact that the pools are filled by high tides and storms had also left a huge quantity of various types of plastic, from carrier bags to tarpaulins providing a semi permanent memorial to human presence spoiling an otherwise beautiful landscape..... what a sad race we are at times.Back on the boat we settled down for a quiet night.... we, as usual, played games with the kids until their bedtimes... and then relaxed with a good bottle of wine, before retiring at a time that would be considered abnormal back in the 'real' world... I didn't get to sleep easily... it was just too damn quiet!!! (just how good is that?)The following morning was a relaxed affair..... along with needing to wait until around midday to safely leave the Backwaters, we'd decided to head on over to the Deben, and anchor for the night at the Rocks, which with HW at 16h15, meant there was no rush... it was a 10nm run down, and the weather wasn't nearly so nice.... a much stiffer breeze made the sail a bit more challenging when mixed up with the fact that it was noticeably colder..... however, the run down was OK, and soon enough we made our way through the formidable bar that protects the entrance... with white water foaming either side of us, and a gentle 3kts of tide dragging us in (it was a neap - you want to try it on a Spring!), we shot into the river... its about 2.5nm to the anchorage, and we could see the sky ahead gradually turning black.... and sure enough as we started motoring up the river, the heavens opened.... not rain... no that would be far to easy to cope with...... this was enormous great big hail stones.... and to add to the fun, the wind shot up to 30kts.... not nice!Eventually we cleared the squall, and found the anchorage.... got the hook safely down, and seconds later the heavens opened again.... with the wind once again acompanying in a violent squall.... this lasted just 10 mins, and as the skies cleared, we could see the next squall bearing down on us.... the previous one had caused us to veer quite strongly at the anchor.... in itself nothing to worry about, but the temperature had dropped by about 5 degrees..... SWMBO and I looked at each other... I knew the look..... I glanced at my watch.... it was still 1 hr 15mins to HW.... enough time to get over the bar.... SWMBO muttered something about buying the food and beer at the Bristol arms.... its was enough.... the anchor was already on its way back up.... It didn't take long to get back out over the bar... a lot easier and less stressful this close to HW, and as we cleared the safe water mark, the sea state seemed to have changed dramatically in little time.... the sea had built considerably, and with the wind bang on the nose, we decided to motor back to Harwich.... it was a bit rock and roll.... nothing too serious, just not much fun.... it was bloody freezing which didn't help... we took a few green ones over the sides.... the kids love it!As we entered Harwich the heavens opened again (for about the 5th time on the way back), and we were glad to reach the more sheltered waters.... teh lock keeper had obviously seen us coming, for he was prompt in letting us in.... and we locked in OK... nothing too stylish, but no calamities either..... soon enough we were back on our berth....frozen solid.....It was a good call... the run back wasn't pleasant, but the squalls hadn't relented... it would have been a damp and uncomfortable night.....The Bristol arms was forsaken in return for sampling the new menu at the Shipwreck, which proved to be OK... and certainly great value for money... 39 quid for 4 meals, and a drink each!!!!!!No idea what the plan is for the next 2 days... the forecast is rubbish!

Miles logged 33nm
Miles this season 33nm
Miles since this blog started 2,970nm

brrr!

We finally got down to Morgana around 1:00pm on Saturday after M's footy on Sat morning (they won - 3-1), and I proceeded to fit the Television....I'd bought a bracket that articulates, and so positioning it wasn't easy.... as mentioned before, it needed fitting so that it was in a suitable position for the seating, hence not preferred on the bulkhead... and hence on the arm in front of the chart table.... I however, needed to fit it so that it cleared various obstacles, like the half height bulkhead in front of the chart table, the grab handle on the cabin roof, and stll allowed the locker to fully open....Eventually, with careful measuring, and even more careful drilling of holes (I hate drilling holes in a boat!), It worked beautifully....from the main saloon..



And with the tele rotated towards the chart table...

This means that not only can we use it for normal television purposes, but it can also be hooked up as a screen for the laptop.....I had also bought a small adaptor to convert the F series connector on the spare VHF antenna to a TV style socket.... sadly this proved completely hopeless.... the tele couldn't even tune a single channel.... a small mains powered aerial, worked a bit better and got a couple of channels, but in a barely viewable state.... I know that Shotley is bad for reception, so will try elsewhere... but it does look like we'll have to invest in a Glomex style TV aerial for the masthead...This job done, we relaxed a bit.... a kncok on the coachroof, and another ybw'er appeared... Peter... he'd been working with a few skippers on the Najad 380 that they charter out, and came for a bit of a natter... I also went and had a peek around the Najad... very nice boat!Eventually, we settled in for the evening..... SWMBO had brought down a very tasty casserole that she'd prepared at home... so a few tatties and some carrots went in the pan, and we enjoyed a super meal.... we don't miss out on decent grub when on board...After being comprehensively thrashed by the kids at various card games, we retired to bed... I always sleep very well on board, and awoke at nearly 09h00 to find it just starting to snow...

This out paid to any final thoughts about going for a sail, so we took our time packing up, I did one job i'd kept forgetting... tomeasure up the engine compartment for new sound insulation... we currently have the old 'egg cup foam' style stuff... and while it works, its not that efficient... so we may treat ourselves to some of the lead and foam stuff that should make a big difference.... the total area needing coverage is 3.5m2...... and then we set off home... Another none event weekend.... still... it should warm up soon!

finally...

The weather has been looking good for the coming weekend (as much as you can trust forecasts at this range), but now not looking so good....But sod it.... we're going down anyway.... mainly because we want to try the tele!