starry starry night

It was a real treat to get back out on the water!

The weekend started with us arriving at Bridgemarsh marina on the Crouch at around 19:00..... and easy journey bar one little mishap.... we went to the wrong marina to start with... but only 4 miles away!

Getting onboard Full Circle, and met up with Lynn again, which was a real treat, as we've not seen her for a very long while... her other half Jim was just jumping on a plane back from Milan, hence the reason why we were tasked with taking her down to the Orwell, a trip of a mere 35nm.

Lynn had put together a fab Spaghetti Bolognaise, so that vanished quicker than you could say 'are we really departing at midnight?"

Unfortunately, the tides hadn't been very friendly, and the ideal departure time was around 01:00... so we'd decided to take a bit of adverse tide, and leave it a bit earlier, just to make slightly less antisocial.

The Met Office forecast on the radio was offering a rather unpleasant 5 to 6.... I had been watching the forecast for a few days, and was rather sceptical about this, particular as the US GFS model was saying something quite different... and my experience in recent imes has been both that the GFS forecast is more accurate, and that the Met Office are extremely pessimistic, and always seem to look for the worst case.

So, it wasn't a surprise to me to see that during the evening, the wind steadily dropped, and as we cast off at midnight, it was virtually dead calm.

And it stayed that way.

So the engine on, and we motored.... we motored all the way to Ipswich.

It sounds like a bit of a let down, but it was more than made up for by the incredibly clear night, and stars to end them all.... for anyone who sails regularly, and loves their night passages, they'll know what I mean... the starry sky is truly spectacular... its a wonderful wonderful sight.

We, more by luck than judgement, arrived at Royal Harwich Yacht Club, just as dawn had properly broken.... and headed for a vacant berth... and I promptly ran aground!.... the end of the marina shallows pretty heavily... and we found the shallowest shallow patch!.. i'm led to understand that they are doi some dredging this winter to resolve the problem.... however, it wasn't an issue... we were at LW, so would have just floated off after a few minutes, but because i'd been going very slowly, we had only realky just touched, and a bit of reverse pulled her off easily. We headed to the other end of the marina, and found plenty of water at this end... and wer soon in a berth.

Next order of the day, a full fried breakfast, and then we all crashed out for 4 hours of much needed sleep.... as we arose, Jim joined us... hoorah, a full complement!

That evening, a decent crowd gathered for the East Coast Forum Laying Down supper (I know that should be Laying Up supper, but we're a rather contrarian lot, and this seemed a better title for the event!)... it was great to see a few old faces, and some new ones... who knew that a group of internet acquantainces could be such great company!

A few drinks, a splendid meal (well down RHYC, it was good grub, and very pleasant surroundings!)

and to bed... in bed by 01:00.... a bit late, given that the unfriendly tides had maintained their grudge, and departure time was 07:00 the next morning... or actually 06:00 to be correct, as overnight, daylight saving ended and the clocks moved from BST to GMT/UTC.

We raised ourselves, a bit weary still after limited sleep two nights in a row, and motored out without incident... there was about 15kts of wind, so a sail look possible... however, it is the curse of a sailor to find that the wind is always dead on the bow, this being no exception, and so we had to motor sail.

As we rounded Walton headland, it had picked up to a lively 20kts, and the new course took the wind from slight off dead ahead, to absolutely dead ahead.. the sail was slatting and banging around, so weeven had to drop that, and yep... we motored all the way back.

Now, it may be fair to challenge me on the trade descriptions act, when I describe the trip as a sail, but I don't car.. it was just good to be back out on the water!

Other than that, it was an uneventful trip, with very little traffic out there on a grey, chilly, windy day in late October.

We were back in Bridgemarsh by 12:30, and away shortly after... a great weekend... thanks Jim for trusting me with your lovely boat, and thanks to all the ECF lot for a weekend filled with laughter.

All that leaves is for me to ressurect an old feature on my blog... the mileage tracker below.. lets hope it has a few more entries before too long!

Miles logged 70nm
Miles this season 70nm
Miles since this blog started 6,021nm

OK..... so its a new engine

The marina have got back to me.... I hadn't taken the rocker cover off.... but they did.... all the springs and valves are rusty... which would imply that the bores and rings will be.... and with a new fuel pump, we're already intp spending several grand to get her rebuilt.

The yard have suggested that they pull the engine out, and take it apart to see what their closer inspection reveals

Its not worth it iin my opinion.... lets cut the losses, and not spend money on it.

So, it'll be a new engine.... ouch.

I just need to decide when we pull the old lump out really.... and that'll be driven by me being back in work.

wet look...

no, its not a trip back to the 80's.... its varnish again!

After 4 coats, the rebuilt hatch frame is starting to get that lovely wet look varnish finish....

I've got the new Polycarbonate sheet to be fitted... maybe just one more coat to get it just right, and then i'll refit the plastic.

I've got to drill the holes yet, which shouldn't be a problem in Polycarbonate, as unlike Acrylic, it doesn't tend to shatter when drilled... I also need to run a sander along the top outer edges to just take the sharp corners of them, but will probably do that when its fitted.

The plan is to use Butyl tape to seal it... partially as its very effective at creating a seal, and partially, because its black and will look neat and tidy, whereas sealant would need a lot of work to spread out evenly and avoid looking like a mess!

Butyl tape arrived in the post this morning... is 50mm wide, so will need some manicuring to fit, but the wider stuff was too wide, so would also have needed triming, and was a LOT more expensive.

getting some sailing in!!!!!

next weekend....

YEHAAAAA!

My good friend Jim has organised an end of season dinner for a group of us at Royal Harwich Yacht Club.... and he was planning on coming by boat.... only work has got in the way for him, and he needs to be in Italy until Saturday morning, and then back again Sunday, and he's asked me to bring his boat down from Burnham to Ipswich, so that his better half, Lynn, can still get some sailing in....

Naturally, I said yes!

Its a really lovely Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35 lifting keel, that Jim has steadily fettled and improved over the few years since he bought her brand new.

We'll need to get the boat back too.... so logisitics will be a bit of a pain... but i'm sure we'll sort it.

A quick check of the tides (to be verified before you all tell me i'm wrong) suggests that it'll be a 1:00am departure sat am, and a 7:00am return on sunday morning... so not ideal... buts that's a small price to pay.

Only the weather can stop the plan!

Also, need to agree with Debs what her plans are... if I take the car to Burnham, then she's left stranded all day Sunday until I get back to Ipswich, probably around 17:00, or she can (my preferred option) come with us on the boat!... otherwise its a nightmare of trains, which will not be easy, or cheap.

pump identified and other stuff

Finally identified the injector pump model after hours on google.

its a Cav Minimec P5127 /3

Doesn't help me much knowing that.... :)

I've also booked a lift out for Dec 1, and asked them to step the main mast at the same time... I can then use this chance to fit all the masthead stuff... I have a new aerial/windex, the windsender, a new tricolour and a steaming/deck light to install. While i'm at it, I can replace a few rivets that are looking a bit suspect, and give the rigging a darn good inspection.

prv leak stopped and ipads at the chart table

I've had an annoying drip from the pressure relief valve on the hot water cylinder since I installed it.... I was going to replace the valve, but following a suggestion from Findus on the ever brilliant ybw.com forums, I instead checked the pressure on the accumulator tank, and there wasn't any... so stuck 1 bar in there with a footpump i'd taken down to the boat especially, and voila!... the leak has gone!... when you think about it, its quite obvious... as the water warms and expands, without an air pocket in the accumulator to absorb the expansion, there is only one place the water can go... out of the prv... thanks Findus... saved me a few quid!

Next I set about wiring up a cigarette style socket at the chart table. I've bought a couple of those marine style sockets that take a normal connector, but also click and lock ones if wanted.. they also have a decent water resistant cap... wired it up, and I now have a power supply for my iPad at the chart table, all ready for when I install the nice Raymarine wifi enabled system, to act as a secondary plotter and radar display at the chart table... plus every day use for email etc..

Lastly, I did a bit of tidying up of the wiring... a few extra cable ties here and there, just to keep things neat until all the wiring is done, and I can clip it all up properly and permanently.

On the way home, I stopped at Foxes chandlery, and have bought (yet another) tin of matt varnish, so that I can finish the cupboard doors at home, as well as the cable connectors to finish the autopilot, and  a 40amp fuse, as it is currently unfused on the high power side (its operated through a relay, so that the switching circuit at the panel is still low current)... and a bargain power connector for the shore power, one of the nice ones with a flap that will be unobtrusive and allow me to make another hole in the cockpit watertight, rather than taped over with gaffer tape!... it was £14 which is very cheap... nice one Foxes!... I needed to do this soon, so that I can finish off the cockpit hlass work before painting.

A few days at home now, back to job hunting, and then perhaps another stint onboard in a few days.

update - stupid gene identified...

One last check on the autopilot, after a break and a bite to eat....

For some reason the previous owner - probably back more than one - had connected the heavy wires that i've reused the different way round for +ve and -ve for the last step to the computer.... everywhere throughout the entire system its blue for live and brown for return.... bar the last step!!!!!.... swap them round, check the fuse again, and bingo... everything sprang into life... yes, we have autopilot control!

I just need to remake two connections tomorrow, where i've had to use a connector that is too light, as I had run out of the heavier ones... will nip and get some tomorrow morning... and all should be fine... yes... that's lifted my spirits!

its going to be one of those days...

With nothing doing on the engine front, I have set too with reinstalling the autopilot...

a lot of wiring later, I switched it on.... nada, nowt.

So, I have spent much of the afternoon troubleshooting my wiring, and checking for continuity... connecting power directly to the head unit resulted in it powering up nicely, so I suspect the course computer has expired.... as I haven't yet been able to get the instrument head powered up from the computer, I can't actually test the drive itself.

So, that's another thing to add to the list of expensive things to be sorted.... sigh.

pump appears to be seized solid

Despite my efforts, the pump seems to be, in a technical term, knackered.

The rack won't move more than a 1/16"

I pulled the drain plug and a very dieselly mix came out... felt like a light oil, rather then the engine oil that is supposed to be in there.

I have put new oil in, liberally soaked the internals in releasing oil, yet nothing.

I did plan on pulling the top of each of the cylinders. There is a knurled nut that can be undone beneath each fuel union... but they are too tight to undo in situ. Its a shame, as I might then have been able to remove the check valves and tap each cylinder to free it up.

Here's the offending article

You can see the knurled nuts quite clearly in this picture. I may have another go at them in an hour when the penetrating oil has done its work a bit more.

leaves and hair

I headed down to the boat, all set to get on with the engine.... as I stepped onto the boat, It was surprised to seeu that there was 2" of water in the cockpit!

The water was just lapping up to the sills of the doors into the boat... gulp.

It quickly became obvious that the drains had blocked with a combination of early autumn leaves, and other detritus... quite a lot of hair!

I unblocked them, and the water was gone in less than a minute.

However, the engine room was a different matter... a quick inspection showed that the water sitting in the cockpit had also found its way past the steering pedestal, and the engine was pretty wet... nothing that will do any harm, but enough that the plan to pull the injector pump apart was a non starter... I therefore had a quick change of plan...

The cockpit tent was put up sharpish as it was still raining... or put up as much as I can... the sides still need pop studs fitting to the boat... they are onboard... I can't find them!... and yes, I did check in the place that the GPS appeared from!

Nevertheless, it was enough for me to get the cockpit dry, and I detached the steering cables, and undid the bolts holding the pedestal in place. Resealing the pedestal has been on my list for a long while... It had just zoomed to the top of the list!

Removing the pedestal was easy, and I set to reinstall it with a good dose of sealant. The previous owner for some reason, had ignored the nice set of new aluminium bolts when reinstalling the pedetal when we bought her... so I decided to use them... a good call, as the old ones were a poor quality metal, possibly just plated, and were corroding pretty badly... one had lost half its diameter in the 3 years it had been in place.

A few minutes later, I discovered why the bolts had remained in their wrapper. They were 12mm diameter shafts, and the removed ones were 9mm... not an issue for the wood plinth upon which the pedestal sat, or the deck that the bolts carried on through... 2 minutes with a drill had that dealt with.... however, the 4mm thick stainless steel backing plates were a bit tougher... I ended up spending 3 hours with a round file adding the extra 3mm of diameter such that the bolts would go through... but it was eventually done... lots and lots of sealant, and the pedestal was remounted.

I set about reconnecting the steering cable... and  I grabbed it, it was very very hot!.... crikey... it had rested in the positive terminal of the battery when I had disconnected it... and had been merrily conducting away for the last few hours!!!!!.... fortunately, no harm done... it is a heavy wire, and had just got hot, rather than causing any serious damage... a lesson though... I need terminal covers on the batteries untik such time as I mount them properky, probably in a box with a vented lid.

So now, the engine room is water tight again... the heater is in there drying everything out, and I should be OK to get on with the engine tomorrow.

new hatch top

I've been and placed a special order for the new plastic for the hatch top.

The old one, upon measuring was 12mm thick, and with advice from the provider, I have replaced it with 12mm Polycarbonate, which will be bullet proof.

I could have gone for Acrylic, but the advice was that it would flex too much and not be safe when jumped upon. I suspect this was a little overplayed, but the hatch is horizontal, and on the foredeck, and could therefore face several tons of water being dumped upon it, so it can't be too strong!

I haven't also been able to source smoked Polycarbonate in that thickness, so it mean that the new material is clear.. I ummed and arred about this for a while, concerned about temperatures down below, but decided that i'd rather have thick and strong, than thin and smoked.

I can always put the cover over it if it starts to get too hot in the interior.

So, the flip side of the wood part of the hatch has now had its first coat... onwards and upwards!

"ew... its smells of varnish"

I have fallen into writing posts in a style that Barbara Hart described as "short and descriptive".

I quite like that, as its pretty much the way I see it too... although its not intentional. Its probably a result of too many years in IT, a good chunk of my lifetime banging out dozens of emails a day, and most of all, the fact that no matter how hard I try, beautiful writing just doesn't come naturally to me.

I am however, going to break the habit of a (nearing) 10 year old blog, and write a bit about a less directly boaty subject, and more about its impact.

I look around my house, and the entire place is covered in partially completed boat bits, from doors to trim, all varnished, or partially varnished, a brass bell, a brass oil lamp, a Hydrovane self steering system in bits, a pile of headlining panels, a dozen crates of boat bits waiting patiently since they were disembarked from our previous boat, Morgana, much more besides and through to my personal favourite, a pile of unloved and uncorrected charts.

They, on a daily basis, remind me of the fact that I am not currently sailing, and encourage me to keep going. The charts in particular tease me with glimpses of places we know and love.

Their time will come.

But the real evidence of a boats existence is created by the cat.

She has a favourite arm on the sofa upon which she spends her habitual 23 1/2 hrs of the day, and this evening Debs noted that she is starting to mark it, so a blanket was needed. I placed a towel on there as a temporary fix.

"Ew.... it smells of varnish"

Yes, my life is out of date charts, and a faint odour of wood finish. What more could you want?

no news is good news

...or maybe no activity!

I've not heard anything from the yard yet on them taking a look at Phoenix's engine.

I've in the meantime, done plenty of Googling on fuel injector pumps, and am now a little more confident in taking a better look at it.

In other news, i've got the first coat of varnish on one side of the reassembled hatch, and that is looking good.

I've not been too concerned with the finish here, as this bit will be under butyl tape.

I can't go too much further with it until I get the new bit of Polycarbonate, as I don't want to find that the joint have moved slightly once snugged down onto the new plastic and hence my varnish being spoilt.

I've also finished the forepeak door, which will now have to wait to be fitted until I can buy the new door handles... I won't be doing that until gainfully employed again, as its hard to justify spending that much money on them while not working.

I can't finish the sliding doors, as I have run out of matt varnish, and need a trip to the chandlery to buy some more.

One other thing... the pressure relief valve on the calirifier has been dripping very slightly when the water is hot.... i'd assumed a dodgy valve, but someone who knows about these things has suggested that I check the precharge in the accumulator. The accumulator is basically a small tank that is half air one side of a membrane, and the rest water... as the pump runs, it puts the water under pressure by compressing the air... if there isn't enough air in there, then the water pressure forces the prv to leak.. its worth a check. The air can be replaced by use of a bicycle pump via  schraeder valve on top of the accumulator.... will report back!

trim done

bar the book racks which I will fit much later due to needing to do the headlining first, i've finished all the internal trim varnishing (that's accepting the aft cabin not started at all)... and the first side of the last door, and the last sliding cupboard doors... so winning.. and pleased with the results.

Debs will be pleased to get her table back!