Ready to go!

Well, apart from loading supplies, the dinghy, securing for sea etc. I had planned to do this later in the month but with dry and relatively warm weather forecast (that proved optimistic, it was darn cold at times) it was too good an opportunity to miss, and next week is out due to both cars going into the shop and a new washing machine to install.

This last winter has been hard on canvas, fortunately I took all

of  the other canvas off of the boat for cleaning and reproofing

before she came out of the water in October.

After a mornings work cleaning and a lot more rigging etc..

The saloon tidier than it has been for a long time. The starboard

bunk back is in dry store as I don't need it sailing single handed

and this gives me a bit more room for convenient storage, with

the lea cloth in place.

More work on and off the boat.

 A short but productive visit to the boat last week, I was lucky with the weather which was much better than forecast and despite a brisk wind it was warm enough on both days to work outside without cold weather clothing, that was not going to last and I only stayed one night rather than the two I had planned but I only skipped a couple of jobs and did a couple of extra ones.

First on the agenda after arriving on Wednesday in the early afternoon, was getting the mainsail and stack pack rigged before the weather had a chance to intervene, that proved a lot easier now than when I last had the stack pack off with the canvas more flexible.

Next was sorting out the kedge anchors and the rest of the anchoring and mooring gear, probably not a good idea as my back is still suffering, the newly demoted Lewmar Delta kedge is now in it's new home and the 10m of 8mm chain I would have used with a kedge is off the boat now being too heavy for me to move around comfortably, it has been replaced by a 5m length with new shackles.

Then I patched the sprayhood back drop that had suffered from chafe during the winter storms and refitted the revarnished tiller with its new cover.

In the evening, whilst the rain came down, I had a go at tidying up the electrics, not a lot of work as I wasn't going to take it all to pieces, not super tidy but an improvement.

Refurbished bolt croppers.

Thursday morning, and I planned to sew some pre-prepared patches onto the front of the spray hood where my grab ropes rub, but easing the hood to do it I found a 2" tear in the canvas where it bears on the aft tube and a thin patch further out, so one prepared patch went on the first and a new, awkwardly shaped one went on the other. By now it was lunch time, my back was really bad so after checking the moisture traps I made a dash for home avoiding some nasty weather on Friday and the heavy traffic usual on a Friday afternoon.

As usual when I am on the boat I find more jobs to do, this time as well as the spray hood issue, when checking the tools in the heavy items locker I found the emergency bolt croppers rusted up, probably because, being too big for the tool bag, they were stored next to the kedge anchors that I have used occasionally to back up the bower and were probably wet when stowed. 

A new pair would only be about £12 but I don't like throwing away tools so I had it home, with difficulty got it to pieces, cleaned up and painted. A good 3 hours work but in retrospect I think it would be best to paint unpainted parts of a new one as a preventative measure so perhaps only a couple of hours net. I suspect Sir Robin would approve:

"Maybe I am getting dated but, when I first started sailing more than 50 years ago, if something broke we fixed it if it was at all possible. Buying new was a last resort as money was always scarce, but in any case we had been taught to take care of our tools, and it stood us in good stead. When you get halfway across an ocean and need to do an urgent repair, it is not the time to discover that the tools are rusted up and probably some are missing because they have not been put away properly. Try finding a chandlery in mid-ocean!"

Knox-Johnston, Robin. Knox-Johnston on Seamanship & Seafaring: Lessons & experiences from the 50 years since the start of his record breaking voyage (pp. 119-120). Fernhurst Books  

As an aside, the bolt croppers are a back up emergency tool in case of dismasting or similar, the primary tool is a battery powered angle grinder with cutting disks which would go through rigging, and spars, like butter. But it could be dangerous to use in a rough sea and it might not work after a ducking so I carry the croppers as well.

Only one long, perhaps three night, visit to the boat is now required before I go sailing, an hours work to secure the newly installed water tank, a couple more to clean and reproof the spray hood and then a lot of work to get all of the rigging re-rove and maintenance gear off the boat. Then I will be ready for Ireland, when the weather permits.

2026 A bit more planning for Ireland.

Not having anything better to do and with tide information now available for the SeaPro navigation software (it is not available till late December which must be a real pain for those sailing in warmer climes) and the Imray Tide App now working correctly, I thought I would spend a little more time planning for the first few days of my planned trip to the west coast of Ireland. Writing it down also helps me understand the options.  The initial planning was back in September, the thread starting here.

The spring tide of the 21st, a likely start date from the Dale anchorage, is a couple of days after the new moon that rises at 06:20 so the nights are going to be very dark, by the neap tide of the 27th, another good day to start, it will be waxing gibbous (just more than half) setting at 04:22 at Waterford, much better - IF it is a clear night. So, there must be a good chance of arriving in daylight or at a location I am happy to arrive at in the dark.

Sunset along the eastern coast of Ireland on the 21st will be around 18:45Z improving to 20:20Z on the 11th April. Summer times starts on the 29th of March which would help at the expense of a darker morning, not normally an issue for a departure. Add 30 minutes to these times for civil twilight.

Sunrise on the 28th at Waterford is 06:12Z and on April 11th, 05:40Z, subtract c 30 minutes for civil twilight.

Anchorages I have used in red, marinas in blue. Anchorages
I have reviewed as usable (at least in daylight) in green. The
marina I have used at Kinsale is hidden by other marks including
the marina at the yacht club. Other marinas in purple.

Of the anchorages I know along the coast south of Carnsore point there are several that I would be happy to enter and anchor in the dark, from east to west:

• St Margaret's Bay (North of Carnsore Point).
• Dunmore East (Waterford). 
• After that Youghal has a well lit entrance but the anchorage is between shifting banks and the "safer" area has moorings that might not be visible at night, but it would be OK for an early morning arrival if heading further west or if I needed a bolt hole or somewhere to rest after a slow passage.
• Kinsale to anchor below the bridge, or in extreme conditions to moor in one of the two marinas, I would need to average better than 5.3 knots to reach there before daylight, possible but unlikely unless a very good wind and probably a bumpy ride.
• After that the next is Baltimore a long way away.

Of the places I haven't been to the following should work in the dark:

• The east side of Waterford Harbour.
• Probably the Dungarven Helvick Head and Ballycotten Bay anchorages if the wind is southerly  but both are exposed to the east and north.
• Cork / Crosshaven.

The anchorage at Dunmore East looking out into Waterford harbour.

The main Kinsale anchorage from Castlepark marina, shore lights
should show the few mooring buoys so not a problem in the dark.

The first thing to do is check my default destination which is Waterford Harbour. On March 21st with an 04:00Z start from Dale routing north of The Smalls at 4.5 knots, SeaPro shows an arrival time of 19:30Z but, especially on a Spring tide with 4 knots of tide or more helping north past Skolholm, this is pessimistic due to the lack of tidal diamonds from Milford until past The Smalls, see my notes on passage making from Milford. (Timings for routes south of The Smalls are likely to be more realistic). Kilmore would be a little quicker so certainly an option if I am running to time.

St Margret's Bay or Rosslare would be options if a changing wind made Waterford difficult but the passage from there to Waterford is 6 to 9 hours, effectively a whole day, so is to be avoided if possible.

Cork routing south of the Smalls would be an overnight sail arriving at 07:30Z (an hour earlier if leaving on the 27th when it is a neap tide) and if the weather is particularly good or in a stiff northerly wind that could make Waterford uncomfortable (Kilmore would be OK if there is no lingering sea), I might well opt for that or Kinsale a little further on but I have been there before and would like to see Cork harbour.

Going direct to Baltimore would, at 4.5 knots, take 7 hours longer than Cork, a possibility if the weather was good, particulalry if it was about to change, but a long haul to start with and again I would be missing out on Cork.

If it is likely to be warm for the time of year with a favourable wind, Cork looks good, the decision would ideally be made the night before departure so as to start later at around 07:30Z from Dale @ HW Milford for more favourable tides and more sleep, or between 05:30Z and 07:15Z from the Marina during free flow. 

On the 22nd or 23rd the tides are not helpful from Waterford to Cork and it would be 13 or 14 hours or, more likely, a couple of days to avoid two long days with early starts in succession. Things start to improve from the 24th, half way towards neaps and with the tides later so a delayed start from Milford or a visit to Waterford would help there, but if it is not particulalry cold overnight I think I would prefer the longer trip direct to Cork, have a day or twos there then move on.

From Cork it would be a 12 hour run to Baltimore or a couple of days probably via Glandore, with the tides not being such a factor. 

Conclusions:

If the wind is:

• Westerly I wait for a better wind, preferably at home. 
• c 325 → N → c 220 degrees direct to Cork and Kinsale are possibilities.
• South-westerly, promising  to change withing a day or two I could head for Waterford or Kilmore and then as below.
• With winds from the North through east to south, one of:
• A fairly long day to Waterford Harbour or Kilmore then anything from 2 to 5 days to Baltimore which is what I allowed for in my first draft plan. Likely stops:
• Dungarvin, Whiting Bay or Yougal.
• Cork (E Passage lagoon or Spike Island or Crosshaven or Drakes Pool).
• Coutmacsherry or of many options between there and Glandore.
• Baltimore.
• An overnight trip to Cork, a day or twos rest then one or two more days, then as above.
• A very long overnight trip direct with a couple of nights at anchor to recover.

Sod's law says the wind will be WNW or some other marginal direction but time will tell. 

Rounding the Fastnet during the JBC in 2019.
No whales then either 😞

In the event of storm force winds good shelter could be found at Waterford, Cork, Kinsale, Baltimore or possibly Youghal, with quite a few others for "merely" strong or gale force offshore winds.

Unfortunately is will be too early in the season to make a whale watching trip to Cape Clear, the Fastnet Rock or Mizzen Head worth while so after Baltimore I am thinking of using the interesting north channel out of the harbour to head for Bearhaven, where I have a better chance of some serious resupply and diesel than Baltimore,  probably via Skull / Long Island or Crookhaven. 

The northern route out of Baltimore.

If the weather is bad but with offshore winds there are a good number of other places to visit on route.

Baltimore - Bearhaven at 5 knots, Crookhaven is
only c 3 hours

Tides are not a major problem for these relatively short legs but are particularly favourable from the 29th or 30th March for several days at least as far as Valentia with morning departures giving fair tides and plenty of time to complete legs in daylight.

After Bantry Bay there are few tidal diamonds and frequently none on a leg until Malin head and I don't intend to work those legs out manually from the pilot and tide tables until I get there.

Engine work and more.

Fuel Filter Assembly.

Yanmar fuel filter assembly.

Scanning through the workshop manual for the engine I found that the thermostat has a life of 2,000 hours (it is not on the service schedule in the operations manual!) so it was due and quite possibly overdue for replacement. But first up was the rest of the service (started before lift out) and inspection, that all went fine until the thread on the bleed screw on the fuel filter gave up the ghost, it has always been problematical with a tendency to leak and now it would not seal with the normal copper washer and it was rather iffy without. I was unsure about how good the thread in the filter assembly was so rather than faff about finding the right bleed screw, with the entire assembly complete with a filter at £80 I opted for that.

Fitting was straight forward and I had previously invested in a large assorted pack of copper crush washers so there was no need to hunt down the right size.

Thermostat & hose replacement.

I had already replaced all of the hoses except the short piece to the thermostat that was probably original to the engine but I found a rub on the hose from the seacock to the water filter were it was too close to the engine sump being a little too long. With hose not costing that much I decided I might as well replace more and opted for a premium silicone at £10 per metre incl postage. Compared to rubber silicone hose is more resistant to high temperatures and some chemicals, is robust, more flexible and is smoother so that water can flow more easily.

Fuel filter top left, thermostat housing top centre between the two
pieces of red hose, the lower piece is the bypass hose. Water filter
left. Water pump bottom left.

It was a good job that I decided to change the thermostat because I found that the bypass hose and the outlet from the cylinder intake coupling was completely blocked with salt; had the thermostat ever been changed? It certainly had not been since the engine was resprayed after a "major service" in 2014. 

The thermostat from
"Parts4engines".

The engine is not going to overheat because of this, presumably with the bypass blocked the water pressure forces the thermostat open as on starting there was plenty of water coming out of the exhaust. Normally the thermostat does not start to restrict water through the bypass until the water in the outlet is 42°C vs a summer input temperature of 8 - 15°C  and it  should be fully open with the water temperature at 52°C  at which point it completely blocks the bypass to force all of the cooling water through the block and cylinder head.

So with the bypass blocked, the engine would be very slow to warm up, and probably for an extended period would have been running even cooler than normal for a raw water cooled engine that already runs cool compared to the heat exchanger equipped fresh water cooled version. 

Wednesday 21st.

A new bag for the throw bag, the bean bag weight and line, minus
a couple of feet that has been exposed to the sun, reused.

A cover for the tiller to preserve the rather good varnish finish.
Only try this using hand stitching if you have a lot of spare time!

I think I have finished all of the winter work except a bit of painting and a couple of small jobs down below that I'll do in a month or so when I'll need to go to the boat to replenish the condensation traps, to do some cleaning and take some heavy gear down. Then it will be 2 or 3 days to re reave the running rigging and put the sails on and I'll be ready to head to Ireland.

Continuing winter work & a new anchor.

Monday 12th January

A quick trip to the boat over the last 3 days, shorter than planned as, after the gales, I found some stitching broken on the spray hood, it was tipping down and blowing a gale so I'll be down again as soon as there is some dry, hopefully warmer weather to fix that and carry on with other work. But I did get some things done mainly continuing work on the engine, post to follow when finished, some tidying up and replacing the bower anchor. 

Whilst I have generally been satisfied with the "high" holding power Delta anchor I have now had two very nasty instances of it giving way, the first in the Pembroke River was almost certainly down to pulling through a mound of newly displaced mud or through into a newly dredged hollow.

The second, in 2025, however was more unsettling, true it was in fairly extreme conditions but the holding was at least reasonable and the anchor failed after earlier holding in more wind, probably down to excessive yawing and a falling tide but I would have hoped for the anchor to cope. 

I have also had a few occasions when I could not get the Delta to set, most notably at Loch Mariveg, Isle of Lewis in May 2025 when I tried 8 times to anchor in several areas and still failed.

This year I am planning to cruise the west coast of Ireland were there are fewer marinas and potentially strong winds coming in from the Atlantic, so I decided to replace the Delta with a more modern and much more expensive (almost 3 times the price) "super high" holding power 9Kg Rocna "Vulcan". That was quickly installed once I had found some suitable load tested "Titan" shackles and the seizing wire. The original 24 Lb CQR is now ashore for good and the Delta is relegated to #1 kedge.  

Whilst the majority of the Delta is in good shape there is a disappointing
amount of rust on it, perhaps not that surprising having been in the anchor
locker for c 20k miles and in use for 350 nights and a few lunch breaks.
Note that the swivel should be attached via a shackle but I robbed that
for the Rocna which they say should not need a swivel, just back to
back shackles.

It is being cleaned with "brick" cleaner (acid) to remove a lot of crud and
will then be treated with "Fertran" before being painted and returned
to the boat.

Done, just need to seize the first shackle when it gets to the boat.

Saturday 27th December

It is rather more comfortable working at home, but annoying when you realise that you need something that is on the boat 200 miles away, this time the sail makers kit I need to make a cover for the newly varnished tiller and to remake the throw bag that, like the emergency ladders, has suffered from UV and is starting to fall to pieces; planned obsolescence I suspect, straight forward canvas would last longer, the current one is the second I have bought and about 4 years old. Still there should be plenty of time to make those after my next visit to Milford which will be as soon as we get a warm spell.

I am fitting a remote card reader for the plotter to save removing the cover to get at the cards - I could not get the current Garmin Navionics chart to transfer from the iPad in one go but it was quick and straight forward to write it to the SD card using Garmin Express. The reader was too long to fit so I had to put deeper side pieces on the cover and revarnish. 

Fitted. The holder on the left is for the hand held VHF. Also shown, the emergency
knife, EPIRB mount, strobe and head light, all within easy reach of the cockpit.

Some repainting of engine bits in process, about 3 days more
 for the air filter cover and one or two for the water pump.

Sunday

Getting there.

Tuesday

All done, now waiting for sensible weather to get to the boat.

Trying to get the boat back in the water.

Sancerre was scheduled to launch last Friday, the 5th, but strong winds and heavy rain prevented that. Probably not a bad thing as the very wet weather meant the anti-fouling was behind schedule. The launch was rescheduled for the following Tuesday the 9th.

I put a coat of anti-foul on the skeg, rudder and leading edges shortly after
coming ashore as these get more wear and needs 3 coats. The first full coat of blue was
done on 3rd December after weeks of rain, there was a real risk of not getting the 2nd full
coat on before the scheduled relaunch but that has was put back from Friday 5th until
Tuesday 9th because of yet more bad weather on the way.

Windjammer Marine got the last of the blue done in a short window on Friday and did the boot line today (Monday).
 

Pics by Windjammer Marine

I was due to go down Monday to fit the new anodes, get the newly marked anchor chain back on board and do a few other chores to get ready for launch, then on Sunday came the weather forecast for Tuesday; 30 knots of wind gusting to more than 50 knots and 60 knots possible. Update: I understand it was gusting 56 knots through the boatyard causing some damage on other boats.

There was no point in going down for that so I cancelled the hotel booking and today we have rescheduled the launch for Monday the 22nd December, hopefully there will be sufficient water as the spring tide is low at 6.6m which is marginal. 

Tuesday

A good decision, 30 knots of wind gusting 49 reported at 09:00
and forecast to be similar or more throughout the morning,
it peaked with gusts of 53 knots (61 mph).

Sunday 14th.

With all of the flooding in the area and amber warnings for rain this coming week, there will be lots of freshwater coming down the pill which will keep water levels in the dock above normal levels which helps albeit with brackish waters that will increase the draft a little. It is a long way out, but the ECMWF is showing a brisk north easterly for Monday week and I could get wet, not ideal but manageable. Fingers crossed!

No "proper" boat work to do at home so back to models.

Thursday 18th.

Hopefully I'll get the boat in on Monday, the wind is now forecast to be c 10 knots on Sunday and Monday, the ecmwf and UK gobal models show that increasing to 20 knots gusting 30 on Tuesday afternoon, hopefully that will not come in earlier, or the UK domestic model is correct showing no increase through Wednesday.

Sunday 21st.

Anodes changed and shaft primed for antifoul where left bare by slightly
shorter Aluminium Anodes. Also a coat of silicone on the propeller.
Various other jobs done and ready for launch!

Monday 22nd.

For some reason I had been scheduled for the second launch but that was quickly changed by the boss man who was doing the launches as the large motor boat also to be launched, drew significantly less than Sancerre. The boat was put into the slings in the twilight, antifoul quickly put on the areas previously covered by props and we were in the water by about 09:00.

The rush to get me in was not because of  lack of water but too much due to all of the rain, they wanted me in early so they could start letting water out through the lock to avoid flooding further up what used to be the pill before it was built over.  A "Pill" is the name, mainly used in S Wales and Cornwall, for a creek or shallow tributary to an estuary, usually largely drying at low water.

It was a tad windy up the chuff getting onto the berth but manageable single handed and I got a line round the end cleat on the end of the pontoon finger first try despite the fender which gets in the way. It was a little fortunate as half an hour after it was blowing well over 20 knots, at that I would have gone onto a spare berth heading into wind and waited, the marina staff probably not being available to help as they were doing the next launch.

I had got a lot done by lunch time and I had rather over done it the previous day and was rather achy so decided not to stay the night for some fairly arduous work on Tuesday and after a good trip back was home before five.