Sunday, March 17, 2024

Scrub

Plan A turned out not to be a complete dud, the winds certainly arrived for Friday but a bit earlier than expected and by mid day on Thursday it was clear that Saturday would be OK and I was able to book a space. I went onto the piles at 05:00 a day and an hour later than planned back in September, this was just before 2nd high water in perfect weather although I could have done with a moon to light the way; why does sailing always seem to involve early starts? 

06:37 waiting for the tide to drop.
As predicted she touched ground a tad after 06:00 and I was able to start power washing at 07:20. Hamble is reported to have the worst fouling area in the country, here is an example of what that means, Sancerre had three coats of a top of the range anti-fouling paint in July last year since when I have just been to the Isles of Scilly and back.

What a winter on the Hamble does to your boat, it would be
worse in summer with warmer water and more light.


The power wash took an hour but apart from the boot line, some of which is a bit thin after I raised it last year, the anti fouling was in good condition. I just had time to repaint the boot line and the leading edges which ablate quicker than the rest. A new anode went on with the water over the sill but I just managed it with wellies and did not have to resort to the waders.

Job done and ready to head off as soon as the wind and tide serve.
It was then a long wait, after an initial rush of incoming water the "New flood stand" resulted in a four hour wait from paddling in the dock to floating off, it is frustrating but does give the anti foul chance to harden a bit, most of the time there is only c 18" of water in the dock which makes the wait seem even longer. 4 days after springs, it was 9 hours 15 minutes from LW to 2nd HW.

Waiting for the water to return, it was pretty much at this level for a
couple of hours.
I just missed my chance of warping onto and along an empty pontoon when both the launches came back from delivery / pick up trips but I got the "bosuns" to take my lines and I was safety through the narrow gap with room to turn, then back to the mooring with quite a strong tide and a breeze on the nose but with the boats up and down stream of me out of the water for maintenance it was a straight forward operation.

The wind forecast for the coming week is not encouraging, and the week after I would have to commit to an overnight crossing of Lyme Bay so unless the weather is particularly benevolent my likely departure date is Easter Monday / All Fools Day to take the inshore route around The Bill at daybreak on the 3rd or 4th. One can only hope.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

2024 Plan A is a dud before it starts

I need to clean the bottom of the boat before departing and that is not going to happen in time to leave on the next neap tides to use the Portland inshore route, even if the weather improves next week to make that possible. I was due onto the piles at 04:00 on Friday the 15th but there is no way to get in and particularly out of the dock with 18 - 33 knot winds and single handed I probably would not get back onto the trot mooring either.

The UK met office forecast for Friday as on Tuesday. It gets
marginally worse later in the day. the ECMWF and GFS
models are similar with slightly different timings.
Sancerre is now booked into the maintenance dock at 04:20 on Sunday March 31st, unfortunately that is a weekend and bank Holiday so I can't start power washing early and I'll only have a little over 2 hours with all of the boat out of the water, plenty of time for power washing but not enough for a full coat of anti-fouling below the boot line as well as that takes just over an hour to apply on a good day. However she had three coats in July and since then I have only been to The Scillies and back so it should be OK for the first cruise, I'll touch up a few places that are vulnerable - like the leading edges and perhaps re do the boot line which ablates quickly because of my hand cleaning. 

I picked up some scrapes to the gloss paint work in a 60 knot storm earlier in the year, the boat behind was out of the water so at a low spring tides Sancerre dropped back onto one if not two buoys with limpets attached, if its a warm day I may just have time to touch that up but I'm not holding my breath. 

With the shops closed on the 30th (and disrupted trains) logistics will be a little complicated but at least the club launch will be operating Sunday and Monday so the plan is a dash home on Sunday after getting the boat back on the mooring with the dinghy and outboard on board, then go back down on Monday by train leaving for the anchorage at Hurst that afternoon and Portland Harbour on Tuesday with no need to avoid the Lulworth ranges that will be closed. Them I leave at 05:00Z, 06:00 BST to go through the inshore route around the Bill about two hours  later than optimal due to lack of light.

If the weather gods permit!

Update: The weather gods allowed a scrub a day late but at the time of writing more bad weather is forecast so Easter weekend still looks favourite, IF we get some decent weather. Click here for the next exciting episode where I spend much of my time watching paint dry.

Friday, February 16, 2024

Fiddles

Hopefully the new removable fiddle on the inboard side of
the table will....

prevent a repetition of this which happened at anchor at the
Skerries (IRE)
.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Post notifications

I am no longer sending notifications of Blog updates via e-mail and instead will post notifications of significant updates with a link to the blog on Facebook (and perhaps to other social media) at SV-Sancerre, follow the page to get them. 

Monday, January 1, 2024

2024 - Towards Muckle Flugga?

A place name that has always intrigued me, according to Wikipedia it comes from Old Norse, "Mikla Flugey", meaning "large steep-sided island".

Before the lighthouse was automated and the keepers moved away it was the most northerly inhabited place in UK but I think what got my attention was that it is only a couple of miles from RAF Saxa Vord, and in the early 1970s when I was in the RAF and working on air defence radar with experience on the installed T80 radar and other equipment at the site there was a danger that I could be posted there, for someone single, in their 20s and doing a lot of sailing that was not something to look forward to, especially as the weather can be so bad that at various times two radar heads, one 75 foot long, have been blow away.

That should be between 2,200 and >= 3,000 nautical miles depending on the route so a worthy challenge for the year. The plan is weather dependant but I hope to leave in March (the tides will be good on the 16th - 18th, immediately after scrubbing) or early April (optimum dates c 1st or 15th but leaving over Easter does present some logistical problems) and to go west-about via Cape Wrath; I don't want another cold, difficult passage along the east coast in easterly winds that I experienced in 2021, probably getting weather bound for days in expensive marinas, it should also get me to Kirkwall, the Islands of north Orkney and then Shetland in June with long days and short nights. And on the way back I should miss the worst of the Scottish midges and have enough time to anti-foul the boat before another cruise to end the season.

Rounding Cape Wrath in 2020.
The route back will be decided later, east coast, back the way I came or through the Caledonian canal? Single handed the latter is possible but unlikely.

The other question is which way up the west coast? Going up the Irish sea it just depends on the wind but the next big thing on my bucket list is the west coast of Ireland and its tempting to go that way in case I'm not fit enough to do a round Ireland in 2025. On the other hand taking my time going around Ireland would be a a good mission for next year, perhaps in conjunction with the Jester Baltimore Challenge. I suspect I will still be pondering this when I get to Newlyn in April.

Once I get past the North Channel, or Malin Head if going round Ireland, there are a good number of places to visit or transit for the first time and others to revisit, including the sea of the Hebrides hoping for a repeat of the 2023 wildlife exhibition, The Sound of Barra (I would particularly like to see the beach airport there, I tried to fly there some years ago but the weather closed in and I got no further than Machrihanish (Campbletown) and had to turn back with a very low level flight back to Fife), The Shiant Islands and much more.


Some places on the West Coast I might visit as green anchors. In practical
terms some are going to be mutually exclusive on a one way trip, perhaps an
excuse for coming back west about if there is time. I have already visited
the anchorages shown as Red anchors  and marinas / harbours in Blue.

And some in Orkney and Shetland
Principle victualling stops are likely to include Newlyn, Ardglass or Bangor, Port Ellen (Islay) and / or Tobermory, Castle Bay (Barra), Stornoway, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Peterhead and Lowestoft. All of which should have Gaz and all, except Newlyn, have fuel on site or reasonably close at hand if needed.

Plan "A" failed before is started, now planning to leave at Easter.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Darn engines🤬🤬🤬🤬

I thought I would run the engine yesterday for the first time in a couple of months, a few minutes later the overheating alarm went off. 

There was water at the outlet from the water strainer, so I took the pump off then it's back. When the shaft was turned the impeller didn’t, the bonding between the rubber impeller and the metal centre had failed and it was easy to separate the two. 

The water pump looking from aft.
Visually in good condition except its now in
two pieces.
I change impellers annually in the spring with Yanmar branded ones so it has one seasons use. I suppose I should be grateful that it didn’t fail when I was rushing back to the Hamble from Hope Cove in August for a family emergency; I carry multiple spares and could have fixed it in an hour but it would have been quite stressful until I found the fault and dangerous if it had failed going through the Needles channel with little wind.

The assembly is getting a bit tatty where bolts bare on it and as I want to replace some of the pipe work, (including the bit shown above) and check the engine anodes I am leaving the engine drained of water for a while and have the unit at home for the clean up and repaint.

After the repaint.

Tip

On a Yanmar check and if necessary replace the water pump belt regularly, the unit gets very close to the engine mount if worn and adjusted for the correct tension, this could be a particular problem if standard soft engine mounts are used as the engine will rock more. Fortunately I have the stiffer premium mounts.

Update 4 Jan 2024. With a brief break in the weather the engine got it's annual service yesterday along with a new drive belt for the water pump and new water hoses from the pump through to the anti-syphon valve and the exhaust elbow (the seacock to the water pump were replaced with the seacock in 2022), rerouted to hopefully avoid chafe. Everything working again.