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. With the emergency
knife, EPIRB, strobe and head light 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 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.