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.
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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| Fitted. The holder on the left is for the hand held VHF. With it, the emergency knife, EPIRB, strobe and head light within easy reach of the cockpit. |
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| 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
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| Getting there. |
Tuesday
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| All done, now waiting for sensible weather to get to the boat. |
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