Measure twice, panic once ...

The bosun and I set off down to Fambridge mid-morning on Friday armed with ladders, tape measures and sail measurement forms. It was fairly windy but at least the rain held off whilst we set about the job of measuring up for the new sails ...

Plans Part V - some sailing perhaps?

Well, if not some sailing, at least some sitting in port necking an ale and waiting for better weather!

From experience over the last two years, we've come to the conclusion that the more longer trips we can fit in the better. The short weekends are generally just too short on time, and energy, to go anywhere or do anything much (although they are still very pleasant "floating cottage" breaks offering a change of scenery and a decent pub meal). So with that in mind, let outline our plans for the coming year ...

Plans Part IV - odds and sods

or even odd sods

There's a few of them around here I can tell you!

Anyway, there's a long list of jobs to be picked off as and when, some of them relatively small and cheap, others will need some planning. ...

Plans Part III - Are you sitting comfortably?

Yes, sitting comfortably. This is, when you get down to it, the crux of the problems that led to the discussion about a bigger boat. However, I have a plan. A cunning plan even. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's a very cunning plan ...

Plans Part II - Where we speak of string and things

The things being the big white flappy sheets that hang off the mast. I'm given to understand that they are supposed to be sails but my understanding of sails is that they form an aerofoil shape and generate lift. Ours don't do either terribly well! Added to that, I've suspected from the start that they were specified over-size for the boat and the final nail in the coffin is that the genoa UV strip is disintegrating and the sail itself has loose stitching in several places.

So the answer is new sails and happily, now that we've put the whole "new boat" thing to bed, we can afford to replace them and it's worth while doing so. So what is it going to entail? ...

Plans, plans and ... some plans

Lest the whole of December should go by without a post to the blog, I thought I'd update you, dear reader (I'm hoping there actually IS somebody reading this drivel!) on the latest short, medium and long term plans ...

Well worth remembering ...

... is this line extracted from a letter written by Admiral Nimitz shortly after the loss of three USN ships in a typhoon

"Nothing is more dangerous than for a seaman to be grudging in taking precautions lest they turn out to have been unnecessary. Safety at sea for a thousand years has depended on exactly the opposite philosophy."

Tempted to print that out and nail it on a bulkhead!

Ouch!

After all the howling gales and monsoon like rains, I awoke to find it's a lovely day out there today

Unfortunately, I'm sat indoors on the confuser paying bills

£176 for lift out

£142 for engine service, winterisation and storage until spring

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the lift out costs at Fambridge are the one area where, in my 'umble, the prices are a bit steep. Hey ho though 'cos it's not worth the hassle of going elsewhere for the winter and having to pay yard storage fees which are inclusive in the annual mooring contract

The engine service cost might seem a bit steep too until you stop and consider that for that price they have ...

Tested the engine and thoroughly flushed it with fresh water
Replaced the water pump impeller
Replaced both anodes (the standard one and the extra big one we added)
Replaced the spark plug
Drained and replaced the engine oil
Drained and replaced the gear oil
Checked and cleaned the thermostat
Drained and flushed the fuel system and carb
Checked the prop and replaced the split pins
Tested and set up the carb
Cleaned and greased the engine
Checked the recoil starter
Oiled the bore to protect it over the winter

And now the engine will bide quietly in their secure dry storage until the spring when, with a couple of days notice, they'll fit the spark plug, run the engine up, de-winterise it and make it ready for next year. Oh and the all important stamp in the service book to maintain the manufacturers 6 year warranty will be forthcoming ... when I remember where the hell I put the damn service book!

So easy for another three hundred odd quid to fly out of the boat account, hence the "ouch" in the title! I shall console myself with dreams of the perfect summer season of ideal yachting weather to come. And in my dreams is precisely where I expect the perfect summer season to stay!

2012 Stats

Counting up the days and nights on board in 2012 ...

Maintenance Weekend - 4 days, 3 nights
Rigging Weekend - 2 days, 2 nights
Yet Another Fitout Trip - 4 days, 4 nights
Launch Weekend - 3 days, 3 nights
Spring Cruise - 4 days, 4 nights
July Weekend - 2 days, 2 nights
Summer Cruise - 14 days, 15 nights
August Weekend - 2 days, 2 nights
Bosuns Weekend - 2 days, 2 nights
Autumn Weekend - 2 days, 2 nights
Laying Up Weekend - 1 day, 1 night

Note that travel days that did not include any significant acvitivy (sailing or maintenance) are not counted as days on board.

We managed to squeeze in a total of 10 trips to the boat (11 if you split the Launch Weekend and Spring Cruise although the latter followed on immediately from the former).

A total of 14 days on board were accumulated during maintenance trips. Yep, that total just surprised the hell out of me too!

I spent 26 days on board sailing, motoring or just generally faffing about. Another surprise.

I spent a total of 40 nights on board. A theme is developing here! Yes again, more surprise. Jane spent rather less time on board - 11 days and nights but that was  badly affected by missing out on the maintenance weekend due to an ear infection and the cancelled long weekend later in the year.

Rik was, inevitably, the next most active crew member after myself with Mark and Glen only managing a short weekend each (Mark missing out on the Summer Cruise due to work). Tony finally made it on board albeit with the boat on the bank but Heather missed out altogether this year.

We covered a shade over 400 nautical miles, 321 of them during the Summer Cruise. Our overall average speed was near as makes no odds 3.9 knots. Must say I'm quite chuffed with the average speed (Brigantia will only do about 6 knots absolutely flat out under sail and about a knot less under power so we're doing quite well to average around two thirds of hull speed across all conditions).

Give or take (and making allowances for motoring the upper reaches of the river too and from the moorings more often than not) we're running at a roughly 60/40 spilt between sailing and motoring*

I have to confess that I had developed an entirely erroneous feeling that we hadn't done that much this year apart from the Summer Cruise. OK, granted that was the only time we made it beyond the mouth of the river but we actually put in a lot of good work improving the boat and made good use of her as a getaway as well as putting in the big trip. What's more, the Spring Cruise was a disappointment due to the weather and we lost a planned long weekend on board which would have added even further to the totals. I am so surprised I shall have to go and make a coffee! ...

Our mileage could easily have been doubled if we'd had better weather but even so it's not so bad taken in context with what other sailors have been reporting on the forums. Of course, there are the retired and the well to do logging four figure mileages but there are plenty of much bigger boats than us who've logged similar runs and quite a few reporting less mileage acheived than we managed.

* This has been skewed somewhat by the conditions encountered during the Summer Cruise where we were faced with quite a few occasions where there simply wasn't any wind to sail with and a couple of occasions when the wind was dead foul and timing constraints made motoring a necessary evil.

2012 Summary

Our second year sailing Brigantia out of the River Crouch has been interesting.

The year started way back in January with an unsucessful trip to the Musto factory shop in Bicester. Jane can't possibly be the only size 6 sailor in the world (in fact, comments on the forums in response to appeals for ideas indicate that she is far from alone) so why don't any of the clothing manufacturers cater for the smaller woman?

February was the month for spending lots of money! The big purchase was the lovely new engine. It was a massive (relatively speaking) outlay but well worth it.

The season proper began on the first weekend in March with Rik and I putting in a long weekend of maintenance. On the Friday, having moved Brigantia from the moorings onto the pontoon, we collected the new engine from Seamark Nunn and then removed the old 2 stroke before trying the new engine for size. With the lifting handle removed, it dropped into the space well enough.

On Saturday, with the crew augmented by the arrival of Glen and Mark, we dropped and removed the mast and set about renovating all the gear at the masthead. Meanwhile, Rik set to fettling up the outboard well by removing various bits of extraneous timber and relocating the engine mount.

Sunday arrived with a forecast for F8 upwards from lunchtime so we didn't hang about getting the mast back up complete with new LED combi anchor/tricolour nav light, VHF ariel and all new blocks. Thanks to the loan of a set of rods from Mike on Blazer we were able to route the VHF cable down the mast - much better than the old routing down the backstay. By mid-afternoon it was raining solidly and the chop on the river was making life difficult which curtailed the work somewhat early.

Monday was windy. Very windy! My abiding memory is of Rik kneeling in the cockpit with his head buried in the engine well adjusting the position of the engine mounts whilst the stern of the boat went up and down, up and down, up and down over and over! Conditions, to put it mildly, were far from ideal. Even so, we managed to complete the engine installation before giving up and heading for home.

So far, so good. Despite less than perfect weather everything was going to plan. Now for more expense! Having fetched all the running rigging home, on examination it became clear it was all well past its use by date. Lots of new string ordered plus new mainsheet blocks. It's only money!

Mid March saw Glen and I arrive in the dark one Friday evening rather later than planned. As a consequence, I failed to row out to the boat against the fast ebbing tide! Hopeless rowlocks and short oars made progress all but impossible so we nailed the tender to the pontoon and cleared off up the pub. Returning a couple of hours later, it was now a matter of a few moments paddling to get out to the boat and fire up the new engine for the first time in anger. Not the ideal time to sort out how to work a new engine really with the result that I spent a frantic minute or two drifting down river trying to restart the engine I'd just flooded! Oh well ...

Saturday was all about making up bits of string. Lots of whipping of rope ends and so on. By the end of the day, we'd got all new halyards, new topping lift and a completely new mainsheet setup. Lovely!

Sunday began with a quick trip to the chandlers for yet more string as I decided to replace the genoa furling line as well. That leaves only the genoa sheets from the old running rigging and they're OK for at least another season yet. The boom was refitted and the mainsail bent back on. With the wind getting up we decided to leave the genoa in its bag for the time being. We also set up a "locking" line to keep the engine from turning from the straight ahead position which can be released to allow engine steering to be used. The old engine wouldn't turn to starboard within the well but with the new motor we have the ability to get a fair amount of swing to both port and starboard.

So far, even better! March ended with the chore of writing cheques for the mooring fees and harbour dues. The year to date was going very much to plan, I ought to have known it couldn't last!

My next excursion to the East Coast was as crew on Sabre, a Moody out of Bradwell, on a trip up to Shotley for the East Coast Forum Fitting Up Supper. This involved my first night sail entering Harwich in the dark which was an interesting experience. A very good weekend.

A week later and I'd managed to sell the old outboard to a forum member for a modest £50 which is better than leaving it in the shed to moulder and end up as a lump of scrap (which is what would have inevitably happened if I hadn't sold it)

Then it all went pear shaped! The last weekend in April should have seen us drying out on the slip to scrub and antifoul and finish off the last few jobs to put us back in commission. The weather, however, had other ideas. With gales forecast all weekend it simply wasn't worth even driving down. After some soul searching, we decided that the cost of having her lifted out, which we'd hoped to avoid, was a less bitter pill to swallow than the potential risk of losing anything up to half the sailing season waiting for suitable weather to get her on the hard.

With the lift out booked, we organised Yet Another Fitout Trip in mid-March. Rik and I descended on Fambridge on Friday afternoon, Rik arriving by train and me by car. We spent the night in the slings and the next morning Toby and Paul set to pressure washing the hull whilst I made a general nuisance of myself.. Rik was, unfortunately, rather unwell and unable to get much involved. Never the less, by the end of the day Brigantia had a fresh coat of  antifoul and a much shorter "snagging" list than at the start of proceedings.

The next day saw a much revived Rik busily engaged in running cables through awkward spaces and fitting new sockets and plugs at the mast base etc. whilst I finally repaired the rubbing strake damaged a whole year earlier when we originally launched and repainted the boot topping. A novel experience was drilling a big hole in the BOTTOM of the boat! Not something you do every day but in due course the hole was filled back up with the skin fitting for the log impeller.

The final day was a tidy up and make good excercise before a pub lunch and pack up. I felt nervous about having her relaunched in absentia with a new untested skin fitting so arranged to delay the crane in until Jane and I were on board the following month.

With other commitments (PA and lighting a festival in Stroud for one thing) it was five whole weeks before Jane and I got back to the boat for a weekend on the hard. First order of business was a mega-shopping trip. We finally sorted out some viable foulies for Jane (a combination of child size salopettes from the chandlers coupled with a jacket from an outdoors shop), bought nice new sleeping bags and a shiny new DSC VHF radio. Slightly disappointed not to obtain a tiller pilot as well but nobody had the one I wanted in stock. Back at the boat, I fitted the new VHF and then we went to the pub! That took care of Saturday.

The following day, I wired up the log impeller and set up the standing rigging whilst Jane date checked and organised the galley stores. We tried for Sunday dinner at the pub but they were packed out so we had a not very good lunch at Natterjacks in the marina. Not impressed (and not surprised when the place closed later in the year).

Monday started with my finally getting the battery wiring sorted out properly (although it still needs work ... it never ends!). Then it was time to crane her in. Delighted to find that the new skin fitting was dry as a bone, that was a relief. The disappointment was finding that the depth sounder was no longer working. It was off to Felixstowe to buy a replacement transducer. Two odd hours later and £26 to the poorer plus a flat tyre and an empty fuel tank we discovered that the problem was with the display. Never mind, we set to bending on the genoa and getting the furling line working properly.

We were ready to go sailing but the lack of a depth sounder was an issue that needed resolving so the next morning it was more spending on a complete new unit from Marine Store at Burnham. It was that or scrap the whole week which I wasn't prepared to do. Finally, with the new instrument head fitted we were ready to get under way. After motoring downriver, we fuelled up at Essex Boatyard and then sailed round into the Roach and thence to a night at anchor in the Yokesfleet.

Day five on board and our second day away from Fambridge saw us making some adjustments to the mainsail arrangements, principally rigging a decent clew outhaul at last, before setting off to explore further up the Yokesfleet (it gets narrower and shallower, no surprise there then!) before heading back down and checking out the anchoring possibilities in Paglesham Pool (it's too shallow even for us). Finally, after a lunch stop back in the Yokesfleet we elected to head round to Burnham Yacht Harbour for the night.

Thursday put us back at Fambridge having snuck upriver between batches of heavy rain. After putting up the cockpit tent I headed off to get a new tyre on the car and then onwards to Ipswich to pick up the tiller pilot from Foxes. On my return, I got as far as getting the mounting fitted before giving in to the urge to clear off to the pub.

After a wild night on the pontoon, Friday dawned, if you can call it that, to a definite bought of horrible weather. We stayed put until nearly lunchtime, hardly even bothering to get out of our sleeping bags, until the weather moderated somewhat and I was able to get on with the tiller pilot wiring. As the tide came back in, conditions on board became increasingly uncomfortable so we jumped ship and went for a late lunch and a wander around Battlesbridge Antique Centre.

With the weather remaining fairly carp, we bailed out and headed home on the Saturday. So ended our "Spring Cruise". A hell of a lot of money spent and just two nights away from base. Even then, we didn't even make it around the corner into the Blackwater let alone any further afield.

A few weeks later put Jane and I back on board for a brief weekend and another visit to Burnham Yacht Harbour where we spent a very pleasant evening on board a friends boat. At £18 a night, it isn't cheap but the advantages of a change of scenery and somewhere different to eat and drink without having to venture too far from base make it well worthwhile.

Now, my thoughts turned very much to the big Summer Cruise. There's no two ways about it, with a full fortnight of our available holidays allocated to this one trip and after the failure to really get anywhere during the Spring Cruise I was definitely pinning our hopes for any decent cruising this season on that one trip.

It might seem to the observer that the planning was a little ambitious. I would take issue with that. The planning was VERY ambitious! Whilst I planned for the possibility of making it all the way to Sunderland, I realistically expected to make it to North Norfolk with a chance of getting as far as Scarborough if everything went really well. Sunderland was only ever going to happen in absolutely perfect conditions.

The cruise got off to a good start with the run up to Orford Haven. That's a fair run for a small boat. We learnt a valuable lesson in anchoring technique that night (the less said about that the better!) and then the onwards trip to Lowestoft was a bit too exciting what with being hit by a thunderstorm and finding ourselves in conditions which I'd really rather not encounter again! On the upside, that experience has given me a lot of confidence in how well the boat would cope if we were ever caught out in unexpectedly nasty weather.

The next day, we pottered around sorting out the boat, refueling and so on before departing Lowestoft mid-afternoon. We were aiming to sail overnight and arrive off Blakeney Harbour an hour or so before high water the next morning with a "plan B" of heading further North to either Spurn Head or even all the way to Scarborough if conditions and enthusiasm allowed.

The passage, for this indeed was our first attempt at what I'd call a coastal passage, got off to a reasonable if somewhat slow start in light-ish winds with a foul tide. Once the tide turned and with the wind picking up we made excellent progress into the late evening and beyond. It was quite magical as the sun set and we sailed on into the night.

It was rather less magical by the early hours of the morning as the wind continued to rise and veer further and further into the West. By the time we started to clear the lee of the Norfolk coast and think about altering course to the West to head for the Blakeney Fairway buoy we were faced with a dead foul wind and an increasingly choppy sea.

It was, in reality, not a difficult decision to make. In fact, it was a very easy decision to make. Heading back all the way to Lowestoft was the only viable option, anything else we might have done was undoubtedly risky in the prevailing conditions and the forecast for things to get worse later.

What came as an unpleasant surprise for me was getting cold, tired and miserable as the night wore on. I'm normally very tolerant of lack of sleep and I have good endurance. OK, I endured it is true but I really wasn't enjoying it. Words cannot describe how happy I was to get back to Lowestoft. Actually, being happy to get back to Lowestoft says it all really!

There were some valuable lessons to be learnt, on reflection. Better footwear is a must. My feet were getting cold in my Gill cruising boots (aka short wellies) so I'd switched to a pair of trainers. That was OK until we started getting some heel on and water started coming up through the leeward cockpit drain and sloshing about precisely where I was generally standing. Sure enough, it gradually seeped through the trainers and I ended up with wet feet.

I was also caught out by the tiring effect of the boats motion. Normally, I feel very comfortable on board at sea. Rik wasn't and isn't convinced, it has to be said, but my feeling is that she was pitching more violently than usual and I'm going with a working hypothesis that we had too much weight loaded in the ends of the boat - there was a hefty fuel load, two battery packs plus spare water in the cockpit lockers and a matching load of drinking water stowed up in the bows. We probably had too much fuel and water on board on reflection.

Finally, I'd prepare better with flasks of coffee and soup and plenty of snacks to hand and better rest before departure. It must be said, though, that I do feel that if the conditions had not deteriorated we would have easily reached Blakeney as per the passage plan and might well have pressed on with a more favourable forecast.

Lowestoft Yacht Basin and the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club are not the worst places I've ever been. I'd happily go back there when passing through. It has to be admitted that once beyond the gates of the club, Lowestoft does not present much to attract the visitor. We were relieved to sneak into Southwold instead of ending up back there yet again when our attempt to head back South had to be aborted in the face, once again, of worsening adverse conditions.

Southwold is one of those rare magical places that really lives up to its billing. Both the harbour and the town have much to commend them although the harbour entrance can be a bit exciting and the tides are truly fierce in the river. Whilst we were there for several days, it has to be said that only one of those days was a lost opportunity to go sailing as the weather precluded leaving the harbour any earlier. That "lost" day was a small "price" to pay for getting a replacement prop delivered by the bosun to replace the one damaged when the outboard lock fell apart.

Into the second week, we started to get some slightly more seasonal weather. A cracking sail from Southwold to Orford Haven was followed by some exploration of the upper reaches of the River Alde before spending the night in the Butley River well sheltered from a stiff Southerly breeze. The next day saw us once again sailing well with one reef in fetching up in Levington after another good day.

From Levington, we motored, sailed and then motored again to Bradwell on one of the few truly summery days of the season. It was a glorious evening so we walked up to St. Peters on the Wall, a bit of a hike especially with my dodgy knee but worthwhile all the same. The next day we finally broke our Raysand duck once again on a combination of motoring and sailing as the breeze picked up and died several times over.

Back at Fambridge by late afternoon we were soon esconsed in our favourite location by the bar blowing the froth of the first of several pints! The following day we tidied up and packed our gear away before heading for home the next morning.

We'd spent 9 days at sea and 5 in port, covering 323.1 miles in just over 83 hours at an average speed of just under 4 knots. We motored for 33hrs 21 mins and sailed for just under 50 hours. Not bad going for two relative novices in a fairly small boat! We learnt a lot, most of it positive, and remain keen to go and do it all again which suggests it wasn't a totally horrible experience!

The back end of August saw Mark and I on board for the weekend. After travelling down on Friday we set off downriver on Saturday planning to put in some serious training. However, I was feeling rather less than 100% well and we ended up back at Fambridge fairly early in the day. Although curtailed, it had been a good sail particularly tacking back upriver and not, for the first time ever, being overtaken by everything following us! I do feel we are starting to shape up and in another decade or so might actually be able to call ourselves sailors.

The following day we faffed around doing odd jobs and going over systems so that Mark knows where everything is and what does what before heading for home. Not the most productive of weekends it has to be said but such is life.

Three weeks later and Jane and I should have been aboard for an extended weekend. Holiday booked and everything but you can't pre-book the weather and it was forecast to be absolutely pants. A rapid rethink of plans saw us booked into a hotel in the Midlands for a weekend away which was most enjoyable but not what we originally had in mind!

Into October and finally the Bosun, my brother Glen, got to spend a weeked on board. we had a drift downriver on the Saturday, howled with derisive laughter as we sat in a flat calm off Holliwell Point listening to the forecast that claimed we should be experiencing strong winds (F6+), and then motored back up to base for the night. The Sunday saw an abortive effort to get the Seagull Forty Featherweight I bought off Ebay going (it isn't declared terminal yet) and some further work to finish off wiring up the tiller pilot to the GPS NMEA output before we headed for home.

In a final flurry of activity, the very next weekend saw Jane and I on board again and once more back in Burnham Yacht Harbour to meet up with friends over a meal in the Swallowtail. On the Sunday, we experimented with staying on the boat overnight and driving home Monday morning before going to work that evening. Seemed to work OK and it means there's another weekend every shift cycle where it's feasible to get a trip to the boat in. Looking at the diary, we decided that there really wasn't much prospect of getting any more useful use out of the boat this winter and we have other things that need some attention on the domestic front so we arranged to have her lifted out at the yards convenience and left her moored to the pontoon.

The final excursion of the year saw my mate Tony on board for the first time, albeit with the boat high and dry. The purpose of the excercise was to strip all the electronics off the boat (after losing most of the kit to damp last winter we're taking no chances this time) and remove the engine for servicing, winterisation and storage before battening down the hatches and laying her up until the Spring. It was bitterly cold and this galvanised us into an unusual flurry of frantic activity with everything done and dusted by early Saturday afternoon. That was quite handy as whilst another night on board was feasible it meant we could drop the engine off at Seamark Nunn on our way back home.

And so ended the 2012 season. It's been a mixed bag really. The weather has definitely not been helpful and we've lost a lot of potential sailing time as a result. We can only hope for it to be better next year.

Laying up weekend 2012 - day 2

What a night

It rained, it howled and it was freakin' cold! The fan heater was running most of the night otherwise it would've been damned uncomfortable.

What with the weather and Tony's snoring I didn't sleep much. Oddly, Tony reckoned he didn't sleep much either so I dunno where the snoring was coming from!

We surfaced to a dry-ish but still painfully cold morning and head up to the Roundbush for breakfast. We were a bit early but they opened up slightly before nine and we scoffed a decent full English as always accompanied by the new large size mugs of coffee. Most excellent.

Back to the boat and the first order of business was to set up the new multi-function ladder I purchased last week. That sorted, we set to lifting the engine out and emptying the engine tank into the jerry can. After that excercise, we dived back down below for a while to warm up whilst a rain shower blew through.

Whilst down below, I pulled the main batteries out of the bridge deck and removed the VHF radio. We also disconnected and removed the depth/log readout display. The previous display, and the old steam driven VHF, failed to survive last winter so this year it's all going to be stored in the warm and dry at home. We lashed the display cover over the hole on the bulkhead to stop the wet getting in to the electrical locker.

With the rain having passed over for now, it was back on deck to stow away all the mooring lines and fenders left out from our last visit (when, you'll recall, we left her moored on the pontoon ready for the lift out). Then we removed the mainsail cover and detached the mainsail from the mast and boom. As another rain shower now decided to arrive at the least convenient moment, the main was bundled down into the cabin to keep it dry where I managed, with a bit of a faff, to bag it up.

After another warm up, we loaded everything into the car. The last order of business was to remove the sprayhood, shoving that in the car as well as it needs some attention with the needle and thread, before lashing the cockpit tent over the hatchway to keep the weather on the outside (the hatch tends to leak in rain if the sprayhood isn't up to keep the rain at bay).

The one intended job I forgot to do was to remove the blanking cap off the log impeller tube under the cockpit floor. With no bilge pump the well will fill up with rainwater but it's no big deal - she's not going to sink anyway!

We were more than happy to hit the road towards Felixstowe nice and early in the afternoon. The engine duly delivered to Seamark Nunn for servicing and winterisation, we then headed up the A14 towards home. We won't see the engine again now until the spring as Seamarks do a very good deal on storage over the winter and I've no definite plans for any visits to Fambridge over the winter.

Laying up weekend 2012 - day 1

An uneventful trip down despite the Friday evening traffic saw Tony and I at the boat by early evening.

By 'eck though it was cold! In some haste we threw our gear on board, plugged in the Leccy and set up the fan heater ready for later before heading up to pub for beer and food ... or was it food and beer?

Anyway, food and beer or beer and food suitably and substantially dealt with, we repaired back on board for coffee with rum in it and rum with coffee in it etc.

Tony is now asleep which means I am now awake. Hopefully, that situation will not persist all night. It is, it has to be said quite a wild night and I'm not unhappy to be tucked up safe and sound on the hard rather than afloat!

What next ... ?

Following on from my "What Now?" post a while back, some readers seem to have got entirely the wrong idea and thus the impression that I'm on the verge of giving up on Brigantia and sailing in general.

Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. The point I was making was that in 2012 we've failed to reach our targetted number of days sailing and days on board.

We (that is Jane and I) decided from the outset that we had to make sure that Brigantia was sufficiently well used each year to justify the financial outlay and ongoing time commitment. We were very conscious of just how easy it is to let things go on a boat from past experience with the family canal boats (both of which, eventually, were allowed to deteriorate due to lack of time, effort and commitment on the part of the collective crew)

So we set some moderately loose targets to wit: at least 30 nights on board with at least 20 sailing days per annum give or take making some allowance for weather and circumstances. We further stipulated that if we failed to meet those targets for two years in succession serious consideration must be given to the viability of carrying on with the current scenario.

Now in 2012, due to a combination of circumstances, we haven't (quite) met the targets. Losing sailing time at the start of the season was one factor and we will hopefully avoid that mistake this year. The other key factor has been weather.

There's no two ways about it, the weather for the last two summers has not been great. I can count the number of idyllic "as per the dream" days of sailing over the two years on the fingers of one hand, without using my thumb and with fingers left over. That's because there's been two, maybe three, days of perfect sailing weather when we've been on board and out there able to take advantage of it.

The rest of the time it has generally been challengine in one way or another - too little wind, too much wind, a LOT too much wind, wind always on the nose (except in very light airs when it always seems to be from astern) and sea conditions ranging from merely uncomfortably choppy to downright scarey! Well, we can't do anything about the weather other than adapt accordingly. The jury is out on that one.

The point of my post was to firing a warning shot across my own bows when you get right down to it. Didn't get enough sailing or on board time in this year, must do better next year. And, invoking a rare dose of common sense, be cautious about how much, and on what, maintenance and upgrade money is spent over the winter season in case the conclusion next year is that we need to part with Brigantia a lot sooner than expected. Hence the decision not to purchase an expensive brand new road trailer.

So with that hopefully clarified, plans for the winter ...

After mulling things over and discussing it with Jane, I plan to focus on two key areas of improvement to with below deck comfort and improving the rig ...

Below decks

Refinish galley unit (sand and either varnish or paint and varnish)
Repair cabin floor and replace carpet with timber effect flooring
Acquire some suitable throw cushions
Revise cabin lighting - a light (LED?) above each bunk
Fit offset desmo leg to nav table so it can be used as a cabin table
Move VHF to new position to clear headroom on Port aft seat

Look at what can be done (cheaply) to improve the look of the blue carpet (either replace the lot of it with something else or at least glue it all back up securely for the time being!)

If time and money permit ...

Refurbish the heads compartment - remove all the blue carpet, clean up the GRP and paint it out. Sort out the storage spaces etc.

Fit a pair of small water tanks under the forward part of the port and starboard forward bunks. A large bore balance pipe would be needed between the two tanks and each tank would need a deck breather (the Bosun and I have played this game on our cruiser Arcturus!).

This would increase our water capacity by 50% to 100% (depending on which of the two sizes of rigid tank we can get into the space) and move the weight of the tanks, when full, further aft*

The rig

Move the roller furling drum up the forestay (or to be more precise, shorten the forestay and add a tang between the stem fitting and the drum) so that the anchor can be deployed and recovered on the bow roller. This may also entail moving the genoa halyard diverter block and possibly reducing the length of the roller furling foil. This is a job for the professionals - the forestay is far too critical to the security of the rig to take any chances with.

With the above done, the next question is whether our existing genoa will still fit. I think we can gain enough clearance between the bow roller and the furling drum without shortening the luff foil in which case the current No.1 genoa is good to go. Except that it isn't good to go because it absolutely has to have a new UV strip fitted this winter. Estimate on cost from Wilkinson sails for that job is around £200 which seems reasonable given the work and materials involved. I'm considering asking them for the cost of adding a foam luff to the sail as well.

If, however, modifying the forestay means the existing genoa won't fit then it's either a new sail or get the current headsail recut with a shorter luff. That could all start to get too expensive for this season.

The next job on my critical list is to sort out the rest of the reefing system and, whilst I'm at it, the kicker. The latter is currently on a rubbish tackle that can't be operated from the cockpit and half the time we've either got too much kicker on whilst the rest of the time we've got too little. OK, a lot of people on cruising yachts, it seems, don't mess with the kicker overly much but I'm an ex-dinghy type and Brigantia is something of a big dinghy to sail. I want to be able to tweek that kicker!

The long luff on the mainsail is great for extra sail area but at the expense of a lower than standard boom height. This is a snag when it comes to reefing and stowing the sail as the boom gooseneck has to be manually moved up the mast track (otherwise the sail slugs fall out of the throat on the track). One solution would be a new, smaller, main or get the existing main recut to original spec. However, that's probably not a financially viable option at present and there is another solution which offers added benefits ...

That solution is to fit a downhaul / hardener tackle on the gooseneck. The main halyard is a 1:1 hoist with no advantage. Quick and easy and well within my physical capabilities to hoist the sail but getting enough halyard tension is a struggle. Add a downhaul with a 2:1 advantage and once the sail is up, the luff tension can be hardened up using that.

When reefing or dropping the main, the downhaul would be let go first, the first reefing line hauled in to (effectively) hoist the gooseneck up the boom and then the halyard would be let go to finish the job. This would ensure a better first (and second) reef, a neater stow and obviate the need for a trip to the mast to reef.

So, bringing the kicker back to the cockpit and adding a luff downhaul means a handful of new Barton blocks, not overly expensive to purchase, some string (which we've got in stock) and critically some means of running and securing the lines. Currently, the main halyard and topping lift are brought back to a pair of cam cleats via a block secured to the handrail. There isn't room for more cam cleats so we'll have to replace them with a bank of four clutches. Ouch on the price but hey ho. The existing turning block will probably need to be replaced with a four gang deck organiser although I'd prefer to avoid deck fittings in that area as it's above the double skin cabin moulding.

The above, coupled with some final sorting out of the on boom reefing arrangements and the currently slightly awkward clew outhaul setup should get the rig somewhere near where I want it. Oh and the mainsail leech telltales could do with replacing too! I can probably cope with that job myself without resorting to a sailmaker

Oh yes, the genoa sheet lead tracks need cleaning up and bringing back into use. Clearly the sheet leads haven't been touched for years as the track sliders won't move due to the paint on the tracks! They're probably about right for the full genoa but I'm certain they need a tweek when we reef down which is part of the reason we're struggling in stronger winds.

I shoiuld say at this point, by the way, that I am generally happy with the sail setup and, although I'd like a smaller headsail to change down to on windier days, reckon the existing sails are good to go for years yet. When we get them trimmed right (which we do once in a while!) she takes off like a good 'un!

* Not directly relevant to the winter maintenance programme but something I am keeping very much in mind is that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the trim and the stowage, particularly of heavy gear, in 2013. I'm keeping an open mind to the possibility that having too much weight in the ends of the boat (a lot of water in the forward end, a lot of petrol and some water at the stern) was the cause of, or at least a factor behind, the disconcertingly awkward motion during the early part of our summer cruise.

What is certain is that those first few days were the only time I've been uncomfortable in the cockpit of Brigantia. It wasn't inducing seasickness (although I won't rule out the recent suggestion that some form of pre-nausea was going on) but it was just sheer bloody hard work clinging on. Although for briefer periods I have been out in similar conditions before and since and been perfectly happy.

Blogger problems

The Autumn Weekend updates were post the fact due to ongoing and worsening problems with the Blogger app on android

The problems are threefold and have now reached critical levels ...

Firstly if you save a post part way through writing it, when you reload it it's full of HTML markup which then has to be manually deleted

Secondly, if you try to post an unsaved blog entry, it crashes and you lose what you've typed

And finally, despite hardly being used last month, Blogger used up a third of my monthly data allowance which means its doing something I don't know about or understand

I'll have a look and see if there's a better third party app but for the time being Blog entries will have to await access to the laptop

Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 3

Not much to say really. We awoke rather late around 9:30am which was fine as I didn't want to get stuck in the morning rush hour anyway.

We bagged up the pillows into their holdall (that's a cunning plan that worked) and checked through the boat to make sure everything was put to bed.

Toby appeared on the pontoon which was handy as I was able to arrange for Brigantia to be lifted out this coming week. Double bonus in that Toby was happy for Brigantia to stay on the pontoon until they get around to hauling her so we didn't have to faff about with the tender either!

Grabbing our remaining gear, we locked up the boat for the last time afloat this year and departed for home.

Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 2

We arose quite late after a very good nights sleep (well, eventually in my case. It took me ages to really settle but once I finally got going I slept like a log well into the morning!)

As neither of us had to work tonight, we were in no rush anyway and decided to see about Sunday dinner in the Swallowtail where they do an excellent carvery. Jane went to check but they were shut so we left it for now.

I'd promised to have a look at the mast wiring on Black Magic to sort out what was what and look at why the tricolour wasn't working. Lisa's meter seemed to be playing up though, working OK on continuity but refusing to measure volts. My meter has a flat battery of just about the only battery type we haven't got a zillion spares for on board. Ho hum. Not entirely sucessful as excercises go but we did identify the obvious connections and hopefully gave Lisa enough info on how to pin the others down when she's sorted a working meter.

Jane popped back up to the Swallowtail once they'd opened only to find they were fully booked for lunch. Had to laugh as this keeps happening every time she says she fancies a proper Sunday roast! Oh well, one day we're bound to get lucky - booking in advance isn't usually an option as it pins you down to a fixed schedule.

With nothing else to do, we sorted ourselves out, started up the engine and motored out onto the river. It being now about quarter to two in the afternoon, the spring tide was in full majestic ebb. Oops. Memo to self, DO check the tide times. Now this isn't a major disaster and to tell truth I hadn't checked the times because it's perfectly possible to motor, or even in the right breeze, sail Brigantia up or down the Crouch against the tide. However, the wind was dead foul AND we're really really weedy. The poor old engine was going ninteen to the dozen and we were struggling to make 2 knots over the ground!

Matters improved when we got around the first couple of bends and got enough wind angle to motor sail with the genoa set. That gave us an extra knot or sometimes even two. At one point, we reached the dizzying speed of 3.8 knots over the ground! Wow! Anyway, it meant a two hour run back to Fambridge rather than one hour and burnt a bit more petrol but no matter.

We'd had a discussion about plans for the rest of the year on the way up river and concluded that with the shift schedule as it is for the next couple of months this would have to be the end of the season. Between now and Christmas there's just one weekend, in a fortnight, where we might be able to squeeze in a bit of sailing and with all the weed on the bottom and the rig tension badly in need of a tune up, she's slower than a very slow thing anyway so it'd probably be a bit of a waste of time.

Further discussion had led to the decision to stop over on the boat tonight and go home in the morning. Accordingly, we went alongside the inside of the pontoon rather than back onto our mooring and set to stripping gear off ready for her to be hauled out. First off came the genoa which was folded and bagged. It'll need the attentions of a sailmaker this winter as the UV strip has now reached a state of decreptitude beyond my limited needelework skills to keep it going. The more easily removed electronics came off too along with the beer cellar.

Off we went to the pub for an evening meal to find, to Jane's delight, that the Sunday roast menu is now available in the evening as well as at lunchtime. Yippee! Lovely bit of roast beef with traditional veg and Yorkshire pud followed by chocolate pudding and custard. Yum! Stuff your continental cuisine, there's nothing wrong with traditional English fare if its cooked properly.

We didn't stay late and settled down for an early night, grateful once again for the services of the fan heater. It's definitely autumn now!

Autumn Weekend 2012 - day 1

With no pretensions towards this being anything other than a "floating cottage" weekend, and with Jane having worked last night, we were in no hurry to set off for Fambridge this morning.

We got on the road about 11-ish and had a smooth journey down, stopping briefly at Chelmsford for supplies before arriving at the yacht station just after one in the afternoon.

Trying a new tactic, we'd packed our pillows into a large holdall which meant we had three bags, two sleeping bags and a bag of shopping plus ourselves to transfer on board. The idea, given that the ferry was running, was to avoid the time and hassle of coming alongside to load our kit on. The plan worked a treat and saved a lot of effort.

I hoisted the main on the buoy and, with the engine on tickover in case of trouble, sailed her off the bouy on the main and then hoisted the genoa. By half past one, we were under way downriver under sail. That lasted for about half an hour before I got bored with faffing about with trying to get the sails to draw in the light and fitful breeze and fired up the engine. Jane, meanwhile, had got her head down for a second dose of sleep therapy!

I wanted to experiment, in any case, with track mode on the tiller pilot. I'd carefully programmed a route downriver into Memory Map on the laptop and transferred it into the Garmin the previous day. Now, in theory, by pressing the relevant buttons on the pilot it should steer to the programmed track. Indeed it does although there are a couple of caveats. Firstly, it absolutely steers to the track (it uses the cross-track error as its vector) and if you get set well off track and then turn it on it will command a couple of hard turns to get back on track.

Secondly, it doesn't automatically make the turn to the next waypoint when you reach a waypoint. It will sit and beep (rather quietly) until you press the buttons. IF you fail to do this fairly smartly, you'll be well off track and .... see above!

However, it does work and whilst it isn't really suitable for automatically steering the boat up or down a river channel (and I didn't expect it to be, this was just a test excercise. Nor for that matter would I think it a very sensible thing to do) it should work better than steering a course on long legs in clear water.

All the faffing about with the tiller pilot led me to forget a vital task - emptying the dreaded portapotti. By now, I was in the thick of the Burnham moorings with several dinghy races taking place around me to boot. Not the place to dump the noisome contents of the bog overboard. Oh well, nothing else for it but to motor on by our destination and get downstream of everybody before doing the evil deed. This I managed to do but I would really like to sort out the loo installation (I have plans, more on that another day).

An about turn set us back upriver and I called Burnham Yacht Harbour on the handheld VHF to arrange a berth,. I'd tried calling them a couple of times coming down river but got no answer, this third call from just downstream of the harbour got an immediate response. I wonder whether the low height and low power of the hand held meant my signal was being blocked by the trees? Had it been important, of course, I'd have used the main VHF with its 25 watts of power and masthead antenna but it's hard to hear over the engine (hence the hand held in the first place).

As usual, we were over on A pontoon in the finger berths (fair enough 'cos we're only likkle!) and this time I managed to make a fairly reasonable job of getting in to the berth with a bit of welcome assistance from a passing berth holder. Jane was fast asleep throughout and I didn't want to disturb her if I could avoid it.

I went for a wander up into Burnham to buy some stuff and then wandered around the back of the yard to have a look at the outside of a Westerly Discuss 33 Centre Cockpit ketch up for sale for £22,995. I like the deck layout anyway but this example needs a lot of TLC. It's clearly been neglected for some time and its going green! If its in a similar condition below decks the asking price is probably optimistic. Anyway, we can't afford to buy it, can't afford to do it up and can't afford to run it so apart from filing the type away for future reference as a "one of those might do" there's nowt more to be said.

Found Lisa on Black Magic with Jim who'd helped her bring the boat around and had a coffee and a chat before heading back to Brigantia to wake the sleeping beauty and ready ourselves to go out. The main purpose of the excercise being a meal with friends off the East Coast Forum in the Swallowtail restaurant. The evening passed with good food, good conversation and good wine all flowing freely.

Back aboard, we were glad of the electrical hookup allowing us to leave the fan heater running on the thermostat overnight as otherwise it would have been bloomin' chilly on board!

Bosuns Weekend 2012 day 3

No inclination to make an early start so we didn't!

After a pleasant lie-in, we nipped up to the Roundbush for breakfast and then on to Maldon for a flying visit to the chandlers. Got in and out without buying anything other than the spark plug I wanted!

Back to Fambridge, we dug out the Seagull 40 Lightweight outboard I bought off Ebay a few weeks ago. Previous efforts to get it running had failed due to a total lack of spark and having eliminated all the other possible causes, and given that the spark plug had come out of another engine with no spark, I reckoned it a fair bet that the plug was the culprit

Unfortunately, at some point the head on this engine has been drilled, tapped and heli-coiled. Fair enough but the heli-coil disintegrated when I tried to insert the new plug. Oh well, I can either get it done again or acquire a new head or even a second engine to build one good one out of two

Having failed in that endeavour, we moved on to another job I wanted to do ...

This was to connect up the NMEA output from the GPS to the tiller pilot. Easy job made tricky by not having left enough slack in the cable from the GPS to the VHF into which I needed to make the connection. Fettled that (another bodge!) and after a bit of a head scratch due to the manual being less than clear we sucessfully engaged track mode on the tiller pilot.

This means that the pilot will automatically steer the boat from waypoint to waypoint on the course programmed into the GPS. A very useful facility but one, I feel, to be used with care and caution!

That done, we set to tidying up and offloading our personal kit before I moved Brigantia back on to her mooring. The ferry was already out and about so I was picked up and dropped back to the pontoon in minutes. We set off homeward mid-afternoon after a short but very enjoyable weekend on board.

Bosuns weekend day 2 - A pleasant drift

I awoke before dawn, well I say I awoke when in fact I'd been awake on and off all night due to heavy rain on the cabin top.
Popped the kettle on and had a coffee and a look outside. It didn't look inviting so I dozed back of again.
Eventually we both surfaced and the conditions having improved we set off about ten-o-clock downriver under sail. Two hours later as we approached Burnham the wind had dropped and become fitful so out was on with the engine to motor out of the river in the hope of picking up a better breeze once clear if the land.
No such luck! We sat off Holliwell Point drifting gently round in a flat calm on a glassy sea listening to the MSI met forecast telling we could expect F5/F6 occasionally F7 at first! Honestly, the inshore waters forecast is almost invariably wrong but this was exceptional even by the dubious standards if the Met Office!
It must make the coastguards cringe having to read out that twaddle knowing full well that outside the window the weather is doing something totally different!
Anyway, back to the plot...
By now, given that we'd been flogging the flood tide all the way down as result of the lie in, there's just about be enough water to sneak over the Ray Sand but we couldn't see a lot of point in motoring all the way to Bradwell or Brightlingsea just to motor ask the way back tomorrow.
So it was on with the engine and head of back up river. There was a brief hiatus whilst we motored gently round in circles for ten minutes to allow the tiller pilot to auto-calibrate it's fluxgate compass and then off we went.
Apart from the lack of wind, it was a must pleasant autumn day and we duly strived back at Fambridge having weaved our way through the fleets of yachts and dingys attempting to race on the occasional breathe of movement that once in a while rippled the water.
It being just five of the clock, we pottered around on board for an hour or so before repairing once more unto the pub.

Bosuns weekend 2012 - day 1

The Bosun and I set of down A14  around 2-ish and arrived at the moorings just over two hours later after a good run down

Five minutes work with the cordless screwdriver and some longer screws restored the rowlock that I broke last time out to serviceable condition and I paddled off down river as the rain began to fall

On board, a litre or so of petrol into the outboard header tank was the first order of business, then I fired her up, set up mooring lines and fenders and motored up to the pontoon executing a very satisfactory ferry glide to parallel park against the inside of the pontoon.

Duly nailed on with warps and springs and with the tender stowed back on the dock, we buggered off to the hostelry without further ado.  Some beers were drunk, a meal was consumed, scotch whiskey and coffee featured briefly on the agenda before we sauntered back down to the moorings and settled down on board.

It's chilly enough tonight to make it worth plugging in to the mains and firing up the fan heater for a bit of warmth at which point we discovered that once again the bilge pump switch has stuck and flattened battery 1. Useless piece of junk!

That sorted, rum and coffee was duly procured but only after topping up the meths in the stove with a litre into each burner.

Plan for tomorrow is to wake up, look out and see what's what!

What now?

Well the decision to call off the long weekend on the boat was certainly justified given the awful weather over Sunday and Monday.

I am, it has to be said, getting a bit fed up with how much sailing time we're losing to adverse weather conditions. OK, it is, to some extent, the nature of the beast and something that has to be accepted philosophically but only up to a point.

The March Maintenance Weekend was weather affected - although we managed to get the new engine in and the mast down, masthead refurbished and mast back up again as planned the working conditions were far from ideal and we lost most of a day out of the four days on board to high winds and rain.

The Rigging Weekend later in March went OK but was rain affected to some extent

I got in a couple of days sailing in April, including my first night sail, crewing on Sabre which doesn't rightly count towards Brigantia time!

The Scrubbing Weekend at the end of April had to be called off due to absolutely foul weather and that led to our having to lay out over £350 on having her craned out so that we could use what should have been our first sailing weekend as a maintenance weekend.

The "Yet Another Fit Out Trip" weekend in early May went well weather wise ... but only because we were ashore in the yard. If we'd been afloat on the pontoon or the mooring there were two days when the wind and waves would, once again, have made life difficult.

We'd have lost the first two days of the Spring Cruise to high winds if we hadn't already been ashore anyway. We lost most of the back end of the week to high winds. We managed just two days sailing, and even that was just pottering around on the river, and came home a day early.

Our next weekend on board was once again affected by adverse winds and rain. That was just a potter down to Burnham and back but it could have been more pleasant than it was.

Then we come to the big summer cruise. I had high hopes for the fortnight aboard with a committed crew. The first blow was Mark dropping out due to work. Oh well, perhaps it would have been a bit crowded with three aboard for that length of time anyway.

The first day out was characterised by a lack of wind, the second by too much of it towards the end of the day. Fair enough, so far. That's the way of it. Having to turn back off the North Norfolk coast in the early hours of the morning when conditions deteriorated and the forecast suggested it would only get worse was a bitter pill to swallow.

We then lost what could have been a reasonable sailing day by staying in port to recover from our exertions before setting off back Southwards only to be defeated once again by rising wind and building seas. A hairy, and if I'm honest probably ill-advised, entry into Southwold avoided ending up back in Lowestoft again.

Three days in Southwold was not part of the plan. Two of the three days we would not have been keen on going out to sea even if we hadn't had the damaged prop problem.

The second week was much improved though and we had conditions and days much closer to what one imagined would be our usual lot. Four decent, albeit relatively short, days saw us back to base at the end of the week.

Mark and I then had a weekend on board at the beginning of the month but due to my feeling a bit under the weather managed only a modest potter down river under sail and back on the Saturday. Bit of a wasted trip really.

So far we have only managed 14 days of actual sailing (and some of those have been short days) this year. Virtually every trip to the boat has been at least partially affected by adverse weather conditions. Totting up, we've arguably lost 7 or 8 potential sailing days due to high winds,

Even with a couple of weekends left in the diary, we are going to fall well short of the minimum 21 days sailing target this year. Of greater concern is how little time, as it turns out, Jane will have spent on board.

This is giving me pause for thought.

On the one hand, the received wisdom from experienced East Coast sailors is that this year and last year have been unusually poor weather wise. Hopefully, the cycle will be broken and we'll get a decent summer or two but with all the current concern about climate change (howsoever caused) is the current weather the shape of things to come?

If, and it has to be said it is starting to look like a big IF, we stick with Plan A. we're talking about shelling out over £2k on a trailer this winter. No question, in the long run, it makes both financial and practical sense to do so but only if we keep the boat for another three or four years minimum.

That outlay would certainly be followed by another big spend, probably next winter, on new sails. Again, worthwhile if we're going to get the use out of them but ...

So I'm now left pondering options and struggling to come to conclusions.

I really don't want to give up on the dream after just two years. However, I can't help but face the fact that we're spending a lot of time and money, and will need to continue to do so for some years to come, and currently not getting terribly good value for money from it.

We've got to get more use out of the boat to justify the costs.

Bloody weather

We've got a long weekend

Knock off in the morning, neither of us have to be back at work until Tuesday night

Yay! Let's go sailing ...

Well no, actually, lets not :(

Forecast for Sunday and Monday is bucket loads of heavy rain and F5/6 gusting F8 :O

I think not. So now it looks like we might take a drive down to the Southampton Boat Show on Saturday morning, find somewhere to stop over darn sarf on Saturday night and then spend the rest of our glorious long weekend on indoor chores at home

There are a couple of things I want to have a look at so the trip to the boat show isn't a total indulgence. I want to cast an eyeball over the Habitent cockpit enclosure for one thing. I think even the smaller size is going to be too big for Brigantia but at £360 it's a third of the price of having a custom cockpit tent made so its worth a look.

I also want to look at whisker poles and maybe talk to one or two sailmakers to get some idea the cost of new sails.

Not that new sails will be worth it if we never actually get to go bloody sailing!

Yours,
Frustrated of Fambridge

Charles Stock

Just heard the sad news that Charles Stock, author of "Sailing Just For Fun", passed away peacefully in his sleep last night.

His book was the catalyst that drew together my vague ideas about switching from plodding around in muddy ditches to sailing. His description of cruising the East Coast in a small boat inspired and guided many of the decisions I took in planning to buy Brigantia.

Sadly, we'll never now meet but his inspiring example will continue to show the way

RIP

August Weekend (2012) - day 3

It just occurred to me that I hadn't posted an entry for "today" (only a week later but I can change the date on the post to line things up!)

Very lazy start to the day, neither of us felt like getting up early so we didn't. After bacon buttys for breakfast, we spent some time going over the systems and equipment making sure Mark knows what's where etc.

Then we fitted the new galvanised rowlocks to the tender and Mark took her out for a row to get some practice in. He learnt the hard way that it ain't easy to make progress against the ebbing spring tide at the moorings!

I hopped in to try out the new rowlocks for myself and was pleased with how much more power I could get into the oars. I could, in fact, row nicely against the ebb although it was bloomin' hard work! Unfortunately, the woodwork to which the rowlocks are screwed wasn't up to the job and the port rowlock departed company from the dinghy.

Luckily, it landed inside the boat and I was able to paddle to the pontoon across the tide with one of the oar. Bloody nuisance never the less. Really, the tender dinghy needs to come home and have all the woodwork replaced, it's all fairly manky. Trouble is, I don't want to leave the space on the dock empty since it won't be empty when we return the dinghy to Fambridge. Then we potentially have an argument with whoever has nicked our spot which isn't my idea of fun. Or we end up with the tender in a hard to get at spot or worse still sitting in the water filling up.

I'll have to figure out a repair, even if it's only a temporary quick fix, before Jane and I go down in a few weeks for our long weekend. Unless we delay arriving until Saturday morning we'll need the tender to get down to Brigantia and we'll certainly need it to get back again on the Monday when the ferry won't be running.

Anyway, by this stage the afternoon was wearing on so we dumped the tender back on the dock and tidied up the boat before motoring back down to the mooring. A neat and tidy pick up with Mark on the helm and me on the bow (more practice for the trainee skipper!) was marred only by the motor being cut before I'd actually got one of the strops secured on the samson post. That left me hanging on against the aforementioned ebb tide and it needed another pair of hands to finish the job off. No harm done and he won't make that particular mistake again. To be fair, I think we need to work on our communication between foredeck and cockpit when picking up the buoy. Hate yelling backwards and forwards so some clear hand signals would be the order of the day.

A call to the ferryman saw us back ashore and in the car by about four of the clock and we hit the road back to sunny Northamptonshire.

Not the perfect weekend by any means. Lack of sleep before setting off coupled with feeling a bit off colour all weekend didn't help and I can't help feeling we should have done more somehow. Mark would have liked to have gone beyond the river which he has yet to do and if we'd been more energetic a trip round to Bradwell would have been feasible.

That said, we did make good progress on getting Mark up to speed so that he and Heather can use the boat by themselves. With slightly gritted teeth I've said I'm happy (relatively speaking!) for Mark to move the boat between the mooring and the pontoon and potter around on the river under motor provided he watches the tides closely and takes care. Sailing maybe not quite yet. There's a limit though to how much I can teach him before he's got to start learning it for himself.

August weekend (2012) - day 2

Now I come to think of it, it's the 1st of September today do this should probably have been titled "September weekend" but I've started so I'll finish beep beep beep.

Woke this morning to an overcast day with a working breeze from the West with some variable South in it. We got bacon butties out of the way then set off downriver with a fair wind but a very foul tide.
As the river wended it's way generally Eastwards and the wind veered and backed between South Westerly and Westerly we alternated between sailing downwind with the Genoa poled out and reaching. All the way we continued to make slow but steady progress downriver.

Eventually, by lunch time, we'd made it to Cliff Reach just upriver from Burnham and had a discussion about what to do. Mark was quite keen to press on out to sea and maybe head for the Blackwater but I felt it was already a bit late in the day and if we'd wanted to do anything that ambitious we needed to have made a much earlier start.

To add to my woes, I wasn't feeling all that clever. Whether it was last nights modest beer intake, a revenge attack by the roast duck or lack of sleep or some other cause is a mystery but I've definitely felt better!

With the tide set to turn in another couple of hours an excursion up the Roach would be mostly against the ebb and having ruled out the other options it made sense to put her about and head back upriver on the last of the flood.

Having thoroughly exercised the downwind sailing lessons learnt on the big trip a few weeks ago, now we put into practice the upwind techniques we've recently developed and honed. I'm delighted to report that we did so to good effect - such good effect in fact that for the first time we succeeded in staying ahead of all the boats chasing us upriver!

Nothing under sail overtook us at all. In fact, they didn't even get close. Result!

Arriving back at Fambridge, Mark was put in charge of bringing us alongside as a training exercise. He pulled off the manoeuvre without mishap albeit at a speed that had the erstwhile skipper jumping about quick smart to get a line ashore! Perhaps a wee bit less throttle next time my son!

The rest if the afternoon passed by at a doze. Happily, a snooze proved to be a sovereign cute for whatever had been ailing me and I was happy to repair to the pub for some scoff and a beer or three.
Time now for a nightcap before getting our heads down. We're not sure what our plans are for the Morrow, we'll play it by ear

August weekend (2012) - day 1

A sleepless morning after working last night led to a fairly early departure from home. As result, despite several pit stops for coffee etc, we arrived at Fambridge mid afternoon.

Launching the tender, we rowed down to the boat and in short order started up the noise machine and puttered up to the pontoon.

A gradual process of chat, shifting kit, coffee and snoozing eventually led to the pub for grub and a pint or three.

It's a very still night tonight. Full moon but nigh on 100% cloud cover.

Tomorrow we plan on having a training and exercise day. Much practising of getting on and off moorings, pontoons etc, fender overboard drills and so on

Meanwhile, it's a rum or scotch to taste nightcap and bed down in the cosy (thanks to the Campingaz radiant heater) cabin for the night

2012 Summer Cruise - photos now available

Sneaky peek preview below, click here to view the pics in full glorious technicolour!

2012 Summer Cruise - daily logs

Saturday 28th July 2012

Fambridge Yacht Station - Abrahams Bosum, R. Ore

Distance sailed: 47.2NM
Elapsed Time: 12:36
Engine hrs.: 7:11
Ave. Speed: 3.74kts

9.5ltrs into main tank from spare cans

Sunday 29th July 2012

Abrahams Bosum, R. Ore - Lowestoft Yacht Basin

Distance Sailed: 38.3NM
Elapsed Time: 8:19
Engine hrs.: 3:13
Ave. Speed: 4.60kts

Monday 30th July 2012 - Tuesday 31st July 2012

Lowestoft - Lowestoft via (abeam) Sheringham Shoal

Distance Sailed: 80.1NM
Elapsed Time: 18:21
Engine hrs: 5:44
Night hrs (sunset - sunrise): 8:24
Ave. Speed: 4.37kts

Wednesday 1st August 2012

In harbour (Lowestoft Yacht Basin)

Thursday 2nd August 2012

Lowestoft Yacht Basin - Southwold Harbour via (abeam) Thorpe Ness

Distance Sailed: 34.7NM
Elapsed Time: 8:56
Engine hrs.: 3:43
Ave. Speed: 3.88kts

10ltrs into main tank from spare cans

Friday 3rd August 2012 - Sunday 5th August 2012

In harbour (Southwold Harbour)

Monday 6th August 2012

Southwold Harbour - Butley River

Distance Sailed: 49.0NM
Elapsed Time: 12:59
Engine hrs: 4:19
Ave. Speed: 3.77kts

Note: elapsed time includes approx. 1:30 at anchor in R. Ore for dinner before shifting to a more sheltered anchorage in the Butley River

Tuesday 7th August 2012

Butley River - Suffolk Yacht Harbour, Levington (R. Orwell)

Distance Sailed: 23.3NM
Elapsed Time: 6:57
Engine hrs: 1:00
Ave Speed: 3.35kts

Wednesday 8th August 2012

Suffolk Yacht Harbour - Bradwell Marina

Distance Sailed: 27.2NM
Elapsed Time: 7:47
Engine hrs: 5:15
Ave Speed: 3.49kts

Thursday 9th August 2012

Bradwell Marina - Fambridge Yacht Station via Ray'sn Channel

Distance Sailed: 23.3NM
Elapsed Time: 7:14
Engine hrs: 2:56
Ave Speed: 3.22kts

6 litres into main tank from spare cans

Friday 10th August 2012

At Fambridge Yacht Station

11 litres into main tank from spare cans

Summary

Days at sea: 9
Days in port: 5 (inc. final day at Fambridge)
Total Distance Sailed: 323.1NM
Total time spent at sea: 83:09
Total night hours: 8:34
Total engine hours: 33:21

Estimated fuel consumed: 44ltrs*
Approx. consumption per hour: 1.34ltrs

* Note: based upon 4x5ltr (nominal) cans ea. holding approx 5.5ltrs and 1x10ltr (nominal) can holding approx. 11ltrs plus 2x5ltr (nominal) cans refilled at Lowestoft. Clearly, at least one refuelling event was not entered into the running log

2012 Summer Cruise - conclusions

Despite some trials and tribulations, it was a fantastic fortnight and I am glad we did what we did.

My plans for the fortnight were undoubtedly and unashamedly ambitious and it was always accepted that we were unlikely to make it as far North as we'd planned for. And OK, it is a little disappointing that we didn't even quite make it to Blakeney or Wells.

However, I feel we proved that had the weather been a little kinder we absolutely COULD have made it at least to Yorkshire and back in the fortnight (whether we would want to in the light of experience I shall waffle about shortly!).

Was the decision to turn back to Lowestoft in the early hours of Tuesday morning the right call? I'll never know for sure! We certainly could have made the entrance to Blakeney Harbour under motor but it would have been some two hours after high water (or in other words a good three hours later than I would have liked) and in a rising Westerly F5 with a building sea. Whether we could have got into the sheltered water in those conditions or whether we'd have been stuck outside unable to get over the bar for several hours (or even at all) is the question.

Turning back was the conservative and ultra-safe option and every time I mull it over I come to the conclusion that it absolutely was the right choice. There were multiple question marks over the wisdom of pressing on and to do so was to put the boat and the crew at risk.

That overnight passage was a most peculiar experience in any case. It started out so well. It was a lovely evening as we pottered up the Norfolk coastline. The sun setting over Winterton Ness was a quite magical sight - I've never see the sun set over the land from at sea before! Into the night we were fascinated by the lights of all the ships further out to sea (and relieved that they WERE all further out to sea I might add!). It was interesting to discover that we found it much easier to judge the position and aspect of the ships at night from their lights than it is during the day.

The mechanics of the decision to turn back would fill an article all of their own (and may yet do so). Suffice it to say that after making that decision (which I believe was the right call) the conditions deteriorated and my mood went South a great deal faster than the boat! OK, it was not what you'd call comfortable - the motion of the boat was unpredictable and tiring, I was a great deal more fatigued than I'd anticipated and stupidly I'd worn trainers instead of wellies and ended up with wet feet. However none of that fully accounts for just how completely and utterly p*ss*d off I was by the time we got back into Lowestoft! At that moment I could have cheerfully sunk the boat and caught the train home!

With the benefit of hindsight ...

We would have been much better off three handed (as originally planned)
I should have had a much longer spell "off watch" earlier in the day
I should have used the kit I'd got to ensure I stayed warm and dry
We should carry a flask or two and make up coffee and/or soup before a night watch*
Snacks and nibbles should be on hand for the watch keeper to grab

* This was something we intended to do - the flasks were purchased but proved too big for the available space. We've never got around to buying smaller ones. We should!

And, of course, having done it once I would be much better prepared mentally a second time. Actually, in the light of experience I would probably not have set out from Lowestoft that afternoon given the forecast F4 gusting F5 with gusts of F6 forecast for later.

That said, had the evening weather (a South Westerly F3/4 for the most part) continued on into the early hours and through dawn, we felt when subsequently discussing it that we might very well have elected to push on North towards Scarborough which, in reasonable conditions, we could have done.

Would I do it again? Yes, without hesitation. As stated above, I'd do it differently and I'd prefer to do it with three rather than two crew and I'd be reluctant to do it with a 5 or above in the forecast. All that said, I certainly want another crack at that particular whip.

We very much needed the break for a couple of nights in Lowestoft. The Yacht Basin and the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club are a good place to stop over, the new Asda is a 10 minute walk away but other than that you are in Lowestoft which, with the best will in the world, isn't one of the more attractive places in the UK. The forecast wasn't too hot for Wednesday anyway and we were suprisingly tired.

Arguably, we were a little too keen to get out of Lowestoft on the Thursday. Certainly, the conditions started out OK but it got steadily worse and it really did look as if we'd end up right back there for the third time. The decision to have a look at Southwold was a good one, the decision to go in two hours before low water was most emphatically not. We really should have jilled around off the entrance for at least an hour, uncomfortable as conditions out there were. We didn't realise just how rough it would be in the harbour mouth which was one thing and we certainly didn't realise that once we were over the rough into the smooth waters of the river we'd be faced with an outgoing tide that we could only barely make headway against.

We were altogether too blasé about the effect on our performance of the damaged prop and to be find ourselves making barely 0.2 knots over the ground at full throttle was a little disconcerting. I was quietly grateful to the skipper of the Voyager tripper RIB who throttled down and followed us in, when he could easily have nipped in five minutes ahead of us, and who didn't leave our side until it was clear that we'd managed to make our way far enough into the harbour to make it all the way. He also kindly waved us off the shallows to the South side of the entrance although we'd have probably been OK on that score with our shoal draught.

Southwold is a magical place and its charms, coupled with the need to arrange delivery of a new prop and less than enticing weather forecasts, kept us in port for four nights! I've no regrets about that. Yes, we'd set out to sail as much as possible but conditions and circumstances had rearranged matters for us and it made sense to make the best of things as we found them. In any case, it was only Sunday that was lost as a sailing day (and it would have been a little churlish to chuck my brother off the boat at first light and clear off!) as the conditions on Friday and Saturday were definitely not conducive to leaving harbour.

Back out at sea on Monday of week two, it was now a simple matter of gently tootling back down the coast with the general objective of being back at Fambridge by Friday or first thing Saturday at the latest. We had four days of fairly typical English summer weather. The wind varied from nothing at all to a reasonable working breeze but never piped up to the point of kicking up the waves. The sea state varied from millpond to gentle chop. The factor 30 was much in evidence in the cockpit and so, on occasions, were the foulies! Yep, typical summer weather!

It was much in contrast to the conditions of the previous week and very welcome indeed. In fact, it was near ideal weather for sailing around the East Coast in a small boat. Much experimentation with sail trim and rig settings etc. had led to my working out how to get her to point up at least 5° close to the wind. A second experiment with poling out the genoa worked even better than the first time and had us making cracking progress before the wind.

All in all, upon arrival back in our home port I felt I could claim to be some sort of sailor at last. Still very much a novice but the cruise has given me the chance to finally get to grips with sailing Brigantia and I'm starting to feel that I'm usually getting the best out of her (although I'm still struggling a little with the best trim when reaching).

As far as navigation was concerned there were no concerns. Throughout the trip, the combination of detailed advance planning (which ensured we had all the relevant information readily available) and the plethora of technology meant there was never any doubt about our position or course. In the extremely unlikely event of all that tech dying at the same time we had the info and the paper charts to cope but it's not likely to happen!

We both felt that running Memory Map on my Galaxy Note in view of the helmsman was a great boon. It was too vulnerable in the companionway though and had to be moved to over the chart table where it was still useful but not quite as handy. Certainly, a small chart plotter has considerable attractions (although we both agreed that we MUCH prefer the raster Admiralty charts over the vector charts displayed by Navionics on the phone).

Our decision making was, with two notable exceptions, excellent and we worked very well together as a crew with no arguments or disputes at all. Yes, there were discussions, of course, and we didn't always entirely agree (mostly about post mortems actually) but about the important things an agreement was reached and the decision implemented without further ado.

The two mistakes we did make (not including the anchoring mishap which, whilst uncomfortable, was never dangerous) were ...

a> entering Southwold Harbour in rough conditions against too much ebb tide

and

b> exiting Orford Haven later than planned at low water instead of on the last of the flood


Either of those mistakes could have had serious consequences. We got away with it so all was well!

And to summarise the conclusions ...

It was a fantastic fortnight and a massive learning experience. I'm glad we did it and I'm even glad to have experienced the worst of the weather and conditions we had thrown at us in the first week. My implicit faith in the ability of the boat to keep us safe no matter what is now an explicit faith - we have, as the saying goes, been there and done that. I'd as soon not do some of it again (the thunderstorm off Lowestoft was extreme by any measure) but the confidence is there to face the worst that nature can do.

That said, I'm rather pleased that we had some proper summer weather for the second week as we were beginning to ask questions about whether we'd ever have really suitable conditions to take Brigantia out further afield than the Crouch and adjacent rivers.

Would I do it all again? In a heartbeat. In fact, I'd happily grab my kit and go right back out there if only I could!

2012 Summer Cruise - day 16

I had set the alarm for this morning but I woke up five minutes before it went off!

All that remained to be done was to remove our last few bits of kit to the cars, brush the cabin carpet (which has GOT to go this coming winter, it's horrible!) and scrub the decks.

Then it was a simple matter to potter over to our mooring and put her on the buoy before hitching a ride back ashore on the ferry.

We partook of a full English breakfast at The Roundbush before parting company and heading our separate ways home.

2012 Summer Cruise - Day 15

A full day to sort out and offload our gear and surplus stores was a luxury we felt we could afford. The plan had always been to end up back at Fambridge by today and we'd made it back the previous evening anyway.

Everything was taken out then everything was put back as it should be. The galley stores were checked for date and condition and anything that wouldn't keep was shared out between us to take home.

The main fuel tank just took the full contents of the jerry can (around 11 litres) which was handy as I could remove the jerry can and the 5l plastic cans for refilling before the next trip.

All was sorted by late afternoon so after eating on board we repaired to the pub for a final beer or two.

2012 Summer Cruise - day 14

A lazy start today, there was no point in getting going too early as the tides would not suit.

We eased our way out of Bradwell just after low water at midday with just enough water under the keels. We managed to avoid actually touching the bottom (not that it would matter much if we did). Wouldn't want to try it at low water on a bigger tide!

Once clear of the marina, we had a bash at sailing rather than motoring but after half an hour of tacking to and fro we'd made hardly any ground so it was back on with the motor.

We glued ourselves to the 2m mark on the depth sounder as we made our way out past St. Peters Flats before eventually we could shape a course southwards towards the Raysand Channel.

We sneaked over the Bachelor Spit on the rising tide with never less than 2m under us and then found deeper water in the Raysand Channel proper. By now we were sailing nicely close hauled on the port tack with the motor off.

We were able to hold on to that tack all the way across the Ray Sand passing just to the West of the safe water marks. The depth dropped at the shallowest point to 1.4m at around half tide so our timing was spot on. Once into deeper water we were able to bear away onto a broad reach into the river mouth. The breeze, such as it was, shifted further and further aft until we resorted to poling out the Genoa with the boathook again.

This time, I tried wedging the butt end if the shaft against the handrail on the cabin and lashing the pole tip the cap shroud. That seemed to work better and we ran up through the moorings at Burnham logging between two and three knots.

With a helpful tide of over a knot added to that we really weren't hanging about although it didn't feel fast. We kept having to remind ourselves of that and indeed much of the time starting the engine would only have given us an extra knot or so.

Upstream of Burnham a combination of the breeze dropping and the tide turning put paid to any further fun. The pub was calling so it was on with the engine and stow the sails. We rendered passing honours to Norderzon as she headed downstream before sliding onto a berth on the inside of the pontoon.

In short order we were blowing the froth off the first of several pints and so ended a very pleasant day indeed.