Spring cruise - conclusions

It was a mixed bag of a week.

Had we been in the water from the beginning, we'd have lost the first weekend anyway as once again it blew up into a near gale almost as soon as we arrived at Fambridge. I am starting to get a reputation and people are asking about our plans so they can avoid the coast when we plan to be on the boat!

The Saturday shopping trip was reasonably sucessful and at last Jane has some adequate foul weather kit - not that we've really needed it so far as one thing we haven't had to put up with is rain when we've been out and about. The rain has generally arrived when we've been under cover!

It was annoying to discover, when we launched on Monday, that the depth sounder was u/s. The damn thing is only 15 months old. Doubly annoying to waste a trip to Felixstowe, £26 and three hours of my time to discover that the fault wasn't with the transducer but with the readout head. Yes, that's right ... the expensive bit. All sorted in the end but it generated a £250 hole in the boat budget which is money I'd rather have spent elsewhere.

Once we finally got under way on Tuesday afternoon, I was pleased to find that the new engine drives her along nicely. What was a little disappointing, to be honest, is how noisy it is. There's also a lot of vibration. Some work is needed around the engine well. Firstly, we need to cut away the lip on the top of the transom and make good so that the engine cover isn't in contact with it in the dead ahead position. That may cure most of the vibration problem, if not we'll need to look at isolating the mounting somehow. Then we need to look at the cover arrangement and sound insulation.

On the up side, the engine pushes her along at around 5 knots and coped well with some fairly rough conditions coming back up river on Wednesday. We've lost a little bit of ultimate top speed (the old engine would just about get her up to hull speed, 6 knots, at full throttle) but gained a huge improvement in economy. We used about 7 litres of petrol in 5.75 hours of mixed running which works out at near enough 1.2 litres per hour. In the same conditions, the old engine would have used between 2.5 and 3 litres an hour (up to 4 litres an hour at full throttle when the going got rough). We are certainly getting the hoped for improvement in fuel consumption which will go a long way to pay for the engine. Oh and it is also, so far, proving to be 100% reliable. It even started first pull for the first time when I fired up to motor back onto our buoy yesterday.

Talking of our buoy, the move even closer to the pontoon is nice and I'm happier now that our buoy is in the line of all the rest (last year, we were out of line and sitting right in the track up river towards the mooring pontoon). I'm slightly less happy by the extent to which boats on our trot are taking the mud at low water. OK, so the strong south westerly winds are swinging the boats towards the bank and they were big tides last week but even so, I'm paying for access at all states of the tide not for a half tide mooring. On the other hand, if I complain about it we could end up at the furthest end of the moorings from the dinghy dock and have half a bloody mile each way to row when the ferry isn't running! We shall see how that goes.

And talking of moorings, after looking at the fingerette berths in the marina we decided to stay on the swinging moorings. Theres a reason those fingerette berths are cheap ... they're going to be a blooming nuisance to get in and out of! OK, so we'd avoid the need for a tender (which we don't need on summer weekends anyway) and be guaranteed a berth alongside (but we've never actually failed to get alongside and only once have we had to raft up to do so) and the facilities are a little better but, and it's a big but, we'd have to motor up Stow Creek, then right around the full length of the marina and finally back her into an awkward finger berth with access being over the stern rather than the side. Not worth spending an extra £400 for we felt.

I have to admit to finding Tuesday and Wednesday a bit frustrating. Putting some hours on the engine was important as it needs to be run in before getting down to serious work. This meant changing the revs every few minutes and avoiding any long periods at full throttle. It also meant motoring when we could have been sailing. When I did finally get some sailing in, I was pleased to find that with the rig newly tensioned up and more adjustment available on the main now we have a proper clew outhaul the sails set well and she clawed her way up to windward even against a foul tide.

It has dawned on me though that just plonking around on the river for the sake of it doesn't hold much appeal to me. I need a destination, to be going somewhere. Even if it is just a potter down river to anchor for the night in the Roach, that is a "voyage" compared to just going out for an hours sail and coming back to where you started from. To that end, the decision to "voyage" from the Yokesfleet to Burnham Yacht Harbour was a good one and the night in Burnham was well worth the expense. It made for a change of scenery and we wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

And then, wouldn't you just know it, the weather turned once again. We high tailed it back up to Fambridge and nailed ourselves firmly on the inside of the pontoon in anticipation of thunderstorms and gales. The thunderstorms stayed away but the gales arrived with a vengenance. I was pleased I'd taken the trouble to rig the cockpit cover to keep the worst of the rain out of the cockpit and we were surprised at how much it cut the wind through the main hatch.

We had concluded that the outlay on a new echo sounder had buggered the budget for a tiller pilot. However, further discussions led us to revise that position. Jane enjoys getting away and being on the boat but she doesn't enjoy the "on deck" stuff so much. To be fair, hoisting anchors and heaving on ropes is savage amusement when your 5'4" and 7 stone. Effectively, I'm sailing single handed and that's absolutely fine provided the coffee, biccies and sarnies arrive at regular intervals (that's the quid pro quo of this deal!) but whilst Brigantia is light on the helm and will generally hold her course for a short while left to her own devices she won't do so for long.

We decided that we'd raid our reserves and buy the tiller pilot now and get it fitted whilst the weather precluded any sailing. Foxes had emailed me to say they had the Raymarine ST1000+ and cantilever bracket in stock now so off I went for the third run up to Ipswich stopping at the local tyre depot in South Woodham Ferrers to get the tyre wrecked by a nail (probably picked up in the boatyard) replaced. I was chuffed to find, after some searching on the shelf, that they'd got the power/data cable for our Garmin GPS72H. So I bought that and a four way waterproof plug and socket.

Despite spending most of Friday morning in our berths (it was too foul to even consider getting up) and jumping ship for a trip to Battlesbridge half way through the afternoon when we'd had enough of conditions on board, by the evening I'd got the tiller pilot mounted and fired up and the VHF receiving position info from the GPS. We've also now got a three way car socket available in the cabin for accessories and phone charging. The tiller pilot and accessory socket are wired to battery 2 ("once it's flat, that's that") with the essentials (VHF, GPS, nav lights) running off battery 1. Battery 2 is now wired up back to the selector switch so that it can be charged off the engine or mains charger or, in extremis, used to power the essential kit if battery 1 has died.

At present the tiller pilot is operating stand-alone. I have run a data (NMEA/Seatalk) cable back from the cockpit socket to the electrical cabinet but it isn't connected up to anything yet! There might be some merit in wiring it up to the GPS so that the tiller pilot maintains the intended track rather than a compass course but a possibly more useful arrangement would be to install a masthead wind instrument so that the tiller pilot could be operated in wind trim mode. That certainly won't be happening this year - I've spent quite enough money on toys as it is!

I'm pleased with the progress made on the boat systems and with the rig setup. The new blocks and lines on the running rigging are certainly making a huge difference - the main hoists much more readily and easily to the top of the track and the mainsheet runs out a treat without having to be coaxed along. There's still much to be done but we're making progress.

All in all, it was nice to get away for the week and we broadly speaking enjoyed ourselves. Given that we spent 8 nights on board, to be away from base for just 2 nights and sailing for just a handful of hours wasn't fantastic. We made the best of it but when, we might resonably ask, will we get a trip to the boat when there's nice sunny days and a force 3 breeze from the South West? All we seem to get at the moment is cloud, strong Easterlies (makes it rough on the river) and South Westerly gales. Surely it's got to get better soon?

Spring cruise - day 5

Although the wind finally dropped overnight, the day was still pretty breezy. With F6 plus forecast all weekend clearly we weren't going to get any more sailing in. Even on the river the conditions would be a bit too exiting for a crew of two.

Decision made to call it a day, we set to unloading gear and tidying up on board. In the process we got down into the bilges and the locker bottoms and sponged out the accumulated condensation and drip water that had built up over the winter.

I topped up the outboard tank from the Jerry can and estimated we'd used about 7 litres of fuel. I haven't added up the engine hours yet but I'm guessing we used something close to one litre an hour which is a huge improvement over the old engine.

With everything sorted on board, we motored down to our buoy using George the autopilot briefly for no other reason than to try him out. He worked! My first attempt to approach our buoy didn't however as a sudden strong gust at just the wrong moment blew us well off line.

Around we went for another go and this time I snagged the buoy tails from the cockpit. It's usually an easy task to then walk the buoy down to the bows and make fast. However, due to the strength of the wind I had to shout to Jane to put the outboard into astern to help out!

After I'd cleaned down the foredeck, lowered the burgee and taken in the ensign we called the ferryman for the short ride back to the shore. And so ended this trip  :-)

Spring cruise - day 4

It was a wild night last night and it didn't get any better after dawn broke. We had fun in the night with a mushroom vent trying to go awol and spent a good deal of the time heeling over in the gale with the mooring lines as taught as guitar strings.

We stayed in our sleeping bags until well nigh lunch time by which time things had moderated sufficiently to set to finishing off the tiller pilot installation. I'd finished the mounting hardware and installed the cockpit end of the wiring by just after two but with the tide in and the wind rising again life on board was getting uncomfortable.

We jumped ship and tried our luck in the pub butt we were too late for food so after a beverage of individual choice we set off to explore the delights of Battlebridge.

A coffee and baked potato with cheese and coleslaw in the cafe at the top of Battlebridge granary was followed by a wander round the antiques emporium muttering such imprecations as "how much?" and "I used to have one of them"

Then it was back to base and more electrickery work. George the tiller pilot was sparked into life followed in due course by the installation and wiring of a proper power and data socket for the GPS. The final episode in the saga was writ when the data connection between the GPS and the VHF was made and the VHF duly picked up the position information it would need in case of an emergency.

Dinner was stew from a tin with bread and butter and most welcome it was too. Jane decided to get her head down and catch up on lost sleep whilst I headed for the pub and a pint. Got chatting with various people and one pint turned into three but hey ho!

Back aboard now and although the wind is still audible in the rigging it's much more peaceful than it had been. We'll see what the morning brings - I'd like to have one more day to play but if the weather is still pants we'll give it best and head for home sooner rather than later

Spring cruise - day 3

Woke early this morning to heavy rain. Went back to sleep. Got up much later and left Burnham for Fambridge.

Had a decent sail under Genoa alone arriving back st the moorings ahead of the rain. Put up the cockpit tent and went of to get a new tyre on the car and pick up the new tiller pilot

Back st the boat, fitted the mounting hardware for the tiller pilot and then headed to the pub for a meal and a beer.

Forecast for tomorrow is pants so we'll stay put and finish off the tiller pilot electrics and some other items off the to do list

Spring cruise - day 2

Funny old day really. We arose quite late to a bright morning with a moderate easterly breeze.

After a leisurely breakfast I did a bit of sorting out on deck and worked out a way of pressing the 4:1 tackle and jammer that's been kicking around in a locker since we bought the boat into service as a clew outhaul on the main.

Eventually, we got the hook up out if the Essex mud and motored up towards Suttons boatyard. After a while it all got too narrow and shallow for my liking so we turned around and headed back for the relatively wide open spaces on the River Roach.

With the wind from the East it was slow going tacking downriver against the tide. Some fiddling with the new clew outhaul and the luff tension got the main setting better than we've ever had it before. She was giving her best and a very good best it was too ask things considered but I was asking for miracles and I wasn't surprised to not quite get them!

Enough of that was enough so it was about turn for some downwind sailing with the tide. Approaching the moorings at Pagelsham, I turned into the wind to drop the sails and had to dash up to the foredeck to sort out the Genoa furler. I hadn't kept enough tension on the furling line when I set the sail and it had jammed itself on the drum.

With that sorted out and the main loosely stowed, we motored into Pagelsham pool for a look see. In theory, this is supposed to be a viable anchorage for shoal draught boats like us. However, even at the top of a fairly high tide there was nowhere with more than about 4m anywhere between the creek mouth and the start of the shellfish beds. Scrub that idea!

We pootled back into the Yokesfleet and dropped the hook for a break whilst we discussed plans. With the breeze getting distinctly breezier and the forecast for the remainder of the week looking a bit pants, I got on the shiny new VHF and called up Burnham Yacht Harbour to book a visitors berth for the night.

This not only gave us somewhere to go (and I'm coming to realise that I need an objective, somewhere to go to, somewhere to arrive at, rather than just faffing around) but also tested the new VHF! It works  :-)

Up with the hook again and off we went under motor. It was noticeably more choppy on the Roach than earlier in the day and once we made the turn around three Branklet buoy into the Crouch it got seriously roly poly. With the wind dead astern and the tide dead against us it was hammer down on the throttle and a firm grip on the tiller.

Brigantia doesn't appreciate a following sea and she tends to broach quite a lot although she's easily caught before things get too out of hand. Unfurling the Genoa steadied the ship and gave us extra boat speed at a lower throttle setting but as we approached the extensive moorings at Burnham I decided it was going to be more trouble than it was worth and put it away again.

It was with some relief that we approached the entrance to the harbour. Jane took the helm whilst I sorted out fenders and lines and then we made our grand entry whereupon I promptly parallel parked the boat 3 inches off the allocated finger berth. Of course, absolutely nobody was watching!

Jane headed into town for some sovereign cold remedy and a tubigrip bandage for my dodgy knee. Not sure what I've done but it's been getting increasingly painful as the day has gone on and a bit wobbly to boot. It's a very long standing dodgy knee and it does this from time to time.

Meanwhile, I checked in with the harbour master and then failed to resist the temptation to have a pint. Jane was slightly surprised to be hauled from the balcony of the 1st floor bar on her return! Showers followed before we repaired once more to the Swallowtail Bar for drinks and a very good steak

Tomorrow is another day. With rain and thunderstorms forecast, and a very windy Friday predicted, we'll probably head back to Fambridge in the morning. I need to sort out the flat tyre on the car and Foxes have emailed to say they have the tiller pilot I want in stock so I might go and get it and sort out the fitting whilst we're down here.

Spring cruise - day 1 epilogue

Couple of things I forgot about - one was losing my hat overboard! We almost recovered it but couldn't get the boathook out of the locker quickly enough

The other thing us that when I bought the new echo sounder, I also bought a good old fashioned sounding lead! Been meaning to get one as a back up and technology that fails once can fail again

Spring cruise - day 1

Yes! We are officially back in commission.

Mind you, it's been another expensive day to get there. First problem this morning was the flat tyre on the car. Found a bloody rivet in it, probably picked it up in the boatyard. I thought she felt a bit twitchy on the way back from Felixstowe last night so it was probably losing pressure the whole time I was out

No time to muck about today, it was on with the emergency spare and I'll sort out the duff Tyre later in the week (the weather takes a turn for the worse by Friday). Meanwhile it was down to Marinestore at Burnham and lo and behold,  they had a NASA Clipper Duet in stock. If they'd answered the damn phone it would have saved me the wasted trip to Felixstowe yesterday not to mention £26 plus the diesel.

I also bought some new galvanised rowlocks and a pair of decent oars for the tender (we had a look at the finger berths in the marina yesterday and decided to stay on the swinging moorings) plus a cheap plain blue burgee - a yacht doesn't look right without a burgee and now I've sorted out the burgee halyard ...

Back to the boat and within the hour we had a working depth sounder and log. We also had a burgee stuck at the masthead jammed at the wrong angle and refusing to come back down. That, I decided, could wait. We dashed up to the showers to freshen up and shortly before two we were off down river with the ebb under our tails.

The new outboard got it's first workout and, well, it works! It's not perhaps as quiet as I'd hoped and we need to tackle the vibration transfer but otherwise it does the job. In extremis, I think we'll be a knot or so slower than before but we'll be burning less than half as much petrol!

Talking of petrol, a fairly exiting arrival into the fuel berth at Essex Marina (one shot at it, miss and the tide will pile you into a load of moored boats!) and 25 litres of unleaded went into the tank and Jerry can for which we paid an entirely reasonable £36 (not bad at marina prices)

Fueled up, we set of again down a very choppy river. A stiff-ish Easterly breeze working against the ebb tide made for quite bouncy conditions. We were soon round the corner at the Branklet buoy into the much quieter Roach

With, I hoped, just enough wind angle to make it go, I unfurled the Genoa, got her on the wind and killed the engine.  With the tide now against us, she was just making headway so it was up with the main as well and even though it wasn't setting that well due to the need to ease the gooseneck down the mast so that there's enough luff tension she was off like a scalded cat!

Had to put one tack in but a couple of helpful gusts and some dinghy style pumping up to windward just got us around the bend where we could ease the sheets.Eventually we ended up goosewinged with the wind right up our chuff. Forty five minutes under sail and it was on with the engine again, down with the sails and we motored into the Yokesfleet, a tributary channel off the River Roach. We dropped anchor at quarter past five.

An hour later, the sails were stowed, the decks clear, the anchor ball hoisted and the sausage and mash was on the stove. After dinner I did a bit of fishing with a boathook tied to the main halyard and managed to retrieve the pesky burgee. A modification to the halyard attachment and this time it went up properly. It didn't set very well and it looks like the cheap bit of tat which in truth it is but it'll do for now.

Coffee with rum in it and choccy cake for pudding has given me an excuse to put off doing the washing up (Jane cooked so I've got to wash up, Brigantia rule no. 1 is that) but I've just put on the kettle to get it done. Then it'll be a quiet night. If there's a good enough 3 mobile signal we might stream a film on the laptop.

I'll need to let out some more anchor warp later before retiring. We're on 10m of chain now in 2.5m of water but with a 4m tide that will be a bit tight around high water in the early hours so I'll run out another 10m in an hour or two

Note: this post has been delayed by a poor phone signal!

Launch day

Got cracking first thing this morning sorting out the battery wiring. Battery 2 wasn't connected to anything which was a bit pointless really!

By the time I started to get twitchy about the general lack of action around the yard, both batteries were correctly wired back to the selector switch and battery 2 is now wired to a 3 gang car socket box for general phone charging, laptop powering etc.

Normally, the battery selector will be in position 1 connecting battery 1 to the charging (engine and mains) and powering the essential equipment of that battery. Switched to 2 and battery 2 gets charged and powers the critical gear. However, non-essential kit is never connected to battery 1.

Having ticked that job off the to do list, I popped round to the marina office to check they hadn't forgotten about outing us back in the water. Not sure they hadn't but anyway all was put in hand to launch at midday.

Sure enough, Paul and Co turned up about half past eleven and by a bit after twelve we were in the water and tied up on the inside of the pontoon. No leaks from the new log impeller housing and everything seemed fine so we headed into South Woodham Ferrers to do a quick shop at Asda.

When we got back Jane set to stowing the shopping whilst I carried on sorting out the boat ready to go sailing. At this point a bit of a problem teared it's head - the depth sounder insisted on reading "Out" even though we were now most definitely in. I unglued the transducer from the hull and fiddled about succeeding in getting an occasional brief reading but not for long.

A phone call ascertained that Seamark Nunn had a replacement transducer in stock so off I went. Two and a half hours later I was back, £26 poorer (plus the diesel and coffee costs) only to find that the problem isn't the transducer, it's the display head. That, of course, is the expensive bit.

Seamark hadn't got one anyway so tomorrow I'll have to see if I can get one elsewhere otherwise out will severely crimp our style for the rest of the week. It's not the end of the world but staying away from the shallow bits is a wee bit limiting around here - it's nearly all shallow bits!

Swallowing our disappointment and annoyance at yet another technical failure, we set to bending on the Genoa. After a bit of faffing around with the furling line to get it furling and unfurling properly, we finally had a yacht with a full suite of sails. With the mainsheet tackle set up we're ready to go sailing!

There being, of course, hardly a breath of bloody wind (typical!) we are in the pub! Tomorrow is another day - need to fuel up the outboard tank and see what can be done about the depth sounder and then hopefully we can get away for a few days sailing.

Launch weekend - day 3

Odd sort of day really. I was up and down in the night - it was howling fit to bust, noisy and even on dry land a bit uncomfortable what with the rigging vibrating and the boat shaking in the gusts. Nearly got up just before six, dozed off again until about half past eight, nearly got up again bit dozed off and had to be woken up by Jane (and that doesn't happen very often let me tell you!) at gone eleven.

Set to fitting the log impeller and wiring it back to the instrument panel whilst Jane date and conditioned checked the gallery stores. That done, we headed up to the pub about one-I-clock as Jane fancied a proper Sunday roast. Not a hope, the place was packed out. So we nipped down to Asda in South Woodham Ferrers to purchase some big bottles of mineral water before heading round to Natterjacks (the Marina bar).

The place was quiet but the service was very show. The beer and wine was ok, the food much less so. Not worth over eighteen quid that's for sure.

Lunch over, we had a wander down to look at the fingerette berths. More expensive than the swinging mooring they may be but walk on access has its appeal. Mind you, they look a tricky proposition to get in and out of and are tucked right around the back of everything else. Guess there's a reason why they're so much cheaper than the other berths!

Even though the facilities at the marina appealed, Jane wasn't convinced it would be worth the extra cost. Nor am I so we'll put that idea to one side and see how it goes this year on the swinging moorings.

Back at the boat, Jane had a doze whilst I set up the standing rigging. I'm not totally happy with it but I think its better set up than last year. We'll have to see how well she sails. We also measured up for a trailer and then had a sort out below decks.

Macaroni cheese and bread for dinner after which Jane had an early night whilst I whiled away the evening sorting out the channel allocations on the new VHF to match UK usage. Heard both sides of a conversation between a vessel and the Kingsferry bridge loud and clear so I don't think there's much wrong with the reception

After that out was time to jump into my lovely cosy new beeping slag and write up the days endeavours. Tomorrow should see us back in the water and ready to go sailing I hope

Oh yes, the weather ... there's virtually no wind now so write and its pleasantly warm. No heating required and a good nights sleep is on the agenda

Launch weekend - day 2

Reasonably successful (and fairly expensive!) shopping day.

A combination of a pair of Gill junior sallopettes and a Hi-gear jacket (from a camping store - none of the chandlers had ANYTHING smaller than a size 10) has finally sorted Jane out with suitable foul weather gear.

We also threw in some decent sailing gloves, technical socks and a couple of new Crewsaver holdalls to stow it all in

The camping shop also offered up two nice new sleeping bags to replace the ones donated by my mum. The zips had gone on both of them and they were definitely due for retirement

As far as the hi-tech efforts went, I was disappointed that neither Foxes or Seamark Nunn had a suitable tiller pilot in stock. They both had a selection of larger units but I wasn't prepared to pay a hefty premium for a unit that would be total overkill on Brigantia.

I did purchase the Standard Horizon GX1600 VHF I wanted though. Mind you, I was then peeved to find that the mounting bracket is designed so that it can't be fitted on the deckhead as the old unit was. For now, its screwed to the cabin side just above the chart table but future plans will require it to be moved

I was a bit worried about the lack of anything other than hiss but we received the 19:10 marine safety information broadcast fine on ch.86 on the Bradwell transmitter. Just need to test the transmitter side now. I shall probably risk the ire of the etiquette police and ask the coastguard for a radio check on the morrow.

It was, by the way, quite a nice day when we set out. By the time we got back it was blowing a half gale. By the time we retired to the pub, the other half of the gale had turned up! Good job we're on the bank, if we were afloat I reckon life on board would be pretty miserable

Should ease a bit tomorrow and then get better during the week. Fingers crossed

Launch weekend - day 1

A reasonably straightforward drive down this afternoon and all well on arrival.

Stopped off at B&Q in Chelmsford hoping to buy a telescopic ladder to make boarding easier on the hard but they hadn't got any so we bought a step stool instead. Combined with the stern boarding ladder it does the job and we needed one for home anyway

Arrived to find a present from a fellow East Coast forumite of a half sheet of multilayer sound insulation (thanks Rog!) which I hope to further silence the engine compartment with

Not do impressed to find that the Ferry Boat now sports a large screen TV showing the bloody football. Be different if it was the rugger mind  :-)

Tomorrow is mega-shopping day. Big wadge of wonga in the bank and it needs spending  ;-)