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 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.
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