Not So Soggy Summer Weekend - Day 3

A day in Tollesbury today. After sausage butties for breakfast, we went for a wander. First stop was a toddle along the footpath out to the FACT Lightship (formerly the Channel light vessel) having a good look at the saltings moorings.

(FACT, by the way, is the Fellowship Afloat Charitable Trust. Google if you want to know more!)

Then we headed up into the village stopping off at Fred's Stores for essential supplies and a circuit of the village before popping in to the cafe by the hard for coffee.

Back on board, Jane tidied the cabin and washed up whilst I dried off the inflatable canoe, stowed it away and sluiced out the cockpit.

After hitting the showers, we ate on board and then topped up the water tank before repairing to the club for drinks. Glorious evening with a relieving breeze to take the edge of the heat. We've had all hatches and vents wide open this afternoon it's been so warm. Boy does that make a change!

Off to sleep at a sensible time as it's a moderately early start in the morning.

Not So Soggy Summer Weekend - Day 2

After a fairly sleepless night due to the wind getting up and provoking wobbly boat syndrome, squeaky fenderitis and a dose of the tappy halyards, we set off downriver about half past seven this morning

Given the plan to pop into Burnham, we left the main stowed and sailed it on the genoa alone. Even so, we were hitting over 5 knots at times over the ground (the log impeller was playing up again so our speed through the water was a mystery)

Into Burnham Yacht Harbour we duly popped. Five minutes in the chandlery later we gained a cheap but serviceable lifejacket and a cap to replace my sailing cap which mysteriously vanished without trace over the winter.

We touched base with fellow East Coast Forum member Nigel and family on Micaralee and followed them out into the river. Both boats hosted mainsails forthwith and off we set.

We had the novel experience of sailing past another boat. I hailed Nigel to remark upon the fact at which point he unfurled his genoa and reversed the situation! We kept in touch although not in close company (which was never the plan) until the Spitway.

Nigel decided to hit the motor whilst we went for tacking into the Blackwater. I conveyed the berthing details I'd been given by the Marina earlier via the VHF and we gradually lost sight of each other.

There was a decent working breeze and a fair tide so progress to windward was quite respectable. It was, though, a bit choppy (not unusually in our experiences of the Wallet channel and outer Blackwater).

Jane felt queasy and did the sensible thing by dozing it off in her berth and I have to confess I experienced a certain amount of discomfort myself in the stomach department. The conditions settled down as we got closer inshore and by the last couple of tacks were well nigh idyllic.

Having never visited Tollesbury before and with a lot of other boats of all shapes and sizes about, I decided discretion was the order of the day and got the motor on and the sails down on the approach to the Nass beacon. Following the channel in was a bit tricky this first time but we arrived safely in the marina perhaps an hour or so after we planned originally.

Nigel was on hand to take a line and make fast the bows so in no time at all we were happily berthed and stowing sails etc. It being a little early for the bar, we took a stroll in the glorious evening sunshine and even had to take off some clothes (some mind, don't get too excited) because it was actually warm

Repairing to the Tollesbury Cruising Club bar, we had an excellent meal, some inevitable beer and live blues guitar to round of the evening. It was good value for money too. I think we're going to like it here!

Soggy Summer Weekend - Day 1

A trying day it has been.

To start with, we were more than half an hour (nearer an hour in fact) late setting out from home so we caught the Friday afternoon traffic. The only consolation being that it was much worse for the poor sods going the other way.

Having rushed to get out, it was inevitable that something would get forgotten and we were more than half way to the boat and finally clear of the heavy traffic when I realised we hadn't got the boat keys.

The prospect of going back home to get them was discussed and dismissed. The North bound traffic was awful and it'd take hours. Fortunately, I keep a key to the cabin padlock on the car keys but we'd have to come up with a solution to not being able to unlock the chain securing the tender and oars to the dock.

So a diversion to Basildon was required to acquire the cheapest inflatable floating thing they'd got. Hell, I'd have asked for a li-lo if necessary but we ended up with the cheapest of the Sevylor inflatable canoes.

A quick dive into Asda stocked up the ships stores and we set about inflating the new toy (and I use the word toy advisedly). I wouldn't chance my arm in it if it was rough nor would I fancy trying to paddle against the tide but it got me out to the boat OK and once deflated stowed under the cockpit floor. It may come in handy.

We wasted no time getting alongside the pontoon and chucking our kit on board thus confirming the second thing we hadn't got - two lifejackets. There should be two on board and two in the car. We knew we'd forgotten to bring the two back that had gone home but somehow we've only got one on board.

Oh well, off to the pub for something to eat and a drink or two before heading back on board for a reasonably early night. The solution to the lifejacket problem being, once again, to throw money at the problem and pop into Burnham Yacht Harbour on the way past on the morning to visit Marinestore.

Oh and it's still soggy. It's been soggy all day. We're going it won't be soggy tomorrow

Tiller repairs

On the last day of the spring cruise, you may recall, the tiller broke at the base. It was removed and brought home for further investigation ...

 Yup, it's broken!

 Utilising the wonders of modern epoxy, it's not broken any more :)

The finished tiller, glued, screwed, sanded and varnished

The break, on examination, proved to be clean albeit typically (for mahogany) jagged. That though proved useful as it gave an excellent joint for glueing. It went back together with two pack epoxy and once it had cured I clamped the end of the tiller in the workmate and tried to break it again without succeeding

Having sanded and varnished the woodwork, I then glued the stainless end strap to the tiller with more epoxy. Previously, it had just been bolted on with the one visible bolt and therefore doing precious little to reinforce the tiller end. Now it should be adding considerably to the strength of the end piece.

I did consider extending the side plates and looked at various options for doing so but they were all going to be a faff and I decided to give it a go without doing so. We'll see how that pans out

Finally, the hardware was all reattached to the tiller and it's ready to go. We'll test it this coming weekend and report back!

Small Boat to Chichester - the photographic evidence!

A selection of the best and worst photos from the trip are now available in the Brigantia photo album at 2013 Spring Cruise Photo Album

Here's a selection to whet your appetite ...

The motley crew ...

Mark, Bru

and Rik

The sights and sites ...

Entering Dover

Looking smart

Flying the kite

Don't play with the big boys children

Cullins Yard, Dover - our favourite watering hole

The iconic Beachy Head

 Lots more in the photo album! Here's the link again ... 2013 Spring Cruise Photo Album

Small Boat to Chichester - Stats and Tracks

Blue tracks indicate under sail ,Brown tracks indicate motoring (or motor sailing), Flags indicate ports of call

Outbound:


On the outbound passage to Chichester, we covered 175 nautical miles in 43 hours at an average speed of 4 knots (our average speed rises to 4.25 knots if the slow sail from Hayling Island to Itchenor is excluded from the calculation).

On the passage to Hayling Island we sailed 99.7 of the 169 miles at sea at an average speed of 4.25 knots (our average speed under motor and sail, by sheer coincidence, being identical)

The 60/40 split between sailing and motoring is a little disappointing but the conditions generally, being unseasonably chilly and with changeable winds, did not encourage too much hanging about! When the wind died or headed us there was no great enthusiasm on board for gilling about waiting for a change.

Return:

On the return passage from Chichester to Fambridge, we covered 182.5 nautical miles in 44 hours and 17 minutes at an average speed of 4.12 knots

On the passage from Hayling Island to Burnham, we sailed 96 of the 169 miles at sea at an average speed of, yes you guessed it, 4.25 knots! We dropped to a 55/45 split between sailing and motoring though, largely due to the final day from Ramsgate to Burnham (try as we might, it was just one of those days when sailing was not going to happen (we tried five times to get her going under sail and were headed or had the wind, such as it was, die on us on every occasion usually within minutes)

The run from Chichester to Hayling Island was under motor all the way due to the conditions. It was F6 gusting F7 (and nearly hitting F8 in one recorded gust) all the way and crossing the harbour mouth was a nerve racking experience with the wind and waves on the nose.

The final run upriver from Burnham to Fambridge started out well under sail short tacking and starting to get the hang of getting the new smaller genoa across smartly but was curtailed by the tiller breaking and therefore is left out of the sailing calculations.

In total, we covered 357.5 nautical miles at an average speed (over the ground) of 4.1 knots

By and large, we made excellent use of the tides which, coupled with the much improved performance under sail with the new "canvas" accounts for our generally excellent passage times.

We have reason to suppose the log is reading fairly accurately (by comparing our logged speeds with the speed over the ground in various tidal conditions and especially in slack water) which makes the maximum logged speed of 6.5 knots pretty impressive!Our maximum speed over the ground was 8.25 knots but that was with well over 2 knots of fair tide and a following swell helping us on our way.

We used, with astonishing accuracy, almost exactly 50 litres of petrol and given that we were on engine for 39 hours (and 3 minutes to be pedantic) means we burnt fuel at a surprisingly miserly rate of a tiny fraction over 1.3 litres per hour

Statistically speaking, it was a very successful cruise and, if we say so ourselves, quite an achievement for three blokes in a small boat. Oh and quite a lot of beer was drunk too!

Small Boat to Chichester - Day 15

A good night's sleep in the flat calm of a forecast F4/5 with not so much as a ripple on the water meant a fairly late state to today's tidying up activities.

With the last of our gear off, we cleaned the boat from stem to stern, shut down the fuel and electrics, stowed the shore power lead and made ready for the off

Rik and I undertook a diversion upriver on the ferry to remove the genoa from a friend's boat so it can be lifted out next week then Rik headed homeward whilst Mark and I move Brigantia onto her mooring

A slight hiatus ensued when we discovered the mooring strop had wrapped itself around the riser under the buoy several times but we sorted it out and then cleaned all the weed off the decks!

It remained only to close all vents and hatches, take down the ensign and call for the ferry ashore. The end of a fascinating, challenging and satisfying trip. Enjoyable? For a given value of joy yes! But hell's teeth was it chilly!