This past weekend presented us with a bank holiday (3 day weekend) plus the last time a crew member would be able to join us, so it was off to Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Tides were looking good for Sunday / Monday so Friday and Saturday were spent working on boat jobs. Numero uno - get the starboard engine fixed. The engineer arrived at 06:30, spent a couple of hours aboard tightening bolts and cleaning up the pressure relief valve, then to much delight, fired up the engine and announced all was well. Phew.

Next on the list was re-attaching the mast winches with new stainless bases. Now, I wasn't going to pay £100 (each!) for custom stainless mounts so bashed around some 2mm plate, bolted on the winch then drilled and tapped it onto the mast. Another job done.

 
After that, it was time to refit the twin wind generators atop the mizzen mast. 5 hours later and with one bolt hole drilled, we gave up. Seriously, everything that could go wrong with that project, did go wrong, so we've left it for a sunny weekend when I can be bothered doing it again. Hey ho.

Another BBQ that eve then it was time to depart Sunday morning. I wouldn't say we had boat breaking conditions, but a 3kt outgoing tide against a 20kt breeze, all in 10ft of water, made for an uncomfortable trip out to West Pole (about 1nm off the harbour mouth). It was clear all the boats heading out were struggling in the short, sharp chop but everyone persevered (who's going to try and get back in against a 3kt tide???) and things settled down once we tucked into the lee of the island. After that, it was a great 6kt motorsail to Cowes. Motorsail you say? Yep. Still haven't sailed the boat - the excuse this time was we were getting on for 14:00 and with the shops shutting at 16:00 on the Island, wanted to get in and show the departing crew member around before things got quiet.

Anyways, after a walk around Cowes, it was time to get the kayaks out and blast around the marina, then out to the pub for dinner. It really was an amazing evening of sunshine and light breeze.... the sooner summer gets here, the better.

06:00 dawned on Monday and it was time to get back to our marina. We had a great departure up the Medina and hooked in to the 2kt easterly tide quite early - unfortunately, the rain then appeared. Fortunately, we have a wheelhouse. It really is one of the things I love about this boat - everyone else out sailing was utterly miserable, and we were practically in our pajamas. Awesome.

After a 3 hour motor back (wind dead on the bow) - in which we also configured the autopilot - Calypso was tied up again in the marina, another 30nm of water beneath the keel.

The next few weekends will be spent working on various jobs, then it's off to Brighton (about a 70nm round trip) on the 27th / 28th June.

57 weeks to go....

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Two posts in one day - I know, I should be doing work - but I feel this deserves a mention.

The news here has run stories in the past couple of weeks regarding yachts running into difficulties:

- a delivery crew who've potentially had to abandon ship mid-Atlantic after being caught in "50kt winds and 20ft seas" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27465639)
- a couple who required a tow into Falmouth having hit severe weather on a trip from Spain to the UK.
- a boat running into troubles 8 miles offshore in "near gale-force winds" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-27362385)

For some, this will raise the question of safety with sailing offshore (particularly the Atlantic crossing) but I have to ask, what were those boats doing out there in the first place in those conditions?

Sadly, the answer is schedules and deadlines.

Case in point is a couple we know, who recently offered to crew a boat from UK to Gibraltar. Everyone had booked time off work to do the delivery (including the owner) and come hell or high water, they were off. What happened? They were caught in a Force 9, most of the crew were incredibly seasick and they ended up having to go into port in La Coruna as conditions were too rough.

In this day and age, with the advent of reliable long-range weather forecasting, there should be no reason for getting caught out. If the weather looks bad for the next week, stay in port (or coast hop). Heading out with forecast rough weather - no matter the reason - is just plain unsafe.

So that's my soap box rant for this Monday. Offshore sailing shouldn't be any more dangerous than bobbing around the protected waters of the Solent (we hear at least one pan-pan every weekend) and with over a thousand yachts crossing the Atlantic each year, watching the weather and not rushing certainly helps stack the odd in your favour.

(Fingers crossed for the crew of Cheeki Rafiki that they be found safe & well).

nathan

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Another Monday, another weekend of boat work put behind us. And what a weekend it was.

As you'll remember from last week, we were due to have an engineer out on Friday to inspect that faulty starboard engine... well, he couldn't make it due to an over-running job, so we brought forward drying out the boat by a day. I wanted to dry out the boat to a.) check the anodes, b.) have a look at the rudder as it's still heavy to port and c.) check for any growth and since we're at a drying yard, figured we might as well put it up against one of the jetties.



Now, drying out isn't as simple as it seems - you need to weight the side closest to the jetty to ensure the boat leans against it. In total, it took about 100kg to lean it over enough.











Once the water started to depart, it was time to have a look underneath and give everything a blast with the jet wash. On the plus side, our anodes are still going quite strong after almost two seasons (I put this down to our isolation transformer) although the propshaft anodes needed replacing again. I hit the rudder quite hard with the angle grinder as it was catching on the corners of the keel and it's definitely made the helm lighter to port, but still not as light as to starboard. Hmmmm. The growth isn't too bad; a few small barnacles but nothing to worry about just yet. We'll haul her out after summer and hit it with a fresh few coats of anti-foul.
Anyways, the next high tide was at 01:30 so we took off the weights, dropped the lines and motored her back to our berth.








 

The diesel cooker is playing up again (looks like it's just a bit dirty and needs a clean) and with the cracking sunny weather in town, it was time to plumb in and fire up the BBQ. I really miss BBQs and our Magma didn't disappoint.



Saturday was then spent with jobs - a custom chopping board to overlay one of the sinks (as the diesel cooker has taken some of our counter space), a spinnaker ring bolted onto the forward mast, a fan speed control knob wired onto the diesel cooker, some wood strips around the solar panel, and Lauren cleaning the diesel cooker. What a day. Another BBQ to wrap things up there.



Sunday was all about paint - after all the winter work, we'd trashed the wheelhouse so it was time to give it a fresh lick of paint. Two coats done, two coats to do next weekend, but it's looking good.





Anyways, next weekend we're off to Cowes on the Sunday for an overnighter. The plan is for the engine chap to come on Friday, then for us to wire and re-fit the wind generators on Saturday - at that stage, we'll then be well progressed towards being "Caribbean ready". 58 weeks and counting.

N

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Another weekend closer to our departure (59 weeks and counting) and a number of smaller jobs needed ticking off.

First up was the water filtration system. No longer living aboard full time means the water in the tanks (especially in warmer weather) can start to age quite quickly, so some sort of filter was needed. Having looked at the "marine grade" systems (£400 plus), I did some research and went with a standard 10" home system (about £69). This also includes the benefit of using standard 10" filters (about £5 each), generally available anywhere in the world.

Anyway, to the install. The first tank holds a 5-micron sediment filter and the second holds a 5-micron carbon block filter. I've installed the setup immediately after the tank outlet and before the water pump - I had thought about installing it for drinking water only (ie. under the galley sink), but then this would still have the shower and aft head sink using unfiltered tank water. The placement of the filter housings also means that if any water does spill (through a leak or while changing filters), it'll drain straight into the bilge.

The pump now sounds like it's working a tad harder, but it also no longer cycles so rapidly. Time will tell if the system needs moving upstream of the pump, but for the moment the water tastes great.

Sunday morning brought about another boat jumble. Here's our shopping list:

New Life sling - £20
New McMurdo grab bag - £15
Ocean Dan Buoy - £8
1 x Sika 295, 2 x Sika 291 - £10
2 x Harnesses & tethers - £15
Red webbing (enough to do all the lifelines) - £3
Hand bearing Compass - £2
Horsehoe Holder - £5
Folding Trolley - £5
2 x Mini Strobes - £4
1 x large Flare Case - £10

Now, given the Dan Buoy itself is worth over £150, we made out quite well. Plus there's now more toys for me to play with next weekend.

Something else I forgot to mention is our plan to install an external helm on the aft deck. We picked up a wheel & chain sprocket, plus fibreglass pedestal for £60 at the last boat jumble. Installing them will be a job for next winter....

This coming weekend will be drying the boat out to check the rudder & replace the anodes, having that starboard engine looked into and (if the weather holds), getting the wiring installed for the wind gen installation.

nathan

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Quite an apt post title, given the events of the past 24 hours. You see, after a long 24 hours of sailing, my brain is absolutely dead.

I digress. Bank holiday weekend here in the UK (we get Monday off) and whilst these are normally known for a lack of sunshine and mass amounts of rain, sunshine was predicted instead. We picked up the afternoon tide yesterday (Saturday), left Chichester Harbour and made our way over to the Hamble, via Southampton Water. Now, this whole shebang almost didn't happen as the starboard engine (the one & same that flooded with seawater when it was 2 hours old) decided to spring up an oil leak, but we pressed on and with the tide and most of the sail up, made good time.

The Hamble is a loooooooong river that comes off Southampton Water and having by now dodged a number of coasters and oil tankers, it was time to moor up on a visitor's pontoon and hit the pub.

Cue this morning. Time to go. This would be Lauren's and my first trip out in a long time just by ourselves (we've generally taken crew, given it's an untested boat) so first thing this morn, off we set.

Same issue with the starboard engine and the wind was dead on the nose, so motoring only, but we still made good time and having arrived in Chichester Harbour again, dropped the hook for a bit of anchoring practice before coming back into the marina. 

Which is where we sit, now in glorious sunshine.

Now, the engines. The port one is 26hrs old and has a very, very small leak at the sump gasket (very, very small). The starboard one however has what appears to be the same leak all the way around the sump gasket, plus the oil filter spun off quite easily in my hand. Not good. Also, the starboard engine runs at 105psi when first starting (drops to 80psi after a while) and also runs 20C hotter. I'm emailing the manufacturer now and will see what they say......

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