Straps and Chains

This week's new beige covers photo no 1...

Watching the amazing opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics meant we had a late start on Saturday so again only a short sail in the Solent this weekend. Before setting off we were able to finish fitting the pad eyes and securing straps to the deck for the new dinghy. Definitely a two person job with me wiggling the nuts and washers into position from underneath whilst Nicky tightened the bolts from above. Yes, we did get gooey sealant everywhere!

As well as buying a padlock and a length of heavy-duty chain this week, I also made a beige cover for the new dinghy. It is therefore tied down, covered and locked to the deck ready for us to try out properly during our summer holiday cruise starting in a few weeks. Both the new dinghy and outboard are much heavier than our old kit so it will take a bit of experimentation to work out the best place on deck to inflate the dinghy, lift it overboard and then attach the outboard engine.

... and no 2

We were also able to check out the new AIS which is now 'talking' to the notebook so we can see a picture of all of the ships and AIS equipped craft that it is detecting.

We had a good beat west into both wind and tide.  As we came abeam the southern end of the Beaulieu we decided to stop so that we could watch some of the Olympics events.  It is a peaceful spot and fantastic place to wake up to in the morning.

On Sunday the wind built to a force 5-6 so we elected to sail with just the genoa raised.  Very easy sailing and big grins all round as we took it in turns to steer.

There was the usual maelstrom of racing yachts to dodge as we passed Cowes plus a square rigger training ship and a Thames Barge to add variety.  It was great to get out on the water again for a short sail but we are both itching to travel further afield.  We're also hoping for a phone call this week to say that the Bimini and sprayhood are ready to be fitted.

More Reading

Reading the pilot books for where we are planning to go is really exciting.  Great pictures of beautiful anchorages and warm, clear sea.  Can't wait to get there!

It's not just about dreaming though.  There is also a lot to learn about the local weather conditions, immigration rules and other regulations.  It might sound like a chore but researching it all beats working through an in-tray at work by a long way!

One of the things we will need to narrow down is a shortlist of locations where we could overwinter at the end of 2013 and into 2014.  The pilot books help there but there also a lot of good information on the Web.  Interestingly it seems that if you spend more than about 3 months in an EU country then you should register as living there for tax reasons.  That might have some significant implications so we'll need to properly understand those EU rules.

I'm also reading up on fishing - watch out Tunas, here I come!

Teamwork

I solved the problem of potentially having to get all scrunched up in the lazarette laying the long GPS cable for the AIS... Nicky volunteered for the task. On account of her superior sailing qualifications (and flexibility) it was one of those "never look a gift horse in the mouth" moments!  Joking aside, it does highlight the teamwork.

We regularly see yachts sailing with just male crews onboard, usually made up of the owner plus friends moving the yacht to somewhere nice where 'Mrs' flys in and embarks.  It is unusual for a gentleman to be sailing with a lady who is more qualified in sailing matters - I definitely feel privileged.


When asked I generally sum the balance of workload up as, "Nicky prefers to do the tricky navigation and I prefer to steer in the rain and fix things" - potentially a perfect division of labour.  But, as fitting the AIS illustrates, we regularly get amongst each others 'areas of expertise' to maintain the balance.

This is me securing and wiring in the AIS as well as tidying up the NMEA network wiring.

The AIS fitting went very well and the AIS unit now shows the all important green light demonstrating that it is very happy; properly configured, transmitting and receiving okay and that its GPS is working.  Proper geeky stuff, but a result!

However, the ship's computer wasn't talking to the AIS apparently because some 'drivers' that hadn't loaded properly.  I'd configured the AIS with the MMSI number and BV's dimensions using my Mac at home.  Simply plugged it in and it worked; Macs are good like that.  The PC onboard, however, seems to be more temperamental.  I do remember seeing a Tech Note from the manufacturer that might help so will work on that at home and hopefully all will be well on our next visit to BV with a picture of what the AIS is 'seeing' displayed on the computer screen.

Cowes Revisited

Mai-Cha III

Athos

Saturday morning was an early start with just a short hop across to Cowes on the agenda.  It also gave us the chance to take another look at the spectacular yachts we saw the previous evening; the 147 foot long Mai-Cha III and the 201 foot long Athos.

I love the style of the Van de Hoek Classic yachts so for me Athos stole the limelight, and hence there are more photos of her.

Friday Night Out

Nicky had an appointment in Cowes on Saturday so as soon as she had escaped from work on Friday night we were able to get down to the south coast and head west on BV.  There was no wind but it was a fantastic evening... and there were some amazing yachts off Cowes.















We avoided the bright lights of Cowes and anchored for the night at the bottom end of the Beaulieu River, arriving at the entrance to the river with the very last of the light from a beautiful sunset.

Covers and New Toys

Despite several distractions, including some work loose ends, I have still managed to be a busy-bee with the sewing machine.  It has taken several hours over 3 days but the outboard motor now has a new beige cover.  Making a cover for such an obscure shape takes time and is a bit fiddly but having a close fit stops the cover from flapping about in the wind when the engine is stored on the pushpit.  It's good to have finally finished the cover.  We will now be able to take the outboard down to BV this weekend and  I'm hoping the cover will protect the engine for several years so I won't have to make another one too soon.

Next task is the cover for the dinghy itself but I'll need to get hold of some more canvas before I tackle that so probably a job for next week.  We can then fix the pad-eyes onto the deck to lash the dinghy down and that will complete the changeover to the new dinghy and outboard.

A nice parcel arrived yesterday which was the AIS transponder.  This will both tell us the position, heading, speed and callsigns of any large ships near us, and it will also transmit the same data about us. That should stop us from being run over by mistake by a big ship!

The AIS comes with its own GPS aerial so fitting that will mean threading another long cable.  That means I'll have to spend some more time scrunched up in lockers... joy!  This AIS also acts an NMEA0183 Multiplexer so it can feed all of the various instruments data through a USB cable to a computer. As part of wiring it in I'll take the opportunity to trace all of the NMEA0183 cables and get rid of the existing legacy computer serial port cable which we don't use; essentially a bit of wire housekeeping.  If I can get all of the different bits of electronics 'talking to each other' properly it should be a very useful bit of equipment to have onboard, particularly when we are crossing shipping lanes.

"Daddy's Going Hippy!"

The Pulses Bible?

Much to the amusement of my kids I have started to experiment with some vegetarian recipes using pulses.  Rose Elliot's The Bean Book appears to have been the reference document for many people since it was first published in 1979.  I've got hold of the latest edition reprinted in 2000 and, as a non-vegetarian, I am actually really impressed with how tasty the recipes are.

However, this whole bit of cookery experimenting with lentils and other pulses is not as my grown-up kids have been teasing me, "Because Daddy's going Hippy!".  It's actually with a view to eating well on long passages.  We know that when we eventually get around to doing it, crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean will take us around 3 weeks.  We don't want either the expense, the loss of storage space or the power drain of a freezer onboard, so after a couple of weeks the fresh rations will have run out.  Living off tinned food is the normal option (bland?) but I'm also looking to find some really good recipes that can be made with dried pulses and other long shelf life foods.  We should then be able to eat really well with a lot of interesting variety which is important to boost quality of life onboard.

I am also hoping that if I brush up my fishing skills and catch the odd tuna or two then life will be very pleasant with seared tuna steaks and the freshest sushi to keep body and soul together.  Failing that I'm convinced that somewhere out there has to be the recipe for the ultimate lentil curry!

Sewing Chores

The new Outboard is about 13 Kg heavier than the last one (27 Kg vs 14 Kg).  That's a lot of extra weight if you are hanging over the back of a boat.  I've therefore spent a few hours measuring up and sewing a lifting bridle.  It provides a convenient handle on the top of the outboard motor as well as a strong point to attach a hook if we choose to crane the motor with a halyard.  I suspect that we will end up with some sort of crane on the pushpit for the outboard, but only after I have given myself a hernia or two to soften the blow of the potential bill from the stainless steel fabricator.

Patches on the dinghy bag

Having dug out the sewing machine it made sense to start work on the dinghy bag which needed a little reinforcing where it was looking a little worn.  Nothing difficult, it just takes time, but better to do the work now before the small holes and threadbare bits rip.  Looking at the photo on the left I have to admit that it's not my most colour coordinated piece of work but I did have some spare vinyl backed canvas at home which is perfect for the job and the bag will be covered in beige canvas when it is on BV so no-one will see the patchwork quilt effect.  By my way of thinking, Avon just got the wrong colour for their dinghy bags - burgundy would have been far better!

Outboard motor and the dinghy covers next (assuming I have enough beige canvas).

Newtown River... Again!

As you can see from the photograph above, this weekend saw us lazing around in Newtown River again.  Not exactly what we would have expected to do but with a good westerly wind, by the time we had tacked backwards and forwards and were abeam Newtown River, it seemed an appropriate time to stop.  It turned out to be a very peaceful and relaxing stop... perfect for a lazy weekend afloat.

Newtown was surprisingly quiet for the summer; I guess it's that rainy weather effect again!  Just one minor drama and that was a small yacht (nearest one in the photograph above) which dragged its anchor and drifted past us.  We rapidly inflated the dinghy and rowed out (outboard motor taken home last week) to catch the yacht and haul her back before she ran aground.  It was high water.  Once safely attached to BV we hauled up their anchor chain and, with the help of the Harbour Master's launch, moved her onto a mooring buoy.  It was clear why she had drifted; there was only about 4 metres of anchor chain and rope deployed and the depth was about 4.5 metres at high water.  She should have had about 25 metres of chain and rope out.

Sunday morning was sunny and that brought out the crowds. Lots of boats arrived including a whole collection of small gaff rigged yachts which landed on the beach.  The cooking smells wafting from their BBQs were fantastic as we motored out of the narrow entrance.

Once away we elected to go for a poled out genoa rather than hoisting out spinnaker.  We have a self imposed limit of 15 knots true wind above which we do not hoist our spinnaker.  BV can take it easily but it is a powerful sail and we have found that if the wind gets up much above 15 knots it is hard to lower the sail with just one person on the foredeck; at those winds it tends to lift me off the ground as I try to haul it down.  With the poled out genoa though we still made good progress with > 8 knots through the water; its just not quite as colourful.



Clearly there were no such limits imposed on Savannah who sailed past us looking splendid with an enormous red asymmetric flying.  We also saw the new Dutch J Class Rainbow beating up the Solent but sadly too far away to take a decent photograph of her.  We suspect that she was getting some training in before the start of the J Class Solent Regatta 18-21 July 2012.

The Kettle is Dead

Despite my best efforts to repair it the stainless steel kettle's whistle stopped working again.  After being distracted doing jobs on deck to get BV ready to sail I found that climbing down into the saloon was like stepping into a Turkish steam bath.  The poor old kettle had been ignored because the floppy whistle was not whistling and so it was merrily churning out clouds of steam.  With that I finally accepted that the old kettle was not repairable and that it was time for a new kettle.  The new kettle looks very smart in its blue livery and seems to be large enough to keep an Englishman (and woman) suitably awash with tea as they potter around the world.

Thursday afternoon last week was spent digitally mapping the cockpit.  I got a telephone call telling me that the new sprayhood has been cut out, is ready to be stitched together and should be ready to be fitted during the next couple of weeks.  Also, he told me that the chap who will make the stainless steel frame for the bimini sunscreen was ready to measure up the cockpit.  I was expecting this to be done in the traditional way with tape-measures, some lengths of copper pipe bent into the desired shape and an experienced eye judging the requirements.  Not a bit of it.  The designer from the company making the bimini turned up with a high tech box containing a computer which he placed on the companionway hatch.  He then pulled from it a sensor and a remote control.  Working around the whole of the cockpit area he placed the sensor on all of the surfaces, fixtures and fittings and, with a beep from the remote control, logged that point on the computer.  At the end of his visit the computer screen showed a recognisable 3D image of the cockpit made up from small dots.  By Friday morning, with the help of a CAD programme, the dot picture had been turned into a 3D design for the bimini; even the winch handles could be turned on it to make sure that the design left enough space for them to be operated properly.  After a few minor questions I have now approved the design and so the stainless steel frame and canvas work will be cut out and made up from the CAD drawings.  I'm told that the sprayhood and bimini will be fitted on the same day later this month, well before the deadline I gave them.  BV should look very smart when we set off in August for our summer holiday.

The larger new dinghy and outboard has meant a bit of a rethink on stowage.  The new dinghy is too large and heavy to store below in the machinery room so it will lashed on deck and padlocked to a suitable strong point.  The outboard is easy and will fit on the bracket on the pushpit.  It does, however, have a large separate fuel tank so one of the cockpit lockers was emptied and re-organised to make space for the new, extra large fuel tank.

The bonus from freeing up the space in the machinery room is that we now have room to store the sewing machine (in case of emergency sail repairs) and a few boxes of reading books.  The downside is that I will have to fix some lashing points onto the deck and make beige covers for the dinghy and outboard.  Another few jobs added to the seemingly never ending list!

The New Teenager in the Family

We had a 'not to be missed' opportunity to update our WIB ("Wobbly Inflatable Boat") last week.  Our 'WIB' has served us extremely well for the last 10 years.  It has been used to row to and from our mooring every time we have been sailing and, even with that heavy use and the associated rolling and unrolling, it still has many years of use left in it even though, amazingly, it was made in the 1980s.  It's an Avon Redcrest and we have been incredibly impressed with both the durability of the hypalon material and the fact that it has decent rowlocks so that you can use proper oars not the pathetic toy-like paddles most inflatable manufactures seem to think are suitable.  From our perspective being able to row the dinghy properly is an important safety factor so that you can get out of potential trouble if the engine fails.  If you hadn't guessed, we like Avon dinghies!

Having said all that, now that my kids are grown up, we have found that the Redcrest  does struggle a bit with 4 adults onboard.  It carries them but wouldn't be great in anything more than relatively calm seas.  To make our adventure affordable we expect to have to anchor far more often than staying in marinas so our dinghy is not just going to have to be the equivalent of our car but also it has to be able to cope with making longer journeys and in rougher conditions.  It can't be too big or heavy though because we still have to be able to lift and stow it

Sadly Avon no longer make small dinghies so we have been keeping an eye on the second hand market for something a little more robust than the Redcrest.  Second hand also makes it affordable for us as the Avon dinghies were extremely expensive new.  Last week eBay came up trumps with what we were looking for.

So, as of Wednesday of last week, the new teenager in the family is this Avon Rollaway Boat.  It is 3.15 meters long, is designed with a wooden transom to work better with an outboard, has larger diameter tubes than the Redcrest so carries more (5 adults), it has a rigid floor and an inflatable keel which will make it steer much better.  It was made in 1996 but has only rarely been used so looks like it is just a year or two old.  Perfectly matches what we were after.

The chap selling the dinghy is super fastidious and really looked after his kit.  We have therefore also bought his immaculate Honda 5 HP outboard as the Avon 3.15 is quite a bit heavier than the Redcrest and our current Honda 2 HP lacks the oomph needed.  Not sure how the new dinghy and outboard will perform but I will let you know when we have done some speed trials - I suspect we won't be breaking any world records but at least we'll be able to get to and from BV more safely.

Experimenting

The great British Summer (or lack of it) continued with a dismally rainy Saturday.  We escaped down to BV on Friday night and luckily timed our arrival between rain showers.  Unfortunately, having stayed dry, we then woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of heavy rain.  Breakfast in the cockpit didn't seem to be a great idea with the seats awash.

When we did get going it was a case of full oilskins on and make the most of enjoying the sailing despite the weather.

This is me hiding under the sprayhood claiming that I was taking artistic photographs (whilst Nicky steered in the rain).

We did get to see ICAP Leopard 3, one of the fastest monohulls in the world, from very close up as we passed north of Cowes.  Sadly it was chucking it down with rain and the photographs I took are spoiled somewhat from some spots of water on the lens filter.

Also moored off Cowes was a beautiful classic wooden schooner making ready to sail.

One of the only problems with sailing is that cruising yachts tend not to go very fast.  If you just have a weekend it is hard to get somewhere interesting and new and then get the boat back to its mooring again in time for work on Monday.  Being able to have the time to explore new and exciting sailing destinations is the main reason we have decided to leave work and sail full time from next year.  In the meantime we are very luck to be able to keep BV by the Solent.  It's pretty sheltered by the Isle of Wight so we can generally sail any time we have free, whatever the weather.  There are also lots of nice little harbours and anchorages to visit within easy reach of a day's sail.

Newtown, the old salt beds and derelict sea wall

This weekend we didn't go far but headed towards one of our favourite anchorages, Newtown River.  It's a beautiful spot with old disused salt beds that are now a bird sanctuary.  Peaceful and quiet, you feel very close to nature there.

Our first distraction was a smaller yacht that, despite having practically the whole river to anchor in, chose to drop their anchor nearly on top of ours and settled less than a boat length ahead of us.  When the tide turned there was a good chance that we would turn before he would because of the effect of water flow over our long fin keel in comparison with his lighter boat with a thin, more modern, keel.  After politely pointing out that the yacht was uncomfortably close to us with a risk that we might collide when the tide turned, they reluctantly lifted their anchor and stormed off at high speed with the chap grumbling.  We are still not sure why they didn't just re-anchor 30 meters away; there was a lot of space there and plenty of water.

The second distraction came at low water.  We were 2 days after Spring tides so in a relatively shallow river with restricted swinging room there wasn't much water left at low water for a yacht like ours with a 2 metre draught.  As low water came we found that we had drifted to the edge of the river and the keel was touching the mud.  As the photo on the right shows, perhaps a little too close to nature!  When the tide rose a little we re-laid our anchor a few metres closer to the opposite side of the river so that BV would swing properly at the next tide change and hopefully guarantee us a good night's sleep.  It did.

The morning brought bright sunshine and Newtown River was beautiful.  One photograph doesn't really capture the view so I have taken the opportunity to experiment with piece of software that stitches together several photographs to create a panoramic view.  These are the results:

The sail home was also very pleasant and gave me the chance to capture a short video.  Not because the  views were particularly spectacular, more because I haven't edited a video on my computer before and then posted it on a blog.  It turned out to be not too difficult and having worked out how to post the video below I'm sure that it will come in handy to represent some of the sailing and places we visit in the future.

Rainy Day Dreaming

Apparently the jetstream is not in its normal place for this time of year.  The result is another rainy day in the UK!  When is this year's UK summer going to arrive?

To brighten things up I've looked back over some photographs of our previous cruises and thought I'd post some of them so that you won't think that this blog is just about boring yacht maintenance.

Blasting through the Solent

Leaving the Isle of Wight behind

These were taken in the Solent and en-route to South Brittany which is one of our favourite sailing areas.  Sadly we haven't normally had enough holiday time to comfortably get there and back so the last time we visited was in late August and early September of 2009.  It was glorious weather and the fantastic anchorages were far less crowded than in high season.

Ster Wenn, Belle Ile, South Brittany

Ster Wenn, Belle Ile, South Brittany

Nicky is tied up with work until after the Olympics are over.  In some ways that is really good because normally we'd be looking to try to set off for a Summer cruise around about now.  The extra time waiting for Nicky to be free from work will give the jetstream a chance to sort itself out and hopefully bring us some good cruising weather.  We'll set off for several weeks to test the new equipment onboard and make sure that everything that we have pulled apart over the recent months is working properly.  We aim to revisit South Brittany looking for idyllic anchorages...

great seafood....

and sunshine sailing....

Happy thoughts and a taster of what's to come when we can cast off the shorelines and set sail full time.