A well earned rest

After 2 years afloat I am ashore and looking forward to a well earned rest. I have a lovely slot at HNYC near to power and water and on the new hard standing. I am sure I will continue to be abused by El Capitano but at least he will be focusing his efforts on Mischief. The plan is that I will be ashore until late 2020.

Why no posts?

Apart from a great club rally trip to Brightlingsea in August I have been left alone. Occasional checks to make sure I am still afloat are all I see of El Capitaino. He is busy with another boat, Azores or Bust. 

The Not Norway Trip

Summer cruise 2018 to no where appears in cruise reports. It was actually quite fun and there is always next year. So long as he remembers that I am in charge and he is only there to bug me.

Norway Trip Preparations

The final stages of getting ready and the boat is full of stuff.

this is about 1/6 of the food, clothes, water, charts, parts and books I loaded up this weekend.

And here are some of the items in the cockpit, a friend lent the fool his liferaft and I have an EPIRB so fully kitted out! I might let water in and have an aversion to heading into wind and tide but I want to get home just as much as he does.

Conyer Creek

The club rally to Benfleet was cancelled. Various reasons circulated; not enough water, behavior of the club members last year, they were busy launching. This worked out to our benefit, we went to Swale Marina in Conyer Creek instead. It was tight getting in on the high tide and at low water everyone dries out.

The sail home was excellent, after we made it back into the Medway against the tide.

See the full report in the Cruise Reports section.

New (Old) Sails

So he does still love me ❤

He bagged a couple of sails and the fit like they were made for me.

The spinnaker came from Ebay and was flown without a pole. It pulled nicely.

 The jib came from an auction at the boat club. Very tired but a good fit and hank on so an ideal compliment to the furler for down wind sailing.

Also, engine fuel leak fixed and a couple of practice runs at mooring on the trot so a jolly good weekend.

Fuel Gauge

Following the incident where he let the fuel get too low he has made and fitted a fuel gauge. We will see how long that works for? Also, he seems incapable of taking a half reasonable photo!!

The fuel gauge is still working six months on and 5 litres equates to about 1 segment of the LED.

New Year Embarrassment

He offered to take crew and his friend and club member Tom Fisher joined us. Wind was strong enough for 2 reefs and we set off from Wilsonian beach where pick-up was easy. With two up and 2 reefs I don't tack well so we motored through tacks. My engine cut out after about a hour, thought it would add some interest to the proceedings! but he kept pushing on. We were caught out when we got stuck in irons and instead he tried for a gybe but the sheets became tangled and we were blown onto Bishop's Ooze. He put the anchor out to wait for some tide to lift us off which was when Nipos passed and kindly enquired of our status. After a very brief chat they left us with the message "OK, you seem to know what you are doing". This brought some much needed humour to the situation. Shortly after this we heard on CH16 that the Sheerness ILB had been launched and feared that someone had called our situation into the Coatsguard. Comments onboard about avoiding the cost of lunch were heard. 

After getting the engine going again, it had sucked in some air and needed bleeding, we eventually managed to extract ourselves once the tide turned by backing the jib and breaking the anchor out. We returned to HNYC moorings and had a late lunch. A VHF call from Nipos to check we were OK was nice. Tom's help and experience was a great support and he might actually crew for the fool again. He made it ashore and faced the 'bar committee' who made him feel better about the situation by sharing stories of their mishaps. A call that evening from Chas rounded off the the embarrassment. 

Lessons; 

I don't like to tack with reefs in and especially with two or more in the cockpit. 

He should have set off earlier. 

The engine needs a half full fuel tank when heeled over to avoid sucking in air. The fuel gets to the engine by way of a syphon!

I remain in control :-)

So he gets a prize for running aground!!

October 2018 Laying-up supper.