Winter maintenance done, let's go sailing!

While the winter has been mild and there hasn't been any snow it has been a long one tucked away in a damp and dirty corner of the boat year. With all of the rain, the ground to my port side has been water logged until last week. This is where the yard set out my mast on stands. The fool has applied a very light anti-fouling with the last of the cheap 'work boat red', normally called brown or dirty purple. My mast is fully rigged, let's hope the new wire is the correct length. I have a new mast head light with combined anchor and try-colour and new VHF antenna with windex. The cap shrouds have sail protectors where they pass the cross trees so my new sails shouldn't chaff too much. He has left new clevis pins in the cockpit which are drilled to take pins in two places. To make sure they fit the rigging screws he has drilled them out to 10mm. The rudder looks passable, the colour match on the above water section isn't great and the finish is a bit rough but nothing like as bad as the stem which he tried to fill! The VHF cable from the radio set to the deck fitting has been replaced, it still needs to be fixed to the bulkhead but there is every chance of the radio working. The top sides have been lightly sanded to remove the chalking and then cut back and polished. I feel great and cannot wait to get back into the water. The beach legs that he made fit very well now that he has worked out that he labelled them the wrong way round. I dread to think what will happen when he tests them but I am sure it will involve mud and stress.

New Sails

After much deliberation he has decided to treat me to a new wardrobe. A 135% Genoa and a Main with 2 reefs plus a new boom main cover from Crusader Sails. We'll see if he can measure up correctly!

Ray Sand Channel

Better late than never! It has been a fraught few months for the fool but here is a mini report from my last trip of the 2013 season.

He vowed not to go through the Ray Sand channel again after almost getting stuck a few years ago and hearing that the channel had silted up. But to avoid going round the Spitway and getting to Pyefleet Creek after dark he chanced it. Two hours after high water there was just enough water to get through and he made it safely through, albeit with his heart in his mouth. Then we had a nice gentle sail up the Colne entrance channel and anchored just as it was getting dark. About an hour later a large barge anchored just down stream of me and based on how much chain they laid he got worried that we might come together when the tide turned. To avoid this we dropped back on the tide and re-set my anchor. In the morning the barge Reminder, who we seem to keep coming too close to, was close astern. 

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We set off back home just before the tide turned and made it back through to the Ray Channel three hours after high water. Things were definitely going to be tight as we had less than 0.5m when going North through the previous day. As it turned out we had almost 1m to spare and he found the Ray Channel mark and the elusive Ray Middle fairway mark.

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He didn't see this on the way North even though we must have been within 0.5 nm of it. As it turned out the chartlet available from East Coast rivers was spot on and the channel has moved almost a mile towards the coast since my first passage through it in 2009.

Back in the Crouch we sailed back to Bridgemarsh and going through Burnham moorings we passed Lady Mary of Woodbridge.

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and Ming Ming II in all of her battle ship grey glory!

All in all a very pleasant couple of days when it was warm and sunny. A whole season without a serious grounding, what a result!

Winter maintenance

Signs of sensibility, the weather was so bad and winds very strong during October so I was left in the water until November. Since being out of the water I have only had one visit from my illustrious owner and then he broke more than he fixed! After loosing all of the draw strings and a cable in the mast he then went on to snap the furling foresail foil!! The aim this winter is to replace the rigging and add a combined anchor and try-colour mast head light. New rigging has been made up against the old rig by Aladdins Cave in Burlesdon for a very good pice and very quickly. Also this winter, self steering mark II is well underway along with a new rudder. The steering performance has always been a bit iffy when trying to tack, especially when reefed. To try and counteract this a larger wetted area foil is being made out of marine ply with a cloth and epoxy coating. The new rudder will have a better tab than the old rudder and the self steering will be based on a horizontal pivoted vane with cable control to the tab. Pictures to follow in the projects section in due course.

Another Rowan 22

Went out late yesterday evening and moored to a buoy off Fambridge Yacht Station. About an hour later, just after the sun set a dark blue hulled Rowan 22' moored to the buoy adjacent to me. Lovely looking boat with what looked like an Association pennant.

Here she is the next morning. After a good nights rest we went up to Battlesbridge, it is getting very shallow up there now so only for spring tides when the next tide is higher!

Projects and short trip report

So the fore hatch is the next job he thinks that he can improve, read all about it in the projects page.

A recent overnighter to the Roach found us being followed by a baby seal.  There were about thirty mother and pup pairs on the mud in the area which is more than I can remember in previous years.

We were sailing / drifting through Pagelsham Reach and a baby seal caught up with us and hung around for a few minutes. I think that my owner is a bit concerned that this pup is too young to be away from its mother and while the photos are cute it may not be a story with a happy ending!

Maldon trip

Not sure how to do this but I am trying to attach a file  which if you open in Google Earth shows where I went this weekend.

Not sure how or why but the Navionics chart plotter on my mobile phone works again!?!?

I sailed from Bridgemarsh to the anchorage just off Osea Island before I activated the tracker on my mobile. The achnorage was very busy with lots of people waiting for the tide to make it up Mayland Creek. So first of all I visited Maylandsea. Very tidal, 1 hr either side of HW. 



After this little excursion it was too late to go up to Maldon and mooring there is almost impossible so I decided to leave it until high water on Sunday. I tried to find deep water to anchor off Heybridge which wasn't in the channel. 



In the end I gave up, used a buoy and prepared for a night lying on a bulkhead. Deepest mooring resulted in 4 hours nestled in the forecabin. Not too bad. 

Next morning I was up early to take the tide up to Maldon. There were a large number of Thames Barges, most had BSBM 2013 pennants which I assume is some sort of rally. 



I caught Repertor in the sun.



I made it up to the top of Maldon before my camera battery ran out.



On my way back I kept pace with Niagara, she looks like a new steel hull. she went off to the Thames estuary and I went back to the Crouch. 

A good trip all in all, nothing broke and boat went well.

Not sure how this post will turn out, Photobucket etc and Preview function isn't working on my machine.