Buoy It's Busy

Hardly seems it - but a month has passed since I left Scotland to come down to Cowes.  The weather has been wonderful and I hope friends I left behind haven't had too much rain - ha. The back drop might not quite be the same but you can see the history of ship building that turned this town in to the mecca of the sailing world.  In fact I am opposite the only pre-WW1 hammerhead crane still in existence in the UK and it's almost home from home.  Built in 1912 in Renfrew,  Glasgow only a few miles from where I've just come, it was used to build warships of its time, in fact HMS Cavalier is currently in Chatham and the Polish destroyer ‘ORP Blyskawica’ is also preserved in Poland.

Boy is it busy, every day there are boats of all descriptions passing up & down the Medina River. The Red Funnel ferry's lands not far from me and I can see the quaint chain link ferry or floating bridge for want of another name.

Work has taken my skipper away at the moment but I know he's been going through secondary port calculations, why I don't know to be honest, may be thoughts of anchoring in Newtown or Wootton Creek without getting stuck. Newtown the old capital city of the Island is now a National Trust area so I'm told and remains unspoilt.  Not untouched as signs of the original timber harbour wall are still visible, although barely recognisable as one, more a revetment but without a purpose. Despite the number of visitors it must get through its narrow entrance during the summer, it is a remote piece of the island, we will probably not share it or many similar places now with visitors until after April when the masses return following their winter hibernation.  I have the ability to take advantage of crisp sunny weekends and already in a position to ease out into the Solent in search of that tranquil spot.

As always there is a list of 'things to do' for me, not quite as urgent as the replacement of my hull windows, but none the less be good to get done when the weather has made a stand or other commitments that prevent my crew from taking me out. The oil fired heating system has the wrong size ducts fitted, a factory fault at birth, that for some reason the factory has managed to shy away from.   The clamps on the bottom of the mast need to be re tightened. Seems a simple job but the running rigging needs to be relaxed so that the top plate can be pulled back down to the deck without twisting, the reason for water seeping in. I'm sure the VHF speaker at the rear is a matter of something between the two mike's has been turned off or gone out of sync with each other. Still a simple electrical test will show what's happened to both external speakers on my port side. I may even get an inverter, so that the 'mains' system can be used even when shore power is not connected, the eight batteries I have will have a good flow between them but I may have to have an upgrade to the alternator at some point to keep things topped up.

It's a never ending list fortunately unlike wooden boats, I haven't got to worry about my skin and have varnish and other coverings to keep me looking cared for, just a good wash & occasional polish. Although I do need the rigging in the coach roof exposed to ease my pulleys under the covers and of course wash out the years of crud that has accumulated in there.

It certainly getting colder at nights, but nothing compared to the winters I've been through, so I have lots to look at whilst my crew look to their diaries for an opportunity.  At least once a week if not more I get a visit to make sure I'm ok and a quick spruce up in side.

Good Old Hanse

As you may recall, during my trip down the east coast of Ireland to Falmouth, a small matter of a loss of a port hole sometime before 0100 happened.

How it happened will never be known, speculation amongst my skipper is that, like the replaced panels on my coach roof, that buckled in the sun.  The port side hull window, which also happened to be predominantly in the sun when it wasn't raining, may have also distorted.  Due to the smaller size of the window this distortion may have only been slight but enough to crack the glued seal allowing water to seep in.  This in turn froze during the harsh winters in Scotland acting further on the seal, opening it up some more.

Externally there were black streaks running down the hull, but this was not uncommon on all six of these windows, no other sign of impending failure at all.

So my skipper e-mailed Inspiration Marine (IM) the Hanse UK dealer in the Hamble, just over the Solent from where I am now. They have contacted the manufacturer who have instructed IM to inspect the remaining windows and if necessary take them out, clean up & re-glue with a more advanced modern material.

Hanse themselves have gone further & located a more traditional clamped window, which may be more of a safer solution for the windows in my master cabin as these tend to take the onslaught of mother nature more than any other.  I'm not sure what they look like and my skipper has requested images so he can see.

So soon I'll be off to Hamble Point Marina, where I'll be worked on for a few days and hopefully return the confidence of my owners that I shall not allow the dolphins to pinch the window again !

Photo's of my new works will be posted or alternatively look on http://www.myhanse.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=13  and look for JonB's entry

A place they call Home

Wow the temperature is really different down here. It's October & not that far away it's nearly 30c a record for this time of year ! Still this morning there was good old fog but that soon burnt off and the warm air I felt as we approached the island was entering the hatches once more & drying my insides out.

The passage from Weymouth gave one more chance to do what I do best & sail. Having left the old town at 1030, replacing my water pump first. I sailed at 8knots on the rhumb line to the next way point, keeping me away from Lulworth firing range, at this rate I'd reach the Needles around 1700. After lunch I was tacked over only to find that the wind & the angle was not great, so the engine went back on, shame, it had been a good run.  Yet again though the windex played up and despite re-setting them to factory defaults it still didn't work properly. I can see another trip up the mast for my skipper, turning the vane slowly through two 360 degree motions to re-calibrate it.

Cowes was extremely busy, the warm weather had brought everyone out, no doubt a welcome injection of last minute income to the community. I passed all these lights & yachts I've not seen so many in one place, & taken up a river to find a place to stay. It got really shallow at one point but I swung round & came to on a remote pontoon, likely to be my home for a while.

So 787 nm, 250 lts of fuel, 13 days, 5 crew, 2 night passages, 1 crew change, I'm in Cowes

Now the adventures begin, just need to sort all the little jobs out first

Don't forget to revisit the blog to see photo's as they're added plus possibly more detail added to the routes

Nearly Home

Not that I've ever seen home before, but the last leg from Plymouth to Weymouth passed without incidence, mind you the southerly wind promised had far to much east in it also it had no strength either. Also with warm weather you just know that fog will not be far away & sure enough yet another morning to gain more familiarisation with the radar system. This all went with out a hitch I'm pleased to say.

So with no wind & what there was was light.

So radar on & creeping out of the bay, passing the 3 Polish warships that I had come across before in the Bristol channel the night before. My crew eye's peeled for lobster pots & other small vessels not able to be picked up on the radar, due to as they say 'being under the radar' & just too small to pick up. By 1000 the fog had burnt off but the wind remained devoid of strength & still on the nose. It wasn't till approaching Chisel beach that the wind picked up & the main was trimmed to add another 2 knots to the boat speed. Rounding Portland Bill in the dark, working out the navigational lights I got in tied up to a Sea Cadets vessel at 2030. So tomorrow another 80 mile sail to 'home'

Plymouth

Apparently it's Thursday, names of days no longer mean anything. Yet again having left Falmouth in fog, what wind there was, was on the nose, so another destination by engine. The fog did clear & the radar worked well at least something of me is, so that was good to see. The fog did clear leaving a beautiful sunny clear day, but no wind to speak of.

So some tidying was done and my crew caught up on sleep loss from previous days.

Again I saw the three Polish warships as I slipped in to the bay & the water level was such that the lock was open so straight in with E20 right in front, my day done. It was the turn of the crew to have a problem. Plymouth is not an easy place to get to by public transport on land & the roads are clogged too. So a crew member that had to leave had to wait till the morning. So crew down to three now but the Indian summer could be upon us see what tomorrow brings.