St Jude - Sunday 28th October Storm

My skipper obviously has one eye on the weather and this weekend it proved useful.

Arriving by dinghy as he does, he came armed with the replacement stainless steel, pushpit and side gate parts together with one of the panels from the ceiling.  As usual the radio & VHF goes on and in return I play him music and keep him informed about movements in the Solent as well as more local Medina traffic. Rain had had its usual effect and so the bilge the first job to attend to and is pumped dry.  Then the ceiling panel fitted.

With no milk, the kettle remained dry, more so than him, with his sweatshirt damp from the earlier rain and his T shirt also damp from the effort in getting the outboard fired up and him out of the drizzle.  With the sun now out and his sweatshirt in the companion way drying, so the buckled side gate came off and the new one encouraged to fit in its place.  The pushpit at the rear will be a longer job as there's wiring to thread through to the GPS & Navtex aerials as well as the replacement stern light.  The nuts that hold this on are also located in inconvenient places too.

So with the new one stowed in one of my stern cabins, he set to tying the lazy bag that contains the main tighter to the boom and checked me all over for anything that could be caught by the wind.

And the wind came - Reports of 100mph winds hitting the Needles fortunately had 'eased' if thats the word by the time they reached me.  If the wind generator had been re-fitted, then I'm sure I could've supplied Cowes with both power and light.  My wind vane flickering and wind speed indicator was close to overheating, but then I have a tall mast and that's where most of the wind was lower than that and the wind lessened.  Fortunately I'm moored on the west side of the Medina so with SW'erlys I'm tended to be blown away from the pontoon, offering some relief to my fenders and missing the rocking of the pontoon.

On Monday evening my skipper returned to find I was just as I was when he left me, with the exception of more water in the bilge !

Pre October Storm

It's been a while since I've had a visit, but my skipper arrived on Saturday and set too with various projects he had up his sleeve.  The weather down here is so much milder than I remember in Scotland but still wind and rain are the main factors of the weather systems.

So my skipper arrived with a dinghy full of goodies for me.  As always he turns on all my systems and dials in to the the three channels on the VHF 12,16 & 69; the first being Southampton VTS listening out to the shipping that's moving around the Solent and up Southampton Water, now the aerial is connected properly I cover a much better range.  16 of course is the standard channel where all sorts are relayed be it May Days, Pan Pan or just Fred seeking Joe and channel 69 is the working channel up the Medina river, where I'm now based.  My rear cockpit speaker as 'built' in true Heath Robinson way by my skipper keeps blearing out.

Without the wind generator available at the moment my engine is run for a while to re-charge the batteries until the water in my Clarifier (hot water tank) is able to wash up his mug at the end of the day.  Also my oil fired heater is turned on and allowed to run.  That was a new part he brought with him.  The electric fan I've seen before but he's bought from China an electric variable switch such that he can vary the speed of the fan and draw heat from the unit and not only prevent the unit from overheating but move that heat to the master cabin where it currently fails to reach.  There's some ducting to replace as it has also been discovered that it has partly been crushed, but larger ducting is needed to get the heat forward.

The new 'mood' lighting or as my skipper says 'tarts' lighting has been fitted to my port side and with the ceiling panels re-done and cleaned up they will be fitted one the weather is kind enough to allow them to be transported to me.  Then obviously the Starboard side will be done.

The new anchor roller that replaced the worn unit, needs to be put back on the lathe to have 1 or 2mm shaved of it to enable it to turn freely.  Otherwise that's all ready for the next outing.

The new oven catch is ready to go on, just the old one is being too stubborn to come off, so a small grinder is needed to remove the head of the screw and leave enough behind to remove.

A new shelf has been fitted to the cupboard under the sink, doubling the available space with a simple improvement.

I understand that the replacement metal work has arrived from Germany, the push pit and side gate, so can only assume my skipper will soon be replacing my damaged parts and putting back the wind generator and returning me back to my full self.  I still have an issue with my auto pilot but an e-mail from its makers, may guide him to working out where the issue is coming from and then replace the part.  I know that my main is to be laundered as was my jib last year, this enables the lazy Jack bag to be removed and a new made in its place.  Other works suggested is to have the boom removed so the Vangs connection point can be strengthened, my skipper not happy that the manufacturers welds have thinned the joint.

Also on their way are my replacement saloon windows that have started to crack where the port holes have been cut in.  My skipper reckons that the openings should have been laser cut and they weren't so everytime I hit a wave or drop into a trough with some force the crack extends like a cracked cold windscreen does when the heater is applied.

So whilst I sit here waiting to be taken out, obviously there's a lot going on in the background with lots more work to be done to keep me in tip top condition.  My skipper is not interested in a sailing season, if we can't go out then he's always doing something and only when my main is off, will the opportunity to sail be temporarily halted.  There's lots happening and I look forward to the attention