So last weekend and the usual signs that something's going on appear. more food is stowed in my galley. There's more concentration to finish off the odd jobs that have been hanging around. My fan belt gets tightened once more, but still I don;t think thats the route cause of my troubles down below.
The support system for the wind generator is starting to take shape again, but then instead of carrying on with that, I get dresses with the 'Sail 4 Cancer' flags again and other paraphernalia and a sticker that my skipper has adorned all the way down my bow at the same rake as the bow line, but when I look at others they're all horizontal, typical of my skipper being different.
So I was half asleep when I heard the noise of the outboard from the tender as sure enough more provisions were brought on board. Followed by more and more crew. I knew something was afoot, as the River had been filling up all week with others with the black poster stuck to their hulls too.
Finally at 0630, with a full 10 on board, my lines were slipped and out I went in to the melee that was the Solent. I have not seen anything so crowded, where did all these yacht come from ?
At 0700 my engine was shut down, not just because the fan belt was once more screaming but apparently that's what you have to do before crossing the start line. With full sails and jostling for space, it soon became apparent that any change of direction would kill any speed my crew had managed to gain from what little wind there was. At least the tide was taking me the right way.
What usually take no more that two hours took around five and so we passed Hurst Castle and Totland Bay, but for once it wasn't a stop over. Yachts weaving back and forth now in their own race to beat the tidal gate and pick up the flood tide to St Catherine's. Those that failed to make it would be retiring and heading home, where ever that may be. We made it with my skipper pushing my further west to ensure a good run back and missing the sunken wreck.
I was then tacked out to sea in search of more wind and what an inspired move that was. Although with the tide still against me the wind picked up a little and later, with the sun beating down the sea breezes kicked in. Those that tucked in against Freshwater Bay cliffs to keep out of the stronger tide picking up the eddy, entered a wind shadow. I was pointing at St Catherine's and was traveling at 6-7.0kn over the ground and clearly passing many stuck along the shore line. The Solent does funny things with the weather and whilst I had been beating all the way to the Needles, I found myself in south easterly breeze, so off of the starboard bow.
This was good news, as it meant nobody could gain an advantage with their huge Spinnakers, Gennakers and Code 0's. The sun shone and everyone relaxed further, with drinks being served and rolls handed round, it was time to look at all the other boats without worrying about all the other boats.
At around 1530, the sea breeze was gone as had the prevailing wind and so the momentum I had with my 13 tonnes ebbed away, but not before carrying me through the tidal race and whirl pools of the headland. With little or no flow over the rudder, I like other boats started to pirouette, handy if I needed to do a 360 degree penalty turn. I sat there moving slowly on the flood tide and waited 45 minutes before the skipper gained the consensus of opinion from his crew and the iron sail went on. My race was over and the screaming from my alternator continued where it had left off.
Once past Bembridge, with the wind rising once more, my sails were raised again enabling the engine to be shut down and my skipper to remove the front panel and get to the fan belt. It took minutes to re-adjust, with everything having been undone so many times previously. Within seconds of the engine being fired up, it was screaming again.
With the engine still running my skipper used a tyre lever, a tool from his previous days of rally cars and engines, and acted as a belt tensioner. The noise should've gone, but it didn't. In the knowledge that the water pump was functioning properly and that the crank pulley was too without fault, it looked likely that the alternator was the source of the problem but didn't explain the screaming.
We arrived back at my berth around 2000 hrs and peopled were ferried back, whilst my skipper started to close me down.
Sunday afternoon, skipper arrived back and removed the alternator completely, but could see that the bearing was still in tact and not complaining, He wiped the engine down spotless once more and took the offending item away with him for further investigation.
