August II

I stayed in Weymouth for two days, but eventually it was time to move on which coincided with the departure of the second of the two yachts rafted against me.  It also coincided with the west going tide.  With light winds and clear sunshine I was taken south beyond the many fishing boats that were going to take advantage of the conditions and more importantly the Portlands races.  On swinging west, the wind barely blowing enough for me to make any more than 4 knots meant that the crossing of Lyme Bay would not see me reach Torquay until the dark of night, so on went the iron sail.  My crew read and my skipper fished, although a barely audible alarm rang out, not painful but set their minds wondering what it was.  The skipper checking the engine temperature light and then reaching down to the exhaust discharge found nothing untoward.  At least the fan belt wasn't screaming although continued to dump rubber.

It was however noted that the usually hot water held in my Clarifier was tepid at best.  Checks on the engine previously had shown that the expansion tank was still at maximum level.

After reprovisioning and my crew meeting up with former Fastnet crew, I left to head round Start Point and in to the picturesque river Dart.  My skipper needed shore power once more but had to reside in the Royal Sailing club for a few hours to enable him to achieve what he needed to do.  It was also in Dartmouth that my skipper discovered that the reason for tepid water was due to the lack of fresh water in my other cooling system.  Clearly the expansion tank had provided a false check on the fresh water level within my Yanmar and so after refilling the system, hot water was once more restored.

It was also here that my skipper by-passed the battery mate and watched the state of charge rise to the expected 14.5v and so phoned the Raymarine supplier he had previously contacted and added a new 3 way splitter battery mate to replace what had all along been the faulty part, the cause of the problems related to the fan belt and other gremlins in the electrical system.  The supplier was to be found within the Queen Anne's Battery marina and so I was lead in to the marina and tied up to the pontoon. Soon my skipper had gone in search of the supplier and came back with two boxes of new equipment. The following day he was up the mast to fit the new transponder.  He made several visits up the mast and eventually the contacts made decent connections and for the first time for over a year the ST60 wind instruments on deck gave readings of both direction and strength.

With this success he topped it off by wiring in the new batter mate and soon all three sets of battery banks were charging at the expected rate.  More than that the fan belt was no longer being ripped apart by the magnetic forces working against it.

By now, Hurricane Bertha was about to cross the UK shores and so my crew spent the time reprovisioning and wandering around Plymouth.  As space was re-appearing as other yachts that had out run the storm were departing they planned to leave, but they learnt that two nights of firework competitions were about to begin. So it was that I stayed put.

With the wind easing slightly, but still enough to make leaving the marina interesting.  Unlike the First 40.6 that had drifted past me sideways until its conclusion against a catamaran at the end.  My skipper put my stern facing the wind and gently eased me out of the berth and out.

From Plymouth I headed to Fowey River for another night or two on a mooring buoy.  Here 'loopy loo' came to her own. A 2.0m length of chain with braided rope spliced on at either end bought specifically for this purpose.

Fowey is the kind of place that needs a few days to discover its full potential, but with the storm holding me back there were only had a few days before my crew had to start to return.

All points West

Despite the toing and froing, the issue with the batteries charging under engine still isn't resolved.  A new 100 amp hour alternator has turned up with an intelligent regulator, but despite being sold as plug & play, it isn't quite that simple and my skipper will have to read & re-read the manual to ensure it's wired correctly.

Still that hasn't stopped my departure from Cowes Friday (1st August), and for the first time for a while I was heading back to Totland Bay for an overnight stop moving at 7.0 - 8.0 knots been awhile but good to be back in the groove eventually reaching 9.0 - 9.5 knots whilst passing Hurst Castle as the tide really pushed.  A south easterly to south westerly wind was forecast and so I tucked in tight but still leaving a metre of water under my keel at low tide, a quiet night was had, no disturbance from the GPS anchor alarm.

So an early start to get the last hour of ebbing tide out of the Needles and in to the forecast southerly 3 - 4's.  Yeah right, the early start was ok, but the wind was south westerly 5 - 6 and so the reef put in to my main was a shrewd move.  However it did mean that I struggled to point to windward and soon I was over by the Shingles Bank, so much so that despite the charts indicating 4 - 6 m of water, I was tacked back out to sea with the depth gauge showing an astonishing 0.6m under the keel !

The 3 - 4's never came to fruition, instead my crew had to endure 5 -6's and basically from the direction we wanted to go, it wasn't Swanage or Studland Bay as I'd expected, but to push on to Weymouth.  The drizzle ensured that my crew were well covered, despite the fact is wasn't cold, but the wind went fickle and died as I approached St Albans Head, the reef I had was shaken out and the wind filled in again.  By now my skipper was trying to pinch every bit of west he could and with the tide easing managed to round St Albans without the need for a tack back out to sea.  It did mean however that I was being taken straight through the races, confused seas just off shore.

There where smaller boats staying well inshore but no we went through the middle, rudder hard over to maintain a straight course at times, but you couldn't tell that from my wake.  The Coastal watch guys at the top of the cliff must have had something to say, yet the VHF was full of two guys in the water within the Portland harbour sailing area, reasonably protected when compared to this.  With full sail I was over sheeted as we headed to Weymouth, but by pinching to windward, I spilled the wind from my sail and kept an honest 6.0 knots.

On arrival, my fan belt didn't complain and we motored in and moored up as usual near the Harbour Masters office.  Where my skipper noticed that the piece of wood or bird he saw plummet in to the sea just after the Needles was infact the Windex at the top of the mast, probably one of the reasons it had stopped working, it was not connected properly !  So something else for him to fix !