Winter list

I've not been sitting on my home pontoon since returning from our week away, but we've had several trips out making the most of the return of some warm weather, alas little wind the last time out but we're still honing our skills, trimming and tweaking my sails and rigging to get the best out of what we've got.

I think this is probably the biggest reason why trailing a lure just returns little reward.  If only my skipper would sit down and watch the world go by, but no that's not him, he's watching the wind in my sails, easing or hardening the Vang, adjusting the tack on the jib, playing with luff lines just to get the best shape and every ounce of wind to good use.

Not only that but he's also been down quite a lot other times, sorting out, measuring up and preparing himself for the next ideas he has in his head.

He's also been up the mast to replace the last of the normal bulbs with power saving LED, the fitting of the amp meter some time ago always raised eyebrows every time the anchor light was switched on.  To remind you the picture above is Skipper's view looking back down at me with the bucket of tools and spares tied to him; he's nearly 100 feet above the water.

The VHF speaker in the cockpit has been replaced, apparently, it was a hardware issue which comes down to circuit board failure as the speaker skipper fitted was still functional.  Unfortunately, Raymarine has forgotten to return the back plate, so it's currently taped to me, there's always something else.

He's been making a new control panel too, the original tachometer that indicates the revs of my engine had failed and he's decided to take the opportunity to add a combined water temperature and oil pressure digital gauge.  It's fancy so I hear, the figures are displayed in different colours, so for instance purple for when it's reaching working pressure/temperature; then go green for at working state and then red if it exceeds its working limits and flashing red should it be allowed to remain in that state.  This is from his past days when he built and drove rally cars, not that this type of instrument was available to him then, no this is on his sons' car now, but skipper likes to know what the engines doing so he can spot issues before they become problems.

New control panel

(hole top right is for push stop button)

He's also had the stainless steel cut so that the bracket can be made up that will provide the support to the foredeck fitting to take the J3 sail.  This needs to be welded and then when I'm out of the water on the hard, skipper will fit it ready for next season.

Summer Part III

Well, I think I've been out over this gorgeous summer about once a fortnight on average and I'm pleased to say apart from a few gremlins everything has been pretty much on the button.

We did indeed sail to Studland and watched a few of the aircraft at the Bournemouth show, but it was a bit hazy, but the smoke from the tails of the aircraft could still be seen as could some of the noise.  From Studland, we sailed round to Portland where my water tanks were filled before setting off across Lyme Bay.  The wind was pretty reasonable and we sailed close inshore but skip had timed it right again and the race was off to the east. The wind eventually dropped and despite waiting to see if it returned a decision to run the donk was made and get in before darkness fell.  At least a Sunfish was spotted, skip likes to see marine life whilst out.

We seemed to upset some fishermen whilst on route, why I don't know?  Think that they feel they're the only ones that should be out there or the line of pots that they were working on could've got snagged on my keel, or worse prop.  Or of course, they were French and pinching some British Scallops! Lyme Bay usually means a stopover at Babbacombe Bay but on this occasion, Brixham harbour was chosen and so we anchored just within the protection of the harbour wall but on the opposite side close to the research centre. A very quiet night was had by all.

With the wind picking up again, we made good progress and rather than stay two nights in Sutton Harbour Marina we headed over to Cawsand, dropping my sails as we approached.  The wind was from the North and as such meant that the anchorage would've been open although under the cliff the wind might have taken some deflection.  However, a few boats were on the other side, which was more open in terms of hills rather than cliffs but offered some protection from the wind.  If Brixham was a 1 then this was a 9 at least there was no swell to add to the pitching.

With just the jib out it only took a couple of hours to reach the lock, which was in a free flow state.  That is the tide is such that the lock doesn't need to operate and the keeper just manages the direction of the traffic through.  As skip had radioed ahead, the keeper set the light to green for us and we entered and moored up on the far side as we've done before.  Now a very funny thing happened.  Whilst Skip was ready, he waited outside in the cockpit out of earshot whilst his crewmate listened to the Archers in the saloon.  He was spotted by the very person they were meeting as she walked past on her way to the restaurant that had been booked!

In the morning we set off, but not West but back East and with the wind in a reasonable fettle form and we made good progress.  The intended destination was for Salcombe but as miles completed were consistently high we pushed on for Dartmouth, although the sea off the coast approaching Salcombe was in a confused state and slowed the passage.  There was no way that the wind, that had dropped again, was going to be enough to enable me to cut through the peaked waves and this was probably down to a change in current and reflective waves coming off the headlands.  So the donk was once more called upon and remained in use till we moored against the public pontoon on the Western side of the river.  A new one on us but very convenient and one to try and use again in future.

With lines tidied, the crew sat down for dinner only for the phone to go.  It was Skip's friend JC "You've missed Salcombe!" he said as Skip was trying to provide an explanation JC & Debs popped their heads down the companionway and joined them for the remainder of the evening.  They usually meet them at The Cary Arms in Babbacombe Bay but this year this stopover was being missed out, wind and tides wait for no man.  Only, unfortunately, there was no wind the following day.

The Iron Sail was once more set by ear around tickover, my rev counter had completely stopped working before this trip and been removed.  We passed close by a frigate and noticed not one, two but three more around the periphery. Turned out that the closest one was a Russian ship which had attracted three British escorts keeping a careful eye on activities.  In fact, the Lyme Bay gunnery also decided to undertake a live firing practice.

As we approached Portland Bill the wind started to pick up.  The two guys Skip had spoken to on Dartmouth on the open 40 race yacht and heading to Cowes for a race the next day hoisted everything they had to make up time and soon disappeared.  Skip left the donk on and adjusted the main slightly and left it like that making 7-8.5kts and pulling back the time lost at the start of the day.  With light starting to fail we pulled into Portland marina once more and Skip held me broadside to the pontoon in between two boats as the wind blew me straight in.  This too wasn't going to be the most peaceful night as the wavelets slapped against my stern and the fenders squeaked as they kept me off the pontoon.

My trip from Portland Marina to Studland

A sail back to Studland saw me in excess of 10.0kts it was during this trip that one of the Frigates probably still shadowing the Russian, opted also to have a live gunnery practice.  The quick succession of firing created such a noise and we must have been miles away.  Still, Skip did decide to have a chat with them to ensure that our route wasn't in their way and reminded them that my AIS was working.

This was a fast broad reach

The following day we weighed anchor and opted for the North passage as the tide was against us.  We went along the coast past Bournemouth beach until the wind angle was such that we veered away.  Joined by noisy powerboats out completing a number of laps around the bays, we turned back past The Trap and headed into the Solent and gybed our way back to Cowes.  It was good practice for the crew and the speed at which the manoeuvre was completed did not diminish my speed by much.

A good week away and not too much for Skipper to look at when he's time.

Summer Part II

The unprecedented weather here in the UK has brought many people out and I'm no exception. My crew have been down at least one weekend each fortnight and we've been out somewhere, usually ending up with an overnight stay in Totland Bay.

Skipper has been down on other occasions and cleaned my stainless still 'bits' even fitting a couple of line straffe's that have gone under the halyards and sheets that pass across my deck at the cockpit. He's also been using buckets of fresh water brought over from the sailing academy (UKSA) next door to keep the sides of my hull clean from the salt that just sticks to my sides in this heat and helps remove the black streaks, or rather helps to soften them for when Skip' polishes them out.

Update regarding my brace of sails for the foredeck, well there is no update really, save to say that Skip' has made further enquiries regarding the fitting to the 545 which he saw in Jersey whilst we were away.  He's now got an alternative bracket detail, which he'll get priced and if this is made I may undergo some surgery during my winter haul out!

Skipper has also spotted a potential problem the last weekend we went away.  As is usual he takes out my log when I'm parked, that's a small spoked wheel which, as I move through the water spins and provides my boat speed.  If I'm travelling with the tide, then it spins slower and under reads but if I'm against it spins faster and I overread, so swings and roundabouts on longer passages.  So before we set off he removes the blanking plate and put it back in, however, the rubber O ring, which he's noticed in the past weeps a little and just needs a bit of retightening or re-seating.  This time, however, he put it in on the move and is always the case a certain amount of water comes in, which he mops up and usually checks no more ingress occurs. As we were on the move, he may not have been too thorough in his check as when we returned to my pontoon on Sunday the void he found adjacent to the mast foot, when removing the bench seating, had quite a bit of water in.  Fortunately, he cut a hole in the floor under the boards to gain access, so was able (for this reason) to sponge out the collected water.

Fortunately, also there has been little rain, as this also tends to find its way down the mast by-passing the mast gater and sits in the same void.  This may ease when the rubber is less hard due to the heat and prevent the rain from passing through.

Seems as though plans are afoot for our next trip away.  It'll start by heading to Bournemouth and anchoring off to watch the first of three days of the airshow, anchoring overnight at Studland or Swanage before heading down the West coast.  It's muted that skip wants to do a long overnight session to try to get to Newlyn or as far West as possible before working our way back.

Watch this space!

Summer so far !

Let's just say I'm pleased to have been out more times this year than last already!

This includes a week around the Cherbourg peninsular and channel islands and odd trips.

The week away was interesting, it started as usual in Totland Bay, where we anchored overnight.  Again, as usual, I just thought it was going to be a long weekend but no.  Early in the morning, about 0700 both crew were up and I was motored out, but instead of heading east back to Cowes we went West and passed the Needles.  Main up, we then turned south around 166 degrees and pressed on.  With such light winds Thor Junior, the Code 0, was deployed or rather wasn't.  With skip on the bow, it was hoisted until about halfway and then pop, the sail fell and wrapped itself within the first spreader.  Skip knew what he had to do next and prepared himself to go up the mast and recover.  His crewmate was not quite of the same opinion and felt that a return to the bay to sort it out would be preferable and probably safer.

However, up he did go, autopilot looking after the steering, he gently recovered the code 0 from the spreader where metal pins could've easily torn it to shreds.  The halyard was up wrapped around the top spreader but going nowhere, so was left for a later recovery.  This was a subtle mistake which they only discovered on our return.  With little wind, we motor sailed all day.  With a west or east going current, skip took the opportunity to calibrate the boat speed. If the current was not affecting the log then the boat speed should match that of the speed over the ground as derived by satellite.

When the wind did pick up slightly the engine was reduced in revs as the speed over the ground increased.  This brought back time lost which skip was concerned about.  However, this increase in speed did mean that my exposure to westerly current had diminished and so we found ourselves pointing further west than had intended.  Skip had been to St Vaast before in a race and wanted to return for two reasons.  Both crew members anxious about the entry into to the marina for different reasons, the office was clearly closed for the day as no response from either VHF or phone.  Depth below the keel was minimal and that was what concerned skip more than anything.  We nudged in with no real idea of where to go but skip spotted a large wooden sailing vessel and decided we'd raft on to it, there were no other spaces.  This had its own issues in that it had a large board sticking out the beam of the boat that held it's standing rigging, so hastily the large buoy type fenders were brought up to protect my gel coat from damage and others were raised, as set for pontoon mooring.  Also finding places to attach my warps proved interesting and time-consuming.  Fortunately the benign conditions not blowing me off, whilst I was being held on.

I had 0.3m under my keel when stationary and this reduced by the same amount as the lock gates closed.  I was able to brush the mud back and forth as the crew walked around on deck making a small indentation into the putty.  Skip went up the mast to recover the halyard from the spreaders.  On Saturday, the crew left me to go pay the office and to wander around the town.  Skip was pleased to see it was just as he remembered with the market in the street selling mainly fresh produce and fish.  Also, they found La Fushai's and booked a table for the evening.

Having enjoyed a very nice meal and slept it off, skip got up early to check out the weather.  The fog or dense mist had reduced visibility further and it remained murky.  Information passed on to his crewmate, he got back in bed.  Another day here would mean the trip to St Malo was unlikely to happen.  On the Monday with better weather, we left the marina at or close to high tide. A large area dries out at low tide exposing the causeway to the island, which skip couldn't see the previous day.

We tacked up the eastern side of the peninsula and then had a run west passing Cherbourg at a staggering 10kts.  A decision was made to go with the Alderney race and head to Sark an island that no one had been to before, with the wind gone we motor sailed once more and found our anchorage. The sea breeze had picked up and with the latent wind, whipped around the headlands between Sark and Little Sark, the bit where the road connects.  With 44.0m of chain out we held.

A friendly visitor seeing what might be up for grabs

The following day and we set off for Jersey another good sailing day and arrived at the marina to early and had to wait for the sill to be covered.  This gave them the time to tick another box of the things this trip was about and filled my diesel tank to the brim plus three 10ltr Jerry cans.  Diesel in the UK is around 130p for a litre at car filling stations and 89p for commercial red diesel, skip pays another 20% tax on top for pleasure use.  Here it was 69p.

I was full and some of the smaller boats were starting to head in, the tide had risen significantly in the time refuelling had taken.  Soon it was my turn and following on from the instructions given over the phone the previous day, I was slotted in behind a 60ft yacht, whose crew came out to help.  Again with skip tidying me up, the crew wandered off to the Office.  The next day, following showers on board, they wandered into town and found an indoor market, not discovered previously and bought some calves liver for dinner and pork chops for another meal.  They also returned to the maritime museum and spoke with an elderly woman who had lived on the island during the German occupation.

In St Vaast

Once there was clear water over the sill for me to pass over we left for Guernsey again another island not visited previously apart from anchoring off about five years ago.  The wind was southwesterly and around force 6, the shallows south of Jersey was of confused seas and whilst a reef had been put in, the reduction in power made it difficult to push through the chop.  Altering on to a beam reach soon gave me back the speed and made things more comfortable in the cockpit.  Reaching the far extremities of the southwestern tip of the island, skip turned me to a more northwesterly direction and headed to Guernsey.  He powered me over the waves and held me as the wind gusted and arrived at St Peter Port in three hours, which is where the fun started.

LesFuschias

Neither of them has sailed in here before another learning curve started.  Skip was advised to moor next to the fisherman's pontoon, but as he approached was met by a Dory and directed to a visiting pontoon.  With the chap checking, we had made around a corner missing a known obstacle first.  Skip reversed me in and found I was doing strange things the bow was moving in on its own accord and his efforts were being thwarted as the back was now coming out.  He realised that the Dory was pushing me into a space so opted to go fore and aft to keep clear of the other boats. Again there were plenty of people around to take my ropes and secure me, even if skip does go round after and redo.

Off they trotted to pay for the nights stay and wander around town.

On Friday a bright and sunny start, we left at high tide again and headed north.  The wind light so the Code 0 was raised and we began to sail.  Heading for the channel in between the Casquets and the rocks of Alderney the tops of breaking waves began to appear which soon brought back memories of the Portland Bill Races we've been through before.  On lowering the Code 0, it was discovered that a section of halyard had chafed, the wrap around the top spreader on our way over?

As we approached the waves, the engine went on and a path of less angry waves was sought. A 3.0m height of wave and a short wavelength lead to another difficult hour in our growing history of such experiences.  Finally through, the jib was unfurled and a course set to cross back over the Channel.  Without the halyard, both Thor (Jennakar) and Thor Junior (Code 0) couldn't be used and to maintain a reasonable speed through the shipping lanes a higher wind angle was sailed. Attention was then paid to the AIS that had proved itself on the way over.

In order to make Totland before darkness, the Engine was once more called for off Anvil Point and a sprint across Christ Church Bay before my anchor was deployed for the last time.

Another Cracking Day!

The weekend before last, the Bank Holiday here in the UK was unusual.  Unusual in the fact that it remained bright and sunny without the hint of rain, the unfortunate side effect was that there was little to no wind either.  Skipper popped down and hoisted Thor Junior, aired it, and repacked it, it was not a day to go sailing.

This weekend though was different, oddly the sun still shone, but the wind that was expected to be light blew at around 15-12 kts from the Southwest and so no Thor Junior as expected but a single reef as I set off towards Beaulieu.  Tide assisted we were doing around 8.0kts, which meant that the log was under-reading by about a third.  Three tacks later and we were approaching the bouys outside of Yarmouth were we going to stop?  No, I was turned through the wind and the main eased out and headed over to the Northern bank, New Forest side, with the jib being in the reefed mains wind shadow, skip wound it in.

With my Autohelm locked on, my crew settled down to a lunch of hot dogs on much flatter cockpit.  As they ate, they sat and watched others with full main and jib bear away to fill their jibs only to be taken into the main current and adversely affected the result was to drift back.  In fact, I was happily catching and passing quite a few as my crew kept me over to the shallower side by short gybing me back and forth.  This we did until we passed Beaulieu when the tide was slack and turned, allowing us to cross the main channel without such penalty.

On coming into the entrance of the Medina a tuck with another attached the side greeted us and we barely had room on the Western side of the channel to allow it to pass.  Also, the chain ferry sticks out a long way at low water and forced us quite away over to the Eastern bank.  On arrival at our pontoon after a cracking day, skip opted to reverse in as the wind was the stronger of the two elements.

A cracking day!

At Last

So I finally got out today, no fog, no rain although no sun either but the crews' faces are glowing.

I had thought originally I’d be sailing on Sunday as skip thought it appeared to be the less windy of the two days and as it was a bit of a shakedown, he didn’t want to discover what was discovered in stronger winds.  The direction was North Westerly and at around 15.0 kts, so they thought they’d put a reef in until they’d settled down and at least cleared Gurnard.  Skip with a lack of practice managed to put in No.2 reef by mistake and whilst I was flatter I still managed around 8-9.0 kts SOG (the log skip left in wasn’t recording).  Halfway along the Western Solent the wind eased and they hoisted the whole main, this gave Skip the opportunity to re-tie the No. 2 reefing line and put it back on the same side of the sail as its pulley, taking out the twist they discovered when setting it.  No. 1 reefing line was correct no issues there.

Marley the wind generator was keeping my batteries up at 13.1v despite having the Autohelm holding course and we screamed along.

The crew opted to stop at Totland for lunch as this tested my windlass and those systems, besides skip bought a load of unpeeled prawns for £2 and the crew brought a partially baked half baguette and some salad, they found it warmer in the saloon than up top for sure.

The wind had dropped by the time they’d cleared up and fed the seagulls and so Thor Junior came out on deck.  The wind too had backed and was now North Easterly. So it would be on the nose again for the trip back.  The log was cleaned and Thor Junior was taken on deck and set up and hoisted. It took skip a couple of attempts to sort out the lines.  He had passed the lazy sheet around the furled jib but then thought that if he was to tack it would be an inner tack as opposed to an outer around the forestay tack as per the Gennaker.  He also managed to get the sheet inside the strop too.  Once sorted and having thought about this previously, he got his crew to go to set my Autohelm leaving her free to play the working sheet as he un-bagged the beast.  There were no hiccups, it un-bagged, although he did have to take the snuffer line around the working sheet to reverse a twist, which made it easier and off we went.  We climbed from 3.5 kts to 6.5kts.  In the end, we got headed and so, we opted to snuff the sail and ease the jib out, drop Thor Junior behind the jib and bag it.  We tacked out to clear Gurnard and tacked back in, we exceeded 9.0kts at this point too and watched another yacht being blown aground as we passed Gurnard, with the real RNLI in attendance.

Astonishing! Clearly, the log is not recording the correct speed, so we need to re-calibrate that at some point, but I think they understand what ticks my boxes.

God knows what I'll be like with a J3 flown in tandem with Thor Junior, probably rip the bow section from the stern!

False start ?

Having been returned to my pontoon, all clean and ship shape, it took about a week before the Medina mud had been splashed up my starboard side against the pontoon. Skip thinks it might have been where something had been washed down on the pontoon by next door, I'm saying nothing.

So Saturday gone (14th), skip turned up and busied himself in getting me ready to go out in what was beautiful sunshine, although the sounds of fog horns from commercial shipping were not to be ignored.  In fact, I thought he was going to take me out again on his own until there was a knock on the hull and his crew complete with two friends arrived by boat taxi.  I was soon ready to leave the pontoon and headed down the river as my fenders and warps were put away.  As we passed the Yacht Haven, my home for the past four months, you could see the waterlines of the freighters but as for their superstructure, well that was up in the fog.

With one nervous and one new passenger, I was pointed towards Osborne, however, before I could reach Norris Point, the fog started to thicken and the temperature plummeted.  It didn't take long for the decision to be made to return back.  Lunch was served in glorious sunshine, with the sounds of the fog horns in the distance.  Skip stayed on board for the remainder of the afternoon and did his usual pottering about until his lift home returned.

Maybe next time, I'll actually be able to air my sails and get going again.

During the winter period skip obviously works through his list of things to do but this time he had a few 'would likes' on his list that he actually started to get going.  The main one and one out of the blue is to rig me up with a small staysail, a J3.  He's made a bracket as a template out of wood that will go behind the anchor locker and the clew will be attached to it. That's gone to Richardson Engineering at Island Marine to be made of stainless steel.  There's already a pulley 3/4's of the way up my mast, usually used for the Spinnaker pole up halyard, but this will be used to clip on the top of the torsion line that will be sown into the J3. He's taken the idea from the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, that has up to three sails in front of the mast.  In light winds not only will he have the Code 0 up but the J3 inside.  Be interesting to see what the different combinations will achieve with higher wind angles or lighter winds.  The conversation has been had with Peter Saunder, the maker of my Code 0 and dimensions passed across and materials chosen, cloth will not be cut until the bracket is secured in place and the dimensions re-checked.  Then skip will go over to Lymington, with me possibly, to have a final chat and much sketch drawing before any monies paid.

Another would like item that may also come to fruition, brought about by trial and error, is the purchase of an FX4500+ furling system for the Code 0 which will necessitate the sowing in of the torsion line for that too.  When Son of Thor was flown last year the awkwardness of tacking with it and getting the whole snuffed bag around the furled jib, lead to thoughts of another way.  Furling is that other way.  So I'm excited that should this all come together this season I will be able to perform better and skip will have choices of sail suit and combinations, should he so wish.

Easter

So the weather is typical for an English bank holiday, variable, uncertain and by no means bathed in sunshine.

Skip had some work done on my port side gate and so now fitted, I have both with a matching rake, it looks as it should.

Today Easter Sunday, skipper went up my mast to apply some lubricant to the pulley wheels up there, he also took the time to measure the distance for the new J3 staysail.  With the gate out of the way, the bracket for the baby stay can now be made and steps can be made to have the J3 made, an item on Skips wish list, how cool is that.  It's almost a trophy for all the hard work he's put into me over the winter in keeping me in good condition.  He wants to emulate the Farr Open 65's of the Volvo Ocean Fleet he's been watching and is fascinated with, tragic about John Fisher and the second MOB on board Scallywag, thoughts go out to the family and to the team.  Today I had two crew members from British Soldier on board who'd rafted next to me for the bank holiday races and they said what such good condition I was in, well done Skip.

Yesterday skip wound on my jib and so today, Sunday, the forecast day of the lightest winds, put my newly laundered main back on, but not before Skip ventured up my mast.  The first trip was to get the lazy Jack bag line back down, the second was to lubricate the pulleys up top and the third was to take some dimensions for the new J3.  Once all done I was moved back to my mooring down the river, let's hope the weather soon picks up so I can go out, now that the big works on the house are complete.

I know as part of the J3 works a new furling system is intended for Thor Junior and possibly the J3 itself. At £2.5k a piece it's not cheap but I know will make a huge difference to the ease by which it can be used.

Well, second Sunday in April and fog and constant drizzle has prevented a shakedown sail, but Skip came onboard.  He took the missing dimension from the mast and tidied me up inside.  Eventually taking the strap made out of wood to his man to make out of stainless steel.  Once that's fitted and a Dyneema halyard is likewise drawn through, then the J3 is to be made out of Tri-radial GPL21LS material in black.  Looks as though the 'Would likes' is moving forward.

Watch this space

I'm in !

Yes, I'm in.

Tuesday 27th March I finally went back into the water.  After the weather hampered things, holidays for the staff of the marina and then my skipper tied up on the mainland helping out with an Engineering practice in Romsey, I'm finally in.

Sails on board but the weather not good enough to allow my crew to attach (hank) without probably causing injury to themselves.  Bearing in mind that my crew member has her hand in a support, still recovering from her fall in the first lot of ice.

Skipper had taken the replacement gate to an Engineer on the other side of the river and it came back wrongly handed, but they've gone back and are ready to be fitted this Easter.  The strap for the babystay has been made out of wood and will be handed to the Engineer to be made out of stainless, then one of my skippers 'would like' items move's very much in a forward direction and is likely to bring with it a few others.  Once this has been manufactured and fitted, a new halyard needs to be fitted to the mast including an internal mast pulley, this will enable measurements to be taken required by the sailmaker Peter Saunders to make a J3.  Once this has all been achieved, if not huge in its self, then the Code 0 will be handed to Peter to put a torsion line required for a furling system.  Skipper's thoughts are to fly both Code 0 and the J3 similar to the Farr Open 65 in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The staining that's occurred due to the snow settling on my decks has all gone, skip came down and washed me once again.

On the day of my re-launch skip also had time to catch up with his old skipper Mr Jackson, who happened to be in the marina. He disappeared with the socket set so assume he's been asked to look at something.  My Marlec Rutland wind generator was reinstated and allowed to run to clear any build up of nasties from the plates and put some heat into the system.  Skip was pleased that all went according to plan and so turned off the shore powered charging system in favour of the wind generator.

With the Easter Bank Holiday approaching, plans are afoot to take me up to Totland Bay then on to Swanage or even Portland, however, the weather will have the last word and so, for now, I'm still in the marina and skips been on board to do some more work.