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!
