Never stops

Even if I'm not being taken out for trips, skip still pops down regularly and spends his time if not on maintenance then resolving problems or upgrading.

I'll give you a couple of examples, the last time he popped over, he had worked out (another sleepless night) the possible reasons as to why the intelligent regulator he fitted to the engine's alternator charging system had stopped working after he changed the control panel over in the cockpit.  He sat in the engine bay and replaced the power wire that clearly had been severed as part of the previous works, now it works as it s's hould and did.  He's now got to trace the three wires that also have no power to them, but they may have served the LD lights that stop working years ago and are surplus to requirements.

The new J3 that he spent the winter months strengthening the front bulkhead, securing the L bracket and fitting the D ring to the deck is now ready for collection.  He's organised the halyard and sheets and that all costs shed loads of money but hopefully it'll not only up my light wind speeds but provide more control in high winds too.  That'll be two new sails this year, how lucky am I.

One of the line covers that was removed in winter due to some stress cracks, is just being finished off ready to come back.  For those that can't remember, he took them off to repair the spider or star cracks that had appeared in the Gel coat.  Having filled them he's sprayed Gel coat and polished up and then sprayed a clear flow coat over the top and has just completed polishing that up too on one of them.

He's got the parts to carry out a service on my engine and replace the deck lights in my lower spreaders, the UV rays getting to the plastic circlips making them brittle and snapping without warning.

The first reefing line which has been chaffed badly has been turned around so that the damaged section is in the line basket when the reef is implemented and this is due to be replaced this year.  And the jib sheet that has just gone stiff with salt over the years is due for replacement too.

Even the Honda outboard engine that skips had for years and has taken a bit of a bashing is having a facelift.  It's been dropped so many times and its handle has snapped off with the ignition hanging, is all to be replaced.  I think also following this year's boat show in Southampton, the little two-man dinghy is to have a sister in the shape of a larger four-man for when I'm anchored off the coast and they need to get to shore, something the two-man would do but couldn't guarantee to keep the crew or contents dry in anything but the flattest of seas.  The 3.2m can take up to a maximum of a 15hp engine, but the weight and baulk of such engines could give Skip muscle issues lifting or even just moving it around.  A smaller 10hp might be on the cards as will a small crane on the pushpit to aid Skipper in bringing it aboard and lowering it on to the dinghy, but I don't think these things are too urgent given the time of year.

Another discussion Skipper had at the boat show was with Raymarine, the people who originally supplied my navigational equipment back in 2006. Skips had the diodes replaced twice on the external E120 plotter and it is still blanking out on occasions and the corners are losing colour identity.  He's taken photos of the component parts to send in so a list of updated modern replacements can be made and my systems updated with modern touch-sensitive interactive systems.  This yet more investment into my well being, although the old fashioned outdated radar may not be replaced as AIS is far more intuitive so I can see that being removed, to be honest thats a fair bit of weight 10.0m up the mast and its removal would improve my centre of gravity STIX value.

So there's plenty to look forward to if all comes to fruition and 2020 is looking exciting.

Shanklin or not to Shanklin

So the weather or rather wind was looking quite nice for a trip to and stopover at Shanklin.  Off the beach at the bottom of the Chine to be exact, where the Fisherman's Lodge would be open to offer an evening meal.  Their friend from the Fastnet days, Jeff was also up to meet up and so a plan was set.  However, it wouldn't be an early start as a night out at the Wight Proms saw my crew out watching Shappi Khorsandi and Alan Davies live on stage, but Skip new that the tide would be against us till after lunch.

And so with everything on board that should be we set off with a single reef already set and headed out of the small ship channel at or around high tide.  The forecast was for strengthening winds in the afternoon and calming down later and from the northwest, which is why they had planned to meet Jeff in Shanklin, the wind would be coming over the island and so offered protection and dropping off for a peaceful night.  Unbeknown to my crew, Jeff had taken himself around the island via the Needles on Friday night and arrived mid-morning to anchor up and catch up on lost sleep.  Skip text him as we set off from Cowes to let him know we were on our way.  Mid -Solent we were cracking along downwind with a few fishing boats and opted to give Ryde Sands and Horse Sand Fort a large berth as slightly over sheeted Skip had to fight the helm as the crew eased the main as a near broach was foiled.  As we turned around Bembridge the wind was up to 23kts apparent and so Skip text Jeff to see what was happening around the corner 15-17kts was the answer and he could see me on AIS.

As Sandown Bay came into view that raised by a further 10kts to now 33kts and the seas started to rise to around 1.5m in height, too late to put the second reef in now.  We pushed on for a while as we knew the wind was due to drop, but it didn’t and it was too noisy to listen to any weather updates from the Coast Guard nor wishing to leave station and check the phone for updates.

We had Speed Oer Ground of 3.5kts as was the action of the choppy waves with wind over tide, although Marine Traffic had me at 6.0kts most of the time.  Decision time do they tack and headed into the Bay and waited to see if the wind and waves eased the further in we went, but they opted to turn turtle and retrace our path. 9-10.0kts surfing down waves and passing a yacht under engine was possibly more exciting than it should be. Once past Bembridge, the sea state lightened up a little and eventually passing Osbourne the wind did too.  With the reef still in but full jib rolled out we had a cracking sail back.

With low water springs and approaching low tide, not quite the best time to cross the chain links path, who was being pushed by the Kingstone Marine boat at the time due to the strong current, the crew  waited for them to cross over and proceeded to pass as wide as we could without running aground on the Eastside.  The working boat at that point looked to be repositioning himself, but was not, it was a job and finish and pulled across us, so we spun round as so as not to be pushed further East.  As we approached again another yacht was coming directly at us from the downstream, we spun again and Skip had to use a lot of horses to stop us from being affected by the speed of the tide and the bow thruster of the Red Funnel car ferry that was parking.  Finally, we got over the chains and headed home.

It was an interesting day full of incidents and situations, Jeff having watch us turn round opted to head back to Gosport.