Buoy It's Busy

Hardly seems it - but a month has passed since I left Scotland to come down to Cowes.  The weather has been wonderful and I hope friends I left behind haven't had too much rain - ha. The back drop might not quite be the same but you can see the history of ship building that turned this town in to the mecca of the sailing world.  In fact I am opposite the only pre-WW1 hammerhead crane still in existence in the UK and it's almost home from home.  Built in 1912 in Renfrew,  Glasgow only a few miles from where I've just come, it was used to build warships of its time, in fact HMS Cavalier is currently in Chatham and the Polish destroyer ‘ORP Blyskawica’ is also preserved in Poland.

Boy is it busy, every day there are boats of all descriptions passing up & down the Medina River. The Red Funnel ferry's lands not far from me and I can see the quaint chain link ferry or floating bridge for want of another name.

Work has taken my skipper away at the moment but I know he's been going through secondary port calculations, why I don't know to be honest, may be thoughts of anchoring in Newtown or Wootton Creek without getting stuck. Newtown the old capital city of the Island is now a National Trust area so I'm told and remains unspoilt.  Not untouched as signs of the original timber harbour wall are still visible, although barely recognisable as one, more a revetment but without a purpose. Despite the number of visitors it must get through its narrow entrance during the summer, it is a remote piece of the island, we will probably not share it or many similar places now with visitors until after April when the masses return following their winter hibernation.  I have the ability to take advantage of crisp sunny weekends and already in a position to ease out into the Solent in search of that tranquil spot.

As always there is a list of 'things to do' for me, not quite as urgent as the replacement of my hull windows, but none the less be good to get done when the weather has made a stand or other commitments that prevent my crew from taking me out. The oil fired heating system has the wrong size ducts fitted, a factory fault at birth, that for some reason the factory has managed to shy away from.   The clamps on the bottom of the mast need to be re tightened. Seems a simple job but the running rigging needs to be relaxed so that the top plate can be pulled back down to the deck without twisting, the reason for water seeping in. I'm sure the VHF speaker at the rear is a matter of something between the two mike's has been turned off or gone out of sync with each other. Still a simple electrical test will show what's happened to both external speakers on my port side. I may even get an inverter, so that the 'mains' system can be used even when shore power is not connected, the eight batteries I have will have a good flow between them but I may have to have an upgrade to the alternator at some point to keep things topped up.

It's a never ending list fortunately unlike wooden boats, I haven't got to worry about my skin and have varnish and other coverings to keep me looking cared for, just a good wash & occasional polish. Although I do need the rigging in the coach roof exposed to ease my pulleys under the covers and of course wash out the years of crud that has accumulated in there.

It certainly getting colder at nights, but nothing compared to the winters I've been through, so I have lots to look at whilst my crew look to their diaries for an opportunity.  At least once a week if not more I get a visit to make sure I'm ok and a quick spruce up in side.