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.