Wednesday 1st November We have a 95% probability of rain during the day but I planned to use the morning high tide (2.3M at around 11:30) to get to the boat and organise the drop nose pin & Genoa reefing. Always assuming there is nothing else needing dealing with after the unusually high water levels and heavy rain recently.
Went to LSC around 10:00. Very high water levels again today. It was fairly rough in the harbor and windy around the club. As far as I can tell from the yard the sail cover and everything else are still OK on my boat. It was too windy to be trying to hoist & furl the Genoa and the tiller pin & pickup buoy inflation are not that important so again I decided not to row out to the boat.
The third named storm of the year is supposed to arrive overnight so this was the calm before yet another stormy time. It turned into rather a turbulent evening with blustery rain storms as the beginning of storm Ciaran. The forecasts on TV include possible wind speeds as high as 90MPH.
Thursday 2nd Woke up at 6:00 with no wind or rain but by 8 there was a quite strong wind and the beginning of rain. This is in the TV forecast as being the lull between the two fronts of the storm. Winds of around 90 MPH were recorded overnight in the Channel Islands and 75 MPH in Cornwall so similar conditions are expected later today.
The morning started with a trip to the coffee shop in New Milton during which there was a Watsap post to say that one of the boats had come off it’s blocks. The accompanying photo showed it was missing the front blocks on one bilge keel and the back set on the other side. This triggered several members into attending. The photo seemed to show my tender still rolled up on Karl’s tender but a later one showing the yard also included a rolled up tender in the middle of the car park space. It took me some time to get there to help with the clear-up. The boat was already back on the blocks but we tidied up all the potentially floating items and also sorted out various tenders that had been moved from their original positions.
Everything was OK with my tender and Karl’s boat. Nothing looking problematical on mine either but hard to see much detail on a zoomed shot.
 |
 |
High tide was still about 40 minutes away and the water was not over the height of the wall when I left.
I suspect we may need to do the same sort of job again tomorrow depending on how high the next high tides turn out to be (predicted peaks at about midnight and 5 am followed by tomorrow’s tide peaks at mid day and 5 pm but low atmospheric pressure and rain can all contribute to higher levels).
Saturday 4th Up reasonably early for a cloudy and rainy day. Set off for LSC but the wind and rain showers meant it wasn’t practical to go out to the boat and do the jobs that need doing.
Thursday Matthew has found us a potential alternative bungalow to look at so we are going over to Poole later. This one is a single bedroom at present but has a part built extension that needs it’s roof adding and then the interior finishing off. A lot of the materials are present (roofing rafters, rear window, bi-fold doors, roofing insulation etc) so early progress will not cost anything beyond sheet materials and effort.
Saturday Boat jumble at LSC today and then an afternoon band concert at Longthorn’s farm (11:30 through to 2:30). However a slow start meant we only did the shopping and then went to the concert. As you would expect given my history as an assistant instructor 30 something years ago, I spent most of the time watching the gliding club in the next field rather than exploring the Christmas Fair.
Two 2 seat gliders being aero-towed by a piper cub. Almost exactly no wind at all and only stable high altitude cloud so they were getting about 15 minutes per flight from what looked like a 2,000 foot tow. The gliders and tow plane were landing from our end of the field and then taking off on the reciprocal course although of course the tug was avoiding flying directly over the Christmas fair people so there were some interestingly performed final approaches going on.
Sunday 12th Church then a trip to LSC to check on the boat. I managed to install the drop nose pin in the tiller and inflate the pickup buoy (needed a pressure of 130 PSI to get any air into it even with the adapter so no real surprise that I didn’t manage previously). So that is two problems off the list but there are another few new problems to add to the list –
- The stern mooring strop is almost worn through. It has been chaffing on the rudder and has also almost worn through the protective tubing around the pushpit. The boat tends to try to swing out into the channel so the strop goes diagonally across the stern edge of the rudder. From now on I need to fix the tiller as far to the starboard side as I can in the hope it wont contact the rope. The rope definitely needs replacing and the reinforcing needs to be thicker probably along with the right size fairleads on the stern to cut down on the wear. The mooring strop was re-routed to the port side cleats rather than the starboard ones originally used and I also added one of the mooring lines as a backup. Provided there is no more significant chafe and the tide is not extreme this should work for a while.
- I noticed some discoloration and swelling to the plywood locker lids in the cockpit. Needs a little more of the epoxy resin based glue in the gap where the trip is not an absolute fit.
- The two “R” clips that hold the rudder pivot in place have disappeared allowing the rod to drop out of the upper hinge and rudder to potentially move sideways at the top. That has been temporarily resolved using a drill bit as the top pin.
- The other problem is the continued presence of rain water getting into the cabin. There was a load in the inner most section of the chart table so it appears to be leaking in or condensing and dripping off the deck somewhere around the hinges to the cockpit locker.
As seems to be usual, there was a mayday situation on the radio. – Solent coastguard were after confirmation from a lifeboat as to whether or not all the crew had been taken off a boat.
I hadn’t taken the laptop with me so I don’t definitely know it was a temperature sensing issue but the bilge drier system needed to pump a fair amount of water out of the engine compartment and the pump would only run for the brief startup check period. I need to take the laptop with me when I go back to deal with the mooring strops.
Monday 13th Today we are heading for South Yorkshire and Helen is aiming to do a flute lesson for one of her pupils then attend Salvation Army band practice for an exam rehearsal with her other pupil. We are then staying with Matthew & Annabel.
Tuesday In the afternoon I took the dog for a walk along the canal from Drake Holes as far as the Retford boat club moorings and back. OK on the way out but it was raining moderately hard for part of the trip back so we both got rather muddy.
 |
 |
Wednesday Helen was spending most of the day with her friends. Meanwhile another dog walk along the canal at Thorne. This time they are wide beam barges rather than narrow boats.
Thursday Helen has a 2pm appointment at Royal Hallamshire Hospital and then we will be heading direct to Wareham in the hope of being in time for her 7:30 band practice. We were on time for the appointment and even got a disabled parking space rather than having to park elsewhere. Traffic on the way south was about normal with a significant slowdown around the Oxford bypass. We made it to the rehearsal almost exactly 40 minutes late and it was appreciated that we had put in the effort and attended.
Saturday Off to LSC for the craft fare. Arrived a few minutes after 10 and handed over the tea bread that Helen had made. Drizzly and windy and there was no intention to go out to the boat so we looked around the stalls and chatted with people..
Monday 20th I am not sure how I achieved it so may not be able to replicate for other charts but this evening I finally have vector charts for some French canals visible in OpenCPN on my Android tablet.
Friday 24th Nov Today I am intending to go to the boat to install the new mooring strop. We finally set off around 9:45 so were not there until about half of the tide had fallen.
I managed to row out and get the new rope fitted but only just got back ashore before the channel got too shallow to row back. No time to do anything else and definitely no time to work on the bilge drying pumps. Hopefully the new rope will last a bit as I only have one
piece of chafe protection pipe on it at the moment – Needs another piece as there is potential for wear against the rudder and also where it passes inboard past the pushpit. There seems to be a significant cross current as the tide goes out which was trying to swing the boat to point to the north and from previous visits there is also often a counter flow which was what was causing the rubbing on the rudder. Maybe we will go back on Sunday and I can add another piece as well as trying to do something to fix the positions of the pieces or else add a single much longer piece to protect the whole length.
Left the boat at around 12:30 and just made it ashore before the slipway became inaccessible.
Tuesday 28th Another trip to the boat this morning with flat calm water, 4 degree temperature and a clear blue sky to start with. I got three jobs done while Helen took the dog for a wander to the cycle shop coffee spot. –
- Mooring system – This time I took the whole length of reinforcing tube and replaced it. When I arrived the stern strop was wrapped around the rudder implying that, since the new rope was installed, the riser buoy has managed to get from starboard to port under the hull between the propeller and the rudder. That also contributed to the sinking line between the pickup buoys having got round the prop shaft and also tied around the forward mooring anchor. All sorted as best I can but I wonder whether the tangling happens before or after the boat floats on a rising tide. I may need a shorter bow strop or to remove the rudder at the mooring to prevent the mooring buoy going under the stern.
- Bilge drier – Loaded the ‘no temperature monitoring’ version of the arduino software. This managed to empty the bilge water from three compartments. One of the pickups seems to be blocked so that will need a little work (big locker in the main cabin). I think that is partly attached with resin so the pickup pipe may be sealed off. I also need to look at the valves on several of the pumps as they don’t self prime very well. That may be a consequence of trying to pump dirty water in the past but will remain a potential problem unless / until the lockers can be cleaned and dried effectively.
- Rigging – I tidied up the loose signal flag halyard and the Genoa halyard, both of which were loose.
Back ashore for 12:30 so back home for soup lunch.
We are now booked on the ferry to do spring Harvest Montage in April. My boat should go back in the water on the 2nd boat lift day (8th April with Karl as lift master) and then we set off to France on the morning ferry on the 9th.