In and out..

Not much of a trip - had hoped for more (clearly.. don't we all?! 😏), but lack of wind stopped play...

Two and a half hours before HT (12:23 and 4.10m) saw me on Sparrow after a chat with my mooring neighbours Jolly Boy Dave and Simon, covers off, engines started, and I dropped the mooring at about quarter past ten...

What wind there was was westerly so I put the main up by the bridge as is becoming the norm, and then headed off down the ditch after Simon. Motored all the way to just before Sweare Deep where (as usual) the noise of the engine finally got to me and I turned her off, and then I sailed for all of, oooh..  15 minutes (?) before the wind dropped completely, and I ended up going round and round in circles heading back towards Emsworth Channel..

Didn't have enough fuel for an extended motor to the bottom of the harbour so decided to call it quits..  the forecast is good this week - there'll be other opportunities..

Time to get some fuel..

Log:

Distance: 3.57 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F1 gusting F3 ; between W and S 
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.4 / 2.7

Make do and mend..

Little make do and mend session last week - we've been on the water couple of months now, and sun, rain, and UV never let up, and it was time I attended to a couple of things that I'd been noticing..

Locker lids:

Those of you who follow this nonsense will know that I have a hate hate relationship with these..  my fault assuredly as the ply they are made of is rubbish..  worse than rubbish..  anyway, those of you who follow will know that I'd already treated these over the winter [clicky] but some cracks on the edges of this one needed to be treated quickly lest the damage get much worse very quickly..

... regrettably though the damage on this one was done a long time ago, and it was shot.. look away now if you're of a nervous disposition...

..look at the quality of that ply - utter rubbish wood scrapings barely glued together..😐

..my plan had been to slip some epoxy into the crack using some thin plastic sheet to get it in but it failed completely when I then applied some pressure to press the sheets back together while the epoxy dried..

So....  what to do..

I can make a new one - but I need new supplies of ply, and I want time to find either a good source of marine ply, or ideally plastic/UPVC, to do this permanently - there's sailing to be done so I've bodged it to get me through to the end of the season...

I glued all the dust and scraps back together, and then glued two squares of 3mm plastic card, one either side to hold it together in a sandwich, and then clamped it for 24 hours to let the glue go off..

Tidied up the excess glue the next day, gave it a couple of coats of paint, and then reattached the locking hasp...  it's not pretty (ain't that the understatement of the year), but it's sound, and more importantly will last me to the end of the season.. 😏

Gel Coat:

This has been on my mind (and the job list) for a while - Sparrow is 60 next year and her gel coat is getting thin in places. Just to be clear, I will not paint her (that way lies the madness of endless patching and maintaining on a huge scale) but I do need to stop further UV damage to places where it is thin - see following... 

Previous experiments [clicky] have proved to be fairly good, and it was time to do a few more... 

The hardest thing is getting the paint colour to at least a reasonable approximation (which I haven't done 😏), but the most important thing is that the damage is now covered, and the maintenance of these patches is far simpler..

Now - let's go sailing..

Ferrys, trains and automobiles... redux..

..the end of the week and it was time for me to pop over to the island to help Rodders and his missus crew AmiLy back to the mainland..

Train, Fast Cat ferry from Portsmouth (of which I'm becoming a fan 😏)..

..sun deck is a glorious place to be on a hot day!

...and then soon enough in Ryde..

...how many bearings have been taken using Ryde church spire over the years I wonder..

...it was one one of the hottest weeks in the UK on record - and I'm not sure I'd have wanted to spend it on a boat given the heat we saw (high 30'sC) - but when I saw them, they said it had been a cracking week - visiting various places on the island and basically keeping cool and hydrated, much like the rest of us..

After a hot walk to the Lifeboat for some lunch, it was back to East Cowes in a growing breeze..

By the time we'd dropped the mooring and got into the Solent minds were already made up - no sailing today - F5 gusting F6 (I was seeing 39 knots on the wind instruments, despite apparent wind/tide!) and Easterly - bang on the nose - so we motored and let the engine take the strain.. what a glorious day though, sunny. warm in the breeze but cooler than without it..  fantastic

...back!

Log:

Distance: 12.86* (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)

Wind (Speed; Direction):  F5 gusting F6 ; ExS
Sail Plan: None - motored
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.6 / 4.1