Marker tacker...

That'll do..   with tides again not optimal this weekend (0500/1700 and 0600/1800) except for a double tide'r which I didn't have time for, as a result of the need to catch up with "stuff" I missed on the Jolly Boys weekend, I grabbed the opportunity for a sail on Saturday's late tide..

On the boat by 13:30'ish, I dropped the mooring by about 14:00'ish - the depth was showing 0.4 mtrs beneath the (generous) keel offset I've set, so yeah - not a lot of water when I left..  😀

Breeze was fairly brisk - I checked Cambermet [clicky] and that was showing a solid Force 4 down the bottom of the harbour, so deciding that discretion was the better part of valour I whacked in (or rather rolled in) a small'ish reef (about a foot and a half) on the main so I was ready, and then headed for the cut..

Nothing like a bit of brisk breeze to introduce urgency into a sailing afternoon, and I'm still out of practice as a result of the winter layup - I know what I should be doing, it's just not quite as quick as it should be, but either way a good fast run down the cut under a very slightly reefed genoa, and I turned up in to the wind off Northney to put up the main...  what can I say, we got there in the end, but the tiller pilot got discombobulated and blew a fuse on the main panel.. 😒

Pausing only to set an increasingly up wind course for the Emsworth Beacon, I switched the tiller pilot over to a spare switch in the box, checked it was working, rolled a few more reefs into the genoa, and then went sailing...

I suspect by the end of the summer I will have got fed up with doing it, but there is something very satisfying in beating up to Marker in a strong SW'ly, against a strong tide, and in the sunshine - there's always another boat to 'race' (in this case a little 20-odd footer called "Osiris") and this year I have the depth instrument, so I can go further shore to shore - I ended up tacking on the 1 Mtr line and am convinced that helped, as it also gets you further out of the main tide race..  

As the tide race diminished, the tacking angles widened and the wind came round a bit, until the point that by the time I'd gone past Marker, I could almost lay a course for the bottom of the harbour..

Fantastic afternoon, and a nice fast run home from about 3/4 of the way to Verner...

Log:

Distance: 9.62 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F4 gusting F5; SWxS going SWx|W
Sail Plan: Reefed main/reefed genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 5 / 1.6 (probably more - missing GPS track info for an hour)

Completed job list '21/'22 lay up..

By way of record keeping, and to remind me in the future - here's the completed job list from the winter layover...

1. Electrics:
   • new battery installed 
   • renewed the wiring for the power socket used by the autopilot
     
   • depth gauge installed
     
     
     
      
2. A smooth off of her bottom - no idea how many years of antifouling paint on top of antifouling  paint there is down there, but while it's not falling off it isn't smooth either, so a sanding pole with some mesh and a bucket of water was purchased, and an hour or two later she was considerably smoother. I'll do it again next year, but the take away is not to be cautious - get as coarse a grit of mesh as possible.
3. Titivate the tender - thwarts/strakes need doing - completed - she looks as rough as a badgers ar*e but is solid, and good for another season. At the same time I also modified the tender trolley to better carry a flat bottomed tender (as mine is), rather than the V shape the trolley is designed for..
   
4. New clock fitted

Regular/annual items:

• Rub down and coat of paint on cockpit locker lids / wash boards (as needed)  - all done
• Rub down and coat of wood preservative on rubbing strakes / cockpit board / outboard pad / hand rails (as needed) - all done
• Antifoul  - done, takeaway this year was the huge improvement in speed from using the slightly bigger, woolly (rather than foam) roller
• Service outboard - done
• Service Life Jackets - done

Jolly Boys Cruise 2022

So the annual event that is the Jolly Boys Cruise is all over bar the shouting..  or rather banter'ing..  the washing machine has been emptied, the contents dried, and the sleeping bag has been put away for another year..  time for a write up on what we did, and where we went, and a few of the photo's to give us some memories in future on less sunny and happier days..  😀

Our normal ride "Ocean Waves" was still in repairs following damage sustained in Storm "Deirdre" earlier this year...you can see why... 

"ouch"...  so in the severe weather the waves pitched high enough to force the fenders out..  the boat then smashed into the wooden surround of the pontoon breaking it off, but leaving the retaining bolts, that then did what you see...

So the ride this year was Rod the Mod's boat "Ami-Ly" (following) a Legend 290...

Ignore the rubbing strake - pic was taken on a previous trip to get that repaired..

A step down only in size - but squeezing five blokes into a 29 footer rather than a 40 footer was always going to be a challenge!😀

Day 1:

Portsmouth to Cowes - only seventeen and a half miles, but a cracking days sailing as we rode the tide to the west.

Wind was 'lively' even in the harbour so we took the opportunity while we had it, and put a couple of reefs in the main - didn't regret it all day, as the wind slowly build all day to a solid F5 by the time we arrived off Cowes..  it was sunny and bright - real champagne sailing, and the Solent at it's most beautiful..

A first for us, we overnight-ed at Shepherds Wharf in Cowes (west side of the river) which was quiet compared to the queues last year, and after a quick pint in the Island Sailing Club sat on their balcony overlooking the Solent, watching the cruise liners go out, dinner was Italian (for a change)..

 

 

Day 2 

Cowes to Lymington

A quick vote over the breakfast sausages, and a decision was taken to go for Lymington. A quick call identified no room at Berthon Marina when we checked, but we got a place at the Yacht Haven with no trouble (and as we all really, really, like the showers there, we were secretly delighted..  sorry, Rod!).

This turned out to be the longest sail of the weekend, but blimey what a cracker..  lighter wind all day F3 occasionally gusting F4, the reefs were taken out and we ran all day on a full main and genoa..

Huge tide and at first we had thought to go into Newtown Creek, but it looked crowded, the wind was good, and and as the tide was even better and still running in our favour, we decided to run down to see Hurst Castle..

..and the Needles..

..amazing - not been so close before. 

About an hour before the tide was due to turn, we headed back towards Lymington, knowing we'd have to fight for a bit to get there - the water here, where the Solent meets the Channel is fascinating - flat water to standing waves like a ruler, and the dividing line moves backwards and forwards - most off putting..  Throw in the Shingles bank as well, and it makes for an interesting navigational exercise (which we almost failed - at one point we had 0.4mtrs under the keel, when we got a little too close to the bank! 😁)

Having got in to Lymington, and with a very tight berth, some judicious use of the bow thruster (which Rod had fitted over winter, and is inordinately proud of) was very much required..  dinner at the local pub very much enjoyed, but overnight the heavens darkened, and the first of the lightning bought heavy rain...

Day 3

Lymington

Weather sh*te, so we called in to the marina office and extended the stay - good move to be honest..  it was grey, windy, and it rained all day...   no thanks...  😁

Day 4

Lymington to Portsmouth

So one of the features of the Solent is the "express travellator" that runs four times a day, either east to west, or the opposite, and which had provided huge amounts of help on the Friday and Saturday to get us quickly from one end of the Solent to the other, but which we now needed help on in the opposite direction, and with the tides as they were it mean an early departure..

So it was that 07:30 saw us leaving the berth and heading to the Solent..  grey, cold, slightly rainy, not the best weather, but the further east we went, the better the weather got, with the wind building, and by the time we got to Ryde the sun was shining and the Solent was looking all glittery again..

Breakfast on the go, a downwind run in a strengthening breeze, and by the time the tide started to slacken off we had done Lymington to Seaview in just shy of four hours - a stonking run!

Turned into wind at Seaview to put in some reefs, and then came into Portsmouth in the main approach channel where we passed the Jubilee Sailing Trusts ship "Tenacious", looking very fine...

https://sailtraininginternational.org/vessel/tenacious/

Back on the mooring pontoon by 13:00'ish we decanted the boat into Rod's car and I must have been home by 15:00'ish..  I slept well that night!!

Brilliant trip..!!

Log:

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

Wind (Speed; Direction): 

• Day 1: Force 4 gusting 5; WxS
• Day 2: Force 3 gusting 4; SE
• Day 4:  Force 4 building to 5 gusting 5; WSW
  

Sail Plan:  2 reefs main full genoa (day 1 and 4); full main and genoa (day 2)
Speed (Max/average in knots): As above..

Tiller pilot fix and a quick run to Marker...

So..  following on from the last post... 

New battery arrived the day after I ordered it (excellent service from a company called ABS [clicky]) - I'm limited to physical size by the current battery storage box, so although a bigger (Ah) battery would be good, to all intents and purposes the new one is a direct like for like replacement in terms of both physical size, and power..

Reading up on average life spans for batteries, they seem to think 5 years is about average, so the old one lasted about as long as it should have, and at only £50 owed me nothing..  for the records the new one was £55 (delivered)..

Specification 

• Weight 12 kg 
• Dimensions 212 × 175 × 175 mm 
• Warranty (Years) 1 
• Ampere Hours 50 
• Voltage 12
•  Deep Cyclic Yes 
• Engine Starter Battery No 
• Battery Lifespan (cycles) 300 
• Length 212mm Width 175mm Height 175mm 
• Technology Sealed Wet Flooded 

Product description: ABS 12 Volt Low Profile 50 Amp Leisure Battery * Totally maintenance free * Completely sealed Silver Calcium Lead Acid Technology for Enhanced Safety * Heavy Duty * Comfortable and robust carrying handle * VRLA style casing * Deep Cycle (can take deeper discharges during cycles) * Cyclic (can be used many times over) * Semi-Traction capable

An unexpected day off on Thursday^ with a serendipitous HT at 09:28 was the ideal opportunity to swap the batteries and test my theory - it's been 6 years since I last fitted the battery so it was a bit of a voyage of discovery, but as ever the decision to use stainless steel for the battery box fittings paid dividends... undid both bolts, which allowed me to slide the entire box out through the opening, swap over of batteries, and then slide the battery box back in and re-attach the bolts..  quick release terminals on the new battery and it was time to test the auto pilot..

Battery box is fixed in pace with the two bolts you can just see the heads of going through the lip of the opening

Which worked...  🙌🙌

As it was sunny, reasonably arm, and I still had a couple of hours of tide, I squared away, warmed up the donk, took the sail covers off, and went for a glorious run down the trench to the end of the Emsworth channel, where a bear up on to the wind, which was just the right direction, allowed me to aim for and reach Marker for the first time this summer...    with the water disappearing it was time to then head home, where yet again my approach to the mooring was way too fast and I sailed over it..  practice makes perfect.....  

^We're due to go on the Jolly Boys Cruise this weekend but due to storm damage Ocean Waves our usual ride is not available and we have swapped over to Rod the Mod's boat, but he was busy today so we delayed the start, probably not a bad thing, 5 blokes only just fit sleeping-wise on a 30 footer, and I got an additional day for repairs.. 

Log:

Distance: 5.51 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F2; W
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 3.8 / 3

Shakedown sail and wrinkles...

First/shakedown cruise

Tides still not optimal (now 3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon), the next weekend it was finally time at last to get out for the first sail. Saturday was chosen..

Glorious is the only word for it - I'd forgotten everything of course, so it was hardly what you would call a text book effort, but I got away from the mooring, sailed, and got back to the mooring - so good result..

The roller furler operation just puts a  smile on your face, a clean bottom, and a tide underneath, and a broad reach, had us clocking upper 5's and lower 6's across the ground. The depth gauge is fantastic for extending the tacks so that better overall progress was made - I'm now not so tied to channel markers/withy's and can tack later, when I have to.

On the downside the tiller pilot wasn't working - the dreaded code "1000" which my reading would indicate is a boot sequence code, and generally means the device is not getting enough power..  😐

Autopilot power problem determination

Sunday then saw me with a bag full of 12v bits and pieces and a volt meter, hopefully to get to the bottom of the problems... the sun shone all afternoon, and to be honest I quite enjoyed it..

1. Before I left, I tested the autopilot on the car's battery (which I knew was good) and it worked OK, so the pilot was not at fault
2. When I arrived, I plugged it into the 12v socket that worked OK all last year, and same problem.
3. So I connected it direct to the boat battery and it worked OK - which lead me to start removing parts of the connection between battery and 12v socket. The end to end is in several parts..  connectivity is 
1. battery - negative directly attached, positive to the master 12v switch, to
   
2. wire (over spec for use), to
   
3. switch in the locker (so I can turn it off without having to switch off the whole boat's power), to
   
4. in line fuse, to
   
5. dri plug socket
   
4. First I removed the switch - it was stiff, and is supposed to move 360', but was only moving 90' - removed it and connected the positive direct to the inline fuse - tested, still not working
   



5. Next I removed the fuse - tested, still not working...  pffft...
   
6. Next I removed and checked the connectivity on the socket - stripped the wire ends and reconnected - tested, still not working - bugger'ation...
   
7. Next I stripped out all the wire, and replaced it with new - this time wired directly into the switch box (neater, and means I don't need the separate switch and in line fuse) - connected everything up - tested, still not working - bugger'ation!
8. Well and truly confused now, so connected it direct to the battery again, and this time that also failed...  💩💩💩

The battery is 6 years old, and like most boat battery's has a hard life - in it's entire life it has only ever been recharged from the solar, and has lived on the boat throughout, so my assumption is that the intermittent results are down to it failing - voltage looks OK (if a little high), but I don't think it is holding a charge - so it will work for a little while (as I found) and then fail.. in normal mode there's enough power to power up the pilot, but not enough amp'age to sustain the auto facility.

 

To test my theory, I have ordered a new battery, which at the time of writing I hope to fit tomorrow (Thursday 12th)

Log:

Shake down sail..

Distance: 6.3 miles (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F3 gusting 4; SE/SSE
Sail Plan: Full main and genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 6 kts/3 kts (estimated)

Mast up, sails on..

Lots (and lots) happening and not a lot of logging go on so here goes..

First, off a cracking shot of "Sparrow" from fellow blogger "Stargazer" (link in the caption) who recently spent a few days in the harbour while on passage .. 

Picture courtesy/copyright "All at Sea with Stargazer" [clicky]

Mast up

Which leads me nicely into the point where I left of the last log - on the Thursday (21st April) the Jolly Boys convened and almost drowned before even attempting putting the mast up - t'other Dave had conceived of a plan to try out, for the first time, a used inflatable that had come to him, albeit in the depths of one of the deepest lockers in his boat, when he bought her...  

So it was that as I departed the shore to get all ready for the mast lifting party I was hailed by the aforesaid, who along with Rod the Mod had arrived early as he was so excited about trying his rub-a-dub. Convening on shore we all looked at it in a knowledgeable manner, as he connected up his battery air pump and proceeded to inflate it - the good news is that it did inflate, and better still, didn't deflate when he took the pump off...

Pausing only to grab the mighty Torqueedo he was going to strap to the back, he launched, attached the Torqueedo, and the transom, held only in place by glue that must have been at least 153 years old gave way and the transom fell off . His suggestion that "it would be OK" having been firmly rebuffed by Rod the Mod, so it was that slightly later three fat old blokes then found themselves in my tiny tender, with a Torqueedo on the back...  suffice to say that this log is proof we survived, but my sides ached for days after all the merriment while we wandered all over the anchorage trying to get to "Sparrow".. 😂

Having got there however, the usual professionalism reverted, and I have to say that without a lie, it was the best mast lift we've done - from shore to mast up in less than an hour...  hugely impressive. Beer and pork pies in the (un-forecast) sun and light breezes finished off the day before I gave them a lift to shore (single occupancy this time!) and returned to tidy up..  had enough time to rig the boom, and then headed to shore myself.

Genoa Tension

Weekend weather was rubbish, but I managed to sneak out a couple of days later on the Saturday to put the genoa on, checked the tensions of the standard rigging (OK - may need further tightening) before it started to rain in earnest and drove me home. 

Last year I was really struggling with the roller furling being hugely stiff -having thought long and hard about it, I think my issue was too much luff tension, so this time I put none on - the furler boom holds the luff straight so there's no need for huge tension..  just put it up and lightly tie it off, and I have to say the difference is little short of miraculous..  unrolls and rolls like lightening - superb!

Tender titivation's

For the May bank holiday weekend tides were again awful (6 in the morning, 6 in the evening), but the weather was glorious, so I instead devoted my time to making the tender trolley more user friendly - my temder is flat bottomed, but the trolley is optimised for a V bottomed boat, so as a result the tender just sits on the two high spots either side and slides around, or off, the moment you start moving...

My plan was to fit a piece of deck board to the trolley boat support - U bolted in place, which would accommodate the tender better - a couple of wooden uprights at either end would hold the tender in place.. 

Job done, and a huge improvement. 

Next log...  shakedown sail and and additional wrinkles...