An extended lockdown layup!

Our plans, like those of others have been severely curtailed this year, as we are unable to visit our boat, like so many others, but at least we remain well.  With the possibility of being allowed back to Cornwall, in the next month or so, it seems timely to update the blog and once started, it is amazing how much seems to have already been achieved ashore!.

Winter projects, planned and incidental, were well underway by the first week in March with about another three weeks of work to do, after a brief skiing trip before launching by Easter.  I departed for Somerset, as it happened for my last pub meal and draft beer, leaving James, of Marine Gas Solutions still on board. I already had with me, the old switch panel with circuit breakers and I collected the re galvanised anchor on my way past back through Devon.  It has spent the last four months on the hall carpet waiting to be connected to the 55 meters of new chain! 

The spray hood brackets are awaiting re seating and fixing.  The port cockpit cupboard doors is awaiting rehanging.  The antifoul and rollers are all waiting on the coach roof, as are the cleaned and serviced Wickham Martin, backstays and blocks, bowsprit shrouds and blocks and other fittings are, hopefully, still on the coach roof awaiting my refitting and hopefully will all still be there aunder the winter cover in July!

Some of the jobs were more or less compelted including:

The heads, where a new replacement Lavac was sourced, as the cost of replacing the old seat and seals was twice as much!  It has been installed, with a shorter waste pipe, already cleaned with hydrochloric acid, leading directly to a freshly serviced Henderson Mk V pump, one of three now used in rotation and changed at least once a season, with a freshly serviced spare always aboard! A SeaSmart “toilet sanitiser” had impressed us at Southampton Boat Show and I had plumbed it into the seawater inlet pipe, just below the vent so that it would settle in the residual water in the pipe above the seacock.  Hopefully this will eliminate rotting critters and reduce unpleasant odours.  I added a toggle switch to the internal battery, so that it need only be used at the end of each voyage rather than for every flush.

The bowsprit had developed a crack at the gammon iron, around one third of it's circumference, during last season, the copper sheathing protecting the traveller from the bowsprit has also worn through underneath and I was keen to have a white tip to see better in dark anchorages!  We took it, strapped to the car roof, to David Brunyee’s team at Islington Wharf and it had returned by the end of January, with a fresh section scarfed in.  The area where the gammon iron bears was sheathed in glass fibre as was the area where the traveller bears.  Gleaming in Woodskin and with a smart white tip, we had lifted it onto the deck, fortunately under the winter cover and it is still waiting for me to service the bow roller and re seal the stem/ deck leak before re fitting the gammon iron, already re leathered by Di at Seadogs” in Penryn, who still has our living room sofa cushions for releathering!

The Taylors 803 gas oven was always rather temperamental but the dangerous process of lighting the grill, essential for crew morale in the mornings, was becoming unacceptable.  I had taken it home and dismantled it, the doors are remarkably complicated, and posted the stripped down device to Will Hayward. It had already come back from Suffolk and been re installed aboard, for James Emmerson to re site the inaccessible, screw down cut off valve, from behind the cooker to beside it, with a more effective and visible gas cut off tap.   I still look forward to inspecting his handiwork!  A new cooker would have cost little more but have been rather less robust and require considerable carpentry to fit into the allocated space in the galley. 

Photo finished cooker

With all the above done, we returned from Austria, straight back home, as instructed by the Austrian government, so we were already confined to Somerset, by the time the Government realised we really were in a pandemic, after all, at the end of March!  The first two weeks of our lock down were spent manufacturing a new switch panel, in three sections from 3mm aluminium sheets. Fortunately, I had already purchased some new pushbutton circuit breaker switches, to replace those that failed satisfactory bench testing and a new FM radio and multiple USB and 12V sockets.  So was able to fit all these and they await installation.  The mainsheet blocks have also been stripped, varnished, serviced and a second hand Walker's log fettled and the wooden case varnished.  It has all joined the anchor in the hallway!

The ongoing electrical archaeology was in full swing before lockdown, with the new panel and further wiring revision to be completed.  Many of the obsolete instruments and gadgets, including the remains of a Dolphin generator, have now been removed and I had spent about ten days tracing and removing redundant wires and cables, while labelling those that remain.   Power supply and data wires have been re routed, where necessary and some retained and labelled as spares.  The junction box at the base of the mast has been worked out and photos taken, for when the mast is un stepped for maintenance next year. There are, already, two large carrier bags of cable to be taken off the boat! There will be plenty of 12V sockets and USB chargers while the hand held VHF has it’s own dedicated supply.  A replacement FM radio, a working 12 V meter with a new shunt, all still to be fitted.

Photo panel before and after

Despite now having a conventional chart table aboard “Susan J”, we never used the Yeoman plotter or the dot matrix GPS, which was too difficult to see to be useful.  We have, however, retained the current Navtex instrument, although it may be plugged in as required, rather than permanently mounted, as, like the old one, the new panel is too narrow.  There is still much work to be done and it remains to be seen if all the instruments, in the mixed NMEA 1863 and 2000 environment, will still talk to each other.  Inevitably our venerable but now familiar C120 chart plotter and radar will need replacing, at some stage in the future and the five cockpit instruments can then be revised to one or two, leaving space for an illuminated bulkhead compass to replace the old Sestrel under the tiller. 

Photo sestrel and log

As always, one job has led to four others. Looking back, I was grateful to have planned to remove some items for refurbishment, well before Christmas and have them back aboard, if not re installed, well before the spring fit out.  Looking forward, we must never again assume that we will be back the next day, let alone the next week or quarter and I should leave everything secure, it is now four months and counting and hopefully will all still be in place!  It has been frustrating, not to be able to make use of the warm dry weather to undertake other maintenance, particularly to the bulwarks, rubbing strake and deck, which remain sound but tatty. However, in the event of further lockdown, that may be possible and she is ready for another winter but we still hope to get afloat this year!

"Champagne" sailing Gull Rock - return - 5 hours!

A perfect day sail!
WNW 15 to 20 knots. Close reach across Falmouth Bay, Gerrans Bay and Veryan Bay under blue skies and a flat sea. 26M.

K

Isles of Scilly

With visitors gone, a busier bank holiday weekend approaching and easterlies for 36 hours forecasted with neap tides, David and Julie planned a passage to St Agnes in Scilly.  A waning moon meant a 0400 departure in the dark was feasible.  We motor sailed to the Lizard and shot around on the tide as the forecast south easterly filled in, carrying us well beyond Wolf Rock before dying.  

Several pods of dolphins were seen en route.

A further 7 miles motor sailing found us off The Cove, between St Agnes and Ghue, waiting for two faster boats to anchor.  "Susan J" nosed closer in to find sand in 4 metres.  This was a rolling anchorage but safe.  

After a 13 hour, 60 M passage, we still had time and daylight to walk around Ghue, only possible since the previous week, as it is a nesting site for a large number of black backed gulls and other seabirds.  The adolescent chicks, were constantly squealing and fighting resulting in lots of corpses under foot but excellent blackberries!

From St Agnes, which we walked around and across the following day, could be seen the Western Isles and Bishop Rock lighthouse.  Here seen between the many pink granite tors found throughout.  On returning to our dinghy on the spit between the two Islands, following a pint at the The Turks Head, we, almost literally, bumped into Trevor and Marion, not seen since our Plymouth days. They had just arrived, by ferry from Penzance, to stay on the St Agnes for a few days.  We enjoyed catching up with them at their borrowed holiday home in the "town". Both now retired but sadly no longer sailing. We were delighted to hear, upon our return, that the "Scillonian III" had been repaired, so hopefully they got back to Ivybridge in the end!

 After two nights of rolling in the westerly atlantic swell, refracting around the plateau, which forms Scilly and into The Cove, we weighed anchor for St Helens Sound.  A short but fraught passage around St Marys, passing a large cruise ship anchored in Broad Sound, before careful pilotage at the right state of tide and in good visibility along several bearings to transits.  Once there, one is rewarded with a large area of smooth deep water over a sandy bottom, with a wide choice of rocks to shelter behind. The outer reefs to the NW of Tresco and St Helens, awash with breaking seas and spray, afford almost complete relief from the ubiquitous swell and relative seclusion.  From this delightful and peaceful open anchorage, we were able to use our dinghy and outboard to walk around St Helens, from the summit of which, a good view of the other Islands was afforded.  We went on to walk around Tean and the following day, St Martins.

 Julie, with Round Island and it's lighthouse in the background.  The picture does not do justice to the overwhelming smell of heather honey, found on these outlying Islands.  

Now uninhabited, St Helens was the quarantine station for Scilly, with the remains of a substantial dwelling, water well and other appurtenances, to afford only basic comfort to those surviving for six months before being allowed on to the other Islands.

St Martins seen from Tean.  The Lichens, throughout Scilly are very prolific being subject to virtualy no airborne pollution.   

 On St Martins, the bays to the northeast were deep in fine sand and at there western end, sheltered by White Island from the swell.  Despite the light rain, Julie and David enjoyed a swim, before continuing to walk around the whole Island, visiting the daymark, replenishing ourselves with tea, buying stores at the post office and bakery, before a pint at the Seven Stones Inn.  Once again, as at St Agnes, we bumped into the crew of "Tern", a blue water cutter seen laid up at Penryn. She was sailing in company with another sloop, skippered by Graham, our yard manager! They were both anchored, snuggly off Tean Island but would have to move as the spring tides meant insufficient water. 

 
"Susan J" with Old Grimsby, on Tresco, in the background

 Sunset at St Martins Sound

 With potentially strong westerlies forecasted for as early as the next day, we decided to move, as our present anchorage could only be left at high tide and would prevent us leaving with favourable tides at the Lizard.  As we left the two other Falmouth yachts moved to the deeper water of St Helens Sound. 

Here we are alone on the second day at Watermill Cove.

The forecast improved so we were able to take two long walks around the northern half of St Marys

and have a swim.  By this stage we had managed to rig the new, replacement Zodiac dinghy, with lines to enable the two of us to lift her.  Certainly this replacement was not nearly as good quality, or as handy, as the original 20 year old, leaky, "deflatable", Zodiac, of the same model it replaced.

By Thursday, it was clear that we would need to be back in Falmouth Bay by Friday evening, with strong winds forecast.  An early start on Friday morning would entail leaving the Islands in complete darkness, as the moon was new.  On the other hand a departure at dusk the night before would mean an overnight crossing with more flexibility in catching the substantial spring tide around the Lizard, if necessary before dawn but still entering harbour in daylight.  Julie had undertaken an almost identical passage from St Agnes several years ago as part of her RYA training.  With one reef in the mainsail and the working jib we were running east at around five knots and, with in an hour, could identify Wolf Rock and soon after the Longships, Tater Du then the loom of the Lizard light. At daybreak we reached through the overfalls and could see the nine anchored cargo ships off Coverack, "waiting for orders" and providing a "highway" to Manacle buoy and Falmouth. Another 13 hour passage, without major incident.

We had had six nights of "free parking" anchored around Scilly.  The downside is no water and no showers.  Several sea swims made up for the latter but we realised that, with only one of her two tanks full at the start of this cruise and despite introducing Julie to washing up in seawater, we would need to replenish the water soon.  So we arrived off Falmouth Haven's fuel barge, rather sleepily, at 0930 and filled both water tanks and topped off the diesel.  A brisk beat against 25 knots of wind across to the Helford and we were safely moored once more.

Day trips in August!

In August  the Helford River becomes very busy.  A chance gap in bookings enabled us to stay in our flat with Alison and Mike, while Phillip and Kate were enjoying a break at the Budock Vean Hotel. 

The latter enjoyed a pleasant day sail with us aboard "Susan J" to the Manacles and Black Rock at Falmouth.  Putting the world to rights with younger minds is always a pleasure!

Lil joined us for a few days form London and our Anarth Lugger, "Flat Sea" was rigged.

Here "Flat Sea" can be seen sailing past Susan J" at her mooring, with lil at the helm.  "Flat Sea" is one of around 500 Anarth dinghies built at Helford Passage by the, late, Arthur Eva and continuing to be maintained and occasionally built by Julyan.  10 foot long and heavily moulded in GRP from a clinker built rowing boat, they are fairly ubiquitous around the south Cornish coast.  She makes a good sturdy tender for our local mooring.  "Flat Sea" was one of the first, of only around seven, to have been built with side thwarts, a centreboard case and a lug sail.  With tide under her she affords us a peaceful way of exploring the upper reaches of the river.

With visitors gone, a busier bank holiday weekend approaching and easterlies for 36 hours forecasted, along with neap tides, David and Julie decided to make a passage to St Agnes in Scilly.  

A confidence restoring cruise across Falmouth Bay!

In early August, after her boisterous return from Weymouth, "Susan J", not to mention her crew, were in need of a gentler cruise!

Here Julie is relaxing aboard, enjoying the sunset from "Susan J"'s mooring off Helford Passage

The following morning we sailed towards Falmouth.

Anchored at the top of Carrick Roads at Turnaware Point, From where we could see Tresillick House.

We carried on to Portscatho.  Here we went ashore and joined Roger and Rosemary at their lovely home, from where Roger has a commanding view over to Nare Head and Gull Rock.

Anchored off Portscatho. The observant amongst you will notice the absence of "Susan J"'s inflatable Danbuoy, on the starboard push pit.  It had been found on the saloon shelf and deployed more accessibly, after servicing, when we acquired her.  On a glorious morning for a swim, it was test deployed  with a view to a subsequent annual service - it sunk like a stone without trace! 

Weymouth to Falmouth in 30 hours - lessons learnt!

Rosie and Matt joined us for the evening in Weymouth.  Fly made herself comfortable on the skipper's berth!

We had a lovely meal with family at the Ship Inn and a damp night alongside the Town Quay in Weymouth.  Helen was now settled on board with a Scopolamine patch.  Water tanks had been replenished the previous afternoon, as we were second out in a raft of five and the boat inside ours wanted to leave at 7 am, after all as all, apart from us were heading back to the Solent!

We duly woke, dressed and departed from our berth.  Half asleep, our bowsprit bumped the stern of the boat ahead, fortunately with no damage.  We tied up on the long length of, still empty, pontoon, to wait for the "impaled" boat's crew to wake up but also so that our own departure coincided with being at Portland Bill when the tide should push us out into the Channel into the early ebb, rather than sucking us back into Lyme Bay, as usually happens to us.

We left the harbour and raised sail off the olympic viewing area, away form the north entrance to Portland.  Despite this a mine sweeper decided to enter the same area,  do some circles before departing again!

Breakfasting underway we were soon being swept south past the Bill and on out into the channel.  With all sails set we made good progress and were as far south as Start Point by mid afternoon, before the tide turned and swept us north and east so we would not make Brixham let alone Dartmouth, any time soon.

By the time we were off either, it was the small hours and not light enough to find somewhere to tie up in Dartmouth but by 02:00 the tide was sweeping us easily towards Start Point and the sea was relatively flat, as we closed the coast.  We retained our one reef in the mainsail and swept east of the Shambles bank, aiming to pass about 3 miles south to avoid the race.  As dawn broke, the rain started and through the low cloud we passed Start Point and the entrance to Salcombe, in increasingly steep and unpleasant seas.

The wind had increased, predictably, as soon as we rounded Start Point but backed to the SSW, making it likely that we could bear away for Plymouth, once past Bolt Tail.  However it would have been unwise to enter Salcombe, over the Bar, at low water and an onshore wind.

The wind was now 35 knots at times, even allowing 8 knots for the height of the anemometer, that is in the region of F6-7.  While making progress, it was very uncomfortable in the confused seas, which didn't settle as the favourable tide decreased.  The skipper decided to drop the mainsail, rather than a second reef and carry on under foresails and engine ,as required, against the foul tide, which should at least smooth the seas and lessen, once we were clear of the point and before it reached it's peak.

We successfully hove to on port tack, on the second attempt and things calmed down.  Unfortunately, as we discovered later, the temporary and experimental 1:3 whip on the starboard topping lift had decided to part, so there was nothing controlling the gaff which swung wildly as the boat rolled in the swell. While the loose topping lift and lazy jacks got in everyone's way! Without the mainsail, it was difficult to keep on the wind so the engine was started - and died!

After what seemed like ages and to the disbelief of the crew, the skipper managed to secure the gaff and furl and tie the mainsail.  Further attempts to start the engine failed, so we close reached along the cliffs, towards Bolt Tail, as planned.

With a strong sense of de-ja-vue, I changed tanks and after 5 or 6 attempts, the engine kept going and stopped spluttering.  A year ago in the middle of a busy Salcombe Harbour, just 3 miles away, exactly the same had happened, after tossing around off Bolt Head getting the sails in.  On that occasion we were towed to a mooring and managed to bleed the filter using the opposite tank.  Clearly once the 65 L tank is only a third full, tossing around allows air into the system and that is that.  Fortunately, we have two 65 L tanks, at least one is kept fully topped off, so this time the full tank bled it'self after a few tries, despite the boisterous conditions.

Thoroughly wet and miserable and realising we would not make Jolly Jack's for breakfast "Susan J" soldiered on still making 5 knots under foresails.  We made two tacks, to avoid the little Mew Stone and entered the Sound via the eastern entrance, in fairly misty conditions.  Once inside the breakwater we were able to motor to windward to bring the jib in as the furling line had got tangled when let out too quickly, in the "maelstrom", a not uncommon problem.

We were all very grateful to get ashore at the Mayflower marina at 1500, 30 hours after leaving Weymouth. For a shower and meal.

The next day was spent on drying out, laundry and repairing the recalcitrant topping lift (essentially, retying the knot!  Having retrieved all from up the mast!

While Helen and Julie had a very necessary walk around Mt. Edgcombe, again, before a richly deserved slap up dinner at Jolly Jack's!

Ideally, we shoudl have moved to Cawsands, as the wind abated in the afternoon, to ensure an early start to catch the best of the west going tide and last of the W wind.  Instead Friday saw us, after filling the fuel tanks,  beating into the last of the strong westerly out of the Sound.  The wind then went stubournely SW, right on the nose.

Motor sailing, tacking, we declined Roger's suggestion of fine dining in Portscatho, in favour of a sheltered anchoring in Falmouth Haven, yet again in the dark and mist, before droppin Helen off at the empty (of fuel as well!) fuel pontoon to catch the bus back to Helford, while we had a leisurely motor back to our mooring on the Saturday morning.

Lessons learnt, (possibly!) while all passage plans should have alternative plans B &C, it is perhaps, undesirable to attempt to use the whole alphabet!  However, crossing Lyme Bay east to west seems to always be a difficult pasage to plan and execute for ourselves.   Knowing that we could have cooked a hot meal , rather than soup, in the  evening, once we were in the lee of Devon.  Although both skippers were aware of the possibility but not certainty, of an overnight passage, they could have easily got more rest during the day in preparation.

We could and perhaps should, have entered Brixham in the dark, although it meant further back tracking, we had done it before but out of season.  At a pinch we could have anchored outside, although it would have been miserable.  That would not have been a viable option outside Dartmouth at 3 am.  Fatigue was certainly a factor by the following mid morning.  Having decided that we were continuing to Plymouth, we could have easily put  a second reef in, while still in the lee of Slapton Sands, anticipating that the full force of the wind against tide, would be come apparent once west of Prawle Point.
Any purchase, however temporary, should use a single length of rope, not two odds and ends tied together, even with double sheet bends! Our continuing development of a more effective topping lift / lazy jack system should consider bringing the topping lifts inboard along the boom so the gaff is always between them.  This would greatly assist routine raising and lowering of the mainsail, as well as under these circumstances, although would make no difference to reefing while underway.
Clearly we should assume that our range under power is only half of what the fuel we are carrying should provide.

Oh! and make sure the skipper has a cup of tea before leaving a raft!

Once again " Susan J" has taken good care of us, demonstrating, yet again, that the weakest factor is the "wetware"  - i.e. the skipper and crew!  Despite this all are ready to returna baoard for, hopefully, less epic passages in August!