Finally the weather has moderated and we get to go sailing!
However, Patrick had suddenly remembered that this week is West Mersea Regatta week and it'd be busy with all the visiting racing crews
The Laurins went of to do some shopping and wear out the kids whilst Jane and I set about turning Erbas back into a sailing boat instead of a floating cottage
When the Laurins returned AJ passed the message to give them five minutes then pop down to Laurin for coffee and planning
On arrival I was surprised and touched to find a birthday cake complete with candles (not quite 52 of them thankfully cos my poor old pickled lungs would never have coped), a card and a present.
It was a lovely thing to do and very much appreciated.
Our options were fairly limited by time and tide and we chose Brightlingsea as our destination.
We got going pronto as we expected to be somewhat slower than Laurin (with her greater waterline length and single keel she cruises at least a knot faster)
Out of the marina we found a reasonable Sou'westerly of 10 to 12 knots so up went the main straight away. The hoist went better this time with the reefing lines overhauled first but there's still a lot of friction in the setup which needs looking at.
Turning downriver it was out with the genoa and off with the engine. The breeze was a bit flukey though and our speed varied between 5 knots and just barely stemming the tide and then it died altogether so it was back on with the engine.
We spotted that Laurin had emerged on Boatbeacon which Karen had just downloaded before departing but she vanished again a couple of hours later (probably needs the keep awake option switching on)
With plenty of water we took the short cut close in around Holliwell Point. By now we were sailing again with a fairly stiff breeze from astern. There was quite a swell running and it was uncomfortably rolly.
However, we were absolutely cracking along hitting well over 6 knots for long periods. The only problem being that the genoa kept having to be swapped from side to side as wind shifts led to a succession of gybes and it kept losing the wind and filling with a wince inducing crash.
A shower got me nice and soggy which I could have done without and then the double socket / USB extension lead packed up and to cap my misery the tiller pilot threw another wobbly and decided to go round in circles.
It's done this before and I'm harbouring a suspicion that the problem might be with the signal from the fluxgate compass so I'm gong to disconnect the Seatalk feed to the tiller pilot and run it as a standalone unit for a while.
That's assuming it will run at all since for the second time this week it's now decided not to come online when plugged in. We could do without the expense of replacing it right now but if we must, we must as it's a vital piece of equipment
Anyway, back to the sailing, hand steering now without the help of George ...
By the time we were abeam of St. Peters, I'd had enough of the constant problems of keeping the genoa filled and drawing and rolled it away. It cut our speed by a knot or so but it made life a lot less trying so it was a trade off I could happily live with.
As we cleared Sales Point and shaped up to cross the mouth of the Blackwater I decided I really didn't like the look of the weather bearing down on us. A line of ugly black clouds with heavy rain below, thunder and lightening above, and a rising wind all added up to trouble and it was coming our way.
I urgently skinned up despite being slightly soggy and got the main down and loosely lashed to the boom any old how. Twas done in the nick of time too as what the Coastguard described as a line squall (which having looked the term up indeed it was) hit.
The wind wasn't biblical, little more than F6 for the most part with one or two gusts of 7 plus but it was blowing straight down the Blackwater estuary and it was decidedly lumpy.
Worse though was the heavy rain. For a spell, I couldn't see very much at all and pretty much went around in circles until it eased off a bit. I felt it was probably unwise to try and get into the Colne in what was effectively zero visibility
By now Jane, having tolerated the rolling OK earlier, was feeling sick with the pitching and rolling. I don't know whether it made her feel better about it to learn later that Karen had felt queasy too.
We finally made it into harbour just ahead of Laurin who'd caught us up in the approaches. I'd been pretty sure I had them in sight all the way up the Ray'sn and now it was certain.
The harbour launches came out in response to our radio calls and led us to a spot on the smack pontoon with Laurin on the inside and Erbas rafted outside her
Such was my relief at getting in that I totally failed to consider the effects of the tide, which was now ebbing quite vigorously, and very nearly made a total hash of coming alongside. Yells and gestures from the harbour staff woke me up to reality in the nick of time though and I was slightly mollified to learn that Karen had done much the same thing!
The harbour master mentioned that my radio call sounded muffled and hard to read. I'm hoping it was water in the mic (a fair bit got blown in through the hatch) and not another expensive equipment failure
We were invited to dine aboard Laurin (again!) and nobody felt much inclined to bother about going ashore. We set about putting things to rights both above and below decks.
Actually, I think we're getting the hang of this lark as not a lot of stuff went flying around the cabin, which makes a change!
On deck was a different story though. First of all I got the cockpit tent up and rigged a drying line for our wet gear. Then I unfurled the genoa and wound it back up again as it had managed to end up looking like a blue and white barbers pole!
I left the mainsail loose for a while to dry off a bit whilst I re-rove the third reefing line which had somehow escaped the clutches of the clutches
With all the strings tidied away where they should be, I tidied up the mainsail and got the cover on and apart from the wet foulies there wasn't a sign left of the earlier excitement
Aboard Laurin then for a most welcome bowl or two (there was seconds!) of sausage casserole, chocolate gateau, beer and fine whisky
Oh and there might have been some oik playing the guitar and singing accompanied by some fine bashing of the tambourine and maracas (although AJ has yet to learn the art of subtlety when it comes to percussion but then again I've met many a drummer who never did!)
It's good to be out and about at last but to be honest if we'd known what the weather would chuck at us I think we'd still be in Burnham!
Looks like a reasonable couple of days to come now but Sunday isn't looking too clever which may curtail the cruise a day early.
However, Patrick had suddenly remembered that this week is West Mersea Regatta week and it'd be busy with all the visiting racing crews
The Laurins went of to do some shopping and wear out the kids whilst Jane and I set about turning Erbas back into a sailing boat instead of a floating cottage
When the Laurins returned AJ passed the message to give them five minutes then pop down to Laurin for coffee and planning
On arrival I was surprised and touched to find a birthday cake complete with candles (not quite 52 of them thankfully cos my poor old pickled lungs would never have coped), a card and a present.
It was a lovely thing to do and very much appreciated.
Our options were fairly limited by time and tide and we chose Brightlingsea as our destination.
We got going pronto as we expected to be somewhat slower than Laurin (with her greater waterline length and single keel she cruises at least a knot faster)
Out of the marina we found a reasonable Sou'westerly of 10 to 12 knots so up went the main straight away. The hoist went better this time with the reefing lines overhauled first but there's still a lot of friction in the setup which needs looking at.
Turning downriver it was out with the genoa and off with the engine. The breeze was a bit flukey though and our speed varied between 5 knots and just barely stemming the tide and then it died altogether so it was back on with the engine.
We spotted that Laurin had emerged on Boatbeacon which Karen had just downloaded before departing but she vanished again a couple of hours later (probably needs the keep awake option switching on)
With plenty of water we took the short cut close in around Holliwell Point. By now we were sailing again with a fairly stiff breeze from astern. There was quite a swell running and it was uncomfortably rolly.
However, we were absolutely cracking along hitting well over 6 knots for long periods. The only problem being that the genoa kept having to be swapped from side to side as wind shifts led to a succession of gybes and it kept losing the wind and filling with a wince inducing crash.
A shower got me nice and soggy which I could have done without and then the double socket / USB extension lead packed up and to cap my misery the tiller pilot threw another wobbly and decided to go round in circles.
It's done this before and I'm harbouring a suspicion that the problem might be with the signal from the fluxgate compass so I'm gong to disconnect the Seatalk feed to the tiller pilot and run it as a standalone unit for a while.
That's assuming it will run at all since for the second time this week it's now decided not to come online when plugged in. We could do without the expense of replacing it right now but if we must, we must as it's a vital piece of equipment
Anyway, back to the sailing, hand steering now without the help of George ...
By the time we were abeam of St. Peters, I'd had enough of the constant problems of keeping the genoa filled and drawing and rolled it away. It cut our speed by a knot or so but it made life a lot less trying so it was a trade off I could happily live with.
As we cleared Sales Point and shaped up to cross the mouth of the Blackwater I decided I really didn't like the look of the weather bearing down on us. A line of ugly black clouds with heavy rain below, thunder and lightening above, and a rising wind all added up to trouble and it was coming our way.
I urgently skinned up despite being slightly soggy and got the main down and loosely lashed to the boom any old how. Twas done in the nick of time too as what the Coastguard described as a line squall (which having looked the term up indeed it was) hit.
The wind wasn't biblical, little more than F6 for the most part with one or two gusts of 7 plus but it was blowing straight down the Blackwater estuary and it was decidedly lumpy.
Worse though was the heavy rain. For a spell, I couldn't see very much at all and pretty much went around in circles until it eased off a bit. I felt it was probably unwise to try and get into the Colne in what was effectively zero visibility
By now Jane, having tolerated the rolling OK earlier, was feeling sick with the pitching and rolling. I don't know whether it made her feel better about it to learn later that Karen had felt queasy too.
We finally made it into harbour just ahead of Laurin who'd caught us up in the approaches. I'd been pretty sure I had them in sight all the way up the Ray'sn and now it was certain.
The harbour launches came out in response to our radio calls and led us to a spot on the smack pontoon with Laurin on the inside and Erbas rafted outside her
Such was my relief at getting in that I totally failed to consider the effects of the tide, which was now ebbing quite vigorously, and very nearly made a total hash of coming alongside. Yells and gestures from the harbour staff woke me up to reality in the nick of time though and I was slightly mollified to learn that Karen had done much the same thing!
The harbour master mentioned that my radio call sounded muffled and hard to read. I'm hoping it was water in the mic (a fair bit got blown in through the hatch) and not another expensive equipment failure
We were invited to dine aboard Laurin (again!) and nobody felt much inclined to bother about going ashore. We set about putting things to rights both above and below decks.
Actually, I think we're getting the hang of this lark as not a lot of stuff went flying around the cabin, which makes a change!
On deck was a different story though. First of all I got the cockpit tent up and rigged a drying line for our wet gear. Then I unfurled the genoa and wound it back up again as it had managed to end up looking like a blue and white barbers pole!
I left the mainsail loose for a while to dry off a bit whilst I re-rove the third reefing line which had somehow escaped the clutches of the clutches
With all the strings tidied away where they should be, I tidied up the mainsail and got the cover on and apart from the wet foulies there wasn't a sign left of the earlier excitement
Aboard Laurin then for a most welcome bowl or two (there was seconds!) of sausage casserole, chocolate gateau, beer and fine whisky
Oh and there might have been some oik playing the guitar and singing accompanied by some fine bashing of the tambourine and maracas (although AJ has yet to learn the art of subtlety when it comes to percussion but then again I've met many a drummer who never did!)
It's good to be out and about at last but to be honest if we'd known what the weather would chuck at us I think we'd still be in Burnham!
Looks like a reasonable couple of days to come now but Sunday isn't looking too clever which may curtail the cruise a day early.
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