Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 7

Nobody was showing any enthusiasm for being up and about this morning so it was nearly lunch time before we had breakfast and considered our plans for the day

Once we got into gear we walked around the old harbour to the Kusttram (Coast Tram) station. For just five euros each we could enjoy unlimited travel for the day, including into the early hours of the following morning, on this excellent service that links all the Belgian coastal towns

Our objective was to visit the Oostende voor Anker festival and an hour or su later we found ourselves wandering around a veritable sea of boats



There was much to see and do but to be honest the weather was barely tolerable and we didn't hang about too long. Another time

We did stop off for coffee and I popped into the British Tobacco Shop in search of some cigars. I was happy to be sold a five pack of Cafe Creme Blue for twenty seven euro fifty, a fair price compared to at home, until I noticed that each tin was a good deal thicker than normal.

That's because they're tins of twenty not ten which means I've just paid about half what a hundred cigars would cost in the UK!

Back to Nieuwpoort on the Kusttram, we decided on a night in. We were all a bit damp, Rik had been struggling with a headache all day and I think I'm developing a cold.

So curry and rice followed by apple and custard filled us up a treat. Then we idled away the evening until bedtime

Tomorrow, we plan to explore the local area if the rain holds off. The weather is a worry for getting back to blighty though. I'm still hoping for Wednesday but it's going to depend on the sea conditions and the state of the crew

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 6

We left Gravelines as planned an hour or so before high water. An immediate problem became apparent with the engine morse control as the screw adjuster had worked itself loose again

Quick work with the screwdriver from the emergency toolkit sorted that out and we proceeded to sea with hardly a delay



Sailing past Dunkerque was not as evocative an experience as I expected. It was hard to relate the history of the mole and the beaches of Dunkirk to the modern industrial wasteland that you see today

In any case we were rather fully occupied with the hassles of sailing downwind with a following swell rolling us about all over the place.

At times we even rolled the genoa away altogether and sailed on just the reefed mainsail as we were comfortably making more than enough speed over the ground

Dodging the various sandbanks was easy enough with the chart plotter to show the way, I imagine it would have been quite stressful in the days before GPS

The French courtesy flag came down and the Belgian flag went up somewhere in the vicinity of the border by which time we were becoming aware of the huge number of sails up ahead

There were yachts galore on the horizon and they all seemed to be heading our way! I counted over forty before I gave up and that wasn't the half of it.

As we approached the entrance to Nieuwpoort, it became clear that the majority of the yachts in sight were beating up to and then rounding a mark a mile or so down the coast and then running back into the entrance to Nieuwpoort.

We were faced with wall to wall yachts effectively blocking the course into the harbour and I didn't feel inclined to go and test their understanding of the Colregs!

We were back to trying to slow down again just like the other day getting intimate Gravelines! However, this time we paid a high price as a gybe went awry and the mainsheet traveller smashed into the end stop of the track

That bodes to be another expensive repair but I've never been wild about the setup so at least now I can sort it out to my liking

We managed to insert ourselves into the pattern of arrivals but it was pretty insane with yachts of all sizes, big and small, piling into a narrow harbour entrance under full sail!

These Belgians certainly know how to handle their boats I must say but it was an incredibly stressful hour or so for this nervous English skipper!

Happily, I'd arranged our berth already via email so I didn't have the added hassle of contacting the relevant marina by VHF.

We came alongside nicely and I checked on whilst Rik and Jane squared things away. Dinner on board was followed by a couple of beers in the marina clubhouse



It's good stuff, this Belgian beer but I reckon I know why they're such brave sailors - they're all too ratted to care!

Tomorrow we plan to set off to explore Belgium by public transport. We plan to be here until Wednesday anyway as the weather is squiffy until then

When in Belgium... we sit and post blog entries.

30 May 2015 Passage Plan

Departing Gravelines 08:30UTC towards Nieuwpoort

ETA Nieuwpoort approx 15:00UTC

Alt ports: Dunkerque, Oostende

Forecast F4 gusting F6 SSW, fine, good, slight

Sandettie LV reporting 15kts Westerly and 0.5m wave height at 09:00UTC

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 5

There really isn't a lot to say about today

The weather forecast was a no go as I blogged earlier and none of us felt like doing much or going far in the conditions
So we've had a make and mend day, or in Rik's case a make and blow up day (the display controller on that development ships computer objected to a reversed polarity supply quite spectacularly)

Tomorrow looks reasonable for a trip up the coast to Nieuwpoort which should take us about six hours leaving at half past ten local time (an hour ahead of the UK)

29 May 2015 - The Weather

I mentioned in last nights post that the weather was likely to influence our plans today and that I'd post more about it later. Well here is the news ...

Let's look at the surface pressure analysis for 15:00UTC this afternoon ...

 The Azores High is, as always, down in the South West of the picture. The kicker is the Low centred between Shetland and Faeroe and the ridge of low pressure extending down the North Sea. That ridge is squeezing the isobars over South East England and the Northern French and Belgian coasts. Let's look at the surface wind forecast for the same time ...

 

I've chosen 15:00UTC as it presents the clearest picture but 12:00 doesn't look a lot better! If we left for Niuepoort today as I'd hoped we would we'd be arriving around 14:00UTC. Hmmm!

That splash of yellow sits squarely along the coast we want to sail along. It indicates surface winds of 30 to 35 knots. That's F7 to F8 otherwise known as a near gale or yachtsmans gale. And it will be gusting harder than that.

Let's have a look at the shipping forecast ...

Dover
 

Gale warnings - Issued: 0340 UTC Fri 29 May
Southwesterly severe gale force 9 expected soon

Shipping Forecast - Issued: 0405 UTC Fri 29 May

Wind:     Southwest veering west 4 or 5, increasing 7 to severe gale 9 for a time.
Sea state:     Slight or moderate, becoming rough for a time.
Weather:     Rain for a time.
Visibility:     Good, occasionally poor.

That puts a tin lid on it. My rule is no departure if a gale warning is in force. We stay put for today.

Tomorrow looks hopeful though. However all the signs and portents are that we'll then be stuck in Belgium until at least Wednesday. More on that anon

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 4

Even I arose quite late this morning. Only just in time, in fact, to catch the dockmaster who pointed me in the direction of the bureau (office) to book in

After a coffee, I duly booked in and paid for two nights and then we set about breakfast.



That was followed by a shower and me coffee for the skipper whilst the purser raided Lidls for supplies and the mate played with the software for the ships computer

Some mirth and merriment was occasioned by the purser returning with a bag of flour rather than the intended bag of sugar!

Then we set off to explore the town. It's a nice enough place but very very quiet. A good long walk quite wore us out and we were glad to return on board for a late lunch and a snooze.



Further raiding parties acquired the necessary sugar and some tea bags before we set off to the bar at the marina for a meal.

That too was nice enough but if I'm totally honest I don't think any of us is overwhelmed by the experience of being in France so far. It's pleasant but then so are lots of places in England!

Gravelines is a bit like Ramsgate really. It's OK, I'd come here again if it fitted my passage plans but I can't say as it would feature on my "must go there again" list

Never the less, it looks like we'll be here for another day anyway because the weather tomorrow isn't looking too good.

I'll blog the detailed debate about plans for the rest of the trip later though

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 3

We'd had some doubts about today's plans overnight. The weather forecast wasn't great especially going through the next few days to the weekend for starters

And I'd struggled to get my head around the navigation for the cross channel passage too. Fatigue played a part for sure and I'd decided to leave it until this morning.

And lo, this morning everything looked much different. The weather was fine, the forecast was fine and the nav worked out neatly without the angst of the previous evening

A leisurely departure from Ramsgate heading out to the NE Goodwin to clear the sands once known as "Ye Shippe Swallower" thence to the nautical equivalent of the M1 motorway, then head straight for the French port of Gravelines

The timings worked nicely to put us off Gravelines, which is a tidal harbour, about an hour before high water.

We set off at bang on ten as planned and motored out of Ramsgate. There was very little wind and a brief attempt at sailing was abandoned. We motor sailed, or to be honest really just motored all the way across to within sight of the French coast

The breeze was picking up at last and we got her sailing beautifully. The only problem we had was that our Eta off Gravelines was a good hour too early.

A reef in the genoa hardly slowed us at all, the breeze got up a bit more to negate our attempt to slow down!

We reefed down further and further ending up with barely half the genoa set and two reefs in the main and still she wouldn't slow down!

Short of taking a Stanley knife to the sails we tried everything but she was still making over five knots through the water! By now the breeze was up around the 20 knot mark and staying there

We arrived within half a mile of the entrance to Gravelines at exactly half tide. The passage pilot had urged no sooner than two hours before high water but Reeds reckoned HW-3 would go so in we went

With the sails down, we motored in cautiously with a strong tide setting across the entrance one way and a stiff breeze blowing across the entrance the other. It was interesting to say the least

Once in the channel all became calm and we gently motored through the town and around the corner to the basin

There was no answer to our VHF calls to the marina but a boat was clearly waiting to go in and as I jilled about wondering what to do the basin gates opened

In we went to tie up to the visitor pontoon although we only just got onto the end, there wasn't enough water further along.

Jane and I went looking for someone to book in with. A friendly French motorboater pointed us in the direction of the office but there was nobody there

Back to the boat, we tidied up and put a harbour stow on everything and then Rik took a turn ashore to seek milk and bread.

That too was an unsuccessful expedition so we ate on board and raided the No1 Beer Hold

Tomorrow we'll definitely stay here and explore

(Unfortunately, the tracking bug failed to track, the backup phone app didn't work either and Boatbeacon decided to turfn itself off half way across. So we won't have a track log of our first cross channel passage)

Some photos...





Rik has loads more when we can copy them

27 May 2015 Passage Plan

Departing Ramsgate 09:00UTC (10:00BST) towards Gravelines, France

ETA Gravelines 18:00UTC (20:00 local)

Alt ports: Calais, Dunkerque, Dover

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 2

We set out from the Brankfleet just after seven this morning. We eventually sailed off the anchor although we had some difficulty with the chain jamming in the chain pipe

I was, despite the jam, very happy to find that with the new batteries the voltage drop problem we previously had is no more

We had an excellent sail off the wind down the Whitaker and past the Barrow down to the South West Sunk. Poling out the genoa worked better than ever after I rigged a downhaul onto the pole to stop it kicking up.

However, the instant we turned to port to cross the swatchway over the Sunk Sands the wind died to nothing and we had to start the engine

It made sense to keep the power on until we cleared the waypoint at Fisherman's Gat and turned south towards the North Foreland.

We were reaching along nicely playing dodgems with the shipping until the wind died off the headland. We jilled about and sure enough it came back but from an entirely different direction!

That left us with a beat down to Ramsgate whence we arrived to find the paddle steamer Medway Queen exiting under tow...



We also encountered half a dozen environmentally friendly high speed catamarans on their way back from servicing the offshore wind farms!

Into Ramsgate in the end we sorted ourselves out after a very decent if moderately challenging passage



Jane cooked us dinner and then we went in search of a decent pint. That mission proved successful so we had a second!

The weather doesn't look good from tomorrow evening for a couple of days so we're unsure of our plans for tomorrow. The default option is to nip down to Dover

26 May 2015 Passage Plan

Departing Brankfleet anchorage, River Roach, Essex before 07:00BST towards Ramsgate via SW Sunk swatchway

ETA Ramsgate 16:00BST

Alternates: Return to R. Crouch, R. Swale

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Day 1

The day started out badly with the realisation that some shit had stolen our RIB and outboard in the night

The cost and inconvenience of replacing them is something we could have well done without.

Fortunately, it's most unlikely we'd have wanted to use the outboard on this cruise and we do have the inflatable dinghy on board which can be pressed into service as a temporary tender when we get back

All the hassle of reporting the theft to the police, the harbour authority and our insurance company wasted most of the morning.

Eventually, we got stuck in to getting ready to depart! Happily, the plan for today was always to just drop downriver and anchor overnight in the entrance to the River Roach

We let go about half an hour before high water late afternoon and soon set sail and stopped the engine. The wind was somewhat flaky but we made moderate progress as far as Creeksea

The wind had dropped to next to nothing and the evening was becoming chilly so we fired up the engine and got a move on.
Jane got dinner on the stove under way and we were soon at anchor and ready for a feast of gammon, veg and mash

Then it was time to plan for the morrow. None of us felt wildly enthusiastic about a very long day, perhaps as much as fifteen hours or more, to go straight across the North Sea so we decided unanimously to head for Ramsgate

That calls for an 07:00BST departure and should take nine or ten hours. We'll lose the mobile phone network for a time in the middle of the trip so we'll disappear off Boatbeacon etc for several hours

With the key waypoints dialed in to the chart plotter, we investigated the engine cooling system which we felt wasn't chucking out quite as much water as it should. It seems to be just the cockpit telltale that is a bit drippy, but we'll keep a close eye on things tomorrow

Finally, after checking the tides and depths one last time, I set the anchor alarm and we all headed for our berths

North Fambridge River Festival

Cruise to Furrin Parts Prelude Day 4 (Sunday)

Today was the reason we'd delayed our departure on our Cruise.

Tony and Shelagh arrived with the van full of PA kit and set about setting up the stage.

Meanwhile I sorted out my set lists and what have you.

Jane was unimpressed when she awoke, having been left to have a lie in, that one of us had inadvertently locked her in the v-berth! She had to climb out of the forward hatch and back in through the companionway!

Then it was time for me to go on stage...



That went OK for a first gig in several years.

Overall, the whole day went very well. It definitely has great potential

When the police launch departed after the show was over, I fetched Erbas alongside and then we snaffled a table for an early dinner in the pub.

Back to the boat then for more beer and chat and thus the day came to an end

Tomorrow we need to get ourselves ready for the off and drop downriver for an early start on Tuesday

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Prelude Day 3

(Saturday)

It was an odd sort of day. Lots of coming and going, to-ing and fro-ing, and not a lot achieved really!

We had the arrival of barges, smacks and gaffers all day as a major distraction plus the need to move off the pontoon onto our mooring for the duration of the event

Then Jane and I set out on a fresh supplies expedition to Maldon by horseless carriage.

Rik arrived a little later around lunchtime and the next time we looked at the clock it was time for dinner!

Jane cooked us a delicious beef stew and dumplings followed by chocolate sponge cake after which we repaired to the pub by dinghy.

And that was that!

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Prelude Day 2

A busy day today.

Main order of business was business. Fitting a new Raymarine i40 Bidata instrument head to a customers boat finally resolved a bit of a saga with their depth sounder.

In the meantime, there was much to-ing and fro-ing with boats being shuffled from the pontoon to the mud berths, from the pontoon onto buoys and the arrival of the vanguard of the Old Gaffers

The major excitement was the arrival of Vic 96...



She rivals our resident Thames Sailing Barge Ironsides in the big budget stakes!

By the end of the afternoon, Erbas was just about the most modern boat left on the pontoon! (Although there's a plastic gaffer that's considerably newer than us!)

We'll shuffle of onto our mooring in the morning to make way for more of these gaffery boats. I did debate hoisting the spinnaker pole up the mast and claiming it was a gaff but I doubt it'd fool anyone!

Back end of the afternoon I took our RIB for a run up to Brandy Hole, a couple of miles upriver, and back to run our mate Nigel back to get his car. He's moved his boat down to Fambridge today and taken up residence

Back aboard, I fired up the full size guitar for a good practice session in preparation for Sunday which went OK. Still a bit raw and rusty here and there but it isn't going to get much better now!

By the time I'd scared of the seagulls for several miles around, Jane and Glen arrived having had a pretty good journey down for a Friday evening, let alone a bank holiday weekend.

We promptly repaired to the pub for beer and grub both of which were in fine fettle. A rum enhanced coffee back aboard finished the evening in fine style

Cruise to Furrin Parts - Prelude Day 1

It's always the way when you're self employed, the work stacks up when you want to take time off!

Never the less, at the moment I don't have the flexibility to change the plans for the cruise as Jane cannot change her holiday booking and Rik is involved to.

So I've headed back down to Fambridge a day early so that I can tackle at least some of the more urgent jobs.

With the need to transport both my work kit and our personal kit for a two week cruse, the new Peckett Marine trailer has had its first outing. Whilst it slows me down somewhat that's really no bad thing and it's only fifteen or twenty minutes on the journey.

I checked in at the Yacht Station on arrival. The pontoon was rather full and the guys were all very busy putting in some temporary pontoons on the mud berths ready for Sunday's festival

Round to the marina, I nipped in to our lock store and chucked the outboard and oars in the trailer. Then I shifted our personal gear on board and folded up the cockpit tent temporarily.

A quick little job came my way which meant nipping back round to the yacht station. It turned out to be a simple matter of not having the right switches on and too many lights on one circuit. Still, it paid for a couple of beers and got me a lift back to the marina!

A word in the right places had us out on the travel hoist for a quick jetwash...



Most of the weed was, as I suspected, on the waterline but there was sufficient weed and barnacles on the bottom to make a marked difference to our performance.

The only drawback of having a quick scrub now is that it has taken off a lot of the active antifoul and it's almost inevitable that we'll have to come out for a couple of days in a few weeks time as she'll foul up pretty quickly now.

Still, that's a price I'm prepared to pay for decent performance while we're away. Dragging a load of marine growth all over the North Sea isn't my idea of fun!

I managed to back Erbas out of the travel hoist without making a spectacle of myself and motored round to the yacht station. Happily, with a clean bottom and prop, Erbas was trotting along very nicely hitting five and a half knots at 2600rpm.

With the only gap amongst the moored boats being somewhat less than Erbas size, Toby had suggested rafting outside the Dutch Barge on the upstream end of the outside of the pontoon.

However, I had a better idea! Orca was moored on the inside and I'm working on her tomorrow so I rafted up to her instead.

My next task was to sort out our tender which hasn't been used since last autumn. I fetched the oars, outboard and pump down from the car and set about pumping up the tubes.

They didn't need a great deal but search as I might I couldn't find the adaptor for the pump. The pump lives in the boot of the car permanently but of the adaptor there was no sign. Eventually, I resorted to wrapping self amalgamating tape around the pump nozzle which worked surprisingly well.

It was only when I removed the cap off the other tube that I discovered the adaptor stuck in the valve! It must have remained there unnoticed the last time the pump was used.

Then it was back to the boat for the can of petrol which happily I remembered to add some 2 stroke oil to.

Then it was back to the car for the kill cord which lives in the dashboard storage space.

Then, at last, I fired up the outboard. Or at least I did when, after several unsuccessful heaves, I remembered to turn on the fuel tap!

I popped out to our mooring to check the buoy tail that I'd noticed was on it. It had wrapped itself around the chain and I couldn't shift it.

No big deal, I later asked Toby if they could sort it en passant tomorrow as I expect to have to vacate the pontoon for the weekend due to the imminent arrival of numerous old gaffers, sailing barges and steam victualling vessels all of which are, unbelievably, deemed more attractive to the public than Erbas!



I finally got to stop for five minutes and make a coffee. Then it was time to decide between eating on board or heading for the pub. The pub won!

Days of endless fun

I didn't get around to posting last night so it's two for the price of one.

Yesterday, I spent the morning faffing around with things that didn't amount to much yet.

Then I nipped down to Burnham to pick up a couple of bits I needed although I couldn't get everything I wanted so that little job is stalled until next weekend to

Whilst there, I spotted my friends Landy in the car park and popped down to say hello. That turned into coffee, which turned into getting their i-Pad working on their WiFi AIS which turned into lunch

Back at Fambridge rather later than intended, I got the second coat of Woodskin on the exterior woodwork. It's looking much much better although it really wants a light sanding and another couple of coats. No time for that now

Then I heated up some chilli con carne and rice before wandering down to the yacht station to see who was about. A quick chat with Patrick on "Orca" established that his new depth head won't arrive until midweek. Whether there'll be time to fit it before we go away is the question

Stopping off at the pub for a pint, just the one, I headed back for an early night.

Today, once the coffee kicked in, was more businesslike. Well, more business anyway!

I started off by making up a Garmin GPS to USB conversion lead and testing it. Shortly after finishing it, the customer was on board his boat and I finished the job of installing the driver on his laptop and configuring his software

He's returning to sailing after a long absence and I'd said I'd pop out with him for an hour or two to hold his hand on his first sailing trial of his little pocket cruiser but unfortunately that wasn't to be as I was waiting on a potential customer to arrive to discuss what they needed doing

They were a little later than expected and by the time we'd discussed and agreed the job we'd missed the tide for a sail (the cheap finger berths are only accessible above half tide)

Back on Erbas for the afternoon, I did a bit of painting of the cockpit seats forward of the locker lids. The seat tops at that spot are where you naturally step getting on and off the boat and the paintwork was looking very shabby

The whole deck needs a repaint really but a rolling programme of touching up the worst bits will have to do for now

With the Fambridge River Festival gigette fast approaching the guitar came out again as it has most evenings of late. Then it was time for a spot of dinner and an evening of distracting myself by posting drivel on Facebook!

Tomorrow is the last day, I've got to be back in Kettering on Tuesday as the car is poorly. I was going to go down to Limehouse to finish a job but I think that might be unwise as I'm concerned about the increasingly dodgy sounding wheel bearing. I think I've got no option but to nurse it home at a steady pace and hope I don't need Green Flag to finish the journey!

That leaves me with something of a dilemma with three outstanding jobs that ideally need doing before we go away and not enough days left to do them. I'll try and work out a solution to that tomorrow!

Sun, sea and varnish

After waking up at silly o clock yesterday, I reversed the trend today and didn't stir until nearly nine

It was a lovely morning, much better than forecast and I cracked on with the last of the sanding and then set about the first coat of Woodskin

The effort was worthwhile, the woodwork looks a million times better already and there's at least one if not two more coats to go on

That done, I set about having a bit of a tidy up but part way through I was distracted by the sight of the boat a couple of pontoons over hauling his anchor windlass down the deck

A wander over and a chat led to my fetching the tools to remove the cover and have a look at its internals. No obvious sign of a reason for it to be defunct so I pointed the owner in the direction of the nearest electric motor menders and we repaired to the bar for a beer

The beer turned into quite a few beers and some grub! There endeth the day :)

A rainy day in paradise

Well, Essex ain't so bad if you avoid Bluewater!

For some unknown reason I was awake by 4am and after trying to get off the sleep again unsuccessfully gave up and put the kettle on

The day dawned to a clear blue sky but it wasn't to last. By the time I was ready to stir my stumps it had clouded over and the forecast rain due at lunchtime was clearly inpatient to arrive.

I'd hoped to be working today but the job hadn't materialised so I set about turning Erbas around and mooring her stern first so I could sand the rubbing strakes at the stern and to port

With the other half of the finger berth we've been in all winter occupied by a decent sized motorboat, it was easier to sneak into the vacant pair of berths two over.

This will also enable me to pull her across from one finger to the other even when the tide is low (at this end of the marina, although we usually stay afloat, access into the berths isn't on for about two hours either side of high water)

That done, I set about the stern rubbing strake with the sander and then moved onto the port side. I didn't get far before the rain arrived and put a stop to exterior work.

The lack of sleep led to a spell of fitful dozing but it wasn't helping much so I made a move and headed to Maplins in Chelmsford. I needed the bits to knock up an NMEA to USB connector for the chap a few berths down from us and whilst there I picked up a couple of switches for a little mod to our own wiring.

By the time I got back to Fambridge the rain was clearly set in for the day and I settled down to read a book then later put in a practice session on the travel guitar.

A sandwich sufficed for tea, I'd had a canned breakfast and several snacks so didn't feel like cooking and then it was back to the book.

The rain eventually eased off just after ten and I was able to nip out on deck to deal with a squeaky fender and tapping flag halyard

Hopefully, the weather will improve tomorrow and I can get the sanding finished and the first coat of Woodskin on.

Despite a certain amount of Michael taking from the local sailing barge fraternity ( :)), I prefer a bit of brightwork to the dull look of untreated teak and once done the annual maintenance of it will be nothing compared to the half an acre of teak inside that needs regular attention!

A frustrating day.

A dusty afternoon in Essex

I had no particular need to rush so sorted out a few things at home before hitting the road late morning.

The overhead signs on the A14 were warning of long delays between Huntingdon and Cambridge and the sat nav confirmed the bad news so I diverted onto the back roads to pick up the B645 to St Neots.

That made for a slower than usual journey but not as slow as getting stuck in ten miles of stationary traffic would have been!

Arriving on board, I picked up a phone call about a job on a boat here in the marina and arranged to have a look on Sunday morning. I'm hanging around until then waiting on parts and news of possible jobs.

I was disappointed to discover that I'd narrowly missed the raising of the mast on the Thames Sailing Barge Ironsides, I'd hoped to get involved with that cos I'm a sucker for anything traditional!

The sun was out and the day was warm so I decided to get stuck in to sanding down the exterior woodwork. The really good scrub I gave everything last week revealed how shabby it was all getting.

The palm sander I picked up cheap in B&Q the other day made the bulk of the job much quicker and after about four hours I'd dealt with everything I could get at with it bar the port rubbing strake. I'll have to turn the boat round to get at that

I was aware of one dodgy spot on the starboard rubbing strake and when I'd sanded off the grunge and gunk, it revealed itself to be worse than I'd hoped. About six inches of strake to one side of a scarf has two cracks either side of the screw now barely holding it in place.

It probably needs cutting out and a new section scarfing in but that's too big a job to tackle right now so I injected fast setting epoxy as deep into the cracks add I could and held it all together while it set. Being wise to the ways of glue, I kept moving my fingers to ensure that Erbas and I didn't become permanently attached!

Once the epoxy had set off, it was out with the wood filler to make good as best as I could. It won't be perfect and it isn't a permanent fix but it'll hopefully see is through this season.

By half five I'd had enough and I was feeling hungry. With rain forecast for the morrow, I put the spray hood and cockpit tent back up. It's not so big a job once you know how it goes

If the rain holds off, the next job is hand sanding all the bits the power sander can't get at.

With the boat back together, I toddled off to the yacht station and made a nuisance of myself for a while watching Toby sorting out the rigging on the barge. Everything is massive compared to a yacht (the rig alone weighs well nigh double the displacement of Erbas)

Then it was off to the pub for grub and a couple of pints before heading back on board for an early night

Victualling Weekend Days 2 & 3

I'd had a bad night with indigestion which kept me awake until four in the morning. The only thing I've found that settles this bad stomach I get one in a while is good old Andrews Liver Salts.

In the end, I got up, put on my trousers and went in search of some. Asda in South Woodham Ferrets, which I could have sworn was 24 hour (I've certainly shopped there around 5am) was shut so I ended up at the big Tesco in Maldon

That sorted out the problem and I managed about three hours sleep before Jane arose

The big mission for the day on Saturday was to go through all the lockers and make a list of dry stores needed

Then it was off to Morrisons in Maldon to fill a trolley up. We tend to go a bit over the top on ships stores so we deliberately restricted ourselves to a small trolley!

Whilst there, I refilled the diesel cans at the garage.

Back aboard we organised and stowed the galley stores and checked all the lockers. I also reorganised the two lockers above the starboard settee to combine the contents of the two of them into one locker (with a few items to go elsewhere) as the aft of those two lockers is supposed to be for the use of crew sleeping in the saloon.

Then, to my surprise, the entire contents of the two cans went into the diesel tank. That's 34 litres into a nominal 55 litre tank. The gauge was at about 3/4 when I started filling, the first 17l took it to full, the second to the stop and beyond. The tank isn't brimmed yet although it must be close.

So it looks as though, roughly, when the gauge drops off the stop to the full mark we're probably already down a third of the tank at least. It's not a problem, I just need to work out what the gauge is telling me! I do know it's non-linear because, as the previous owner did warn us, the tank is tapered.

More diesel will be procured when I'm back down for work next week.

By the time all that had been done, it was time to get dinner on. Jane cooked us a delicious lamb casserole which we washed down with a slightly disappointing bottle of Aussie red. Drinkable but not great. (I think I'll get online and order up half a case, or even a case, of our favourite red)

We followed that up with a chocolate sponge pud topped with strawberries and cream. Decadent or what!

I'd downloaded the final episode of Poldark on the laptop and we sat down to watch it. I thought it a bit of a weak finale given how good the series has been. Not sure why, it just wasn't gripping. Hey ho, series two should follow next year and is been a good watch.

We weren't overly late to bed so I was surprised to find it was half past eight when I awoke on Sunday. There was no time for breakfast, we had things to do!

Jane needed a shower to save time later so she headed off to the facilities whilst I offloaded what needed to come off the boat and made a trip to our lock store.

Things not needed went in, the No.2 jib, which we've never tried, came out. That went into the port sail locker because I intend to give it a try while we're away.

Then it was tidy up and shut down before hitting the road to Braintree via a stop for coffee and scoff.

The diversion was to pick up a box trailer from my brothers friend John. They're both members of Essex waterway recovery group and the groups work trailer had become surplus to requirements. It's ideal for my business needs and will serve nicely in place of a van.



We finally made it home around two on the afternoon leaving Jane very little time to catch some sleep before work.

I'll be back aboard before the end of the week and then we're off on the big adventure in a fortnight. Oh and there's the small matter of my first gig in four years at the Fambridge River Festival a week on Sunday!

Victualling Weekend Day 1

After a surprisingly swift run down to Essex for a Friday morning, we got our heads down for a few hours sleep.

Or at least Jane did, I couldn't get beyond a bit of a doze and when the phone rang about some upcoming work I gave up and put the kettle on

First order of business after coffee was to install the new batteries



It's not terribly exciting really as they are identical to the old ones! However, this pair takes and holds a charge nicely

After further coffee, I set about removing the sprayhood and laying out out flat on the pontoon. It's gone a bit green over the winter but a good scrub with detergent sorted that out. I'll give it a dose of biocide spray tomorrow to finish the job off



With the hood off, I could get at the areas that are hard to clean with it in place. A good scrubbing cleaned things up nicely but one thing led to another and I ended up somewhat damp a couple of hours later wuth a very clean deck from stem to stern!

Jane had arisen by now and expressed herself in need of sustenance so we popped up the road for some bread and cheese plus the makings of breakfast for the morning.

By the time we got back, rain was setting in so I quickly got the cockpit tent up whilst Jane made us a round of cheese sarnies.

My next job was to polish the steering compass which had gone a bit opaque over the winter



It came up a treat with the special plastic polish but as commented by our friend Jim toothpaste would have done the job!

Another friend, Colin, pointed me at the page on the Force 4 site for the cover. I hadn't realised you could still get the covers so we'll have one of them

The final task of the afternoon was to pour the contents of the two diesel cans into the tank. It's still not quite full so I'll need to make two visits to the garage tomorrow as I want it brimmed before we head out on a fortnight

Then it was time to chill out for an hour or two before heading to the pub for grub and a couple of drinks.

A little bit of insurance ...

That could have been a nuisance! I had a query on our insurance coverage as it wasn't clear whether it covers a direct crossing of the Southern North Sea so I rang the nice people at GJW.

The answer to my question was "yes, you're covered for any direct passage that starts and ends within the cruising area" so a passage from anywhere South of the Elbe to anywhere on the East Coast is no problem

However, the nice lady at GJW noticed that we're not insured for the inland waterways of Europe. We're not planning on going Inland however if the weather was bad it is in my back pocket as a means of making progress down the coast to shorten the route back over to the UK

So by lightening my wallet to the tune of £17.50 we're now covered for the inland waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands (I didn't bother with France as that would mean dropping the mast for certain and I can't see it arising. If it did, a quick phone call would sort it)

PS. Before anyone asks, the VHF is already programmed for ATIS!