Not the Late Summer Cruise - catchup

My apologies dear reader, I have been remiss in keeping the blog up to date.

In fact, it seems to be becoming a bit of a habit this year and to be honest, when we're not actually getting to do very much sailing, I'm drifting towards a tendency to update a little less frequently than before by writing longer posts that cover several days activity, or sometimes inactivity, in one fell swoop

Anyway, here's how the rest of our five day mini-break panned out ...

You'll recall that on Saturday we backed out of the drying finger berth and moved back onto the river pontoon for a day or two. This was so that we could improve the berth by digging out the remains of an old pre-WW1 hard from beneath the keels

James, of the barge Jan Steen, had kindly offered to help and I donned my never yet used cheap Aldi waders and into the mud we went armed with a spade and a pickaxe.

The spade proved ineffective at shifting the mud and the pickaxe handle broke! James went on a foraging mission and liberated an old shovel from somewhere in the yard and a crowbar from the long grass!

With these more effective tools we were able to dig down to the surface of the old hard and remove the stone slabs that formed its surface. Beneath the stone was a layer of compacted clunch (a chalky soft limestone) laid over the bed clay which had been corduroyed with branches of hazel.

Possibly to stop the whole construction sliding down the bank during construction, occasional vertical planks had been driven into the clay and then cut off flush with the paving slabs. Unfortunately, one of these planks was right under where our starboard keel would land. It had the potential to punch through the bottom of the boat and therefore had to be removed.

No amount of digging would shift it without excavating a dangerously deep hole in the mud.

I resorted to drilling a hole through the plank and attaching a line to attempt to pull it vertically from the mud but that was unsuccessful too. James came up with the cunning wheeze of tying the line off to the nearest cleat on the finger pontoon and letting the rising tide do the work. It took three tide cycles with the line being shortened up each time but eventually the plank gave up the unequal struggle and emerged from the mud.

Nice piece of mahogany it is too! It's been put to one side to dry out and something might be made of it.

The end result of our labours may not look that impressive but it was hard work shifting those slabs from under nearly three feet of mud!

It is interesting to consider than when the hard was built, somewhat more than a century ago by the original Fambridge Yacht Club, there must have been a lot less silting on the river than today.

(Fambridge Yacht Club became moribund during the First World War. Many years later, a timber jetty was constructed on top of the old hard, suggesting that silting had by then rendered the hard itself unusable. That, in turn, was replaced by the current floating hammerhead to which our finger berth is attached)

By the time I'd finished, it had started to rain and I'd had enough fun for one day! After a rest and a shower to clean off the mud, Jane and I toddled off up to the pub for a meal and a drink.

Monday dawned pleasantly enough but windy. And windy and occasionally rainy it was set to stay until at least mid-week. We therefore set about a job that's needed doing for a while, cleaning and oiling the woodwork in the forward cabin.


Nearly a day of scrubbing, rinsing, drying and oiling improved the look of things greatly (although within a few days it became clear that more oil would be needed

The main cabin woodwork will also need oiling this season but it shouldn't need the drastic cleaning treatment

Tony and Shelagh arrived for their summer holiday later in the day and joined us aboard Erbas for dinner

And thus did Monday pass.

Tuesday involved an emergency call-out to Limehouse. Given that the weather was pants it was no great hardship to go and earn some pennies even though technically we were supposed to be on holiday. Back aboard by mid-afternoon we just chilled out, ate on board and had an early night.

With the day lost to work, it was now essential that we got back onto the berth on the Wednesday morning high tide. This we did albeit only just! The starboard keel carved a spectacular groove in the mud as the strong breeze got hold of the boat and blew her further up the bank than I'd intended.

It also confirmed my guesstimate that anything less than a 4.5m tide would be too little for us to reliably get on and off the mooring. As there are only a handful of tides lower than that a month it isn't a problem. However, with an almost inevitably deeper draught boat in the future, we'll be more restricted

I was a little concerned that, with the excavations to try and remove the plank, she'd now heel over to starboard and lean on the finger however she happily settled with just a trace of a list to port still. More importantly, she was now sitting down on the mud rather than resting on her keels and the difference in height between floating and dried out relative to the pontoon was much reduced.

Over the next couple of tides, she settled even more upright and there I think matters can lie until Bigger Boat makes an appearance. It's quite likely that we'll need to carry out further improvements at that time but we now know it can be done.

Jane then had a muddy time of filling the water tanks. She's never done it herself before and expressed a sensible desire to learn how in case she needs to do it when I'm not about. The muddy bit came from managing to drop the hose over the side of the pontoon! To be fair, it's a bit of a nuisance at the moment and I need to organise the hoses better - we have to use an extension as the reel hose isn't quite long enough. 

The crew of Pleinair returned the compliment of Monday by providing dinner followed by drinks and annoying Shelagh by the boys beating the girls 2-0 at cribbage (she plays for a Crib team too!!!)

Thursday involved the trek back to Kettering to drop Jane off and pick up the Peckett Marine trailer and then the trek all the way back to Fambridge again. I need the trailer down there next week and it means I can go straight from home to Limehouse on Tuesday morning without a time wasting diversion to Fambridge on the way.

Back at Fambridge, with the berth now satisfactory, I grabbed the chance of a lift round to the marina with Tony and made the arrangement a permanent one.

Tomorrow would be Toby's last day at work at Fambridge and arrangements had been made for a bunch of us to meet up in the pub to wish the Ironsides crew farewell and good luck with their new life in Faversham. The evening duly passed in beer and, after I'd foolishly been persuaded (not that I ever take much persuading) to go and fetch the guitar, song


And then Friday involved me sorting out on board to leave Erbas for a few days and making the trek, once again, all the way back to Kettering due to a change of plans for the weekend. It was a dire journey with an accident on the A12 causing tailbacks on the A130 and then traffic at a standstill when I arrived at the M11

With diversions through Chelmsford and a cross-country route from Bishops Stortford to St. Neots and thence via the back lanes to the A14 ten miles from home I made it in just under four hours but avoided all of the chaos on the motorways and dual carriageway

Next week I begin what is shaping up to be a working marathon which will probably last until mid to late October. Whether we get to do any more sailing this season is looking doubtful although Jane has put a marker down that she wants to make it to the ECF Laying Down Supper this year as she's fed up with missing out on the social side as she so often does due to work

Not the late summer cruise 2015 - Saturday

This is expected to be our last holiday of 2015 as we move into the autumn and winter and focus on redecorating the house and tidying the garden to maximise the selling price and thus our budget for Bigger Boat.

On that front, we've had a bit of a revelation as we hear that next door may have sold for close to the asking price which we thought was six or seven grand too high

Anyway, to get back to immediate matters ...

We drove down after Jane finished work and whilst she went to bed I set off to Limehouse to investigate an odd fault on a customers boat. It took some serious head scratching but I got to the bottom of it in the end! The customer has wisely decided to hey me in to sort out the rather confusing battery bank arrangements which will be added to my growing list of work for September

The afternoon drive back to Fambridge came to an abrupt halt on the A13 but I was able to duck off at the tail end of what looked like an adult long queue of stationary traffic.

That took me to within a mile of the Essex village of Orsett from whence one of my ancestors originated and where another is buried. A half hour was passed wandering around the graveyard but nothing was to be found.

Back on board, the easterly stiff breeze was kicking up some action on the water which was rather noisy as the wavelets slammed into our static hull. As soon as we floated, we fired up the donk and on the second attempt backed surprising neatly out of the berth, swung around and then executed a rather neat ferry glide onto the river pontoon

The purpose of moving wasn't actually the weather, I want to do a bit of improving work on the berth when the ride is out tomorrow. Initial objective is to get Erbas to sit upright so the galley sink drains! Longer term, I want to find out exactly what is under the mud and whether the berth is going to be viable with a longer and deeper draughted boat

That done, we nipped out to the local shop for supplies and then Jane cooked us a delicious Chicken Chasseur which went down very well as did the beer that followed it.

Jane retired early having struggled to sleep in the heat during the day whilst I streamed the England v France rugby match on the laptop. The less said about that, the better.

The weather for the next few days does not look promising at all. We had hoped to get out round to the Blackwater but unless it turns out better than forecast we may not even get out of Fambridge!

Bigger Boat update

As mentioned, this morning we had a good look at a Southerly 105 up for sale in Burnham

As the broker later commented, nobody ever fell in love with a Southerly, they are utterly devoid of charm and character!

However, the design is very clever and it ticks a lot of our boxes.

The 105 doesn't suffer quite as much from the rudder stalling problems of the later 100s and 115s as it has the original design of lifting deep rudder. As a sailing boat the performance isn't great but it's generally reckoned adequate.

It's the substantial lifting keel that's one of the great attractions for us. No problem with the mud berth or with drying out in creeks or drying harbours with a Southerly. On paper, the interior has a lot going for it with an inside helming position, a very decent sized galley, good heads, plenty of sitting and lounging space in the saloon, a forecabin that's eminently usable by two singletons and a private aft cabin with a walkthough from behind the galley

However, in reality we identified a number of critical flaws.

That inside helm position would be hopeless in any sort of sea. Your basically perched on a cushion high up with no lateral support and nothing to keep you in place if the boat was rolling or pitching. It looks good on paper but is, we reckoned, of little practical use without some serious modification.

Jane identified a similar problem with the galley. There's no hand holds and nowhere to wedge yourself in. Just trying to make a hot drink or a cup of soup in any sort of sea would be a real challenge. Not easy to resolve either although no doubt something could be done.

The aft cabin would work well for us as a private saloon as well as sleeping cabin but the nominal double is at least six inches too narrow. We'd have to sleep in seperate berths (there is effectively a single as well to port) which makes the double a bit of a pointless waste of space really.

The specific example is, we felt, over-priced for a boat with tired carpets, upholstery that's on the verge of being the same, with the original Bukh engine and that needs all the perspect windows in the hull replacing along with the forehatch. The sails are getting on too. The price would have to come down substantially to reflect the need to spend quite a bit of money on her

But when you get right down to it, the bottom line is that despite all the plus points neither of us were enthused by the boat. We didn't dislike it and we could live with it but it just doesn't have the slightest bit of magic.

Hey ho, the hunt will go on (probably for quite a long time 'cos we're in no hurry at all - unless we stumble across something really special in the meantime Erbas will continue to fulfil our needs admirably up until the time when Jane can retire and we move aboard full time. And that won't be for a year or two yet.

A weekend in the mud. ..

Or not as we'll discover

We decided to snatch a couple of days on board as a break from finally making progress on sorting out the house to get it on the market

Oh, an update on that might be in order. ..

I'd had a chat with the agent selling our sadly departed neighbours house, which began with a query from somebody viewing the place about the shared path between the drives. That led to their valuer popping round and giving our place the once over

Upshot of that was some excellent advice on what is and what isn't worth doing before we sell and further advice to get the place on the market pronto. Best of all, the advice was not to do a great deal beyond a quick tidy up and a lick of paint here and there

Oh and the good news is that he reckoned we should have no great difficulty getting somewhat more than the minimum we need to move on with our plans.

So having spent the week making progress with de-junking and getting the roof repaired, we made haste to Fambridge on Saturday morning straight after picking Jane up from the big shed.

Jane made a nose dive for the v-berth on arrival having expressed herself not unhappy with the mooring. I pottered about and dozed and didn't do a lot really! Thus the day passed.

We and the crew of Pleinair headed up to the Ferry Boat for a not my birthday meal (another year older on Friday, the Grim Reaper will have to wait a while yet though I hope) and we had a nightcap aboard their Sadler before retiring

Jane had a deserved lie in yesterday whilst I dug the as yet unused Aldi £7,50 waders out of the locker, the spade out of the car and connected up the hose with the spray head on it for washing down

My intention was to try and dig the starboard keel in a bit to correct the four or five degree list to port when we dry out. The list isn't enough to make life uncomfortable, in fact it's barely noticeable, but it does mean that one or two things are a bit of a nuisance such as the galley sink not draining properly.

My plans were thwarted by the discovery that we are sitting down onto a slab of solid concrete! I haven't yet found the full extent of it but it ends almost exactly at the aft end of our keels.

It's either a large concrete block or a cast pad that probably once formed the base of the old timber causeway that was replaced by the modern hammerhead pontoon. You can still see the start of the causeway between the hammerhead and the NFYC clubhouse.

There may even have been a concrete hard all the way down onto which the timber causeway was built.

However big it is or isn't, it explains why we're not sitting down into the mud (the hull is barely touching). The list can no doubt be corrected by the simple expedient of chucking a few paving slabs into the hole the port keel has dug.

However, it puts a massive question mark over the suitability of this berth for Bigger Boat. The problem is twofold.

Firstly, Bigger Boat will almost certainly be deeper boat and what can't go down must stay up. Because the pontoons go down a lot further than we do, there's already about fifteen inches difference in our height relative to the pontoon between when we're floating and when we're dried out

That's just about ok with some careful adjustment of the mooring lines but add another foot to the draught and the same again to the topsides and we could end up looking at a yard or more which will be difficult to take up even with rubber snubbers

And then there's the potential problem of Bigger Boat being longer boat and the possibly inherent therein of getting the keel or keels half on and half off the concrete. That would not be good!

The question then may be whether the concrete under the berth is a similar thin slab cast over shingle, such as can be seen at the top of the old causeway, or whether it's something more substantial. If it is just an inch or two of concrete then breaking it up may be an option

Otherwise, we may have to think again about this berth and either move back to the other side of the hammerhead, when the different set of problems that entails, or take the financial hit of moving into the marina. Sufficient unto the day. ..

Having hosed down, cleaned up and sorted out, Jane made us some scrambled egg on toast after which we popped down to Burnham to buy a new bucket and boat hook. Whilst there, we took a wander round the boats for sale.

By chance, the owner of a Southerly 95 which has been up for sale for a while was giving the boat a clean so we had a chat and took the opportunity to have a look on board. As I already suspected, the lack of a permanent double pretty well rules out the 95.

However, there is a Southerly 105 which has also been on the market for some time and that has the aft cabin with a double (although it may be too narrow). The asking price is somewhat over our probable budget but never say never. Mildly irritating that the brokers office isn't open on a Sunday but we're going to call in this morning on our way home and see if we can have a proper look. There's a but though, which I'll come to in a minute. ..

We'd been hailed by our friend Lisa as we walked past the Swallowtail where she was having a coffee whilst showing somebody around and they later stopped by for a cuppa and a chat once we were back aboard Erbas. Oh yes, we procured the needed bucket and boat hook by the way!

Dinner on board was followed by a couple of pints up the pub during which we chatted about Bigger Boat. Jane hadn't much liked the modern style of the Southerly with its extensive areas of GRP moulding and I guess what you'd have to call a general lack of character.

Putting it succinctly, she wants a bigger Erbas! Happily, so do I. The difficulty being that the beast doesn't exist that has both character and the accommodation we've said we want. After much discussion and a second pint, we agreed that we may have to sacrifice the three cabin layout to get the character. Keel configuration is the other potential compromise. Boats with character tend to be long keelers and whilst I don't have a problem with that per se, it could make a mud berth tricky and limit our ability to sneak up creeks and backwaters.

Another aspect of the conversation ruled out any thoughts of a barge type craft (sailing barge I hasten to add). We are in accord about wanting to explore further afield with our long term plans still including a sail around Britain including or as well as visits to the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Ireland, the Scillies and the near continent.

So Bigger Boat has to be a decent sea boat capable of offshore passage making and able to cope with a bit of weather.

We're still going to look at the Southerly though. It ticks, or probably ticks, all of the practical boxes. If nothing else it will give us a benchmark against which to compare other boats and who knows, we may actually decide we like it!

There's no rush anyway, we are agreed that Bigger Boat will happen when it happens. Whether that's in two months or two years isn't terribly important as long as Bigger Boat is also Right Boat

Exciting times ahead ...

I've mentioned things in passing, dropped a few hints and comments here and there but queries from friends have brought it to my attention that our exciting plans for the future haven't been properly mentioned

The start ...

To start at the beginning, as my dear reader may recall, I left my job at BP at the beginning of the year and set up Peckett Marine to provide electrical and electronic engineering services to fellow yachties and motorboaters.

That has gone rather better than expected already with a steady flow of work coming in despite not having advertised or marketed my services in any significant way. Bodes well for the future.

A chore that has to be done ...

Step two in the cunning plan is to tidy up our house and garden, slap a bit of trade magnolia on the walls, replace the worn out carpets with something tidy and cheap and sell the place as soon as possible. The house is bigger than we now need and the garden is way too big. Lovely productive garden (we used to grow virtually all our own veg and a lot of fruit) but it takes time and effort to maintain and since we bought our first boat (Brigantia) it's got away from us and is now a sea of weeds!

A foothold in the property market ...

Step three is to purchase a flat in Kettering with our eldest son who currently lodges with us. Without going into too much personal detail, we'll buy our share of the flat from part of the equity released from the house sale, he'll buy his share with a mortgage.

The flat will give us a number of advantages.

Firstly we will have a legitimate legal residence. This avoids any risk of becoming "of no fixed abode" which is what happens to liveaboards without a legal residence. It's a very problematic status to end up with, you struggle to get access to all sorts of services including doctors, dentists, etc. and even benefits can be problematic if you fall on hard times.

A further advantage of having a legal residence ashore (however much or little time we actually spend there) is that we will not be residential boaters. We will be living aboard our boat most of the time (more on that below) but as long as the boat can, and does, move under her own steam and spends some reasonable period of time off her mooring every year there's no issue with the planning people and so on. (There's a subtle but crucial difference between living aboard your cruising boat and being a residential boat)

A second advantage of the flat is that temporary work is readily available in the Kettering area. If the pennies are getting a bit short and work is a bit thin, one or both of us can jump ship and use the flat as a base to get work to top up the coffers. And of course the flat will give us a base for visits "home" to see family.

A further crucial function of the flat is to give Jane the security of somewhere to live if anything should happen to me. We're not getting any younger and I've been a heavy smoker since my mid-teens until quite recently (and latterly I've slipped into a bit of a cigar habit which is not good) so we have to face the fact that I could turn up my toes at a relatively young age. That, without the flat, would leave Jane stuck on board a boat on her own with no transport (she doesn't, and now never will, drive). Not good.

A bigger boat ...

Step 3(ish) may come before, during or after step 4. And it's a happy / sad step. The reality is that much as we love Erbas and as suitable as she is for holiday cruising, she just doesn't have the space or the facilities to be used as a live-aboard. For the summer months alone, we could manage but not through the winter

The reason it's step 3(ish) is that the timing of when we exchange Erbas for something bigger is not set in stone. We will start looking as soon as we've sold the house and bought the flat but we'll be in no rush. I'll come to what we'll be looking for in a minute ...

Money ...

Step 4 will be to accumulate a decent reserve of money in the bank. Or ISAs or whatever. It's likely that Jane will carry on working for Morrisons for at least a year, perhaps two, whilst I concentrate on establishing Peckett Marine to the point where we're confident about our income levels and reserves and we've got the right boat for the future.

When the time is right, Jane will "retire" and move on board. Of course, if the opportunity to get work within reach of Fambridge by public transport comes up she might be able to make the move sooner.

Although the failure of my IT business some years ago set us back badly financially, we've still got a healthy chunk of equity in the house despite still having a significant mortgage (we'd be mortgage free by now if things had not gone pear shaped). That should provide ample capital to purchase the flat and a bigger boat with something left over for a rainy day.

With much lower outgoings, we won't need a fortune to live comfortably. I'm fairly sure that I can earn enough to keep us in bread and baked beans at least!

The dream ...

The ultimate goal is to be able to take two or three months off during the summer months and go extended cruising. Oh and I ought to mention that the reason I've gone quiet about the plan to sail around Britain next year or the year after is that we've decided to wait until we can do that trip together.

We've no plans to go across oceans but we want to be able to explore the coast of Britain, visit Ireland, and go seek out some furrin' parts actually worth the effort of visiting! (It can't all be boring!!!!)

The boat ...

I know, I keep posting on this topic from time to time. But it does require some thinking about and writing down our current thinking is very useful both at the time and for future reference.

First and foremost, whatever we buy has to be a genuine sailing vessel. It doesn't have to be fast, it certainly doesn't have to be a world girdling blue water cruiser but it has to be capable of making serious coastal and offshore (in suitable weather) passages under sail.

The next requirement is where it gets tricky. The accommodation has to work for us. That means it needs ...

• A double cabin with a comfortable bed and good stowage. Ideally the master cabin will have somewhere to sit comfortably so it can be used as a private lounge (particularly for Jane to get some "me" time watching her favourite telly programmes)
• A 'U' or 'L' shaped galley off to one side of the companionway. We both dislike linear galleys.
• A comfortable saloon with lounging space for two. Boats that only have a dinnette or 'U' shaped settee without enough length to stretch out on are not likely to find favour.
• Space to install a solid fuel / wood burning stove. There's nothing better for heating a boat in the winter than a proper stove. 
• A heads and shower compartment of adequate size. A shower on board is a must. We cope without it on Erbas OK and happily at Fambridge the marina showers are very much to our liking but I struggle with the lack of space in most marina showers because I absolutely have to be able to sit down to dry off and get dressed (due to my dodgy knee)
• A guest cabin. It can be a single, a double or two singles but it has to be behind a door from the main accommodation and have room to stand up and get dressed. The berth itself could be a quarter berth or a v-berth or whatever.
• And I'd like a proper nav table at which I can sit comfortably which will double as an office area

 Behind the scenes, there needs to be room for the necessary systems such as toilet holding tanks, a decent fresh water capacity, ample diesel capacity, stowage for lots of gear and so on.

On deck, we're really not bothered about whether it's centre cockpit or aft cockpit. I'd rather like an inside steering position for use in inclement weather but not at the cost of a proper helming position on deck when sailing. That pretty much rules out most of the typical motor-sailers.

And whatever she is, she must be able to take the ground upright in a mud berth (more on that below)

The final kicker is that she ideally needs to have character. Erbas has character. She's a pretty boat to start with and her unique interior and the years of loving care lavished on her by the two previous owners (which we're doing our best to keep up!) has resulted in a boat that has real pontoon appeal. She gets lots of admiring comments from passers by which is. I will confess, something of an ego trip :)

Finding a boat that ticks all the boxes and has bags of character is not going to be easy. Especially not with a budget of between £20k and £40k

We may have to sacrifice the character. I've previously posted about the Southerly 115 Mk.1 which is an example of a boat that would do everything we want the next boat to do. In fact, with the exception of the space for a stove, the 115 hits every nail on the head. And maybe, just maybe, our budget might stretch far enough. But with the best will in the world, it's not a character boat.

We shall see

The mud again ...

As the avid reader will know, we've moved Erbas onto a mud berth at Fambridge Yacht Station. It's a trial run at the moment, we haven't made a decision on whether to apply for a permanent mud berth but it's looking promising.

Long term, unless we were enticed away by an irresistible offer elsewhere, I can't see us quitting Fambridge any time soon. Assuming there isn't a drastic change in the way the place is run Fambridge suits us very well and it's ideal for my new line of work.

If we ever did move elsewhere, mud berths are always substantially cheaper than marina berths.

So there we are, that's the shape of the future (we hope!)

There's nothing like a good fettle

I'd got a job on so stayed down at Fambridge an extra day. However, the customer didn't materialise so I put the day to good use sorting out a couple of outstanding maintenance tasks on Erbas

The first job was to remove the one remaining existing stern fairlead and fill all the old screw holes with epoxy.

Whilst that was hardening, I set about the potentially mucky job of sorting out the sticking waste seacock. It's got progressively harder to shut of late to the point where it had become impossible to fully shut it off.

With the outlet being well above the mud (I'll come to why shortly) I was able to get at it from the outside and check for any blockage but nothing was to be found.

So I removed the handle and spindle bearing and squirted a good dose of WD40 down the shaft. Working the handle and more oil eventually did the trick and I was able to close the cock although it was still rather stiff.

A trip to the supermarket procured a couple of litres of vinegar, a sovereign cure for gunged up waste pipes, which was duly poured down the pipe from the anti-syphon loop.

Leaving that to work it's magic, I set about cleaning up and flattening the stern rail capping where the fairleads fit to get them properly seated flat



Some delicate work with a file and sander did the trick. Then it was on with the new fairleads slightly offset from the old positions to avoid the existing holes.

They look a treat and being handed are an improvement on the old ones...





With the tide rapidly rising, there was just time to open the seacock and drain the vinegar out then close it again and pour a dose of vegetable oil down the pipe to lubricate things internally

Once I had water above the mud berth inlet, I opened the cock again and added another slug of vegetable oil to the toilet pan and pumped it through.

That seems to have done the trick with both the pump and the seacock operating freely.

Then it was on with dinner. I've given up on the boil in the bag rice, which was working nicely until recently, because I just can't get it to cook properly. I don't know what's going on with it but since I keep having to return it to the pan and cook it further, even if I give it way longer in the bag than suggested, I figure I might as well save some pennies and just buy loose rice and cook it in the conventional way

The rice went nicely with a tin of Chicken Korma and that was dinner sorted

After dinner I decided to get the cockpit tent up as it'll create more space when we're in Liveaboard mode. Added to which there was a stiff Easterly breeze which, as has been the case all summer, was unseasonably chilly and the tent offered some welcome shelter from it

I was in two minds about bothering with the pub but decided to wander up for a pint about nine-ish. The yacht club were having a meal, or I should say had had a meal, and I joined them in the restaurant for a couple of drinks.

On the mud berth front, left to her own devices she's persistently settling with a slight heel to port. It's not uncomfortable but it would be nice to be upright.

Given that the hull is hardly digging in at all, hence the access to the waste outlet mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure that the keels are sitting down onto fairly solid ground under the mud

I don't have time today and I haven't got the means either but I think the next step will be to pop the boat out of the berth for a tide and get in the mud to try and dig out the ground under the starboard keel a bit.

Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the berth and if Jane approves I'll discuss making it a permanent arrangement with the marina. It's going to be a bit uncomfortable on board in an Easterly gale whilst the tide is in but those are rare beasts and at worst it'll only be bouncy fit four hours every twelve

We do need a stern mooring before the winter and the buoy dropped for the mooring is too far out but Wiggy will move it at some point (although I'll probably have to nag him to get it done!)

Today I'm heading for home shortly until the next batch of work comes on stream. We really need to get moving on sorting the house out to sell it so I've got to get stuck in and get on with it!

It's a beautiful day here at Fambridge and I'd much rather stay put if Jane was here but that's only going to happen if we, especially I, get on with making it happen!

More mud

With a day off from work and a morning and evening high tide to play with, I decided today was the day to try Plan B on the mud berth front

Suitably fortified with coffee, I fired up the engine and motored the few yards from the river pontoon to the last of the new finger berths on the hammerhead

Once alongside, I arranged lines and fenders as best I could and waited for the tide to recede



I was rather pleased to find that we settled with just a few degrees of heel to port and a little down by the stern

On board, the hell wasn't enough to make life uncomfortable which was a good start

After more coffee I dug the pressure washer out of the store and set about liquefing the mud around the starboard keel as far down as I could reach. It didn't make an immediate difference but I hoped it would help her settle more upright on the next tide

Since I had the washer fired up anyway, I set about the decks and cockpit. An hour later and Erbas was cleaner than she's been for some time. I was particularly pleased with how well the cockpit duckboards came up. They've been getting ratier and greener, now they look quite smart

The milk had gone off and the last of the bread was mouldy so a brief expedition to the local shop was needed

That was followed with more coffee and a bit of a session on the guitar.

Into the early evening, I set up a line from the masthead to the main pontoon to try and keep Erbas upright as she settled. The idea being to give the starboard keel a chance to dig in rather than to put a huge strain on the rig.

After dinner of beef stew I stood by the lines as we grounded a little earlier than I anticipated. Some tweaking of the mooring lines was needed as the pontoons end up nine inches to a foot lower relative to the boat when everything has dried out compared to when we're afloat

Happily, we settled dead level laterally although we're still down by the stern a bit. The easterly breeze kicked up a bit of a chop and the gentle bouncing seemed to help her dig in better

The fore and aft trim is less of a problem. She'll probably settle in anyway and of necessary I'll do a bit more digging

We are, though, going to have to buy some new mooring lines. Our existing lines are on their last legs! I think I'll buy a reel of suitable line and make up some general purpose lines for cruising and a set of lines tailor made for the berth

Another minor problem is that we're slightly longer than the finger pontoon (almost inevitable) and the stern line is chaffing on the backstay. I'll have to sort something out long term to resolve that

We're also half a mile from the stern line buoy that was dropped to suit a much larger boat. In most conditions we don't need a stern line anyway but it would be handy to have the option to pull her away from the pontoon in an Easterly gale

Assuming we're staying on the berth permanently, I'll ask if the buoy sinker can be moved closer in. If not, I've got a big Delta style anchor a friend gave us that's too big for Erbas and I'll drop that in a few yards astern of us. The line from it can be secured to the end of the finger when we're out

I think this berth could be home. The view is superb...



... and it's fairly well sheltered from all but Easterlys. We'll get neaped (the high tide on neaps won't be high enough to get in or out of the berth) for a couple of days twice a month but that's predictable and can be worked around

The berth isn't as private as the first one we tried. Apart from the people traipsing up and down the hammerhead, we're in full view of the webcam and it was slightly weird to find people discussing that I'd gone ashore with a bag of rubbish on my way for a pint or two

That was after she'd settled down for the night...



... and I'd removed the mast head line and eased the mooring lines to my satisfaction.

I've hopefully got a job on in the morning after which I'm planning to head home for a few days either later tomorrow or Sunday morning

Earth, Wind and Fire

Or "Mud, Gales and Barbecues" to be precise!

I have been rather remiss of late about updating the blog.

Since getting back from our mini-cruise to London things have been fairly hectic particularly on the work front (not that I'm complaining mind!) and a lot going on behind the scenes

The London trip was a great success for us both, we thoroughly enjoyed it although we have to be honest and declare that whilst we wish the good folks of Queenborough all the best with their efforts to improve the place it's not somewhere we'd consider as a destination in its own right

No sooner were we back from the London Cruise than I was back on board Erbas in anticipation of six or seven days work. In the end, that turned into 12 straight days and over a fortnight on board on my own. For much of this period, the weather was awful for the time of year with almost continuous near gales rolling in accompanied by periods of heavy rain

I had intended to live as much as possible out on our buoy rather than on the river pontoon however this was simply impractical in the conditions. Life on board would have been utterly miserable for days on end and the "commute" to and from land by dinghy wouldn't have been much fun either

I don't really like lurking on the river pontoon for extended periods although nothing has been said about me doing it. Even so, I'm aware that there have been times when I've been frustrated about not being able to get alongside due to boats seemingly taking up residence on the pontoon and annoying my fellow sailors is not desirable either from a social or a business perspective.

So that led to consideration of sustainable alternatives ...

The obvious option is to upgrade from the Summer Swing package to a permanent marina berth. However, there is a substantial cost increase in doing so, about £970 a year (assuming a boat the size of "Erbas", of which more anon). Furthermore, we much prefer life at the Yacht Station. The marina is fine, as far as marinas go, but there's no view and it's a long walk to the pub!

An off the cuff remark made by Toby almost passed me by at the time but then I got to thinking about his suggestion that we should look at one of the mud berths at the Yacht Station. The minimum charge is 15m but the rate per metre is such that it would not be a great deal more expensive than our current mooring. And, of course, the cost would remain the same even if we move up to something bigger in due course.

There were a couple of options potentially available and last Friday we moved Erbas onto the one I preferred and waited to see what happened when she dried out

What happened was that she heeled over about eight to ten degrees  to starboard and leant on the pontoon fairly heavily. I was ready for that possibility and had fenders suitable placed so no harm done but it's surprisingly hard to move around on board a static heeled boat!

I was supposed to be heading up to Kettering that afternoon but I didn't fancy leaving "Erbas" to her own devices on the next tide so stayed on board getting off to sleep as early as I could

In the early hours of the morning I was up and about in the light of the full moon checking that we settled OK as the tide ebbed.

I was pleased to find that we only heeled to about six degrees this time suggesting that the port keel was starting to settle into the mud and that given a few tides we'd come up fairly level. Better still, we were not too much down at the stern, important for comfort on board especially as the head end of all the berths is at the aft end

Happy with the situation for now, I hit the road to Kettering, picked up Jane from work and, after a brief visit home headed straight back down to Fambridge.

On arrival on board, Jane expressed herself reasonably happy with the location although she reserved final judgement and stated that the boat would have to be upright before she'd be totally happy

I reckoned that if she wouldn't come up on her own it'd just be a case of getting in the mud with a spade and digging a hole for the port keel.

However, as the tide came in that lunchtime, a twelve to fifteen knot Sou'westerly generated a noticeable swell into the bay created by the pier and the hammerhead and we were noticeably pitching on it

It wasn't, in those conditions, particularly uncomfortable but it set me thinking about conditions in a full on gale or worse still a storm from the prevailing South West.

I also had a niggling worry about the large wooden motor yacht that had just been berthed ahead of us. Once she's dug in it's unlikely she'd shift but at the moment a mooring line parting could have her sliding down the slope into us

I made a snap decision whilst we were still afloat to bale out back onto the river pontoon for the time being.

We haven't by any means given up on the mud berth idea though. There is another more sheltered option on the other side of the hammerhead although we might struggle to get her to sit upright on that one. And we might, when the new pontoons have been installed and the boats shuffled into their final positions, come back and have another look at this side.

We wined and dined in the pub before retiring for the night

Today dawned bright and beautiful and we made the most of it by doing as little as possible! A trip to the shops for supplies and a visit to our friend Lisa at Burnham was all the excitement we could stand

Into the evening, we finally had the time, the weather and the supplies to try out the disposable BBQ frame we bought before the start of the season ...

 It isn't the highest quality item of yachting gear we've bought over the years but it does the job. Minted lamb steaks, burgers, fried peppers and salad were washed down with drinks of personal choice and then we watched a passable historic drama on internet TV before retiring for the night

This morning, we were in no rush and took our time about washing up, tidying up and taking the couple of bags that needed to go home ashore. As I'm back on board again tomorrow there seemed little point in putting the boat to bed or even back on her buoy so we left her alongside and headed off on the tedious journey up the M11