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
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
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