Other boat news - we had a daysail on Saturday and tried out the watermaker. An amazing bit of kit - it produced wonderfully clear fresh water from a particularly cloudy looking sea.
Sunday, 24 June 2012
A video test
This video show Fergus helming Maunie downwind in a Force 6-7 from Darthmouth. These are the sorts of conditions we'll face on the crossing from the Canaries to St Lucia (but with much bigger waves!)
Other boat news - we had a daysail on Saturday and tried out the watermaker. An amazing bit of kit - it produced wonderfully clear fresh water from a particularly cloudy looking sea.
Other boat news - we had a daysail on Saturday and tried out the watermaker. An amazing bit of kit - it produced wonderfully clear fresh water from a particularly cloudy looking sea.
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Jubilee Celebrations aboard and the water-maker is installed!
As previously mentioned we got involved with a call from the Coastguard on our way back to Dartmouth - this 24ft gaffer has got into difficulties in fairly heavy seas. They given up sailing and were motoring towards Salcombe but we think the bumpy conditions had stirred up sediment from the bottom of their fuel tank so the engine lost power and then, as we approached them, died altogether. We had quite a log tow into the harbour where the harbourmaster's launch took them on and towed them to a mooring. They were very pleased to be in!
Back on our mooring, we completed the installation of our new water-maker in the generator room (the generator is now free of leaks, thankfully!). The raw seawater comes in from seacock in the hull (just visible middle-right of the photo below) and into a 12v pump / filter unit (bottom of the photo) before going into the high-pressure pump and membrane. Here it's forced, at nearly 1000psi, through a long tubular membrane (easier to see in the second photo) - fresh water comes out, in relatively small quantities (about 30 litres per hour) whilst a greater flow of salt water goes out of the boat through a second seacock. We're run it on its fresh-water cycle (it's not a good idea to try the seawater in the harbour in case there is oil or other contaminants around) so next time we're aboard we'll go our into the bay and test it fully.
While Graham was busy with the plumbing, there were all sorts of Jubilee things happening on the river, including a parade of 60 boats of all shapes and sizes:
Maunie was 'dressed overall' for the occasion - the flags have to be hoisted in a very specific order!!
Thursday, 7 June 2012
An idyllic anchorage and a rescue at sea
Our last night in the Scilly Isles was spent at anchor in St Helen's Pool, between the inhabited islands of Tresco and St Martin's but surrounded by rocks and uninhabited islands.
Maunie is the white dot mid-left, looking from St Helen's with Tresco to the right and
St Mary's in the distance
The return passage to Falmouth was fantastic - a very long spinnaker reach with some top speeds. The skipper needed a light snack just to keep his strength up:
Positively flying along!
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Some photos of the voyage to Scilly
Our week ended with rain and wind but luckily we were safely back in Dartmouth before it got too unpleasant and we left Maunie today before the Force 8, perhaps Severe Gale Force 9 arrives tomorrow night!
So back home (ah, well) we've a chance to post some photos of the last week:
So back home (ah, well) we've a chance to post some photos of the last week:
Fergus helming in brilliant downwind conditions from Dartmouth to Fowey
Arriving at Falmouth - not much wind for the working boats' race (and they don't have engines!)
Crossing the shipping lanes off Land's End and we had to alter course to give way to this beautiful vessel,
which looks even better from this angle:
Once safely into the islands, this was our anchorage in Porth Conger:
The old lifeboat station is now The Turk's Head and the most south-westerly pub in the UK.
We ate well there. The (inactive) lighthouse is our dream home.
Over on the exposed west coast of St Agnes, the views out to the rocks are spectacular and the boulder-strewn beaches an indication of the ferocity of the winter gales here.
Boulder-stacking seems to be a bit of a past-time here so this is our effort. Quite pleased with it!
More photos to follow!
Friday, 1 June 2012
A shake-down cruise
We’re on an 8-day shake-down cruise; our last extended sailing trip before we head for the Canaries at the end of August. It’s been a great opportunity to check that all the things we’ve added or changed over winter work ok and to plan how we’ll stow everything aboard for our big trip.
So far, everything looks pretty good aboard Maunie. The generator was refitted, its water leak sorted, though we now find it has a small fuel leak to be attended to when we get back to Dartmouth. The installation of the new water-maker is nearly completed (I’ve been doing an hour here and there to plumb it in) and the new chart-plotter (a free upgrade from Raymarine after we suffered various faults with its predecessor is brilliant. More importantly we’ve had some fantastic sailing!!
We were joined for the first weekend by Fergus, who’s signed on as crew for the ARC in November. Incidentally, Rich, who came for a weekend’s sail as described in the last blog, has also signed up for the ARC so we’ll be a crew of 4 which will be ideal. Fergus is a great sailor (he and Graham raced Laser 2 dinghies at Oxford and did a couple of memorable bareboat charters in Turkey together) and the Saturday forecast of Force 6-7 easterly was a perfect introduction to the kind conditions we may experience on the Atlantic crossing, complete with Dolphins but without the 15ft swell. We had a superb reach and run down to Fowey, with Maunie taking the downwind conditions in her stride, even when the anemometer showed a few Force 8 gusts around the headlands.
After a meal on the mooring in Fowey we turned in early for a 6.30am departure the following morning, to catch the favourable tide. The wind wasn’t favourable, however, more nonexistent so we motored the 25 miles into Falmouth, arriving just as a fleet of Falmouth working boats were ghosting along in a race just off St Mawes.
Fergus returned home by train and we headed on west. Our original plan to sail to Brittany was aborted by a forecast for three days of light or southerly winds so instead we decided to take advantage of the settled weather to go to the Isles of Scilly. On Monday we did a six hour passage to Newlyn then had a 5.15am start of Tuesday to cross to Scilly in light winds, motoring for much of the passage, anchoring in the beautiful Porth Conger between Gugh and St Agnes at 11.00. The afternoon gave us the chance to explore St Agnes which is delightfully unspoiled; the weather-beaten rocks and boulder-strewn beaches on the western side give you an idea of the effects of winter storms here. Recreational stone-stacking seems to be a bit of a pastime here so this is our effort:
Wednesday saw the settled weather continue so we motored over to St Mary’s harbour to get provisions in the islands’ capital town before anchoring in St Helen’s Pool which is between Tresco and St Martin’s, surrounded by rocks and accessible only by crossing sand bars at a suitable rise of tide. A few boat jobs completed, we dinghied ashore onto the uninhabited St Helen’s to climb the hill to take in the view then circumnavigated Tean before supper.
Finally, so far, yesterday we had one of those sails that will definitely go into the Top 10. We left Scilly at 9.00am for return to Falmouth, the spinnaker went up at 10.00 and stayed up for over 7 hours until we reached the Manacles Rocks buoy on the way into Falmouth. We had a consistent Force 4 on a beam reach (the fastest point of sailing) so clocked over 8 knots regularly with a peak at a whisker under 9. Now for those of us used to motorway speeds, 9 knots (about 10mph) may not seem fast but for 14 tonnes of boat (the weight of a sizeable laden lorry) powered only by sail, it’s a very good result!
Sorry, slightly dodgy internet connection so can't upload the photos at the moment - hope to get them loaded at the weekend!
So far, everything looks pretty good aboard Maunie. The generator was refitted, its water leak sorted, though we now find it has a small fuel leak to be attended to when we get back to Dartmouth. The installation of the new water-maker is nearly completed (I’ve been doing an hour here and there to plumb it in) and the new chart-plotter (a free upgrade from Raymarine after we suffered various faults with its predecessor is brilliant. More importantly we’ve had some fantastic sailing!!
We were joined for the first weekend by Fergus, who’s signed on as crew for the ARC in November. Incidentally, Rich, who came for a weekend’s sail as described in the last blog, has also signed up for the ARC so we’ll be a crew of 4 which will be ideal. Fergus is a great sailor (he and Graham raced Laser 2 dinghies at Oxford and did a couple of memorable bareboat charters in Turkey together) and the Saturday forecast of Force 6-7 easterly was a perfect introduction to the kind conditions we may experience on the Atlantic crossing, complete with Dolphins but without the 15ft swell. We had a superb reach and run down to Fowey, with Maunie taking the downwind conditions in her stride, even when the anemometer showed a few Force 8 gusts around the headlands.
After a meal on the mooring in Fowey we turned in early for a 6.30am departure the following morning, to catch the favourable tide. The wind wasn’t favourable, however, more nonexistent so we motored the 25 miles into Falmouth, arriving just as a fleet of Falmouth working boats were ghosting along in a race just off St Mawes.
Fergus returned home by train and we headed on west. Our original plan to sail to Brittany was aborted by a forecast for three days of light or southerly winds so instead we decided to take advantage of the settled weather to go to the Isles of Scilly. On Monday we did a six hour passage to Newlyn then had a 5.15am start of Tuesday to cross to Scilly in light winds, motoring for much of the passage, anchoring in the beautiful Porth Conger between Gugh and St Agnes at 11.00. The afternoon gave us the chance to explore St Agnes which is delightfully unspoiled; the weather-beaten rocks and boulder-strewn beaches on the western side give you an idea of the effects of winter storms here. Recreational stone-stacking seems to be a bit of a pastime here so this is our effort:
Wednesday saw the settled weather continue so we motored over to St Mary’s harbour to get provisions in the islands’ capital town before anchoring in St Helen’s Pool which is between Tresco and St Martin’s, surrounded by rocks and accessible only by crossing sand bars at a suitable rise of tide. A few boat jobs completed, we dinghied ashore onto the uninhabited St Helen’s to climb the hill to take in the view then circumnavigated Tean before supper.
Finally, so far, yesterday we had one of those sails that will definitely go into the Top 10. We left Scilly at 9.00am for return to Falmouth, the spinnaker went up at 10.00 and stayed up for over 7 hours until we reached the Manacles Rocks buoy on the way into Falmouth. We had a consistent Force 4 on a beam reach (the fastest point of sailing) so clocked over 8 knots regularly with a peak at a whisker under 9. Now for those of us used to motorway speeds, 9 knots (about 10mph) may not seem fast but for 14 tonnes of boat (the weight of a sizeable laden lorry) powered only by sail, it’s a very good result!
Sorry, slightly dodgy internet connection so can't upload the photos at the moment - hope to get them loaded at the weekend!
Monday, 14 May 2012
Sunshine sailing and a few more jobs completed
We've just had a great weekend with Rich Fetherston aboard. Rich raced on Graham's boat, Daily Telegraph, in the Round Britain Challenge way back in 2003 but has since sailed with us from Oban to Petehead, via Orkney, on our last boat. An all round good chap, so it was lovely to have him aboard Maunie. The last time he saw her was just a couple of weeks after we took ownership and, bless him, he spent a full day in the two huge and pretty filthy cockpit lockers, cleaning them up to full naval inspection standards.
No such hard graft for him this weekend - we had two excellent day-sails with plenty of good food and drink in between. La Farandole, another Vancouver 38 from Brixham, was in Dartmouth so we had drinks with owners Susan and Carlos on Saturday night and met them again for breakfast at the Cafe Alf Resco, a Dartmouth institution. The town was really busy for the annual Music Festival; we really enjoyed this classical Spanish guitarist playing on the 'double steps' pontoon.
Dianne, meanwhile, adopted a supervisory role from the afterdeck:
The rest of the kit will be fitted next weekend, all being well.
Finally, a job we didn't want to do but had to... The diesel generator which produces up to 4kW of electricity to recharge the batteries, run the water maker and chill the fridges developed a water leak in its cooling circuit last year and I just couldn't find the source. So we called in the professionals today who unbolted the engine/alternator combinations and hefted up and out from its sound-proof cocoon, leaving just the base in the generator room:
It's currently being checked over in the Darthaven workshop and will, we hope be back aboard by the end of the week, restored to health. I suspect that the process won't be cheap!
No such hard graft for him this weekend - we had two excellent day-sails with plenty of good food and drink in between. La Farandole, another Vancouver 38 from Brixham, was in Dartmouth so we had drinks with owners Susan and Carlos on Saturday night and met them again for breakfast at the Cafe Alf Resco, a Dartmouth institution. The town was really busy for the annual Music Festival; we really enjoyed this classical Spanish guitarist playing on the 'double steps' pontoon.
Back to the sailing and we enjoyed near perfect conditions - bright sunshine and a steady Force 3. Ideal for Rich to hone his excellent helming skills...
Richard left on Sunday evening but we stayed aboard for a further day to complete some more jobs aboard. We installed a new cooker to replace the excellent but slightly old Force 10 that came with the boat and for which spares are no longer readily available (we could just foresee some nightmare in the middle of the Atlantic without a working cooker); the new one is much better insulated and uses a lot less gas. The croissants were certainly perfectly warmed!
An even more vital bit of kit is the new satellite phone so we made some mountings (offcuts of hardwood that were used for our garden hammock spreaders) for its 'brain' in the locker which also houses the autopilot computer.
Finally, a job we didn't want to do but had to... The diesel generator which produces up to 4kW of electricity to recharge the batteries, run the water maker and chill the fridges developed a water leak in its cooling circuit last year and I just couldn't find the source. So we called in the professionals today who unbolted the engine/alternator combinations and hefted up and out from its sound-proof cocoon, leaving just the base in the generator room:
It's currently being checked over in the Darthaven workshop and will, we hope be back aboard by the end of the week, restored to health. I suspect that the process won't be cheap!
Monday, 7 May 2012
First sail of the season
Maunie usually stays afloat through the winter, with just a weekend of hard graft on the scrubbing grid to clean and antifoul her bottom. So we get some winter sailing and enjoy that slightly smug feeling of watching everyone else struggling to get their boats ready for re-launching at Easter or even later. This year it's come as a bit of an unwelcome novelty, after all the winter work in the boatyard, to make our first sail as late May!
Actually we did think about it last weekend but the forecast was lousy and Dartmouth was hit by a full gale on the Saturday night. Anyway, our first daysail this weekend was worth the wait - lovely sunshine and a gentle but slightly chilly Force 3 north-easterly to allow us to remember how to sail. There were quite a few boats out and Maunie went very nicely indeed.
The only downside is that from on board we can't see her shiny new paintwork so we both did a slight double-take when mooring up alongside our new neighbour on the trot mooring. We climbed aboard 'Caicique' and looked down to see the new white hull where we're so used to seeing dark blue. We need to get some photos of her on the water!
Actually we did think about it last weekend but the forecast was lousy and Dartmouth was hit by a full gale on the Saturday night. Anyway, our first daysail this weekend was worth the wait - lovely sunshine and a gentle but slightly chilly Force 3 north-easterly to allow us to remember how to sail. There were quite a few boats out and Maunie went very nicely indeed.
The only downside is that from on board we can't see her shiny new paintwork so we both did a slight double-take when mooring up alongside our new neighbour on the trot mooring. We climbed aboard 'Caicique' and looked down to see the new white hull where we're so used to seeing dark blue. We need to get some photos of her on the water!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)