Removing the mast and other fiddly jobs

It's sometimes said that the complexity of a boat increases roughly in proportion to the square of the waterline length and we have certainly discovered this to be true with Maunie. With our first 21-ft keel boat, the process of raising and lowering the mast was something we could easily do ourselves, using a hinge-pin at the base of the mast and the trailer winch to control the movement. On Maunie, by contrast, the mast is nearly 16m long, it's heavy and it has no fewer than 14 wires supporting it, so removing it requires the use of a big crane and specialists.

Over the weekend, we dodged the sleet showers to take off the sails, boom and rigging ready for the yard crew to come and remove the mast on Monday. We filmed a short time-lapse video of the process and you can see it on YouTube by clicking the link HERE

Whenever the rain rolled in, we moved onto a few below-deck jobs, one of which was to check the engine cooling water pump. The pump has a nitrile-rubber impeller which pumps sea water into a heat-exchanger to cool the fresh water / antifreeze solution that circulates around the engine (as an alternative to the radiator you'd find on a car). We replace the impeller annually but we'd noticed a slight seawater drip from the shaft seal so this seemed like a good opportunity to replace the seal as well.

The pump with its end-plate and impeller removed. The rust on the bolts below shows where the seawater had dripped 

However the 'complexity and waterline length' rule applied to this job, too; the pump was mounted in such a way that it was impossible to access two of its four retaining nuts because the bracket connected to the rubber engine mount was in the way.

The black and rusty bracket with the engine mount's adjusting screw in the foreground

Graham scratched his head for a while and came up with an idea which he ran past Steve, the on-site engine specialist, who agreed that it should work. He wound-down the nuts on the engine mount until the engine was just supported on the other three mounts and then unbolted the black bracket which allowed him to unbolt and remove the pump. Most of this was done by feel rather than by sight, but it was a successful mission and the pump is now in the workshop to be disassembled, checked and fitted with new seals. Once refitted, and with a new impeller in place, it should be good for another few years. 

Maunie is now in the paint shop having her scratched hull sanded and repainted so we should be ok to re-launch in a couple of weeks' time when the next spring tides give us enough water at the launching ramp. Meanwhile, there will, of course, be more jobs to do....

Not exactly planned....

With gales and sleet showers all around us, we motored up the Dart in the early hours of Friday morning for another lift-out at Baltic Wharf.  The reason? Two weeks after our relaunch in September, there was a southerly gale and our trot mooring (10 boats in a line of fore and aft mooring buoys) surged upstream; as the most upstream boat, Maunie scraped up against our bow buoy and its chain scratched her shiny new paint. We could have cried but the harbour authority admitted liability so the repair won’t cost us, apart from the considerable hassle.

Scratches above the shiny blue stripe 

Enjoying the Calm before the very big storm!

We've been watching the forecasts carefully for the past week as Storm Ciara heads our way. We're now in the thick of it with huge gusts and driving rain.

However, we spotted a couple of days of relatively settled weather on Thursday and Friday so decided we'd make the best of it and actually go sailing for once, with the added benefit of being able to leave Maunie trussed up with extra lines to face Ciara's worst.

We had a lovely, if cold, sail round to Salcombe to find the place pretty much deserted, both on the water and ashore. Unlike the River Dart, Salcombe harbour is pretty open to southerly gales so everyone seems to take their boats ashore for the winter. In the 'normal' sailing season, visiting yachts have to pick up a mooring and use their dinghy or the Yacht Taxi to get ashore but we were given permission to go alongside the Normandy Pontoon for the night, with walk-ashore access.

In the summer this view is full of boats of all sizes

Morning after a chilly night. We were able to plug into shore power, however, so had a 500W electric heater running to keep things cosy down below

The Normandy Pontoon is so names as this was a key embarkation point for US soldiers for the D-Day Landings and the concrete loading ramp that the Americans built is still there.

In the early summer of 1944 there were over 2,000 troops and 66 ships here so the silence when they left for Normandy on the 4th of June must have been acute. There is a good account of the time when this sleepy Devon village was at war on the Salcombe Museum website - click here for more information.

We headed back to Dartmouth on Friday afternoon as the tide turned in our favour. Start Point always promises the risk of some bumpy wind-against-tide conditions but it was the smaller tidal race at Prawle Point that gave us the greater entertainment.

There's a short video of the trip on YouTube here which we hope you'll enjoy.

More jobs ticked off the list....

Since our last blog update, we've had several trips down to Maunie, staying on board for two or three nights each time but there's been precious little sailing. It is winter after all! Last week, however, Di went up to stay with her dad up in Lancashire so Graham spent the week aboard, dodging the heavy rain, to crack on with more maintenance jobs.

Re-varnishing the woodwork in the cabins is a fairly major project for us this year so we've been bringing locker doors home to do as much of it as possible in the warmth and dry. The rest of it has to be done in situ, of course, so Graham had a not-so-much-fun week of sanding and varnishing. It's a slow process but we're definitely making progress:

Lockers in the forward heads half-way through the first coat of varnish

The nav table, stripped and sanded

 While the varnish was drying - and we're trying a water-based varnish which means the cabin wasn't filled with toxic fumes - there were lots of other things to do, including cleaning
and re-greasing the winches:

Winch-maintenance is a once-a year job and takes about 50 minutes per winch. We have 7 winches!

Other jobs included: draining the engine coolant, flushing it and refilling with new antifreeze; completing an oil change on the generator; replacing the broken engine compartment extractor fan; splicing a new mooring line to replace one chafed by winter gales; re-organising the storage of spares and tools; topping up the electrolyte in the batteries; replacing the heads door-catch. Plus lots of cleaning and tidying, as usual. 

Living aboard in such rainy weather, the de-humidifier was a vital bit of kit and the amount of water it captured each night was fairly astounding.

I had one day of sunshine mid-week so was more than ready to get off the boat to stretch my legs. A walk up the steep hill above Kingswear (on the opposite side of the river to Dartmouth) delivered some great views:

Whilst maintenance work isn't the most fun bit of owning a boat, it's good to keep on top of it and to be ready for the new season. We're planning a trip in May so are beginning to start the enjoyable process of looking at charts and pilot books. Roll on summer!

Cold weather sailing with the Ithakas

We were delighted to have Colin & Ana join us for 4 nights aboard Maunie over the weekend. We first met them in Panama, where they bought Ithaka, their 43ft aluminium Ovni,  and then sailed with them, or near them, for about 3 years before their epic crossing from NZ to Chile. From there, they navigated the channels down to Cape Horn and then  returned to France via the Falklands. Epic adventurers, indeed, but they have now sold the boat and have been working very hard to renovate a cottage in Scotland; we were glad to be able to drag them away from the building work.

Sunny but cold conditions as we sailed from Dartmouth to the Yealm

After a lovely, fast sail in 16-20 knots of northerly wind (making it bitingly cold but delivering a very smooth sea) we moored up in a deserted River Yealm, had a quick lunch then went on an energetic hike over the hill to the South West Coast Path for a circuit back to the boat in the fading light. A restorative beer or two was needed in the pub before we returned to Maunie for a fish pie supper.

Looking east towards the Mew Stone, with Rame Head in the distance. The entrance to Plymouth Sound is to the right 

The tranquil River Yealm at dusk. The heating system on Maunie earned its keep in the evenings and early mornings.

 Saturday dawned wet and windy but, as forecast, the skies cleared for a while to give us another good coastal walk before a relaxed long lunch in the Ship Inn. Back aboard for the evening, Colin produced Doh! Cranium, a game that we made for them for their crossing from NZ to Chile. Based on a Canadian game called Cranium, our version just involved describing the given clues (all based on Ithaka's voyage) through the medium of Play-doh sculpture. 

The yellow 'sculpture' was supposed to be Easter Island!

The return sail on Sunday started fairly gently but we had a bouncy time in the Start Point tidal race, with wind against tide. Maunie took it in her stride and Ana helmed us expertly through the waves.

Approaching the tidal race in calm conditions, but we could see the breaking waves ahead of us

Maunie punches her way through the waves

A fun weekend with great company and it was good to have made the best of some pretty changeable weather. 

More epic moments and a bit of a drama

The mini-cruise onwards to the River Yealm delivered, as forecast, precious little wind but some great wildlife moments. The new crew members were delighted to have dolphins coming to play with us.

Once safely moored in the Yealm, all three trainees were determined to climb the mast - no fear shown at all:

And training sessions in the dinghy moved on to circuits around Maunie, with the skipper watching carefully.

All that mast-climbing practice could have come in useful on the return sail back to Dartmouth. We had a perfect 18 - 20 knot wind behind us so the Irish Flag spinnaker was flown and we fairly charged along. We'd just treated Maunie to new spinnaker sheets and halyard and the latter delivered something of a challenge when we came to drop the sail. It somehow jammed in the block at the top of the mast so we couldn't lower the sail at all and the 'snuffer' sock broke free of its bottom fitting so zipped upwards to leave the full sail flapping noisily in the wind. With a bit of quick thinking and conference between skipper and first mate, we decided the best course of action was to drop the mainsail and then send someone up the mast with a spare halyard. The new crew looked nervous but Graham volunteered himself to do the climb, with Dianne on the winch to give him a tight safety line.

The wild flapping of the sail made shouted conversation between deck and mast-head something of a challenge, but the new halyard was clipped on to the head of the sail, the jammed one unclipped and then Dianne carefully lowered spinnaker to the deck, to be gathered and stuffed into its bag by Graham and Martha. A bit of a drama but full marks to all the crew for their safety-first planning and actions. Martha even managed to get a bit of video, in between the sail-taming - we'll try and post it to the blog when we get back to broadband as this attempt may not work

After that little kerfuffle, we came safely into Dartmouth, moored up on the pontoon and celebrated the end of a great few days with a monster chicken curry. Good timing - there's a southerly gale forecast for the next couple of days.

Half-term cruising

After a very wet most-of-October, we have been very lucky to have bright sunshine for a half-term mini-cruise with a new crew aboard. Martha, Henry and Jasper joined us for a few days and we had a perfect start with a lovely gentle sail around to Salcombe yesterday.  Martha took a great photo as we rounded Start Point.

We had a couple of visits from porpoises as we sailed and we finished the 17nm passage with a little race against one of the Royal Navy's training yachts (we won!).

Today has been bright and sunny so, after a shore trip in the dinghy (for Cornish pasties, brought back to Maunie for lunch) the crew decided that the clear blue water was just far too good to miss. Swimming at the end of October, eh? 

We had to say no to a visit to the Salcombe Distillery 

The Captain says the water will be really warm!

Can't have been that cold - Martha and Jasper go back for more

The tide is about to turn in our favour so we'll set off for the River Yealm - probably motoring all the way (but only for about 3 hours) as there's not much wind at all.