Going to Brightlingsea

Last year we missed the Packing Shed Island lunch because we were still working on Robinetta on the hard. This year we dropped out luggage off in Robinetta, then motored down to the Shed in Worm and had an excellent lunch.

We left Worm on the mooring, and sailed off the buoy for the first time since moving to West Mersea. It really is the easiest place to raise the main sail so long as the wind is in the right direction!

The light wind meant we wanted the topsail up, and after a little untangling of lines up it went. We reached Brightlingsea in just over two hours, with the tide under us, and lowered the sails by the Brightlingsea Spit Cardinal. There was a bit of a panic when the engine failed to start and the electrics went dead, but I nipped down and changed over batteries and everything worked again. The battery connection had come loose, but Julian soon fixed it.

We did not know if the loose connection had stopped the battery charging properly from the solar panel, so we kept the motor running after we were moored on a pontoon. Julian upped the revs, and there was soon white steam coming out of the exhaust.

We checked the water inlet filter, clean, and checked the impeller, perfect, so we'll need to keep a close eye on the engine until we work out why its overheating.

Clive from Quintet came over to say Hi. He's singlehanding this weekend, but would prefer crew, so I rang Pete (Fanning). He'd love to sail and will be here for the race tomorrow.