A relaxing sail, and then....

Got to Robinetta by ten, and Julian fixed the gaff span in place while I re-ran the jib out haul. There was not a lot of wind, but there was enough for a sail going no where in particular so I tied Worm to the mooring buoy while Julian raised the main and stay sail. Robinetta obviously wanted to sail, but we had to put the engine on and reverse away from the buoy to avoid running Worm down.

We motor sailed to the Mersea Quarters buoy, but once we had fewer moored boats to avoid the engine went off, and we had a gentle fine reach along the Mersea shore in bright sun shine; one of those days when you know why you own a boat.

We headed down river, letting the tide help the light winds. There were lots of boats out, including at least two barges and smacks near Brightlingsea. Every now and then we heard a horn sound as a boat crossed the finish line of a race near St Peters chapel. We had to beat out towards the line to avoid the Mersea Flats, and had a fine view of the spinnakers being dropped as soon as the racers were over the line. It was a mixed fleet, and well spread out, so we tacked round to stay clear and headed towards Cocum Hills.

The wind got up a little and we made 4 knots over the ground, in bright sun shine on a flat sea. Heaven! But the tide was turning, and we decided to turn with it. It would have been a dead run back to Mersea, so we broad reached towards Bradwell power station instead, then gybed round for the Nass beacon, and gybed again to head in towards Mersea Quarters.

We knew the boats would be lying across the Thorn fleet, and we'd have to gybe again to head up it, so we decided to drop the main and motor to give the batteries a bit of a charge. We put the engine on, hauled the main in and dropped it on the run (not something to try on a Bermudan rig!) I tried keeping the jib up, and sailing in on head sails but the jib kept backing, so Julian furled it away and I put the engine revs up.

That's when the engine warning buzz started. GM10s are not sophisticated units and only have one way to let you know something is wrong, the same noise you get after you stop the engine, and before you turn the key in the ignition. If you hear it when the engine is on the only thing to do is turn off the engine!

So there we were, at the Blackwater end of Packing Shed Island, surrounded by moored boats lying across the channel. Luckily the stay sail was still up, so we had steerage way, and there were a couple of empty mooring buoys. Julian took the boat hook and went forward while I sailed us to the buoy.

Once we were safely tied on Julian did a bit of investigating. He had already checked the water intake filter, which was clear, so now he took the cover off the impeller and checked that. It did not seem to be attached to its spindle properly, and we had a spare one on board, so he changed it.

The engine turned on without screaming at us now, but there seemed to be a significant drip from a pipe beyond the impeller. We're going to have to get the engine looked at.

Once we knew we had the engine available if we needed it, but that it might not run happily for very long, we got the staysail back up and sailed off the buoy and up the Thorn fleet. It was a slow trip, but much less fraught than if we'd got the main back up too. We made our own mooring without needing the engine.

I've read accounts of boats in the 1930s sailing right up to town quays and mooring using their stay sail alone. I'm almost beginning to think I could do it in Robinetta, but I'd rather have a working engine!