Maintenance and trying to sail

We woke to a very foggy morning. Worse than we had at Gigha and perhaps as bad as at Baltimore last year. I had work to do on Robinetta before we did anything else so I didn’t mind too much.

Yesterday we lifted the cockpit floor and saw a noticeable trickle of water coming from the anti-siphon box. I disconnected the hoses from each end and brought it up. It is basically a U-bend  with a large water reservoir. It is made of high temperature tolerant plastic. I filled it with water from the pontoon hose and it didn’t show any sign of leaking so I put everything back together, adding an extra hose clamp where I could.

While disconnecting things I had noticed that the raw water overflow was lying flat over the U-bend box. It is supposed to be up high so it only spills water into the bilges when there is too much pressure. One of the hose clips holding it onto the engine had a very rusty screw. Nigel Calder mentions that hose clips are often made of good quality stainless steel and then fitted with poor grade stainless screws. This was the perfect example. I replaced the hose clip and moved the top of the unit into the space above the engine. We should get a little less water in the bilges now.

The other problem we had yesterday and also a few days earlier was the VHF radio going haywire. It just kept cycling channels as though someone was pressing the arrow keys all the time. I had disconnected the data link from the chart plotter in case it was noisy but it didn’t make any difference. Then I discovered I had left the wiring diagram at home and we didn’t have the radio handbook with us.

Today I downloaded the handbook and worked out that the green & yellow wires were the data input ones which let me work out which wires from the junction box were the right ones. After some experimentation I got it all hooked up again with time and position being sent from the chart plotter to the radio. Of course the radio channel cycling problem had fixed itself.

By now the fog had started to clear. I thought it would be nice to go for a sail and suggested a sail to the anchorage at the Ardbeg distillery. We could go ashore in Worm for either a whisky tasting or tea and cake. We all wanted some sailing as we seem to have been either stuck in port or motoring since Portpatrick.

Robinetta went out first and we got the sails up in the outer harbour and Molly Cobbler caught up with us as we got near the channel marker at the entrance to the bay. It was quite windy and the sea was really bouncy. Robinetta was OK but Molly Cobbler was bucking like a bronco. Mary turned back. Alison was helming and struggling so I took over and got outside the bay where it was calmer. We headed east towards the distilleries. The wind was strong and it was a lovely sail.

Molly Cobbler braving the swell

It soon became clear that there was a strong tide against us and pushing us towards rocks. We tacked out to get some sea room and found ourselves going back along our track. The tide was even stronger than we thought. We were not going to be at Lagavulin or Ardbeg in time for a tasting but it was still nice to be sailing.

Then the wind died completely. The swell made the rigging clatter like mad. Paradise had turned into Purgatory in an instant.

Reluctantly we turned back. The wind came back and then died again. We got back into the marina and tied up in a different berth (the marina was filling up). Not the best sail but at least we tried. This flaky wind is starting to get to me.