Leaving Bristol

Julian and I drove down to Bristol together on 20th, and Julian got very grumpy about the state of the boat. There was too much to do before we left on the 21st and the work we had had done was not obvious, except in negative ways. We bent the main sail on easily enough, but when I came to run the main sheet the shackle which held the block onto the horse fouled the tiller. It seemed as though when the horse was put back into the cockpit it was set about 5mm lower than before, so there was not enough clearance for the shackle when the tiller was centred. Julian ended up making a shallow grove in the tiller so the shackle could run freely.

I went up the mast again, to re-run the topping lifts. I had put the rope the wrong way round in the blocks before, so they were fouling themselves.
I suddenly noticed that the main cabin lights were on. I must have left them that way when I was last on the boat a fortnight ago. Then Julian checked the solar panel and realised that when he replaced my chock block connections with a more solid soldered one he had accidentally connected them up the wrong way round. Our battery had been trying to charge the solar panel not the other way round, and that combined with the lights being left on meant there was not enough charge left in the battery to start the engine. Even when we tried switching batteries to “both” the engine did not have enough power to start. Hand cranking did not help.

We bit the bullet and bought a new battery. It will replace the old one (which should have been replaced in 2016 at Tobermoray). Julian hunted on the web, and found the best deal was at GO Outdoors. Luckily there was a Bristol branch and I could drive and collect it in the morning.

I had damaged the water pump when fitting the new filter, resulting in a constant drip from the connector. Julian had a look at this while I drove to get the battery and some supplies, and decided that the simplest thing to do was replace the whole pump. The new pump solved the leak, so I filled the water tanks that I had cleaned on the last visit. Another job ticked off the list. What with £74 for the battery, £71 for the pump, and paying for a month and a half’s mooring at Bristol it felt like an expensive day, and we had not even left the berth yet!

When I got back with the new battery we found we could not get the old one disconnected and free from its snug housing. In the end we used the new battery to jump start the engine. This worked fine, and we warmed up the engine, then came off the berth at 10:30. Ready or not we were due at Junction Bridge for the bridge lift I had booked last week at 11:00.

We motored out of the marina, and through a flock of small Pico dinghies, crewed by even smaller sailors, then headed up the harbour, to have a look at the SS Great Britain from the harbour. Julian bent on the stay-sail as we traveled.

The bridge swung for us (and only us) just on time, then we were in the Cumberland Basin and waiting for the duel carriage way bridge to swing and let us into the lock. We waited for what felt like ages, and I began to panic slightly. I was certain the harbour master had told me that once the Junction Bridge swing was booked everything else was too, but what if I was wrong? A slightly panicked radio call to the HM reassured me that they just had to wait for the crew to get from the Junction to the Basin bridge, and everything would happen...

We were in the lock, once more having it to ourselves, by 11:20. This was the last lock out of the day, nearly high water, and we only had to drop 2’ before we were released into the river.