Heybridge to West Mersea

This was the day of the Ladies Helm/Skipper and Junior Helm race. We had tried hard to borrow a junior to helm Robinetta for the race, but all the young ones has better (i.e. faster) offers. I never feel right competing in this race as it is meant to encourage people who do not otherwise take the helm. Julian was also feeling slightly grumpy as he had nothing to do but crew,  so I decided that our official "class" was Lady Skipper, and as skipper I would put Julian on the helm. This is not really in the spirit of the race, but it made Julian happier.

The start at Osea Island was a bit confusing as we could not see Emmanuel, the start boat, very well and it was a down wind and down tide race. I got Julian to stay back from the line and we kept having to avoid other boats. Julian was getting grumpy again from my lack of aggressiveness, and we made a poor start, trailing at the back and getting further behind.

The turning mark on the Mersea shore, where the race headed back towards West Mersea, proved elusive. It was one of the West Mersea YC racing marks, and we had the lat/long for it which we had put in the chart plotter. The rest of the fleet seemed to be much further down river than where we knew it should be, then we heard a call on the radio. No one could find it, so the race would now turn at an 8 knot speed limit buoy.

Initially we felt rather grumpy about this, seeing where the rest of the fleet were, and declared that we would turn at the proper buoy. Only when we got to where it should be we could see nothing but an 8 knot speed limit buoy.... This was much closer to the shore than the race mark should have been, but we could see it, and it was in approximately the right position. We used it as our turning mark, and were suddenly back in the race.

The beat back towards the finish line, the Nass beacon bearing 195M, was hard work, but good fun. We rarely push Robinetta, but she had carried full sail on the broad run/run down river, and now we were beating she was healed well over, with the gunnel under. The flat seas meant I felt quite safe with this, and we short tacked up the Mersea flats to avoid the worst of the ebbing tide. We raced against Titch, who went so close to the shore she ran aground, then held our own against Crescent Moon at the line.

We got the sails down just after the beacon and called up the yacht club who were organising moorings for us. They gave us one that was nice and easy to find, and we picked it up without any problems.

We met Ed who was running the race when we were at the yacht club that evening, and confessed to not finding the "right" mark either. He told us it had sounded as though we would lodge a protest when we called him up during the race!

Heybridge Basin

The promised strong winds had arrived by 09:00, so when Julian hauled up the anchor he needed the engine on to bring Robinetta up to it. We were heading up river on the flood tide with the wind behind us, so the engine soon went off, and we sailed at 3 knots on the stay sail alone. This was plenty fast enough as the first lock in to Heybridge was not until 10:15 and we only had a mile to go.

The first lock in was for the smaller boats (as they drew less water), so we were part of a small flotilla heading up river and milling about waiting for the lock to open. Julian put the engine on again to help him tack after I got the staysail down but he otherwise used the wind on the cabin sides to maintain steerage way while I got the bowsprit in.

When the lock opened the lights stayed red for a few minutes as a couple of boats headed out, then the gaffers were called in. Snoopy was closest so went in first, but Robinetta was close behind and the two boats took the port and starboard berths. We had expected a boat to come and raft between us, but that did not happen, despite there being about 10 boats in the lock. Once we got out into the basin I noticed that Rely and Ellen, the two largest boats on the cruise, were already there. They had locked in the previous evening which made today's lock management much easier.

Snoopy moored right up in the corner of the lock, when we brought Robinetta in behind her. Within minutes both boats had another three rafted up outside them. The second lock brought in the larger OGA boats, and the "fun" was over by high water at noon.

Gafferteering

Today's activity was new to us, although it had been part of the East Coast Summer Cruise for a few years. We were supplied with a start line and finish point, and given five hours to make our way from one to the other. We did not have to start at any particular time so could make the best use of the tide to get between the two via any route. On the way we needed to plot a course past a selection list of buoys/ navigation marks, each of which had a value between 10 and 50 points. Those with low values were close to the direct route, while the more distant or difficult to reach ones gave more points. The draw back was that each minute taken over the 5 hours lost a point.

There was another prize for the best "selfie" taken as we passed a mark.

Julian and I opted for a very conservative course, crossing the start line at Bateman's Tower to broad reach up river to the Colne no.17 buoy, then beating back down again and into the Blackwater, past Colne no.8 buoy, then across the Mersea Flats. We were aiming for the Nass beacon, but the wind went very light, and there were several dinghy races going on in the area under the control of the West Mersea Yacht Club. We were asked to keep clear, and Julian reluctantly put the engine on for a couple of minutes. We were racing too!

It took an agonising 20 minutes to get close enough (2 boat lengths) to the Nass beacon to get our points. We took a photo, then sailed slowly against the tide up river to Osea Island. We reached the finish mark ten minutes late, so our 30 accumulated points went down to 20. Faster boats had an advantage (although I was told there was a handicap correction), but the most important factor was working the tides to collect the high value points in the least possible time. It was great fun, and it scattered the boats all over the rivers and estuary. I heard one boat collected 60 points, then was 50 minutes late at the end mark, while another collected the same and was 50 minutes early (no points were added for early finishing)!

We dropped the anchor at 16:25, very close to low water, in 3.7m, feeling we were as close to the shore as it was sensible to be. A couple of the boats that had arrived earlier had rigged their tenders to sail, and younger members of their crews were racing each other through the anchorage. This was the first time we had regretted not having our own tender with us.

The beach at Osea is mostly shingle and gravel, but below the half tide mark this is covered in a layer of mud and weed, so we waited on Robinetta until we saw people beginning to land, then phoned and asked for a lift ashore. Twilight, a new smack boat had just landed her mother ship's crew ashore, and was dispatched to collect us.

Nearly the whole fleet of 27 were at anchor off Osea during the barbecue, but as the party died down and people returned to their boats many moved. High winds were forecast, and the anchorage was a lee shore, so some took moorings down river at the Marconi sailing club, while others moved to the other side of the bay. We decided to stay put, having confidence in our anchor and a feeling that the winds were not going to be as strong or as early as expected. A select group of 7 or 8 of the smaller boats stayed put too, and spent a quiet night.

2 rivers race

Neither Julian nor I were sure we would race today. Even anchored clear of all the other boats we had had a disturbed night with uncomfortable swell. The race was scheduled to begin at 09:30, and we only decided to race at 09:10. We were still anchored and it took Julian longer than expected to haul it up. Then we had to dodge other boats sailing around us while we got our sails up.

Robinetta was last but one over the line and we were not sure if My Quest, the other boat, was even racing. She overhauled us by the time we were passing Thurslet Spit, then we passed her again... Meanwhile the fleet ahead were slowly drawing away.

Having My Quest to race against, and still being able to see the rest of the fleet all the way to the finish line made for an enjoyable trip. We even had a nail biting finish, racing My Quest all the way to the finish line where she was half a boat length ahead.

We moored up on the Brightlingsea visitor pontoon, and were glad to be back there after 2 disturbed nights at anchor. We had to raft up though, on Hussar, who lay outside Cygnet of London. Then My Quest came along outside us. It was a good distribution on boats length and weight wise.

Ostara had gone to fill up her water tanks, and failed to get on to the water pontoon on her first attempt. While going round to try again she ran aground and was soon high and dry. Her skipper tried to set up her beaching legs to keep her upright, but the slope meant that it did not work and she suffered some damage as she lay over, although she came up properly when the tide came back.

The "safari supper" was an interesting exercise in getting to know people. I volunteered to provide a main course, and as they were short of starters Julian offered a starter, so we spent 2 courses on Robinetta. I tried to use the Thermal Cooker to make Jambalaya, but it was not a huge success as the recipe was for 6, and it turned out I needed a larger version of the cooker for that...

East Coast Race

After a disturbed morning we did not get an especially good start to the race. I could not concentrate and kept Robinetta well up river of the start line so the tide did not take us over.  At least we started in the middle of the fleet, but as normal a lot of boats came past us. Luckily the weather was Robinetta friendly (NW 4 or 5, increasing 6 around 13:00 when we were still racing) and the strong wind helped us keep our place in the fleet of 40 boats.

The race went from Stone to Bench Head on a good broad reach, then we had to tack past Colne Bar buoy and round the Colne Point buoy before returning to Colne Bar then back to Stone. The tacking towards Colne Point was very hard work. There were a lot of boats doing the same thing, against wind and tide, and inevitably we lost time and sometimes distance when we had to avoid boats on Starboard tack. We could hold on into the shallows longer than the larger boats, but it was not much of an advantage, and as we finally approached Colne Point on what should have been our last tack we had to give water to a bigger boat, and failed to round it.


The sail back towards Stone was much easier. I handed the helm to Julian and while we had to tack a couple of times as we headed up river it was nothing like as hard work. We could see other boats not too far ahead, and there was at least one behind us.

After finishing the race we anchored at the far end of the Stone YC Moorings, away from all the other boats. We did not want a repeat of last night. Then we went ashore for the prize giving. To our surprise we won the Yachting World Rose Bowl, rather an impressive trophy, as fastest (on handicap) in the "slow" gaffers class. It turned out that there were only two boats in that class, and My Quest was being single handed by one of her new owners. It still felt like a good result!

Anchoring shenanigans

I woke early, having had a disturbed night. The water was flat when we went to bed, but as soon as the tide turned we started to roll and Robinetta did not want to settle to her anchor. I had set an anchor watch alarm on the chartplotter, which did not go off, but I woke several times and looked to check we were fine.

When I heard a strange noise at about half six I got up again. There was a boat only 10 yards away, much closer than any yesterday evening, that must have come in and anchored after we went ashore. I had not spotted it in the dark when we came back aboard last night. I went down to pull on some clothes, and heard the odd noise again.

As I went back on deck I had to fend its bowsprit off Robinetta's cabin top.

I hailed the other boat, and a rather bleary eyed person appeared (not the skipper). We had anchored first, and definitely not dragged, but Julian decided that the simplest thing to do would be to haul up our anchor and get out of the way. He went forward, while I got the engine on and kept us clear.

Julian could not be bothered to pull the chain all the way up, so we motored into as clear a spot as we could find and dropped it again without looking at it. In less than an hour we were dragging. On went the engine, and up came the anchor again. All the way up this time.

The chain had wrapped itself round the stock, so the anchor had been acting only as a mud weight. Not the best way to set an anchor in a crowded spot, with notoriously bad holding.... We should have made the other boat move.

Brightlingsea to Stone

There was a lovely sailing breeze today, with no remnants of yesterday's squalls. We were heading for the Stone Sailing Club ready for tomorrow's East Cost Race, but there was a race today too.

The passage race to join the East Coast OGA summer cruise was self timed, so we worked our tidal calculations to take advantage of the best tide, and came off the pontoon at 11:25. We raised full sail as we left harbour, then turned up the Colne to use the Colne Yacht Club line as our starting point for the 10nm race to Stone. (not a long passage, but what we had to work with). Julian helmed.

After cutting across the Mersea Flats at slack water low (watching the depth gauge carefully) we took the rising tide up river, passing the finish line of Thurslet Spit due north at 15:21.

The anchorage at Stone is notorious for its poor holding, so we did not want to be too close to other boats. We ended up anchoring in the fairway, with 30m of chain, and spent an anxious half hour watching until we were sure Robinetta would not foul any of the moored boats.

After that we called the free water taxi (laid on specially for the gaffers) and went ashore to register for tomorrow's race.

Hamford Water to Brightlingsea

The tides were at civilized times for traveling down the Wallet from the Backwaters to the Blackwater, so Julian pulled up the anchor at 08:40, and we headed out through the entrance channel under sail. The morning's forecast was for light winds, but getting rather nasty (force 6-7 with thunder storms) in the evening.

The light winds were in a good direction, Easterly/South Easterly, so being used to slow travel we kept sailing at 2.5 to 3 knots even when all the boats around us put their engines on and over took us. Slow or not we arrived at Brightlingsea before 16:00, having taken just over 7 hours, with less than an hour of engine.

The weather was oppressively hot and even after a shower in the yacht club I could not persuade myself to head up to the high street to shop. Julian and I ended up eating at the Harbour Bar, since it had air conditioning...

We were not expecting the storms until 22:00, but they arrived two hours earlier, with an amazing display of lightening. We headed back to Robinetta in a hurry!

As we were relaxing on board we noticed a yacht trying to moor on the other side of the pontoon. A single handed sailor had just arrived, exhausted, after a trip down the Wallet in wild winds and thunderstorms that had knocked his boat Tomboy down. We helped him moor, then headed back to Robinetta, glad we had managed to time our trip down the Wallet to avoid the bad weather.

Anchored in Hamford Water

We decided on a very lazy day today, and just stayed put, enjoying the quiet and spotting the occasional seal watching boat heading up Oakley Creek. We did get visitors though. Rosie, a Pilot Cutter 30 that I had sailed on last October and that we had hoped to head to the Netherlands in, motored past Robinetta, turned round, and came and moored up along side us.

We entertained skipper Geoff and his crew with coffee and had a long chat about Rosie and how Geoff was feeling. After an hour they motored off to put Rosie on her pontoon at Titchmarsh marina before driving home, leaving Julian and I to our quiet day.

Back to basics

After days of moorings and minimal facilities it was time for some shore and housekeeping time. I did laundry, and we shopped in the town, before mid afternoon when we had enough water over the cill to leave. The Tidemill is not a cheap marina for visitors, but their situation dictates a 24 hour (high water to high water) policy rather than “leave by noon” as most marinas, so it was 15:25 before we pottered over the cill and out to head back down the Deben.

Unlike yesterday there was almost no wind, so our trip down river was done under engine. We did try to sail once we cleared the entrance channel, but the wind was too light, and the engine soon went back on.

We were heading for Hamford Water in the Walton Backwaters, and reached it just as it was getting dark. We picked our spot, and dropped the anchor at 21:15. There were about 4 other boats in the anchorage, but it was not crowded, and we had a peaceful night.

Mooring to Marina

Next day, after a look at the weather, we decided that heading north to explore the Ore and the Alde would once again be left for another time. The weather dictated a shorter foray north, so we decided to head for the Deben. The wind was perfect for such a trip, South Westerly 5-6 but decreasing, so we dropped the mooring at Wrabness without turning on the engine, and sailed on a reefed main and number 2 jib down the Stour. We did not even need the engine to cross the shipping lane in the Stour, or the big ship channel outside Harwich Harbour. We kept sailing into the Deben until we were past Felixstowe Ferry, and even then only put the engine on for a minute to drop the mainsail.

After a while sailing only on headsails we got the main up again once we were clear of the Ramsholt moorings and heading for the Rocks. We did not want to get to the Tidemill early, so worked at keeping the speed down. The strategy worked perfectly, and we entered the Tidemill Marina without needing to wait for water over the cill.

In 6½ hours of sailing the engine was only on for 15 minutes. This combined with a warm dry day made for a perfect sail from a pretty mooring spot to an attractive town.

Another Wrabness night

After two interesting sails in Papa Stour at the Manningtree regatta we needed to get her back to her home berth. We could get out of Mistley Marine four hours either side of high water in Robinetta, but Papa Stour lives on a half tide mooring at Wrabness, and we only dare approach it in Robinetta at high water. We decided to leave Mistley as soon as we could after the race on Sunday afternoon and pick up a mooring at Wrabness.

Both of us were tired after the race, so we just motored down river to Wrabness. Cine Mara and Martje had taken moorings there too. We waved, but did not interrupt as both dutch crews were  chatting on Cine Mara and after a weekend of socialising a night by ourselves appealed.

I searched for Papa Stour's mooring. It was still afloat, but too much of the beach was uncovered for it to be safe to approach in Robinetta. Instead we picked up the mooring we had been on on Thursday night, and Julian rowed Papa Stour over and tied her up. He then got into the water (only waist deep, so much too shallow for Robinetta) went on shore, and walked along the beach until he was far enough up tide not to be washed past Robinetta as he swam out to her.

It was an interesting exercise in tidal calculations, and he reached Robinetta's bow safely. He then asked for a safety line to be tied to his life jacket, which he was wearing un-inflated, before coasting along the hull to the dinghy boarding ladder which I had put over the side with a fender attached to make a third rung. I did have to help him up with a pull on the safety line as he was quite tired.

We ate on board and went to bed early.

Another short trip

We left Wrabness late morning with the wind on the nose and motored up river to Mistley towing Papa Stour. Alison looked after Papa Stour on the starboard beam while I turned Robinetta around in the entrance to Mistley Marine and backed her in. Robinetta decided to behave and we slid perfectly alongside Avocet and tied up.

We met Sarah for lunch at the Mistley Thorn and had a lovely meal and then went back to Sarah's for coffee and a chat and charged our phones and laptops.

Another lovely lazy day with good company.

A short trip

Pete-the-knife has offered us the use of his smacks boat Papa Stour for the Stour Sailing Club regatta this weekend.

She's on a half tide mooring at Wrabness so we motored over at high water and Alison hopped aboard with some rowlocks and untied her and rowed her out to deeper water while I picked up a buoy. It isn't something I've done often single-handed but I tied a line on at the bow and brought it back to the cockpit and motored up to the buoy and it all worked nicely.

It had been a dull and wet morning but it cheered up. The ebb was running hard but once it slackened we took Papa Stour out for a sail to get used to her and make sure we knew how to rig her.

Later Melvyn turned up in Hester and we had a nice evening in our cockpit catching up.

A quiet day in the Stour

I had a lazy morning while Julian fretted about the electronics, then we hauled up the anchor and sailed off under stay sail. We raised the main and let out the jib, and had a lovely sail to Harwich were we went onto the pontoons at Halfpenny Pier.

We had the engine on the whole time to charge the batteries, and were glad of it as we were sailing on starboard tack, and the inevitable pumping began after ten minutes. Hopefully, sometime in the next two and a half weeks this will stop as the seams close up.

After lunch we hopped onto the harbour ferry and went over to Landguard. This was the first time we had tried this, and were slightly disappointed at how far away from Felixstowe Town the ferry dropped us. We had an interesting walk along the foreshore in the hour before the ferry returned at 15:30.

Mooring at Halfpenny pier is free between 10:00 and 16:00, so our visit cost nothing (unlike yesterday’s stay at the Neptune Marina). We set off back to Copperas bay (on port tack this time) and anchored without incident, or pumping, to spend another peaceful evening.

Up the Orwell and down again

We woke late, to a wonderful cloudless morning. After a day of working on Robinetta she now has properly painted white bulwarks, a fully functioning tiller pilot mount, a properly run depth gauge/Sonar cable to the chart plotter, and the iCom radio back in place. At some point Julian will write this up!

Suffolk Yacht Haven is a great place, but lacks any food shops apart from the basics in the chandlers. We decided to head up river to Ipswich and shop, so cast off at 09:30 to take the tide up river. What little wind there was was on Robinetta’s nose, so we motored, testing out the tiller pilot mount on the way. Everything worked, apart from a loss of power to the pilot that had Robinetta gently swerving to starboard towards the shallows. Luckily we were looking for problems, so quickly corrected it.

We monitored channel 68 on the radio, listening for ship movements at Ipswich and as we neared the Orwell bridge realised that a cargo ship would be swinging to come out of her berth just as we expected to be near the docks. Not a problem, as we could cross the river and be out of her way among the Orwell Yacht Club moorings. Crossing the river meant that we saw Melvyn Fox on his Heard tosher Hester, and said hello. He reminded us that there would be a regatta at Manningtree at the weekend, so we may well meet him there.
 
A barge was being pushed around by a tug as we neared Ipswich lock, so we made sure to stay out of her way, then went through the lock on free flow, an hour before high water.

We took a berth at Neptune Marina for a short stay (half the price of an overnight) and did our shopping then had a rather good vegetarian lunch at Hullabaloo. After that it was back through the lock (not on free flow this time!) and into the river.

We had hoped for a nice reach down, but the wind had shifted and risen, so was now on the nose again! We raised sail as we passed beneath the Orwell Bridge, and started beating down river. We had the tide with us again, but this raised wind over tide, and the river had a noticeable chop in places. Robinetta began to pump whenever she had been on starboard tack for a few minutes. We were not going very fast, so I tried releasing a handful of sawdust beneath the water, but I doubt any got pulled in by water flowing through the planks; we were going too fast for it to work.

Just past Pin Mill Julian asked if we should reef, and I said an immediate “Yes!”. It was not just our normal “if we think of reefing we should”. Robinetta felt distinctly overpowered. Once reefed sailing became easier, and we continued tacking down the Orwell until we reached Harwich Harbour.

By this time it was 17:00, and our original destination of the Walton Backwaters felt a bit too far, so we headed round the Shotley Horse buoy and into the River Stour. We were now on a lovely broad reach, without wind over tide, and we had a delightful sail up the Stour past Erwarton to Copperas Bay where we decided to anchor. I furled away the jib then went forward to lay out 20m of chain, while Julian sailed us into the shallows.

I had just finished laying out the chain when Julian called, “I think we’re aground.” We were. I could see the bottom, and we were not going anywhere despite Julian putting the engine in reverse. We stayed put, side on to the wind, which made getting the sails down more difficult than it should have been. We did not expect to be there long, because we stopped at 18:18, which co-incidentally was low water Harwich. Our transom mounted depth gauge showed 1.2 m, and Robinetta stayed upright, and rocked gently. We had obviously got stuck on a raised area of mud.

Julian put the anchor down on about 5m of chain, so that when we came free we would swing to it, then we turned the engine off and waited. I kept watch, while Julian had a play with the Standard Horizon AIS radio, proving to his own satisfaction that it did not work to show AIS targets. Since that was the only reason he had bought it it will be returned.

We floated free an hour after low water, with the depth gauge showing 1.6m. Julian hauled up the anchor and we motored into slightly deeper water and anchored again, in 4.5m of water. Dinner soon followed as we enjoyed a peaceful evening in a lovely spot.

Sailing in the Stour and Orwell

With the way Robinetta had leaked on starboard tack on the way into Harwich harbour taking her cross channel to Holland as we had planned was not going to happen. We knew the planks in the bow were taking up, but the leaks there were too slow to cause the excessive pumping, so once we were moored up in Shotley I took up the floor in the cockpit. Water seemed to be seeping in along the rudder post, but not fast enough to be where the water was coming in so quickly when under way. We decided that next day we would to go for a sail up the Stour, driving Robinetta as hard as we could, and see what happened.

We came out of Shotley lock on free flow and I got the bowsprit out and the no1 jib rigged, then came back to the cockpit to raise the main. We were being carried gently up the Stour by the current and the staysail with the engine in idle, and Julian decided it would be interesting to get the main up without using the engine. Keeping Robinetta head to wind was not easy for him, and he had to put the tension on the gaff throat halyard for me as well but we managed as a joint effort.
Although the day was overcast we had perfect sailing conditions

I was coiling the ropes when Julian decided to get the jib flying, and (training fade) he did not remember to keep tension on the Whickham-Martin line. A loop promptly dropped off the spool and got caught underneath with the jib half out. The only answer was to drop the jib, haul the jib traveller back, unhook the line…. We got the whole lot sorted out under sail and finally got going properly at 11:15.

There was a small gaffer ahead, sailing along quietly on main and jib, and we slowly began to overhaul her. She turned out to be My Quest with Barry sailing her single handed.

Barry on My Quest

 Robinetta was going beautifully on starboard tack, but she began to pump fifteen minutes after we got her going, and then, regular as clockwork, every fifteen minutes the pump started again. I had a look in the bow, but there was nothing there to suggest that much water was coming in, so I got the cockpit floor up, and saw the water streaming in on the port side, mostly at the stern but also in a lessor way along a metre long plank edge. I had found our leak.

We continued sailing up the Stour on starboard tack until we neared the Holbrook cardinals, then tacked round to head back down river on the port tack. Checking the cockpit showed that the leaking plank had stopped letting in water, and there was nothing significant coming in through the starboard planks in the cockpit.

We encountered Charm on the way down river, out for a sail and intending to rendezvous with My Quest at Wrabness for a drink. We did not join them, as we wanted to get to Suffolk Yacht Harbour, with its classic marine and general chandlers, in time to go shopping.

As we passed the Felixstow Docks, keeping well over to the Shotley side we spotted Shoal Waters, a  cruising gaffer much smaller than Robinetta, much closer to the container ships that we like to be!

Shoal Waters with a small part of a container ship

We sailed as far up the Orwell as the Pepys buoy, but with wind and tide both against us put the engine on and got the sails down. We pumped only once when we were on port tack or under engine, so the only bad leak is the one at the stern on the port side.

We were moored up on a pontoon at 14:45, and once Robinetta had her sail covers on we went to the chandlers. Tomorrow will be a maintenance day.

Sailing and pumping again

With the reassurance of a fully working engine I untied our rope from the staging, passed it to Julian, and edged up the gangplank before pushing the gangplank back onto the staging.

Next thing I knew Julian had untied the bowline. Now there were several problems with this for me.  I was going to ask Julian to helm us out, and he was at the wrong end of the boat. He had forgotten to ask if I was ready before undoing the line, and now I was stuck with trying to undo the stern line, hook it on the staging, and steer backwards (which Julian is much better at). I also needed him to pull the bow towards the staging and he had moved too far back in the boat in order to loop his rope over the staging to get any sort of leverage to do this. Shouting ensued.

I  eventually got him to move back to the bow, so he could pull the bow in which would put the stern in a position where I would not hit the boat behind when I went backwards. Barry Watt who was watching on the shore took the line from him, and we were off.

Julian hated being shouted at, and he was very critical of how close I actually went to the other boat as I reversed round it to head out of the creek. He had a point. We were closer than I would have been comfortable with if he were on the helm...

After we both calmed down we agreed that he should not have let off the bow line without asking if I was ready, and I should have told him to retie it rather than trying to go when I was not prepared. Peace was restored.

After the fraught start we had a lovely trip out of the river Blackwater. We were under sail while still in the Tollesbury Leavings, and since we were at the top of the tide we could ignore the sand banks and the Nass Beacon and head due east into the Blackwater.

As we sailed along past Mersea Flats we saw a smack coming towards us. It turned out to be Ellen, also out for her first sail of the season. She rounded Robinetta, then headed back to the Colne.

Ellen sailing past with her family aboard

After that we headed up the Wallet to Harwich Harbour. The wind went light a couple of times, but with the tide under us and the wind far enough off the bow to sail we kept the engine off and stayed on port tack until we got past Walton Pier. At this point the wind shifted though a full 90, and we went onto starboard tack.

I had noticed that Robinetta's topsides had dried out a fair bit, and was not too surprised to see water seeping though them as she took up. The pump went after three hours, then again an hour later, which was nothing to worry about. However once we changed tack the float switch began to work every five minutes. There were not just dribbles, but ten seconds of strong pumping every time. Down below the seams were streaming, but possibly not enough for the water we were seeing being pumped out...

As we went onto a broad reach/run to head up the Stour towards Shotley marina the pumping stopped. Julian thinks it might be the garboards working, but we can't be sure.

When we pressed the button to start the engine before getting the sails down nothing happened. we had to turn the key off then on again before it worked. We need to talk to Barry again...

I called up Shotley Marina and we entered the lock at 17:00. It is years since we were here, but as we waited for the lock to fill Mike Garmin, Robinetta's previous owner, who sold her to us here, called down from the lock side to say hello.

It almost felt like a home coming.

Engine Maintenance

Robinetta went back in the water on Friday 5^th July, and Paul helped me put her on a temporary berth much closer to the open end of the creek. His help was needed for two reasons; I did not know where I was going, and the engine throttle cable had broken, so any revs above idle needed someone to manually adjust the lever on the engine.

We got Robinetta on the berth without problems, and Barry promised to get the engine fully serviced before we needed her. He spotted us aboard this morning, and came over with a list of completed work.

Remade contact on key switch

overhauled starter motor

replaced engine anode

replaced raw water pump seals, impeller, and gasket

replaced engine control cable

unseized cable swivel on control lever and enlarged hole for cable

remade alternator connections

remade bracket for stop cable

replaced raw water inlet pipe

re-routed positive cable to starter motor

replaced oil engine filter

replaced oil

This was Robinetta’s first major engine service since leaving Holyhead, and some things had obviously been needing doing for a while.

Summer Scrub

Robinetta is currently on the Hard at Tollesbury, having been hauled out on Tuesday for a pressure wash. The marine growth was not too bad given she has been in the water since March 2018, mostly weed round the waterline, so the TeamacD did a good job.

The main reason for the haul out was to give Robinetta a new coat of antifoul, and Toplac all over, so she looks smarter before we set off on our summer cruise at the end of next a week. She is due back into the water today so there was not much time to do more, but a couple of non-cosmetic jobs were also done.

I had a look at the top rudder pintle that I had noticed being worn when launching at Bristol. It survived last season without mishap, but the metal is even thinner now so something must be done soon. Luckily Paul Drake the shipwright who did a lot of work on Robinetta when she was based at West Mersea was on site, and came over for a look. He agreed that the pintle needed work, probably replacing at the end of this season, but was more concerned about the next bracket down, that moved when the rudder did and had a screw head projecting. He tried tightening the screw up, and found it was broken. Further investigation revealed that only one of the screws holding the bracket on were doing their job, with the others being so corroded they broke on removal. He drilled out the remains, then re-fitted the bracket firmly with new larger screws. An hours work from a skilled shipwright that might prevent a disastrous rudder failure.

The depth gauge has been unreliable lately and there was no time to embed a new transducer in the bow, so Julian bought a transom mounted Garmin unit. This can be linked directly to our chart plotter so the electronics are easy, as is the fitting. My only worries are about how easily it might get caught up on things, or damaged in its rather exposed position on the stern.