Maintenance

Julian was supposed to be working abroad for a few days, so I decided I would stay on Robinetta for three days and do some painting and varnishing while he was away. Then a volcano in Iceland began erupting, and his flight out was cancelled, so I changed my live aboard plans to day trips.

Since I was going alone I took the small dingy that we got with Robinetta rather than our new larger one. It is a lot quicker to pump up, and the outboard engine fits on it more simply. It is just about big enough for me and the painting equipment and I've grown quite fond of it now we've got the outboard. Starting the motor is still an adventure though, and I broke my left thumb nail on my second pull of the starter cord. Luckily a couple in an inflatable dingy with an identical engine came past as I was cursing my stupidity, and the very nice gentleman started it for me and I headed for Robinetta.

Once on the boat I had a look round and decided on my tasks. Some of the varnish on the foredeck cap rails had been rubbed, so I touched that up before starting on my main redecorating task for this season which is to strip the Saddolin off the cockpit and replace it with Varnol. I got one of the cockpit cap rails done before calling it a day and getting into the dingy to head back to the pontoon.

I got the motor started, but forgot to warm it up properly (we are still running it in) and it died when I put it in gear. It would not start again, so I sat there for a while, waiting to recover my strength for pulling the cord. At that moment the West Mersea Marine launch came by to put a motor yacht on the buoy next to Robinetta. They very nicely gave me a lift back to the pontoon. I must get my outboard engine skills up!

The Big Move - part 2

The morning started hazy but with the wind as forecast. By 8 am it was clearing nicely and we fuelled and locked out as planned, leaving Alison at the lock.

I hadn't given much thought to a safety briefing for Alex - the forecast was good and I decided Alex needed to know what to do if I were to be injured or taken ill. I got him to fit a life jacket and to make sure he knew our course and destination and how to use the VHF to call for help.

Alex helmed as I raised sail. Robinetta's sails are really easy for one person to raise. It doesn't work quite so well if you forget, as I did, to tie the foot of the stay sail down! Before long we had turned off the engine and were running out past Harwich breakwater pushed by both wind and ebb and under a perfectly blue sky.

We headed straight for the Pye End buoy. It was now slack water but the wind was picking up. Alex was having trouble steering and I realised that there would be even more wind once we reached the Wallet so we put her head to wind and reefed the main. Things now became much easier as we headed for Walton pier.

As we neared the Naze a little bump made me aware that I should have been paying more attention to the depth! I quickly put the engine on and turned out to sea and we bumped gently two or three more times and then made it into deep water and got back on course and turned the engine off. In the bright sunshine I couldn't really
see the echo sounder and I had the chart plotter zoomed out too far.

The wind freshened even more as we passed Walton pier and we were doing well over 6 knots over the ground - the flood had now started - we had got the tides just right.

As we had the tide in our favour I decided to play safe with the wind and stopped to reef some more. This time I didn't even ask Alex to helm and just kept the tiller centred by standing in front of it as I furled the jib, dropped the peak and the gaff together and then hauled in on the reefing line. The 70 year old reefing gear works as well now as it did for Rayner in '37 and '38. I tightened up the throat and then the peak and got straight back on course. The whole process took perhaps one minute.

I was glad I had as the gusts kept getting stronger and we were still doing 5-6 knots over the ground (we don't have a log so I don't know what the water speed was).

With the north westerly wind coming straight off the land there was no fetch for the waves to build up and the sea state was very comfortable. The sun was still shining and it was very pleasant.

Before long we were being slowly overhauled by another gaffer. I think it was Avola. They passed us around Clacton pier and then another gaffer also passed us. This was good as it gave me a line to steer to clear the Colne bar.

It did cloud over, but stayed dry and there were still pockets of blue.

I got a bit confused at this point as the paper charts made me think I should already be able to see the North Eagle (and I thought I could) but it was nowhere to be seen on the chart plotter. I followed the other boats and eventually the buoys came up on the plotter. This is one of the bad things about small-screen chart plotters - it just isn't possible to set them up for the right level of detail at different zoom levels. In some waters they will be too cluttered and in others you need to zoom in to see any detail.

As soon as we got to the vicinity of the North Eagle the sea state got much worse. The fetch was now all the way across the Virley Channel and kept knocking us back.
It was quite uncomfortable, but quite safe. It didn't help that now we were turning towards the Blackwater the wind was coming ahead of us.

In the end I got irritated by the lack of progress and the effort of steering and put the engine on. This helped to move the apparent wind aft again and made it feel like we were motor sailing. Ideally we should now have started beating up the Blackwater but I was tiring and it was clear that the sea state would not make cooking lunch pleasurable so we punched through it with the motor. I left the sails up as going head to wind would have been uncomfortable and we were in the shallow channel between the Colne Bar and the Gunfleet Sands and I didn't feel we had much sea-room.

The first gaffer had disappeared by now and the second one headed up the Brightlingsea Reach towards the Colne. We headed up the Virley Channel with Bradwell Power Station as our main navigation mark.

We picked up the Nass Beacon and checked the route in on the paper chart. The plotter was useless - there are bugs in the overlap between captured charts on the Garmin here. We dropped sails by the Nass and continued into Mersea Quarters. Eventually, zooming well in on the plotter have us a good indication of the channel and we threaded our way through the moorings past Packing Shed Island and into the Thorn Fleet.

Alex made a really good job of picking up the temporary mooring we had been allocated and we tied up and pumped the dinghy up. Alison then turned up in the water taxi which took Alex ashore and Alison and I got the outboard set-up and headed off for a well deserved late lunch.

The Big Move - part 1

We decided last year that a change of scene would be a good plan. Shotley is a great base, but expensive and we tend to repeat ourselves a lot on day sails. Also, the Old Gaffers have lots of events in the Stour and the Orwell and we miss out on the passages to them. We'd also like to venture across and up the Thames, so a more westerly base seemed to have a lot going for it. We'd looked around and decided on West Mersea. It's nearer home than Shotley but takes about the same amount of time as the roads are not so good.

So the plan was hatched to move on Easter Monday after the OGA Easter Rally at Shotley. By Good Friday it was clear that the weather window was on Sunday and the Saturday weather made us want to stay at home so we went up for the meal on Saturday afternoon.

Our new mooring is quite a way from the jetty at West Mersea so we have invested in an outboard motor. A hard dinghy is under construction but more on that another time. We spent Saturday afternoon at Shotley working out how to fit it to our unusual flubber and running it in.

It we had a fine dinner and a nice chat and a good send off from the local Shotley gaffers and not too bad a night on the boat - just a little chilly.

The forecast was holding for Sunday, WNW 3-5 most of the day. Good for a reach down past Clacton.

The plan for the day was for me to take the boat to West Mersea while Alison took the car. I had our younger son Alex with me as crew and Alison would fetch our other son Ben and his fiancé so we could all have afternoon tea at West Mersea.

We had worked out the tides and low water was 09:30 at Harwich so we planned to lock out around 8 to catch the ebb out to Pye End and then pick up the flood all the way to West Mersea.

Less predictable was the wind.

Spring Equinox

I spent three days last week cleaning painting and varnishing, so I was quite desperate to actually sail this weekend. Luckily the weather on Sunday looked promising, so Julian and I headed to Shotley with a car full of things that came off Robinetta in the Autumn. We sail through the year, but it's been too cold to sleep on board, so we emptied her out.

We got to Shotley by ten, and our pontoon was already really busy. I don't know about the rest of the marina, but it felt like everyone who had a boat in the water was there today! It was warm, and sunny, and although not much wind was forecast it seemed like a waste not to go out. We did the normal "whose skipper ?" and decided it was my turn.

We had Robinetta ready by eleven (it took longer than normal because of getting the crockery etc., on board), and headed out for the Walton Backwaters. We'd missed the last of the ebb and the wind was really light at first so we only just stemmed the tide even with the top sail up, so we motor sailed until we were well past the Harwich breakwater. Luckily the wind picked up a bit then, and we had a good sail out to Pye End. At that point I asked Julian to put the GPS on. We've only been to Walton once before, and as skipper I should have reviewed the pilot (but hadn't...). Last time we were here is was really busy, with lots of yachts anchored at Stone Point, but today we had the place nearly to ourselves with no one to follow.. I was helming, and feeling a little stressed at having to tack in the narrow channel, but Julian navigated well and we made it into the Walton Channel.

The wind had picked up nicely, and we were doing over three knots, with our destination (Stone Point) in view, when Julian suddenly asked if we should get the top sail down. I had forgotten all about it (I was not a good skipper today!), but luckily we were on starboard, so down it came, and we continued up Walton Channel, past Stone Point, until we got all the sails away.

It was nearly high water when we dropped the anchor, and with no other boats to guide us we anchored a little too close in. Julian cooked us a nice lunch, but we had to eat it quickly, and get the anchor up sharply in order to avoid going aground. We managed it though, and will know better next time.

We had a nice fast run out of the Backwaters, with main and stay sail goose-winged, and the tide with us to Pye End. After that we were stemming the tide again and our speed halved, but the wind stayed constant and it was a lovely sail back to Shotley with Julian on the helm. We got the jib out once we turned onto the broadest of broad reaches, and felt no need for the top sail. Our speed over the ground hardly topped two and a half knots, but it felt much faster through the water and we were in no hurry to get home. Today is the equinox, and there was still some light in the sky at half six, when Robinetta was tucked up in the berth.

I've still got more painting and varnishing to do, and the ensign mount needs mounting, but days like today Robinetta repays all the labour, and gives us a great day out.

Window of Opportunity

Had a really busy time at work recently, and without kids at school, no half-term to punctuate the season. Back end of this week was a welcome lull in the schedule and had hoped to take a day or two to work on the pram dingy I'm building in the garage but we took a peek at the weather last night and it seemed like a sailing day.

Finally got around to fitting the new stay-sail and the new furling line we bought at the boat show. Low water was at about 2:15 and the wind was due to be southerly backing easterly. So we really should have gone out into the bay with the ebb and come back with the flood. We'd have had to beat out but had either a run or a reach back in. Visibility wasn't very good when we got there and we felt it would have been a bit ghostly out there so we decided on the Stour instead.

Decided to use the low water to get to know the upper reaches a bit better. Took her as far as the no.7 buoy and chickened out. I'm sure we would have got most of the way to Mistley but it was just as well we turned back because by the time we were down river of the Holbrook cardinal the promised rain had come and it was starting to get unpleasant. The flood was quite strong for the day after neaps and the wind was backing round and weakening and we found ourselves going backwards. It really wasn't nice enough to linger and beat our way out so we turned the engine on and motor sailed back to Shotley.

We got home tired and happy.

A Sunny Sunday

The lock at Shotley is due to close for its annual fortnight of maintenance tomorrow, so today was our last chance to sail for a while. Coupled with that it was an absolutely beautiful day, with just the right amount of wind forecast (12-16 mph). Only one problem; it was cold, very cold. Forecast was 1-2°C at Ipswich, so less at Shotley, plus wind chill on the water....

When we got to the marina we could see a skin of ice on the water round the edges, and thick frost made the pontoons slippery. Robinetta's foredeck cover collects water when it rains, and the top two inches of those puddles had frozen solid. It was only 10:30, so the frost on the cockpit/boom cover had not had a chance to melt in the sun either, so I discovered how difficult it is to fold up frozen canvas while Julian created mini ice bergs in the marina out of the foredeck puddles.

There was obvious wind over tide on the Stour when we arrived, so I had a look at the Orwell entrance which seemed calm and decided that was the way to go. We'd have a couple of hours of flood to help us up river against the wind, then we could run back with the ebb. Going out to sea would have meant the tide always against us, and greater wind chill from the wind. Getting Robinetta ready to sail warmed us up, but I put a lot of layers on before casting off!

We called up the lock to ask to lock out, and they told us that the fender pads had already been taken from one side of the lock prior to the maintenance, so we would have to tie up on the control tower side. This is not a problem, but it made me realise that given a choice we always tie up on the other side; habit is a strange thing!

We were out on the river by 11:30, and heading up the Orwell as planned. Apart from the temperature it was indeed a perfect sailing day, and we saw four other sailing boats on the Orwell, plus the same number of motor cruisers. None of them were going the same way as us, oddly enough.

There was still a little snow on the hill from Friday night's fall.

Robinetta looks fine in her bright varnish but there is really still a lot that's a bit ragged.


We picked up a buoy on the other side of the river from Pin Mill, and Julian cooked swordfish steaks for steak sandwiches. Very nice. We didn't bother bringing our dinghy with us so there was no chance of rowing across to the Butt and Oyster for a drink, but a cup of tea is just as welcome on a cold day (for me at least!).

We sailed off the buoy and headed down river with the tide, the current and the wind with us. Since we were running for the first part we did not bother to unfurl the jib, and even when we went onto a broad reach after Levington there did not seem much point getting it out. There was enough wind to take us home at a comfortable speed, and faster would have been colder... The sun went behind a cloud just before we reached Shotley and the temperature seemed to plummet. We were only out for three and a half hours, but it was time to go home.

We put Robinetta on her pontoon stern first, (Julian has really got the hang of doing that,) and re-rigged all the covers. Our car's external temperature gauge showed 1°C when we got there, and 2°C when we left, so it won't have been above that on the water, but we had a thoroughly enjoyable sail despite the cold.

Hopefully we'll have another sunny day next time we get a chance to take Robinetta out!

Gentle Stroll

Just a couple of hours of light once we got there. Alison working but Ben fancied a sail.

basically chilled whilst pottering up towards Levington, then turned round and came home again. Very little wind in the Orwell but another boat had 27 kts in the bay!